21 Insanely Effective Ways To Increase Website Traffic! [Part I]

— January 15, 2017

How would you like to learn about the most effective ways to increase your website traffic?

Have you been trying various methods to get website traffic, and are not seeing the results you hope for or expected?

You are in luck! We are detailing 21 highly efficient methods of increasing website traffic, and the tangible steps you will need to implement them (along with any specific hints and tips). This article is the first part of a series, so if you feel we have missed any big ones out, email and let us know. In this introductory part, we are looking at eleven highly effective ways to drive traffic to your website. We will have the other ten (and maybe a few more) on the second part soon.

Establishing your audience and knowing how to speak to their problems, needs, wants, and desires is a crucial element to starting a robust content marketing strategy and getting website traffic. However, by itself, you are not going to get any visitors to your website.

Gaining clarity is just the first part of our formula to a successful business:

Clarity + Focus = Execution

When you gain clarity as to who you are talking to and what problems, needs, and desires are relevant to them, it is easier to find them and build a strategy to reach them (focus). However, the execution phase is where you do the actual work to reach and connect with them. In this article, we will analyze eleven ways to increase web traffic to your website. Most of these are free, but there are a few (like PPC advertising) that do cost money.

Let’s begin at the top our list!

1- Cultivate A Loyal Audience By Developing A Weekly Newsletter

If you are hoping that the website traffic your website already gets will continue to come back for every article you publish on their own, you might be disappointed with the results. Unless visitors have a particular reason to do so, many who leave a webpage rarely come back. So what’s the solution to getting them into your community? Creating a weekly newsletter that gets sent out once a week, with an exclusive article that can’t be read anywhere else except for the exclusive list is a way to get new audience members back to your site for months/years to come.

For example: At UnveilTheWeb, we do this with “The Sunday Morning Examiner.” It is a weekly newsletter dedicated to cultivating a relationship with our audience members. To see an example of the content we write, and how it works, look at this sample. Our goal is to provide the most relevant content for our audience and to help them be the best possible marketers. It is a way for them to experience us as a brand, know our style, and decide if what we have to say benefits them without them needing to spend a single cent.

Here are some tips to make the most out of your newsletter:

• Develop a content schedule ahead of time. Spend time studying what the issues that matter to your audience. What are their views on topics? Where do they experience pain?
  
• Do an audit of your audience. What times do they respond best to emails The answer to this lies in simple trial and error. We send out our emails on Sunday. We have found that our audience responds best when we send out an email on Sunday morning instead of Sunday afternoon.
  
• Value needs to be at the heart of the newsletter. It is okay to tell your audience about products and offerings, but make sure you deliver more than you sell.
  
• Create a dedicated sign-up page. The page will allow you to share information about the newsletter with other audiences when you guest post or do interviews with influencers.
  
• Use a service like MailChimp or Aweber to host your newsletter. They provide advanced analytics and integrations you will need to get started.
  
• Create advanced pop-ups (we use Boxzilla – a FANTASTIC company) and OptimizePress to create on-exit popups that deliver more signups (you will see when you exit the page if this is your first visit in a while). We will cover this topic on Part II of this list, but we will say for now that we have found those to be far more efficient than any other method of popups. Plus we do not get hit with the January 10^th Google Popup Penalty

SIDE NOTE: Developing landing and sign-up pages

OptimizePress is also used extensively in other places of our website such as the newsletter signup page. It is a full-fledged membership and landing page suite. It is our preferred alternative to other landing page solutions. For popups, we love It in combination with Boxzilla– which allows for advanced pop-ups and banners. The popup you will see on our website is powered by Boxzilla, while the form content itself is OptimizePress.

How this method helps increase website traffic:

By developing a stronger relationship with your audience through exclusive and consistent content, you are encouraging them to stay engaged with you and your blog. Because the readers know you and your content, they are more likely to read each new article on your blog and share it with their friends than non-subscribers and fans. Retaining website traffic can almost be as powerful as gaining it.

2- Wow Your Influencers With The “Hot Off The Press” Method

Blog commenting has been around for years. It is one of the oldest ways of connecting with influencers and those who serve the same audience you do but in a different way. Leaving small, somewhat relevant comments that add little value does not do much for you or the influencer you are targeting.

