Putting Google AdSense Ads On A Website Is Easy

Putting Google Ads onto your website

Getting Google ads on your website is simple. Just copy some HTML code from Google's Adsense site, paste it into your page and the ads appear just as you see here on the left. You can put the code on as many of your websites and web pages as you like.

Each time someone clicks on an ad on your page you clock up a few cents and every now and again those nice people at Google send you a cheque. It's that easy. Google call this "AdSense for Content".

Google Search box

To get the Google search box on your page you copy another chunk of Google HTML. If someone searches from this box then clicks on an ad on the search results page Google pays you a few cents. Google call this "AdSense for Search".

Enter your search terms Submit search form

Example of Google Ads HTML code on a website page

For an example of an HTML web page with google ads incorporated which also uses CSS look at the source code of this page (click Page, then click View Source). You'll see the source HTML of this page which shows how simple it is to copy and paste the google ads JavaScript code into your website.

Text Ads versus Image Ads

Google Adsense gives you three options: text ads only, image ads only, text and image ads. If you go for text ads only, you'll get an ad block ("unit") with only text ads - no pictures. But opt for image only and you may get a blank block because nobody is willing to pay the, presumably much higher, cost of a full-block picture ad on your page.

The solution is to go for the 'text and image ads' option: if someone will cough up for an image ad you get an image ad, otherwise you get text ads. Apparently having ads with no border around them and with the background colour and link colour matching your page increases the number of click-throughs.

---

Google Adsense Ads - Best Formats

Google say that some Ad layouts attract more clicks than others, also that advertisers pay more for certain Ad formats. The 160x600 Wide Skyscraper, as at the top of this page, performs well as does the 300 x 250 Medium Rectangle. And the 728 x 90 Leaderboard is apparently one of the best at generating advertising revenue:

Google Ads - Cents per Click By Page

Some of my pages typically get 0% of visitors clicking through. Other pages get 15% of visitors clicking an ad. On some pages each click earns one or two cents, on other pages sometimes a dollar or more per click. Play with page layouts and ad formats to see how it affects the number of click-throughs and cents-per-click you're earning each day.

For UK residents Google will send you a cheque in good old British pounds. And I daresay they might even send you a cheque in Euros if you were so inclined.

Practical example of google ads: getting paid by google

It's now several months since I posted the google ads code onto one of my web pages. Having got the code on one page I've simply copied and pasted the same code onto several of my web pages on various sites - no need to go back to the google site each time.

The cents-per-click has gone up a bit since I started. Could be that Google monitors which ads people click on and put on your site the ones that earn the most revenue - i.e. max cents-per-click x average number-of-clicks-per-day. That's how I'd do it if I were Google anyway. Or maybe advertisers are starting to bid up the price-per-click to appear on my site, though this seems less likely as I can't imagine advertisers even being aware of my humble little sites, let alone bidding to appear on them.

Google Adsense Link Units

In addition to 3 blocks of ads, you can also have a "Link Unit" on your page:

---

Will I get rich by having Google Ads on my site

Will Google AdSense make you rich? Er, no.

Unless your page gets hundreds of thousands of hits a day maybe. My experience has been that if you get a few hundred hits a day you might earn a couple of dollars a day. No doubt this varies greatly. Advertisers can bid to pay anything from 1 cent each time someone clicks on an Ad on your page. Google don't say what percentage they keep and what percentage they pass on to you.

So, I'd speculate that if your site is found with unpopular or uncommercial search words you're going to be in a-few-cents-per-click territory but if your site is popular and found with very commercial keywords my guess is you'd surely get a lot more per click. For example, if Boeing sold planes on the web and your site ranked top for searches on "I want to buy a plane" Boeing might be prepared to pay you quite a lot each time someone clicked through to them from your page.

Google Adsense For Content Channels

I've finally figured out Google Adsense Channels.

I have half a dozen web sites but don't have Google Ads on every page of every site. Hitherto my Google Adsense Reports have shown totals across all pages/sites. Great, but it gives you no idea which pages get the click throughs or if the cents-per-click varies by page.

Channels provides the answer. You can define each page as a channel and thus get reports by page: number of visits per day, the number of click-throughs, the percentage of visitors who click through, and cents per click. All per page.

Channels also lets you track individual ads blocks. For example I could make each ad block on this page a channel and thus see not just how many clicks this page gets but how many clicks each Google Ad unit on the page gets.

Signing up to get Google Ads on your website

It took me less than an hour to sign up, incorporate Google's HTML into one of my web pages and get it up and running. To get Google ads on your website just click here and follow Google's instructions (it's free and there's no obligation):Put Google Adsense Ads on yor website page and earn money

Putting Google AdSense Ads On A Website Is Easy

Putting Google Ads onto your website

Getting Google ads on your website is simple. Just copy some HTML code from Google's Adsense site, paste it into your page and the ads appear just as you see here on the left. You can put the code on as many of your websites and web pages as you like.

Each time someone clicks on an ad on your page you clock up a few cents and every now and again those nice people at Google send you a cheque. It's that easy. Google call this "AdSense for Content".

Google Search box

To get the Google search box on your page you copy another chunk of Google HTML. If someone searches from this box then clicks on an ad on the search results page Google pays you a few cents. Google call this "AdSense for Search".

Enter your search terms Submit search form

Example of Google Ads HTML code on a website page

For an example of an HTML web page with google ads incorporated which also uses CSS look at the source code of this page (click Page, then click View Source). You'll see the source HTML of this page which shows how simple it is to copy and paste the google ads JavaScript code into your website.

Text Ads versus Image Ads

Google Adsense gives you three options: text ads only, image ads only, text and image ads. If you go for text ads only, you'll get an ad block ("unit") with only text ads - no pictures. But opt for image only and you may get a blank block because nobody is willing to pay the, presumably much higher, cost of a full-block picture ad on your page.

The solution is to go for the 'text and image ads' option: if someone will cough up for an image ad you get an image ad, otherwise you get text ads. Apparently having ads with no border around them and with the background colour and link colour matching your page increases the number of click-throughs.

---

Google Adsense Ads - Best Formats

Google say that some Ad layouts attract more clicks than others, also that advertisers pay more for certain Ad formats. The 160x600 Wide Skyscraper, as at the top of this page, performs well as does the 300 x 250 Medium Rectangle. And the 728 x 90 Leaderboard is apparently one of the best at generating advertising revenue:

Google Ads - Cents per Click By Page

Some of my pages typically get 0% of visitors clicking through. Other pages get 15% of visitors clicking an ad. On some pages each click earns one or two cents, on other pages sometimes a dollar or more per click. Play with page layouts and ad formats to see how it affects the number of click-throughs and cents-per-click you're earning each day.

For UK residents Google will send you a cheque in good old British pounds. And I daresay they might even send you a cheque in Euros if you were so inclined.

Practical example of google ads: getting paid by google

It's now several months since I posted the google ads code onto one of my web pages. Having got the code on one page I've simply copied and pasted the same code onto several of my web pages on various sites - no need to go back to the google site each time.

The cents-per-click has gone up a bit since I started. Could be that Google monitors which ads people click on and put on your site the ones that earn the most revenue - i.e. max cents-per-click x average number-of-clicks-per-day. That's how I'd do it if I were Google anyway. Or maybe advertisers are starting to bid up the price-per-click to appear on my site, though this seems less likely as I can't imagine advertisers even being aware of my humble little sites, let alone bidding to appear on them.

Google Adsense Link Units

In addition to 3 blocks of ads, you can also have a "Link Unit" on your page:

---

Will I get rich by having Google Ads on my site

Will Google AdSense make you rich? Er, no.

Unless your page gets hundreds of thousands of hits a day maybe. My experience has been that if you get a few hundred hits a day you might earn a couple of dollars a day. No doubt this varies greatly. Advertisers can bid to pay anything from 1 cent each time someone clicks on an Ad on your page. Google don't say what percentage they keep and what percentage they pass on to you.

So, I'd speculate that if your site is found with unpopular or uncommercial search words you're going to be in a-few-cents-per-click territory but if your site is popular and found with very commercial keywords my guess is you'd surely get a lot more per click. For example, if Boeing sold planes on the web and your site ranked top for searches on "I want to buy a plane" Boeing might be prepared to pay you quite a lot each time someone clicked through to them from your page.

Google Adsense For Content Channels

I've finally figured out Google Adsense Channels.

I have half a dozen web sites but don't have Google Ads on every page of every site. Hitherto my Google Adsense Reports have shown totals across all pages/sites. Great, but it gives you no idea which pages get the click throughs or if the cents-per-click varies by page.

Channels provides the answer. You can define each page as a channel and thus get reports by page: number of visits per day, the number of click-throughs, the percentage of visitors who click through, and cents per click. All per page.

Channels also lets you track individual ads blocks. For example I could make each ad block on this page a channel and thus see not just how many clicks this page gets but how many clicks each Google Ad unit on the page gets.

Signing up to get Google Ads on your website

It took me less than an hour to sign up, incorporate Google's HTML into one of my web pages and get it up and running. To get Google ads on your website just click here and follow Google's instructions (it's free and there's no obligation):Put Google Adsense Ads on yor website page and earn money

Putting Google AdSense Ads On A Website Is Easy

Putting Google Ads onto your website

Getting Google ads on your website is simple. Just copy some HTML code from Google's Adsense site, paste it into your page and the ads appear just as you see here on the left. You can put the code on as many of your websites and web pages as you like.

Each time someone clicks on an ad on your page you clock up a few cents and every now and again those nice people at Google send you a cheque. It's that easy. Google call this "AdSense for Content".

Google Search box

To get the Google search box on your page you copy another chunk of Google HTML. If someone searches from this box then clicks on an ad on the search results page Google pays you a few cents. Google call this "AdSense for Search".

Enter your search terms Submit search form

Example of Google Ads HTML code on a website page

For an example of an HTML web page with google ads incorporated which also uses CSS look at the source code of this page (click Page, then click View Source). You'll see the source HTML of this page which shows how simple it is to copy and paste the google ads JavaScript code into your website.

Text Ads versus Image Ads

Google Adsense gives you three options: text ads only, image ads only, text and image ads. If you go for text ads only, you'll get an ad block ("unit") with only text ads - no pictures. But opt for image only and you may get a blank block because nobody is willing to pay the, presumably much higher, cost of a full-block picture ad on your page.

The solution is to go for the 'text and image ads' option: if someone will cough up for an image ad you get an image ad, otherwise you get text ads. Apparently having ads with no border around them and with the background colour and link colour matching your page increases the number of click-throughs.

---

Google Adsense Ads - Best Formats

Google say that some Ad layouts attract more clicks than others, also that advertisers pay more for certain Ad formats. The 160x600 Wide Skyscraper, as at the top of this page, performs well as does the 300 x 250 Medium Rectangle. And the 728 x 90 Leaderboard is apparently one of the best at generating advertising revenue:

Google Ads - Cents per Click By Page

Some of my pages typically get 0% of visitors clicking through. Other pages get 15% of visitors clicking an ad. On some pages each click earns one or two cents, on other pages sometimes a dollar or more per click. Play with page layouts and ad formats to see how it affects the number of click-throughs and cents-per-click you're earning each day.

For UK residents Google will send you a cheque in good old British pounds. And I daresay they might even send you a cheque in Euros if you were so inclined.

Practical example of google ads: getting paid by google

It's now several months since I posted the google ads code onto one of my web pages. Having got the code on one page I've simply copied and pasted the same code onto several of my web pages on various sites - no need to go back to the google site each time.

The cents-per-click has gone up a bit since I started. Could be that Google monitors which ads people click on and put on your site the ones that earn the most revenue - i.e. max cents-per-click x average number-of-clicks-per-day. That's how I'd do it if I were Google anyway. Or maybe advertisers are starting to bid up the price-per-click to appear on my site, though this seems less likely as I can't imagine advertisers even being aware of my humble little sites, let alone bidding to appear on them.

Google Adsense Link Units

In addition to 3 blocks of ads, you can also have a "Link Unit" on your page:

---

Will I get rich by having Google Ads on my site

Will Google AdSense make you rich? Er, no.

Unless your page gets hundreds of thousands of hits a day maybe. My experience has been that if you get a few hundred hits a day you might earn a couple of dollars a day. No doubt this varies greatly. Advertisers can bid to pay anything from 1 cent each time someone clicks on an Ad on your page. Google don't say what percentage they keep and what percentage they pass on to you.

So, I'd speculate that if your site is found with unpopular or uncommercial search words you're going to be in a-few-cents-per-click territory but if your site is popular and found with very commercial keywords my guess is you'd surely get a lot more per click. For example, if Boeing sold planes on the web and your site ranked top for searches on "I want to buy a plane" Boeing might be prepared to pay you quite a lot each time someone clicked through to them from your page.

Google Adsense For Content Channels

I've finally figured out Google Adsense Channels.

I have half a dozen web sites but don't have Google Ads on every page of every site. Hitherto my Google Adsense Reports have shown totals across all pages/sites. Great, but it gives you no idea which pages get the click throughs or if the cents-per-click varies by page.

Channels provides the answer. You can define each page as a channel and thus get reports by page: number of visits per day, the number of click-throughs, the percentage of visitors who click through, and cents per click. All per page.

Channels also lets you track individual ads blocks. For example I could make each ad block on this page a channel and thus see not just how many clicks this page gets but how many clicks each Google Ad unit on the page gets.

Signing up to get Google Ads on your website

It took me less than an hour to sign up, incorporate Google's HTML into one of my web pages and get it up and running. To get Google ads on your website just click here and follow Google's instructions (it's free and there's no obligation):Put Google Adsense Ads on yor website page and earn money

How to add Google AdSense to your Website

As a website owner, you may decide that you wish to add Google AdSense advertising to your website. What is Google AdSense? You can think of 'AdSense' as a new business opportunity. It's completely free. Yes, it's an opportunity for you to make money from your own website. The advertising programme is made up of 2 key elements: AdSense for Content AdSense for Search AdSense for Content Google AdSense is a quick and easy way for website owners to display Google Ads on their website. When people visit your website and click the Google Ads, you get paid money. Simple! The advertising served up by Google is related to what your visitors are looking for on your site. In other words, it's context sensitive. For example, if your website is about 'recruitment', then you can be pretty sure that the presentation of 'Ads by Goooooogle' on your site will also be about recruitment. In fact, it's even better than that. Google AdSense is looking at the content of each and every web page on your website. So, this means that the content of the Google Advertising will align with the information on each web page in your site. It's completely automatic and you don't need to worry about it. AdSense for Search This feature will allow you to add a Google Search Bar to your own website. So, this means that visitors to your website can use the Google Search Bar and search for information contained in your site. And what's more, when a search is performed, the search engine returns Google AdSense advertising in the search results. Once again, it's fully automatic and the advertisements are directly related to the search query. Now here's the good bit! When people click your Search Ads (these are the sponsored ads), you are paid money. It's a pay per click scheme, so you can make money as people use your search bar. For example, if you search for 'hotels on the moon', this means that the 'Ads by Goooooogle' in the search results will also be about hotels on the moon. Don't worry if you are not using search technology directly within your site. Once again, it's all taken care of. For example, it will work perfectly well on a simple HTML site. Join: Google AdSense Can I use AdSense at Quick on the Net? Yes indeed, the www.QuickontheNet.com site-builder supports the use of Google AdSense. Yes, you can use both 'Content' and 'Search' in your site and we also provide you with our own site search feature in our websites. In other words, all of our websites come with a free site search tool anyway. How do I put Google AdSense on my Website? Firstly, you need to SIGN-UP to Quick on the Net and SIGN-UP to Google AdSense. Now, log into the AdSense toolkit and go to 'Content' or 'Search', according to your preference. For example, if you wish to display some advertising in your site, go to 'AdSense for Content'. Select your options from: 'Ad unit' or 'Link unit' Format Colours (Colour palettes - select a default palette or create a unique palette for your own website) Your AdSense Code Now, log into your toolkit at Quick on the Net and go to: 'Pages' Edit the web page which where you intend to 'paste' in the code Click on <> Paste in the AdSense Code Save the page Simple! Now Relax and Make Some Money!