So what can we do about this?

Target new articles and be the first commenter. Leave highly relevant, valuable comments that enhance the original article.

Here are the steps we use at UnveilTheWeb for this method:

First– before anything, make sure your comments would add VALUE (that is solving one problem, for one person, with one problem at a time). If the influencer writes about dentistry and you are a plumber, there’s little overlap and room for adding value to a blog post. Comment on articles and websites that are relevant to you and your specialty. If you are a content marketer, it is a good idea to target websites like ProBlogger, Backlinko, and DigitalMarketer.

Second– Scan for fresh content daily. If you prefer doing it manually, bookmark your influencers and visit their blogs every morning. Services like BuzzSumo will allow you to find new content automatically and can help you stay on top of commenting opportunity.

Third– Read through the content and find points of relevance where you can add insight. Write them down or keep them in the back of your mind. If you are an SEO agency, reading a blog article about creating compelling blog posts might have segments where you can add insight on how to deliver organic website traffic to a company.

Fourth– Leave a comment expanding on the points of relevance you have identified. Leave as many actionable tips as possible in the comment. Think of it less as a comment and more of a mini-article that enhances the knowledge and insight already presented article. Include a relevant link back to your website so that those who want to know more about your specialty can find you.

Fifth- Comment back on any responses, going deeper if needed. This process is about developing relationships that leads to traffic and conversions for your business. It has little to nothing to do with off-site SEO. The goal is to build a relationship with both your audience and influencers. Doing so will naturally increase the traffic to your website.

This scenario seems like it would be obvious, yet sometimes it just doesn’t come to mind. The “Hot Off The Press” method is a tactic we use extensively at UnveilTheWeb. See an example here: http://www.problogger.net/8-reasons-youre-losing-money-blog/. Nothing we did was pushy, sales, or non-relevant. Don wrote a comment that added value. That comment has brought us traffic interested in learning more about our message. Some of them even became subscribers and customers.

How this method helps increase website traffic:

Valuable, relevant comments are welcome additions to any blog. You are creating utility and positive emotions, two dominant share triggers that encourage those unfamiliar with your brand to investigate your content further. It is a non-obtrusive way to tap into your influencer’s audience.

3- Develop A Steady Stream Of Website Traffic Using Paid-Per-Click Advertising With Google Adwords

Adwords is an older PPC platform that is tried and true. Though being one of the only paid methods on this list, PPC advertising is still effective and delivers consistent website traffic. A word of caution: PPC works best for those with larger budgets. It is dependent on keyword research, a highly relevant message, and solving a pain for a problem, need, want, or desire that a potential customer has.

To begin, create an account at Google Adwords.

Here are tips and methods to make your campaigns more successful:

• Identify keywords and SERP results. SERP stands for the Search Engine Results Page. When you type a keyword into Google, a list of results will popup. The results you see are called the SERP. Look at the websites that are listed. Are they relevant to your topic and theme? Do the websites on the SERP serve a similar audience to you? If there is little relevance, target a different keyword. The goal is to match up what you are offering with a customer who needs a solution. If the websites for an individual query are indicating they serve a different audience or the same audience with you with a different problem, it is best to try again with a different query. For example: typing in “Search Engine Optimization Tips” is going to bring up a different problem than “Search Engine Optimization Agency.” Mainly, the focus on “SEO Tips” is learning the art of SEO, and is geared more towards educational solutions. “SEO Agency” is a commercial based query, lending itself to those who are advertising themselves as service providers who do a job for a customer.
  
• Build a relevant landing page around the needs, wants, desires, and problems of your customer. Speak in their language. What problems are they having? Google will rank your landing page based on how relevant it is to the customer searching for it. Include the search term in a natural manner surrounded by latent semantic keywords. These are the “Searches related to” keywords at the bottom of a SERP.