How to add Google AdSense to your Website

As a website owner, you may decide that you wish to add Google AdSense advertising to your website. What is Google AdSense? You can think of 'AdSense' as a new business opportunity. It's completely free. Yes, it's an opportunity for you to make money from your own website. The advertising programme is made up of 2 key elements: AdSense for Content AdSense for Search AdSense for Content Google AdSense is a quick and easy way for website owners to display Google Ads on their website. When people visit your website and click the Google Ads, you get paid money. Simple! The advertising served up by Google is related to what your visitors are looking for on your site. In other words, it's context sensitive. For example, if your website is about 'recruitment', then you can be pretty sure that the presentation of 'Ads by Goooooogle' on your site will also be about recruitment. In fact, it's even better than that. Google AdSense is looking at the content of each and every web page on your website. So, this means that the content of the Google Advertising will align with the information on each web page in your site. It's completely automatic and you don't need to worry about it. AdSense for Search This feature will allow you to add a Google Search Bar to your own website. So, this means that visitors to your website can use the Google Search Bar and search for information contained in your site. And what's more, when a search is performed, the search engine returns Google AdSense advertising in the search results. Once again, it's fully automatic and the advertisements are directly related to the search query. Now here's the good bit! When people click your Search Ads (these are the sponsored ads), you are paid money. It's a pay per click scheme, so you can make money as people use your search bar. For example, if you search for 'hotels on the moon', this means that the 'Ads by Goooooogle' in the search results will also be about hotels on the moon. Don't worry if you are not using search technology directly within your site. Once again, it's all taken care of. For example, it will work perfectly well on a simple HTML site. Join: Google AdSense Can I use AdSense at Quick on the Net? Yes indeed, the www.QuickontheNet.com site-builder supports the use of Google AdSense. Yes, you can use both 'Content' and 'Search' in your site and we also provide you with our own site search feature in our websites. In other words, all of our websites come with a free site search tool anyway. How do I put Google AdSense on my Website? Firstly, you need to SIGN-UP to Quick on the Net and SIGN-UP to Google AdSense. Now, log into the AdSense toolkit and go to 'Content' or 'Search', according to your preference. For example, if you wish to display some advertising in your site, go to 'AdSense for Content'. Select your options from: 'Ad unit' or 'Link unit' Format Colours (Colour palettes - select a default palette or create a unique palette for your own website) Your AdSense Code Now, log into your toolkit at Quick on the Net and go to: 'Pages' Edit the web page which where you intend to 'paste' in the code Click on <> Paste in the AdSense Code Save the page Simple! Now Relax and Make Some Money!

How to add Google AdSense to your Website

As a website owner, you may decide that you wish to add Google AdSense advertising to your website. What is Google AdSense? You can think of 'AdSense' as a new business opportunity. It's completely free. Yes, it's an opportunity for you to make money from your own website. The advertising programme is made up of 2 key elements: AdSense for Content AdSense for Search AdSense for Content Google AdSense is a quick and easy way for website owners to display Google Ads on their website. When people visit your website and click the Google Ads, you get paid money. Simple! The advertising served up by Google is related to what your visitors are looking for on your site. In other words, it's context sensitive. For example, if your website is about 'recruitment', then you can be pretty sure that the presentation of 'Ads by Goooooogle' on your site will also be about recruitment. In fact, it's even better than that. Google AdSense is looking at the content of each and every web page on your website. So, this means that the content of the Google Advertising will align with the information on each web page in your site. It's completely automatic and you don't need to worry about it. AdSense for Search This feature will allow you to add a Google Search Bar to your own website. So, this means that visitors to your website can use the Google Search Bar and search for information contained in your site. And what's more, when a search is performed, the search engine returns Google AdSense advertising in the search results. Once again, it's fully automatic and the advertisements are directly related to the search query. Now here's the good bit! When people click your Search Ads (these are the sponsored ads), you are paid money. It's a pay per click scheme, so you can make money as people use your search bar. For example, if you search for 'hotels on the moon', this means that the 'Ads by Goooooogle' in the search results will also be about hotels on the moon. Don't worry if you are not using search technology directly within your site. Once again, it's all taken care of. For example, it will work perfectly well on a simple HTML site. Join: Google AdSense Can I use AdSense at Quick on the Net? Yes indeed, the www.QuickontheNet.com site-builder supports the use of Google AdSense. Yes, you can use both 'Content' and 'Search' in your site and we also provide you with our own site search feature in our websites. In other words, all of our websites come with a free site search tool anyway. How do I put Google AdSense on my Website? Firstly, you need to SIGN-UP to Quick on the Net and SIGN-UP to Google AdSense. Now, log into the AdSense toolkit and go to 'Content' or 'Search', according to your preference. For example, if you wish to display some advertising in your site, go to 'AdSense for Content'. Select your options from: 'Ad unit' or 'Link unit' Format Colours (Colour palettes - select a default palette or create a unique palette for your own website) Your AdSense Code Now, log into your toolkit at Quick on the Net and go to: 'Pages' Edit the web page which where you intend to 'paste' in the code Click on <> Paste in the AdSense Code Save the page Simple! Now Relax and Make Some Money!

How to get traffic for your blog How to get traffic for your blog

How to get traffic for your blog

My friend Fred, a talented blogger, asked me for advice the other day. Here's a partial answer, with a few apologies to Swift: (and when you're done with this list, feel free to read my post about shark attacks).

1. Use lists.
2. Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
3. Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
4. Break news.
5. Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
6. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
8. Announce news.
9. Write short, pithy posts.
10. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
11. Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
12. Write long, definitive posts.
13. Write about your kids.
14. Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
15. Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
16. Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
17. Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
18. Coin a term or two.
19. Do email interviews with the well-known.
20. Answer your email.
21. Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
22. Be anonymous.
23. Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
24. Post your photos on flickr.
25. Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
26. Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
28. Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
29. Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
30. Point to useful but little-known resources.
31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.
32. Write about Google.
33. Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
34. Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
35. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
36. Run no ads.
37. Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
38. Write about blogging.
39. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
40. Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
41. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
42. Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
43. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
44. Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
45. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
46. Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
47. Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
48. Be patient.
49. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
50. Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
51. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
52. Write in English.
53. Better, write in Chinese.
54. Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
55. Don't be boring.
56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.

How to get traffic for your blog How to get traffic for your blog

How to get traffic for your blog

My friend Fred, a talented blogger, asked me for advice the other day. Here's a partial answer, with a few apologies to Swift: (and when you're done with this list, feel free to read my post about shark attacks).

1. Use lists.
2. Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
3. Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
4. Break news.
5. Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
6. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
8. Announce news.
9. Write short, pithy posts.
10. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
11. Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
12. Write long, definitive posts.
13. Write about your kids.
14. Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
15. Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
16. Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
17. Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
18. Coin a term or two.
19. Do email interviews with the well-known.
20. Answer your email.
21. Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
22. Be anonymous.
23. Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
24. Post your photos on flickr.
25. Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
26. Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
28. Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
29. Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
30. Point to useful but little-known resources.
31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.
32. Write about Google.
33. Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
34. Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
35. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
36. Run no ads.
37. Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
38. Write about blogging.
39. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
40. Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
41. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
42. Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
43. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
44. Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
45. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
46. Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
47. Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
48. Be patient.
49. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
50. Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
51. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
52. Write in English.
53. Better, write in Chinese.
54. Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
55. Don't be boring.
56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.

How to get traffic for your blog How to get traffic for your blog

How to get traffic for your blog

My friend Fred, a talented blogger, asked me for advice the other day. Here's a partial answer, with a few apologies to Swift: (and when you're done with this list, feel free to read my post about shark attacks).

1. Use lists.
2. Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
3. Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
4. Break news.
5. Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
6. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
8. Announce news.
9. Write short, pithy posts.
10. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
11. Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
12. Write long, definitive posts.
13. Write about your kids.
14. Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
15. Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
16. Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
17. Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
18. Coin a term or two.
19. Do email interviews with the well-known.
20. Answer your email.
21. Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
22. Be anonymous.
23. Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
24. Post your photos on flickr.
25. Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
26. Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
28. Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
29. Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
30. Point to useful but little-known resources.
31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.
32. Write about Google.
33. Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
34. Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
35. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
36. Run no ads.
37. Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
38. Write about blogging.
39. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
40. Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
41. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
42. Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
43. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
44. Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
45. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
46. Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
47. Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
48. Be patient.
49. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
50. Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
51. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
52. Write in English.
53. Better, write in Chinese.
54. Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
55. Don't be boring.
56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.

How to get traffic for your blog How to get traffic for your blog

How to get traffic for your blog

My friend Fred, a talented blogger, asked me for advice the other day. Here's a partial answer, with a few apologies to Swift: (and when you're done with this list, feel free to read my post about shark attacks).

1. Use lists.
2. Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
3. Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
4. Break news.
5. Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
6. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
8. Announce news.
9. Write short, pithy posts.
10. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
11. Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
12. Write long, definitive posts.
13. Write about your kids.
14. Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
15. Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
16. Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
17. Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
18. Coin a term or two.
19. Do email interviews with the well-known.
20. Answer your email.
21. Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
22. Be anonymous.
23. Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
24. Post your photos on flickr.
25. Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
26. Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
28. Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
29. Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
30. Point to useful but little-known resources.
31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.
32. Write about Google.
33. Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
34. Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
35. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
36. Run no ads.
37. Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
38. Write about blogging.
39. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
40. Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
41. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
42. Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
43. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
44. Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
45. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
46. Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
47. Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
48. Be patient.
49. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
50. Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
51. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
52. Write in English.
53. Better, write in Chinese.
54. Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
55. Don't be boring.
56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.

How to get traffic for your blog How to get traffic for your blog

How to get traffic for your blog

My friend Fred, a talented blogger, asked me for advice the other day. Here's a partial answer, with a few apologies to Swift: (and when you're done with this list, feel free to read my post about shark attacks).

1. Use lists.
2. Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
3. Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
4. Break news.
5. Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
6. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
8. Announce news.
9. Write short, pithy posts.
10. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
11. Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
12. Write long, definitive posts.
13. Write about your kids.
14. Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
15. Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
16. Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
17. Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
18. Coin a term or two.
19. Do email interviews with the well-known.
20. Answer your email.
21. Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
22. Be anonymous.
23. Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
24. Post your photos on flickr.
25. Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
26. Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
28. Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
29. Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
30. Point to useful but little-known resources.
31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.
32. Write about Google.
33. Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
34. Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
35. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
36. Run no ads.
37. Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
38. Write about blogging.
39. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
40. Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
41. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
42. Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
43. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
44. Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
45. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
46. Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
47. Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
48. Be patient.
49. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
50. Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
51. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
52. Write in English.
53. Better, write in Chinese.
54. Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
55. Don't be boring.
56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.