• Launch your Ad and fine tune it every few days. PPC is like a strategy game- once you build your campaign it needs to be tuned and refined every few days for optimal performance. Analyze reasons why it might be changing (for good or bad). Common causes include
  
  
  
  1. The relevance of the targeted keywords.
     
  2. The relevance of your landing page.
     
  3. The relevance of ad text.
     
  4. Your click through rate.

How this method helps increase website traffic:

Creating highly relevant ads gets you in front of your target audience fast. It is one of the quickest ways to get traffic to your website, but it does come at a cost. For higher end service providers and product creators, it carries the benefit of delivering qualified leads.

4- Reach Your Audience And Build A Raving Online Community With Facebook Ads

In the world of PPC, Google is not the only player. There are times when a particular audience does not search on Google or isn’t on that platform looking for solutions. Situations like these are where Social Media fills the void. Facebook offers access to engaged communities who are passionate about specific topics. While creating a page could reach them, making an ad is a definite way to connect with them. After creating an ad manager account, you will have access to an extensive suite of data, tools, and ad creation resources. At first, it feels like becoming a data-powered superhero, capable of reaching entire audiences with a single click.

A few ways to make the most of Facebook Ads:

• Target magazines, newspapers, blogs, and websites where the dedicated members of your audience spends time. If you are targeting authors, don’t target “Kindle.” Readers, authors, celebrities, and most everyone will be there. Pages like “Kinde” are so generic and will lower the number of actual audience members you will Target niched pages. For authors, “Indie Author Group” most likely is a page that has the target audience.
  
• Send them to a free offer that is attatched to a mailing list. Facebook is not a community that responds well to being “sold” right away. Facebook communities are relational and demand that they get to know a brand before spending any money. Moreover, that makes sense- how often do you give money to those you do not know, trust, and feel that they can fulfill a need? Create a highly relevant freebie. Consider:

• 
  
  
  
  1. Guidebooks
     
  2. Cheatsheets
     
  3. Mini-Pamphlets
     
  4. Checklists
     
  5. Email templates
     
  6. Examples (in the case of proposals, emails, and custom content)
     
  7. Toolkits
     
  8. Resource Lists
     
  9. Worksheets
     
  10. Calculators
      
  11. Generators (Name generators, website domain generators, and more like these)
      
  12. Spreadsheets

Tip: Look at one of DigitalMarketer’s freebies. They have a high conversion rate and are experts at making lead magnets.

Analyze how the community is responding to your ad. If you notice similar ads in your feed, analyze them as well. How are they performing? Are the comments both recent and relevant? Do they have a better image and tighter text? Sometimes the best way to improve our ads is by studying the audience and how they respond to various types of ads. A/B testing is powerful here. If a format is not working, add a short video or moving image (gif). Make tweaks if the performance is poor.

How this method helps increase website traffic:

Developing an audience and getting them on your mailing list is a way to have a consistent, relevant source of traffic to your website. Facebook’s community is thriving. Tapping into their database is a reliable alternative to Google Adwords for those audiences that don’t search for specific solutions on Google.

5- Connect With Passionate Audiences On Forums To Build Relationships That Will Enhance Your Brand

Forums are notoriously strict places. They are passionate about their topics and consist of a lively, target audience filled population. Developing relationships with forum members through value-based posts can lead to relationships that will push your business in the right direction. NOTE: It is important to come at this strategy from a mindset of adding value. Look to give more than you receive.

Tangible steps to success on forums:

• Find forums where you can authentically connect with your target audience. You can find niche forms on http://www.thebiggestboards.com/. Use these search terms to supplement your quest:
  “Powered by Phbb” your keyword
  “Powered by vBulletin” your keyword
  “Powered by SMF” your keyword
  “powered by IPB” your keyword
  “Powered by PunBB” your keyword
  
• Look at the threads and topics posted in the forum. Where can you lend your expertise? Where does your knowledge and skills have the potential to benefit others? Engage authentically for a minimum of ten posts.
  
• In your bio, place your website so that those who get value from your posts can discover more about you. Don’t worry if it is not much initially. While this is a start, it is not the heart of this strategy’s website traffic development.
  
• After developing a relationship with the community, let the forum know about new articles published on your website that will benefit them. Forums thrive on authentic, non-spammy content that is relevant to them and their wants, needs, desires, and problems.
  
• Continue to cultivate a relationship with them. Powerful Influencers are often members on blogs. You might land a nice mention, share, or backlink by being an active participant in the community.