10 Remarkably Effective Strategies for Driving Traffic randfish SEOmoz Staff 10 Remarkably Effective Strategies for Driving Traffic July 17th, 2006 - Posted by randfish to Link Building 28 1 In the last six months, we've been lucky enough to help quite a few companies and websites drive significant traffic to their sites. Many of these campaigns have been constructed around the goal of building search engine rankings, as this is our primary business, but we've also found that our ability has given us great power in the fields of brand-awareness and marketing overall. Thus, the following ten processes are primarily about building traffic and through it, attention. #10 - Targeting Unmonetized Searches * Ingredients: KW research tools like Yahoo!'s KW Selector Tool, Wordtracker & KWDiscovery + Overture's View Bids Tool and Google's KW Tool * Process: Identify some relatively high-traffic search terms or phrases that have a very rough relationship with your industry, business or site but have little to no advertisers buying keyword advertising. For $0.10 a click (sometimes less), you can build your branding and your site's visibility. Make sure to serve up great content that targets exactly what the searchers want - a list of resources, an informational how-to article or the like. If you deliver great results in a search where you're the only advertiser, searchers will remember you, re-visit you and, occassionaly, write about and link to you. * Results: Campaigns of this size can be anywhere from a few dozen to a few thousand visitors per day depending on your budget. In either case, be sure to have some action items for visitors to follow and watch your analytics like a hawk to ensure that you're bringing in real value with the terms you've chosen (i.e. if your abandonment rate is 75%+, you need to tweak something). * Examples: On this one, its very hard to give examples without giving away clients or potentially spoiling opportunities, but luckily, Graywolf has a perfect example in his Pirates of the Caribbean post, where there's a lot of searches trending that way and no advertisers - a perfect opportunity for the right player to get in the game (pun intended). Google Search for McDonalds Pirates of the Caribbean Note the lack of ads... #9 - Creating Controversy * Ingredients: A passionate audience or community with strong (and hopefully misguided) feelings about a subject, person, company, etc. * Process: Create content through a blog, article, report or statistics that challenges commonly-held beliefs or assumptions or specifically challenges the views of a very popular person or organization. Be prepared to defend your positions, write about them in comments on blogs, in forums, chatrooms, online groups and wherever appropriate. Sometimes, you can even leverage the editorial section of a newspaper and re-print online. * Results: Heavy traffic levels come through multiple channels, but your biggest source is often the direct response of the disagreeing party. Be sure you're handling the dispute in a professional and even-handed manner and you can earn a respectable following. It's all dependent on industry and size, but a between a few hundred and a few thousand RSS subscriptions are usually on the table. * Examples: Dead2.0 (who I posted about earlier today) makes a great example, and Danny's post at SEW about his Google hates also follows along this tradition. Dead 2.0 Dead 2.0 combines controversy and a Top 11 List #8 - Maps & Mashups * Ingredients: Google Maps, Yahoo! Beta Maps, MSN Virtual Earth, etc. + some good geographic data * Process: This doesn't neccessarily require a map mashup, but they do make a compelling and timely example. Utilizing geographic data and a maps API system, you can create a very cool tool on your site that combines the two in a graphical, fun-to-use and highly-linkable way. Even sites in the most boring of sectors can employ this strategy by mapping things like their own industry's stats from census data or concentrations of relevant physical locations. If you're an optomotrist, why not map all the optometrists in your state/country (using a directory of some kind that you re-write into XML or tabular data) and mash it up with areas of high-tech concentrations (attempting to prove/disprove that techies who stare at their monitors all day need vision care). * Results: Getting picked up by some of the major map mashup reporting blogs like Ajaxian (if you employ it well) or Maps Mania can bring many thousands of visitors in a say. Longer tail traffic sources often feed off these and send additional visitors over time. The holy grail here is to be mentioned on the example pages by the sources (the map API folks or directory/data source) which can bring a constant stream of thousands each day. * Examples: Matt's IP to Location tool is a good one, as is Geology.com's Meteor Map, the famous HousingMaps and the hypercool FlickrMaps. FlickrMaps Mashup Screenshot Flickr Maps Mashup - Showing Photos from San Francisco #7 - Event Coverage * Ingredients: A popular, well-attended event with a particular industry theme and a passionate writer who makes friends wherever they go. * Process: Go to the event, cover as best you can - make friends, take copious, detailed notes, go to the bars afterwards, shoot photos and videos and, most importantly, let everyone there know that you'll have the coverage on your site in the next few days. Time is of the essence here, but once you've got a great writeup (with photos!), send emails to your event contacts to help boost the buzz. * Results: Depending on the size of the event and the people you form connections with, this can drive thousands or even tens of thousands to the site. Covering something private (with permission), exclusive or underground can be even more rewarding, though big, public events often make an easier starting point. * Examples: We covered the SES NYC 2005 show to great effect and the Washington Post currently has a terrific blog covering tech shows and events. Washington Post Tech Event Coverage Blog The Washington Post's Technology Blog on Events #6 - Top Ten Lists * Ingredients: A great idea and ten little numbers. * Process: This might be the easiest of the bunch, but it's also the hardest to make work consistently. Top ten lists are everywhere and unless yours is particularly well-targeted, well-timed and well-marketed, it might end-up fizzling. The keys to great lists are - knowing your audience, knowing your subject matter (and writing as an expert) and presentation (the right content at the right time read by the right people). Tricky? Yes. Worthwhile? Absolutely. * Results: We've seen top 10, 5 and 20 lists make it onto Digg, Slashdot and even into the mainstream press. While tens or hundreds of thousands of visitors certainly isn't the norm, it can definitely be your goal. * Examples: Letterman's Top Ten might be the most famous, but on the web, Nielsen's Top Ten Web Design Mistakes and the recent Top 10 Unintentionally Worst Company URLs (that made both del.icio.us/popular and Digg) are good examples. David Letterman's Top Ten List The Late Show's Top Ten Lists Online #5 - Online Tools * Ingredients: A service that you can code into a tool to save someone time, effort, money or, alternatively, provide entertainment (plus a solid developer, preferrably skilled in AJAX). * Process: Tools aren't always able to attract visitors independently, so much like mashups, you'll need to do some promotion. Fortunately, there are dozens of online tool lists and plenty of folks blogging about their creation (like the aforementioned Ajaxian). The tool itself needs to serve a real purpose (or make people laugh) and it needs to be unique. If you're in the retail industry, imagine a tool that could be used to help visitors custom create a product, or organize a set of products in a useful, humorous or fun way. For B2B, cost calculators for customers can be useful, but are often un-exciting. Imagine how you can expand the use of your services to fit a wide audience, then make it fun and interactive. * Results: Tools can generate traffic slowly over time, or they can have huge bursts. Often, they spread virally through email and social networks if they're built right (and look great - so pay attention to #4, too). * Examples: SEOmoz's page strength tool got a bit too popular last week and crashed our server. It threatened to do it again yesterday. Some other great tools include this activity/calorie calculator from the Fitness Jumpsite and the website Hipcal, an online calendar tool. Page Strength Tool SEOmoz's Page Strength Tool from Last Week #4- Graphic & Web Design * Ingredients: A useful site, a talented CSS designer and a list of design portal sites (this one and this one come in handy). * Process: Re-design your existing site to the best of your ability. Use pure CSS, graphics, color and layout that mesh well and make it not only easy to use your site, but aesthetically remarkable, too. If you're struggling for inspiration, look at the sites that make it to the front page of this site. * Results: The design portals themselves can send 1-2 thousand uniques per day if you make their front pages, but the additional value you'll get from other bloggers and sites picking you up once you make it there is also worthwhile. * Examples: There are thousands - as I noted before, just look at CSS Thesis or CSSBeauty to get the idea. Even a dentist's office site or a manufacturer of toilet seats can get traffic here. CSS Thesis Screenshot CSS Thesis from Veracon.net #3 - Leveraging Social Networks * Ingredients: Solid, targeted content, a writer who can create compelling titles and descriptions and this list of social sharing sites (from Ekstreme's Socializer Tool). * Process: Create great content (from one of the ideas here or something totally unique), then submit it to the major social bookmarking and link sharing services. You can also use this tactic in a long-tail fashion by tagging many small pieces of solid, but unremarkable content to services like del.icio.us, technorati, etc. with regularity. * Results: Digg's traffic effect is well known, as is Slashdot's, but even the smaller services like Reddit, Furl, Shadows and StumbleUpon can send several thousand visitors to the site. Rand's StumbleUpon Profile Rand's StumbleUpon Profile #2 - Blogging & Blog Comments * Ingredients: A blog, some elbow grease and a tactful, savvy, industry writer. * Process: Regularly blogging about your industry, passion or profession can have enormous payoff if done properly. There's a host of considerations, but for the purposes of this short list, it's enough to simply blog well and take advantage of the inherent traffic provided by blog & RSS feed directories, tagging your posts at Technorati and commenting thoughfully and intelligently around the blogosphere. Even though those links don't get link credit (due to nofollow), you'll get clicks and attention if your comments are intelligent and provocative. * Results: A successful blog can be the biggest marketing tool and online traffic source for many small and medium business websites. But, be prepared to giving it love and attention, as the value may be best felt after months or years of writing. * Examples: There are tens of thousands of great blogs, but a few non sequiter favorites include Better Living through Design, Montreal Food, Re-Imagineering and Creating Passionate Users. Disney's Re-Imagineering Blog Disney & Pixar's Re-Imagineering Blog #1 - Reporting Remarkable News * Ingredients: A story that's so big, everyone will be writing about it and a talented writer who can passionately and effectively cover it. * Process: This is the same process that sells newspapers and makes journalists. But, in the case of the web, the news can be smaller, as long as it's deeply tied to your industry or sector. Being the first to report is good, but by also being the best report on the subject, you firmly establish yourself as an excellent source for the current news and the future. * Results: Some of the highest traffic boosts possible come from news reports as thousands of popular sites write about their own experience or opinion with the story and credit you, sending what can often be tens or even hundreds of thousands of visitors over a few days. * Examples: Techcrunch has a remarkable reputation and ability to get news before anyone else, and some specific reports, including Henk Van Ess's SearchBistro post on Google's human-reviewed SERPs and Slyck's coverage of torrent-favorite Pirate Bay's servers being snatched by police. TechCrunch Breaks News on Google Calendar TechCrunch Leaking News of Google Calendar #0 - Offering Something Incredible * Ingredients: An idea whose time has come. * Process: We're cheating by putting a #0, and cheating again because there's no set formula for this one - it's a build-it-and-they-will-come product. If you launch a site with goods, services or a gimmick that is simply irressistable, massively useful, universally appealing and hard to live without once you've tried it, rest assured that the Internet will respond by sending you appropriately stratospheric levels of traffic. * Results: These are the sites generating millions of uniques each day - traffic that borders on the insane. * Examples: Think Zillow, Flickr, Craigslist, Kayak. In a smaller way, our Web2.0Awards met some of these criteria and received a few hundred thousand visitors as a reward. Zillow's Home Page Screenshot Zillow.com's Home Price Valuation System These tactics can very easily fit under the umbrella-term "linkbait," though not all of them are as useful for the purpose of link growth as brand awareness. If you've got stategies of your own to share or insights about how these can be tweaked and optimized, please do share.

1

In the last six months, we've been lucky enough to help quite a few companies and websites drive significant traffic to their sites. Many of these campaigns have been constructed around the goal of building search engine rankings, as this is our primary business, but we've also found that our ability has given us great power in the fields of brand-awareness and marketing overall. Thus, the following ten processes are primarily about building traffic and through it, attention.
#10 - Targeting Unmonetized Searches

• Ingredients: KW research tools like Yahoo!'s KW Selector Tool, Wordtracker & KWDiscovery + Overture's View Bids Tool and Google's KW Tool
• Process: Identify some relatively high-traffic search terms or phrases that have a very rough relationship with your industry, business or site but have little to no advertisers buying keyword advertising. For $0.10 a click (sometimes less), you can build your branding and your site's visibility. Make sure to serve up great content that targets exactly what the searchers want - a list of resources, an informational how-to article or the like. If you deliver great results in a search where you're the only advertiser, searchers will remember you, re-visit you and, occassionaly, write about and link to you.
• Results: Campaigns of this size can be anywhere from a few dozen to a few thousand visitors per day depending on your budget. In either case, be sure to have some action items for visitors to follow and watch your analytics like a hawk to ensure that you're bringing in real value with the terms you've chosen (i.e. if your abandonment rate is 75%+, you need to tweak something).
• Examples: On this one, its very hard to give examples without giving away clients or potentially spoiling opportunities, but luckily, Graywolf has a perfect example in his Pirates of the Caribbean post, where there's a lot of searches trending that way and no advertisers - a perfect opportunity for the right player to get in the game (pun intended).

Note the lack of ads...

#9 - Creating Controversy

• Ingredients: A passionate audience or community with strong (and hopefully misguided) feelings about a subject, person, company, etc.
• Process: Create content through a blog, article, report or statistics that challenges commonly-held beliefs or assumptions or specifically challenges the views of a very popular person or organization. Be prepared to defend your positions, write about them in comments on blogs, in forums, chatrooms, online groups and wherever appropriate. Sometimes, you can even leverage the editorial section of a newspaper and re-print online.
• Results: Heavy traffic levels come through multiple channels, but your biggest source is often the direct response of the disagreeing party. Be sure you're handling the dispute in a professional and even-handed manner and you can earn a respectable following. It's all dependent on industry and size, but a between a few hundred and a few thousand RSS subscriptions are usually on the table.
• Examples: Dead2.0 (who I posted about earlier today) makes a great example, and Danny's post at SEW about his Google hates also follows along this tradition.

Dead 2.0 combines controversy and a Top 11 List

#8 - Maps & Mashups

• Ingredients: Google Maps, Yahoo! Beta Maps, MSN Virtual Earth, etc. + some good geographic data
• Process: This doesn't neccessarily require a map mashup, but they do make a compelling and timely example. Utilizing geographic data and a maps API system, you can create a very cool tool on your site that combines the two in a graphical, fun-to-use and highly-linkable way. Even sites in the most boring of sectors can employ this strategy by mapping things like their own industry's stats from census data or concentrations of relevant physical locations. If you're an optomotrist, why not map all the optometrists in your state/country (using a directory of some kind that you re-write into XML or tabular data) and mash it up with areas of high-tech concentrations (attempting to prove/disprove that techies who stare at their monitors all day need vision care).
• Results: Getting picked up by some of the major map mashup reporting blogs like Ajaxian (if you employ it well) or Maps Mania can bring many thousands of visitors in a say. Longer tail traffic sources often feed off these and send additional visitors over time. The holy grail here is to be mentioned on the example pages by the sources (the map API folks or directory/data source) which can bring a constant stream of thousands each day.
• Examples: Matt's IP to Location tool is a good one, as is Geology.com's Meteor Map, the famous HousingMaps and the hypercool FlickrMaps.

Flickr Maps Mashup - Showing Photos from San Francisco

#7 - Event Coverage

• Ingredients: A popular, well-attended event with a particular industry theme and a passionate writer who makes friends wherever they go.
• Process: Go to the event, cover as best you can - make friends, take copious, detailed notes, go to the bars afterwards, shoot photos and videos and, most importantly, let everyone there know that you'll have the coverage on your site in the next few days. Time is of the essence here, but once you've got a great writeup (with photos!), send emails to your event contacts to help boost the buzz.
• Results: Depending on the size of the event and the people you form connections with, this can drive thousands or even tens of thousands to the site. Covering something private (with permission), exclusive or underground can be even more rewarding, though big, public events often make an easier starting point.
• Examples: We covered the SES NYC 2005 show to great effect and the Washington Post currently has a terrific blog covering tech shows and events.

The Washington Post's Technology Blog on Events

#6 - Top Ten Lists

• Ingredients: A great idea and ten little numbers.
• Process: This might be the easiest of the bunch, but it's also the hardest to make work consistently. Top ten lists are everywhere and unless yours is particularly well-targeted, well-timed and well-marketed, it might end-up fizzling. The keys to great lists are - knowing your audience, knowing your subject matter (and writing as an expert) and presentation (the right content at the right time read by the right people). Tricky? Yes. Worthwhile? Absolutely.
• Results: We've seen top 10, 5 and 20 lists make it onto Digg, Slashdot and even into the mainstream press. While tens or hundreds of thousands of visitors certainly isn't the norm, it can definitely be your goal.
• Examples: Letterman's Top Ten might be the most famous, but on the web, Nielsen's Top Ten Web Design Mistakes and the recent Top 10 Unintentionally Worst Company URLs (that made both del.icio.us/popular and Digg) are good examples.

The Late Show's Top Ten Lists Online

#5 - Online Tools

• Ingredients: A service that you can code into a tool to save someone time, effort, money or, alternatively, provide entertainment (plus a solid developer, preferrably skilled in AJAX).
• Process: Tools aren't always able to attract visitors independently, so much like mashups, you'll need to do some promotion. Fortunately, there are dozens of online tool lists and plenty of folks blogging about their creation (like the aforementioned Ajaxian). The tool itself needs to serve a real purpose (or make people laugh) and it needs to be unique. If you're in the retail industry, imagine a tool that could be used to help visitors custom create a product, or organize a set of products in a useful, humorous or fun way. For B2B, cost calculators for customers can be useful, but are often un-exciting. Imagine how you can expand the use of your services to fit a wide audience, then make it fun and interactive.
• Results: Tools can generate traffic slowly over time, or they can have huge bursts. Often, they spread virally through email and social networks if they're built right (and look great - so pay attention to #4, too).
• Examples: SEOmoz's page strength tool got a bit too popular last week and crashed our server. It threatened to do it again yesterday. Some other great tools include this activity/calorie calculator from the Fitness Jumpsite and the website Hipcal, an online calendar tool.

SEOmoz's Page Strength Tool from Last Week

#4- Graphic & Web Design

• Ingredients: A useful site, a talented CSS designer and a list of design portal sites (this one and this one come in handy).
• Process: Re-design your existing site to the best of your ability. Use pure CSS, graphics, color and layout that mesh well and make it not only easy to use your site, but aesthetically remarkable, too. If you're struggling for inspiration, look at the sites that make it to the front page of this site.
• Results: The design portals themselves can send 1-2 thousand uniques per day if you make their front pages, but the additional value you'll get from other bloggers and sites picking you up once you make it there is also worthwhile.
• Examples: There are thousands - as I noted before, just look at CSS Thesis or CSSBeauty to get the idea. Even a dentist's office site or a manufacturer of toilet seats can get traffic here.

CSS Thesis from Veracon.net

#3 - Leveraging Social Networks

• Ingredients: Solid, targeted content, a writer who can create compelling titles and descriptions and this list of social sharing sites (from Ekstreme's Socializer Tool).
• Process: Create great content (from one of the ideas here or something totally unique), then submit it to the major social bookmarking and link sharing services. You can also use this tactic in a long-tail fashion by tagging many small pieces of solid, but unremarkable content to services like del.icio.us, technorati, etc. with regularity.
• Results: Digg's traffic effect is well known, as is Slashdot's, but even the smaller services like Reddit, Furl, Shadows and StumbleUpon can send several thousand visitors to the site.

Rand's StumbleUpon Profile

#2 - Blogging & Blog Comments

• Ingredients: A blog, some elbow grease and a tactful, savvy, industry writer.
• Process: Regularly blogging about your industry, passion or profession can have enormous payoff if done properly. There's a host of considerations, but for the purposes of this short list, it's enough to simply blog well and take advantage of the inherent traffic provided by blog & RSS feed directories, tagging your posts at Technorati and commenting thoughfully and intelligently around the blogosphere. Even though those links don't get link credit (due to nofollow), you'll get clicks and attention if your comments are intelligent and provocative.
• Results: A successful blog can be the biggest marketing tool and online traffic source for many small and medium business websites. But, be prepared to giving it love and attention, as the value may be best felt after months or years of writing.
• Examples: There are tens of thousands of great blogs, but a few non  sequiter favorites include Better Living through Design, Montreal Food, Re-Imagineering and Creating Passionate Users.

Disney & Pixar's Re-Imagineering Blog

#1 - Reporting Remarkable News

• Ingredients: A story that's so big, everyone will be writing about it and a talented writer who can passionately and effectively cover it.
• Process: This is the same process that sells newspapers and makes journalists. But, in the case of the web, the news can be smaller, as long as it's deeply tied to your industry or sector. Being the first to report is good, but by also being the best report on the subject, you firmly establish yourself as an excellent source for the current news and the future.
• Results: Some of the highest traffic boosts possible come from news reports as thousands of popular sites write about their own experience or opinion with the story and credit you, sending what can often be tens or even hundreds of thousands of visitors over a few days.
• Examples: Techcrunch has a remarkable reputation and ability to get news before anyone else, and some specific reports, including Henk Van Ess's SearchBistro post on Google's human-reviewed SERPs and Slyck's coverage of torrent-favorite Pirate Bay's servers being snatched by police.
  