How this method helps increase website traffic:

Building authentic relationships is a powerful key to any business. By connecting with passionate members of your audience you are investing in the relational health of your brand. Beyond just getting immediate traffic, providing value where your audience is at allows you to build into their lives and impact them, opening relational doors for years to come.

6- Strategically Being Promoted By Influencers Using Guest Posting

Chances are you know of guest posting and the benefits it can bring to your business. It brings two benefits to the table if done right: high authority (in SEO terms) from an influencer, and access to their audience. It is one of the fastest ways to be seen and positioned as an expert in your industry. Because you are (quite literally) placed on a pedestal in front on an influencer’s audience, it is likely that you will see a massive surge of free website traffic after your guest post goes live.

So how do you make the most out of guest posting? Here are a few actionable tips:

• Find an influencer that accepts guest posts. Type in “keyword” + “submit a guest post” in Google. Identify websites that serve the same audience you do but in a different way.
  
• Read through their articles to get a sense of their content, style, and topics. Make sure to read the comments and learn what content encourages the audience to react well.
  
• Copy their website address. Create an account at Ahrefs.com. In the “Site Explorer” submit their website. You will get a list of data that might not always make sense. The goal here is to look at their overall rankings. Are they authoritative? Do they have traffic coming to their websites? Look at “Referring Domains” and “Organic Traffic.” If both of those are decent (above 200 each, but that is highly subjective), consider them as a viable influencer.
  
• Make notes of what the main topics are. Think of how you can approach them and what angles work best. If you are an SEO agency, and the website in question is Copyblogger.com, articles centered on how content influences SEO would work well. Write down the angles other guest posters have taken. How did the audience react to those angles? Are there certain angles they appreciated more than others? Judge this by comments, the number of social shares, and backlinks (check those using Ahrefs.com or MajesticSEO).
  
• When pitching a guest post to an influencer, make it as personal as possible. Don’t use “Dear webmaster,” or “Dear Mister,” those do not work in the modern world of marketing.
  
• Tie in other articles and content they created when crafting your guest post. Linking internally to their other content creates a MAJOR plus for them (it proves you pay attention and value their content).

How this method helps increase website traffic:

Guest posting is nothing new, but it is highly effective. That is why it lasted for decades. Creating relevant content for influencers can, in turn, lead to a significant increase of visitors to your website.

7- Bring New Perspectives To Your Existing (And New) Audience Members By Sitting Down With An Influencer

Admit it- you do not know everything. As a business owner and marketer, that can be hard to recognize. Dedicated marketers like myself want to be the best at every aspect of digital marketing. We want to be the go-to source for SEO, content marketing, email marketing, and conversion funnels… all at once. However, often that is not the case. When we acknowledge we cannot be the absolute expert on everything, sitting down with an influencer who has an outside perspective on a sub-category of your industry (digital marketing or not) can be a powerful tool to both reinvigorate your existing audience and give you access to theirs. The hardcore fans of the influencer you are going to interview will follow them where ever they go. Look at this example of Brain Dean (from Backlinko) doing an interview at SmartPassiveIncome.com.

If you want to interview influencers on your site, here are tips to make it more effective:

1. Look for speakers who have a similar interest in your topic, but covers it slightly differently.
   
2. Search specifically for influencers who actively do this. Don’t waste your time by asking someone who has never done it before.
   
3. Make a list of influencers, their specialties, and possible angles for them to approach.
   
4. “warm them up” by following them on social media, commenting on their posts, and engaging authentically before sending them a single email. Get in their space and make your name known.
   
5. Familiarize yourself with their background and focus. If they have any notable projects that overlap with what you are doing, keep note of that.
   
6. When emailing them, tell them something you found interesting. It could be something they have been talking about or are developing.
   
7. If possible, wait until they are about to launch a book, product, or course. It might be a viable promotion strategy for them- and will make them more likely to sit down with you for an interview.

How this method helps increase website traffic:

It is hard to overstate the importance of influencers. These are the people who can move you in the right direction. Connecting with influencers in an authentic way and doing interviews with them signals to their audience that you are someone they can trust. By doing an interview, audiences will recognize you as an authority in your space.

8- Be Recognized As An Influencer By Contributing To Roundups.

One of the greatest link building (and audience building) strategies is hanging above our heads but most of us do not even realize it. Hundreds of blogs in every niche and industry do roundups every month on nearly every topic. If you have written an exceptionally written article or infographic, some influencers are specifically looking to share their authority and website traffic with you.

Here are a few steps you can take to reach the fruit dangling above you:

• Identify roundups in your industry by using Google. Use the search string: “keyword” + “weekly link roundup” to find round up articles related to you.
  
• Determine if the search results are delivering relevant influencers. Only contribute to roundups where you serve the same audience as the website owner.
  
• Pitch to them through email. If you cannot find an email address to send to, use Hunter.io to discover possible email addresses.
  
• Email the article writer explaining how you came across their weekly roundup, loved it, and might have an awesome resource to include in their next edition. Make sure to customize this message to each website owner. Nothing screams “FAAAKKE” more than a generic template. Point out a few things you genuinely liked about their website, post, or content.
  
• When the author writes back expressing interest, send them the URL.

NOTE: This does not work flawlessly everytime. Some users do not bother to respond back, others get busy and respond late. If that happens, don’t worry about it and keep pushing forward. This strategy is a numbers game at the end of the day.

How this method helps increase website traffic:

First, this method is a reputable source of backlinks. It is possible to submit to several roundups, get accepted, and reap the SEO value from it. The audience sharing that comes from it can boost your traffic significantly.

9- Get Positioned As An Expert On Aggregator Websites

Content aggregation is a powerful method of sharing your content with others. Even more so, unlike spammy websites which exist only to “farm” backlinks and game Google’s systems, aggregators are fully white-hat and safe to use. Websites like Alltop.com exist to help their users find the best, more relevant information on a topic or theme. Because they categorize websites based on specific industries and niches, you are guaranteed to get targeted traffic from them. Even better, most aggregators include the title and description of your latest five articles. These descriptions give the audience a perspective on who you are, what you talk about, and how you meet a need, want, problem, or desire. It is not just a simple source of website traffic- it is highly relevant and niched.

Here are a list of specific aggregators to consider submitting your website to:

• http://alltop.com/
  
• http://blogengage.com/
  
• http://www.bizsugar.com/
  
• http://www.blogorama.com/
  
• http://blogrific.com/
  
• https://www.blogcatalog.com

Most aggregators want to know you are a legitimate blog. Often, you will have to fill out an application to be accepted. Don’t worry too much about this- it is to protect their audience and make sure you are a good fit for them, and vice versa. Being open and detailed about who you are and what you do can land some nice referral traffic (and a few backlinks- bonus!).

How this method helps increase website traffic:

Aggregators thrive off connecting with bloggers and industry websites. By providing high quality, relevant content, you can align yourself with aggregators who know how to get you in front of your target audience. Plus those powerful backlinks are extra SEO juice that makes a handy bonus.

10- Position Yourself As A Thought Leader Using Webinars

Since 2010, webinars have become one of the most attractive avenues of audience development. Figures like Kimra Luna, Derek Halpern, and others have become famous in the marketing space due to their aggressive use of Webinars. For some, it is the exclusive way they market, and for a good reason. It merges the power and authority of seminars with the flexibility and connectivity of the internet. Thanks to technology, the power of standing in front of five hundred people can happen from your in-house office instead of a $ 2,000 hotel ballroom that might get $ 2,100 in sales. At UnveilTheWeb, webinars are a staple of how we connect with our audience.

Here are some tangible steps you can take to benefit from the power of webinars:

• Identify topics and themes that are familiar to your influencers and audience members. What issues cause them to struggle with an area of their life that your business can solve? Jot down notes as you spot ideas that would work well for a webinar.
  
• Set up a landing page to gauge interest. Include some tangible values and benefits that the audience will receive by the end of the webinar. Be hyper-specific if possible (“Learn the 4-Step method we used to generate $ 5,437 in sales over two weeks”). Obviously, my example here was made up- but that is the proper frame of mind.
  
• Funnel new subscribers into an exclusive mailing list. This way you can see who has signed up and gauge interest in the webinar ahead of time.
  