TechCrunch Leaking News of Google Calendar

#0 - Offering Something Incredible

• Ingredients: An idea whose time has come.
• Process: We're cheating by putting a #0, and cheating again because there's no set formula for this one - it's a build-it-and-they-will-come product. If you launch a site with goods, services or a gimmick that is simply irressistable, massively useful, universally appealing and hard to live without once you've tried it, rest assured that the Internet will respond by sending you appropriately stratospheric levels of traffic.
• Results: These are the sites generating millions of uniques each day - traffic that borders on the insane.
• Examples: Think Zillow, Flickr, Craigslist, Kayak. In a smaller way, our Web2.0Awards met some of these criteria and received a few hundred thousand visitors as a reward.

Zillow.com's Home Price Valuation System

These tactics can very easily fit under the umbrella-term "linkbait," though not all of them are as useful for the purpose of link growth as brand awareness. If you've got stategies of your own to share or insights about how these can be tweaked and optimized, please do share.

10 Remarkably Effective Strategies for Driving Traffic randfish SEO

1

In the last six months, we've been lucky enough to help quite a few companies and websites drive significant traffic to their sites. Many of these campaigns have been constructed around the goal of building search engine rankings, as this is our primary business, but we've also found that our ability has given us great power in the fields of brand-awareness and marketing overall. Thus, the following ten processes are primarily about building traffic and through it, attention.
#10 - Targeting Unmonetized Searches

• Ingredients: KW research tools like Yahoo!'s KW Selector Tool, Wordtracker & KWDiscovery + Overture's View Bids Tool and Google's KW Tool
• Process: Identify some relatively high-traffic search terms or phrases that have a very rough relationship with your industry, business or site but have little to no advertisers buying keyword advertising. For $0.10 a click (sometimes less), you can build your branding and your site's visibility. Make sure to serve up great content that targets exactly what the searchers want - a list of resources, an informational how-to article or the like. If you deliver great results in a search where you're the only advertiser, searchers will remember you, re-visit you and, occassionaly, write about and link to you.
• Results: Campaigns of this size can be anywhere from a few dozen to a few thousand visitors per day depending on your budget. In either case, be sure to have some action items for visitors to follow and watch your analytics like a hawk to ensure that you're bringing in real value with the terms you've chosen (i.e. if your abandonment rate is 75%+, you need to tweak something).
• Examples: On this one, its very hard to give examples without giving away clients or potentially spoiling opportunities, but luckily, Graywolf has a perfect example in his Pirates of the Caribbean post, where there's a lot of searches trending that way and no advertisers - a perfect opportunity for the right player to get in the game (pun intended).

Note the lack of ads...

#9 - Creating Controversy

• Ingredients: A passionate audience or community with strong (and hopefully misguided) feelings about a subject, person, company, etc.
• Process: Create content through a blog, article, report or statistics that challenges commonly-held beliefs or assumptions or specifically challenges the views of a very popular person or organization. Be prepared to defend your positions, write about them in comments on blogs, in forums, chatrooms, online groups and wherever appropriate. Sometimes, you can even leverage the editorial section of a newspaper and re-print online.
• Results: Heavy traffic levels come through multiple channels, but your biggest source is often the direct response of the disagreeing party. Be sure you're handling the dispute in a professional and even-handed manner and you can earn a respectable following. It's all dependent on industry and size, but a between a few hundred and a few thousand RSS subscriptions are usually on the table.
• Examples: Dead2.0 (who I posted about earlier today) makes a great example, and Danny's post at SEW about his Google hates also follows along this tradition.

Dead 2.0 combines controversy and a Top 11 List

#8 - Maps & Mashups

• Ingredients: Google Maps, Yahoo! Beta Maps, MSN Virtual Earth, etc. + some good geographic data
• Process: This doesn't neccessarily require a map mashup, but they do make a compelling and timely example. Utilizing geographic data and a maps API system, you can create a very cool tool on your site that combines the two in a graphical, fun-to-use and highly-linkable way. Even sites in the most boring of sectors can employ this strategy by mapping things like their own industry's stats from census data or concentrations of relevant physical locations. If you're an optomotrist, why not map all the optometrists in your state/country (using a directory of some kind that you re-write into XML or tabular data) and mash it up with areas of high-tech concentrations (attempting to prove/disprove that techies who stare at their monitors all day need vision care).
• Results: Getting picked up by some of the major map mashup reporting blogs like Ajaxian (if you employ it well) or Maps Mania can bring many thousands of visitors in a say. Longer tail traffic sources often feed off these and send additional visitors over time. The holy grail here is to be mentioned on the example pages by the sources (the map API folks or directory/data source) which can bring a constant stream of thousands each day.
• Examples: Matt's IP to Location tool is a good one, as is Geology.com's Meteor Map, the famous HousingMaps and the hypercool FlickrMaps.

Flickr Maps Mashup - Showing Photos from San Francisco

#7 - Event Coverage

• Ingredients: A popular, well-attended event with a particular industry theme and a passionate writer who makes friends wherever they go.
• Process: Go to the event, cover as best you can - make friends, take copious, detailed notes, go to the bars afterwards, shoot photos and videos and, most importantly, let everyone there know that you'll have the coverage on your site in the next few days. Time is of the essence here, but once you've got a great writeup (with photos!), send emails to your event contacts to help boost the buzz.
• Results: Depending on the size of the event and the people you form connections with, this can drive thousands or even tens of thousands to the site. Covering something private (with permission), exclusive or underground can be even more rewarding, though big, public events often make an easier starting point.
• Examples: We covered the SES NYC 2005 show to great effect and the Washington Post currently has a terrific blog covering tech shows and events.

The Washington Post's Technology Blog on Events

#6 - Top Ten Lists

• Ingredients: A great idea and ten little numbers.
• Process: This might be the easiest of the bunch, but it's also the hardest to make work consistently. Top ten lists are everywhere and unless yours is particularly well-targeted, well-timed and well-marketed, it might end-up fizzling. The keys to great lists are - knowing your audience, knowing your subject matter (and writing as an expert) and presentation (the right content at the right time read by the right people). Tricky? Yes. Worthwhile? Absolutely.
• Results: We've seen top 10, 5 and 20 lists make it onto Digg, Slashdot and even into the mainstream press. While tens or hundreds of thousands of visitors certainly isn't the norm, it can definitely be your goal.
• Examples: Letterman's Top Ten might be the most famous, but on the web, Nielsen's Top Ten Web Design Mistakes and the recent Top 10 Unintentionally Worst Company URLs (that made both del.icio.us/popular and Digg) are good examples.

The Late Show's Top Ten Lists Online

#5 - Online Tools

• Ingredients: A service that you can code into a tool to save someone time, effort, money or, alternatively, provide entertainment (plus a solid developer, preferrably skilled in AJAX).
• Process: Tools aren't always able to attract visitors independently, so much like mashups, you'll need to do some promotion. Fortunately, there are dozens of online tool lists and plenty of folks blogging about their creation (like the aforementioned Ajaxian). The tool itself needs to serve a real purpose (or make people laugh) and it needs to be unique. If you're in the retail industry, imagine a tool that could be used to help visitors custom create a product, or organize a set of products in a useful, humorous or fun way. For B2B, cost calculators for customers can be useful, but are often un-exciting. Imagine how you can expand the use of your services to fit a wide audience, then make it fun and interactive.
• Results: Tools can generate traffic slowly over time, or they can have huge bursts. Often, they spread virally through email and social networks if they're built right (and look great - so pay attention to #4, too).
• Examples: SEOmoz's page strength tool got a bit too popular last week and crashed our server. It threatened to do it again yesterday. Some other great tools include this activity/calorie calculator from the Fitness Jumpsite and the website Hipcal, an online calendar tool.