• Take your topics and plan content around it. Plan for a 45-minute speech and 15 question and answer session. This structure allows your audience to process everything you have said, and ask questions to clarify what they have
  
• At the end of the webinar, notify them of a related product or service and offer an exclusive deal for attendees of the webinar. For example, Derek Halpern uses some webinars to promote his WordPress course plugin, ZippyCourses. His webinar was about how to plan and launch an effective course that makes money. At the end, he tied in his product with the theme of the webinar. At least one person on the webinar bought it… not naming names here
  
• Have another member of your team log into the webinar and serve as a moderator. They can answer simple questions and address concerns while you, the speaker, give the presentation. At times the moderator will need to signal the speaker to talk further on a particular point of interest.
  
• Start the webinar broadcast early and welcome the attendees as they come in. The goal is to make them feel welcome and appreciated. These are your friends, and it is best to treat them as such.
  
• Continue to follow up with the attendees of the webinar. We are not informing them of any other products here; we are making sure they have a grasp on the concepts of the webinar. At UnveilTheWeb we send out occasional articles related to what we talked about on the webinar. Of course, nearly all webinar attendees are already on the Sunday Morning Examiner newsletter, but we want to fill the gap for those who are not for whatever reason.

You might have questions about what webinar software to use. For quick reference, here are the top webinar services:

• GoToWebinar
  
• AnyMeeting
  
• ClickMeeting
  
• WebinarJam
  
• WebinarNinja

The power behind webinars is that they do not have to be a single, one-time event. Most webinar platforms allow you to create “evergreen” webinars that are always live and on demand. To see an example, check out “The 5 Step Formula to Attract Your Audience, Increase Sales and Position Your Business for Success!” Visitors can sign up and watch that webinar whenever they want. There’s no need to wait. Moreover, if they have questions about the content they are welcome to email us.

How this method helps increase website traffic:

Webinars allow brands to increase reach, marketing messages to permeate minds, and audiences to develop into loyal fans. They are one of the most powerful ways to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Combined with the other methods listed in this article, they can be an unstoppable force of growth.

11- Attract Visitors To Your Website Using A Free Ebook

Do you have a topic that’s highly popular on Amazon? The ebook economy is stronger than ever, and with the indie author movement picking up steam, there’s a large opportunity for us marketers and business owners. You may have seen niche books advertised on blogs, podcasts, and niche sites across the internet. The beauty of it is that when free or low-cost ebooks are positioned correctly, they can drive traffic and audience members to your website consistently with little upkeep. As a result, more website traffic could lead to more potential customers. We used this method with a book on branding called “The Shift: The Fast Paced Transition from Mass Marketing to Context Marketing.”

When launched, it was a free book. That launch drove hundreds of visitors to our website and provided an influx of new audience members who were just learning about us. That book (and the traffic we gained) was what we needed. You might notice now that the price is $ 2.99. Unfortunately, Kindle does not allow books to be perma-free unless you jump through some serious hurdles.

However, every few months you can use a promotion to make the book free, catching the attention of the massive audience on Amazon looking for great Kindle books relevant to them.

How can you do the same? Here are some steps that will guide you:

• Validate your book idea by looking for competition on Kindle. Yes- you WANT to see other competitors here. It proves there is traffic and demand for the topic. There’s no point in doing this if there won’t be any traffic or book downloads.
  
• Look for bestsellers in the categories. How many reviews do they have? What does the audience like about the book? What do they dislike? By gauging the pulse of your audience you can fine tune your book to speak to the needs, wants, desires, and problems your audience has. Take notes of interesting points of reference.
  
• Use paid tools like KindleSpy and KDPRocket to analyze in-depth statistic on keywords, competitors, and more. KDPRocket, in particular, is a high-end resource that can measure profitability (not as important for this method, but does give more insight into how much demand there is for a topic), competition, and how difficult a genre/keyword will be to rank for. The more research you can do in this phase, the better your book will do.
  
• Identify high performing keywords and look at what is doing well. Are there certain subtitles that are being used to leverage the audience? Analyze the emotion and fulfillment of needs, wants, desires, and problems in the titles (and subtitles).
  
• With notes on what works and what doesn’t, create a brief outline of the book. Write down the overall themes of the chapters and leave descriptions of what they will talk about. Use bullets and numbered lists to plan what content will be there. Find ways to include rich media such as images and links to valuable websites.
  
• Fill in the details and make your initial rough draft. Now, when this the draft is finished, notify your email list and fan base of your intentions. Tell them that you have a new book coming out, and it will be free for the first five days. Ask them if they would like to be part of an exclusive group that gets it ahead of time. If you have done your research and it lines up with their problems, needs, wants, and desires, a solid group will be ready to accept your offer. For those who are part of this group, place them in a separate newsletter where they can get the book and updates. Send the finished rough draft to them with the intent of gathering feedback and thoughts.
  
• Make a list of all the suggestions and concerns your beta-readers have of the book, but take some with a grain of salt; there will always be those who are overly negative about everything. If possible, identify the root issues they have with the book overall. Sometimes it is not feasible, and the best course of action is to disregard them. Revise your rough draft as necessary.
  
• Reach out to influencers in your industry, especially contributors you have worked with and mentors who have helped you along your path. With your revised version, reach out to them and ask them to provide further feedback on your content. Listen more to these readers as they are more experienced in your field than most members of your audience. Revise again with the goal being to fix grammatical errors in the next round of edits.
  
• Hire an editor or proofreader to go through the content and clean it up. The goal is to make it professional and presentable.
  
• With the book ready to launch, reach out to your influencers with the goal of landing interviews on their websites, podcasts, and YouTube channels. You want to get in front of their audience. At the same time, send out emails to your newsletter getting them ready for the book launch.
  
• On launch day, release the ebook. Set it to be a free book using the following steps:
  
• Log into kdp.amazon.com and find your book.
  
• Under “Kindle eBook Actions” click on “Promote And Advertise.”

• Below “Run A Price Promotion” select “Free eBook Promotion.”

• Set the dates for your free ebook promotion. You can choose to do seven days or less at once. I suggest either three or five-day promotions as those seem to work best. However, this is your book- it is up to you.

Plan this process ahead of time:

There is a two-day waiting period before a book goes free. Plan for that ahead of time. You can set the book to go live and “Launch” it later “Officially.” This launch plan is a common business practice, especially in restaurants and retail.

• Notify your mailing list and influencers of your “Launch” day. Ask them to download the free ebook when that day comes and leave a review. All of your interviews, guests posts and appearances have built up to this moment. With an army of followers and influencers on your side- you are well positioned for success.
  
• On the actual launch day notify everyone again. Follow up as much as you feel is necessary. How you do it is an art more than a science.

Your book launch will succeed based on the demand that is there for the topic, the outreach you have done, and the passion the audience has for the topic at hand. Therefore, if a book is properly positioned, there’s no reason a quality ebook cannot bring in hundreds (maybe even thousands) of new visitors to a website a month. Think of all the newsletter sign ups, and ultimately new customers you will get. Keep at it!

NOTE: As mentioned above there is a way to make a book perma-free, but it is challenging and questionably worth it. Amazon does not always play along. To do it, go to other book platforms such as Kobo, Nook, and Apple Books and load your book for free on their platforms. Have your customers notify Amazon that the book is available for free on other websites, and after enough haggling, they should make the book perma-free on Kindle. This strategy does not always work- Amazon is in the business of making money off of book sales and does not want to make their products free.

How this method helps increase website traffic:

Tapping into Amazon’s massive fanbase is an approach for the serious business owner. I am not going to sugar coat it- this is going to take work. However, the benefits if done right can be massive. It has the potential to be the single most powerful way to get website traffic.

Conclusion: Getting More Website Traffic Takes Work

There are so many more methods that we wanted to include in this list, but at 11 strategies we are already at 6,000 words. That is why we are splitting the list into two separate articles. There’s a decent chance Part II might be even longer. We want to provide the most comprehensive, in-depth resource we possibly can. If you see any strategies we left out that you want to see included, let us know in the comments below.

Here’s a sample of what you can look forward to:

• On-Page SEO
  
• Internal Linking
  
• Blogging Communities
  
• How to improve your web traffic rankings

…and so much more.

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