SEOmoz's Page Strength Tool from Last Week

#4- Graphic & Web Design

• Ingredients: A useful site, a talented CSS designer and a list of design portal sites (this one and this one come in handy).
• Process: Re-design your existing site to the best of your ability. Use pure CSS, graphics, color and layout that mesh well and make it not only easy to use your site, but aesthetically remarkable, too. If you're struggling for inspiration, look at the sites that make it to the front page of this site.
• Results: The design portals themselves can send 1-2 thousand uniques per day if you make their front pages, but the additional value you'll get from other bloggers and sites picking you up once you make it there is also worthwhile.
• Examples: There are thousands - as I noted before, just look at CSS Thesis or CSSBeauty to get the idea. Even a dentist's office site or a manufacturer of toilet seats can get traffic here.

CSS Thesis from Veracon.net

#3 - Leveraging Social Networks

• Ingredients: Solid, targeted content, a writer who can create compelling titles and descriptions and this list of social sharing sites (from Ekstreme's Socializer Tool).
• Process: Create great content (from one of the ideas here or something totally unique), then submit it to the major social bookmarking and link sharing services. You can also use this tactic in a long-tail fashion by tagging many small pieces of solid, but unremarkable content to services like del.icio.us, technorati, etc. with regularity.
• Results: Digg's traffic effect is well known, as is Slashdot's, but even the smaller services like Reddit, Furl, Shadows and StumbleUpon can send several thousand visitors to the site.

Rand's StumbleUpon Profile

#2 - Blogging & Blog Comments

• Ingredients: A blog, some elbow grease and a tactful, savvy, industry writer.
• Process: Regularly blogging about your industry, passion or profession can have enormous payoff if done properly. There's a host of considerations, but for the purposes of this short list, it's enough to simply blog well and take advantage of the inherent traffic provided by blog & RSS feed directories, tagging your posts at Technorati and commenting thoughfully and intelligently around the blogosphere. Even though those links don't get link credit (due to nofollow), you'll get clicks and attention if your comments are intelligent and provocative.
• Results: A successful blog can be the biggest marketing tool and online traffic source for many small and medium business websites. But, be prepared to giving it love and attention, as the value may be best felt after months or years of writing.
• Examples: There are tens of thousands of great blogs, but a few non  sequiter favorites include Better Living through Design, Montreal Food, Re-Imagineering and Creating Passionate Users.

Disney & Pixar's Re-Imagineering Blog

#1 - Reporting Remarkable News

• Ingredients: A story that's so big, everyone will be writing about it and a talented writer who can passionately and effectively cover it.
• Process: This is the same process that sells newspapers and makes journalists. But, in the case of the web, the news can be smaller, as long as it's deeply tied to your industry or sector. Being the first to report is good, but by also being the best report on the subject, you firmly establish yourself as an excellent source for the current news and the future.
• Results: Some of the highest traffic boosts possible come from news reports as thousands of popular sites write about their own experience or opinion with the story and credit you, sending what can often be tens or even hundreds of thousands of visitors over a few days.
• Examples: Techcrunch has a remarkable reputation and ability to get news before anyone else, and some specific reports, including Henk Van Ess's SearchBistro post on Google's human-reviewed SERPs and Slyck's coverage of torrent-favorite Pirate Bay's servers being snatched by police.
  

TechCrunch Leaking News of Google Calendar

#0 - Offering Something Incredible

• Ingredients: An idea whose time has come.
• Process: We're cheating by putting a #0, and cheating again because there's no set formula for this one - it's a build-it-and-they-will-come product. If you launch a site with goods, services or a gimmick that is simply irressistable, massively useful, universally appealing and hard to live without once you've tried it, rest assured that the Internet will respond by sending you appropriately stratospheric levels of traffic.
• Results: These are the sites generating millions of uniques each day - traffic that borders on the insane.
• Examples: Think Zillow, Flickr, Craigslist, Kayak. In a smaller way, our Web2.0Awards met some of these criteria and received a few hundred thousand visitors as a reward.

Zillow.com's Home Price Valuation System

These tactics can very easily fit under the umbrella-term "linkbait," though not all of them are as useful for the purpose of link growth as brand awareness. If you've got stategies of your own to share or insights about how these can be tweaked and optimized, please do share.

10 Remarkably Effective Strategies for Driving Traffic randfish SEO

1

In the last six months, we've been lucky enough to help quite a few companies and websites drive significant traffic to their sites. Many of these campaigns have been constructed around the goal of building search engine rankings, as this is our primary business, but we've also found that our ability has given us great power in the fields of brand-awareness and marketing overall. Thus, the following ten processes are primarily about building traffic and through it, attention.
#10 - Targeting Unmonetized Searches

• Ingredients: KW research tools like Yahoo!'s KW Selector Tool, Wordtracker & KWDiscovery + Overture's View Bids Tool and Google's KW Tool
• Process: Identify some relatively high-traffic search terms or phrases that have a very rough relationship with your industry, business or site but have little to no advertisers buying keyword advertising. For $0.10 a click (sometimes less), you can build your branding and your site's visibility. Make sure to serve up great content that targets exactly what the searchers want - a list of resources, an informational how-to article or the like. If you deliver great results in a search where you're the only advertiser, searchers will remember you, re-visit you and, occassionaly, write about and link to you.
• Results: Campaigns of this size can be anywhere from a few dozen to a few thousand visitors per day depending on your budget. In either case, be sure to have some action items for visitors to follow and watch your analytics like a hawk to ensure that you're bringing in real value with the terms you've chosen (i.e. if your abandonment rate is 75%+, you need to tweak something).
• Examples: On this one, its very hard to give examples without giving away clients or potentially spoiling opportunities, but luckily, Graywolf has a perfect example in his Pirates of the Caribbean post, where there's a lot of searches trending that way and no advertisers - a perfect opportunity for the right player to get in the game (pun intended).

Note the lack of ads...

#9 - Creating Controversy

• Ingredients: A passionate audience or community with strong (and hopefully misguided) feelings about a subject, person, company, etc.
• Process: Create content through a blog, article, report or statistics that challenges commonly-held beliefs or assumptions or specifically challenges the views of a very popular person or organization. Be prepared to defend your positions, write about them in comments on blogs, in forums, chatrooms, online groups and wherever appropriate. Sometimes, you can even leverage the editorial section of a newspaper and re-print online.
• Results: Heavy traffic levels come through multiple channels, but your biggest source is often the direct response of the disagreeing party. Be sure you're handling the dispute in a professional and even-handed manner and you can earn a respectable following. It's all dependent on industry and size, but a between a few hundred and a few thousand RSS subscriptions are usually on the table.
• Examples: Dead2.0 (who I posted about earlier today) makes a great example, and Danny's post at SEW about his Google hates also follows along this tradition.

Dead 2.0 combines controversy and a Top 11 List

#8 - Maps & Mashups

• Ingredients: Google Maps, Yahoo! Beta Maps, MSN Virtual Earth, etc. + some good geographic data
• Process: This doesn't neccessarily require a map mashup, but they do make a compelling and timely example. Utilizing geographic data and a maps API system, you can create a very cool tool on your site that combines the two in a graphical, fun-to-use and highly-linkable way. Even sites in the most boring of sectors can employ this strategy by mapping things like their own industry's stats from census data or concentrations of relevant physical locations. If you're an optomotrist, why not map all the optometrists in your state/country (using a directory of some kind that you re-write into XML or tabular data) and mash it up with areas of high-tech concentrations (attempting to prove/disprove that techies who stare at their monitors all day need vision care).
• Results: Getting picked up by some of the major map mashup reporting blogs like Ajaxian (if you employ it well) or Maps Mania can bring many thousands of visitors in a say. Longer tail traffic sources often feed off these and send additional visitors over time. The holy grail here is to be mentioned on the example pages by the sources (the map API folks or directory/data source) which can bring a constant stream of thousands each day.
• Examples: Matt's IP to Location tool is a good one, as is Geology.com's Meteor Map, the famous HousingMaps and the hypercool FlickrMaps.

Flickr Maps Mashup - Showing Photos from San Francisco

#7 - Event Coverage

• Ingredients: A popular, well-attended event with a particular industry theme and a passionate writer who makes friends wherever they go.
• Process: Go to the event, cover as best you can - make friends, take copious, detailed notes, go to the bars afterwards, shoot photos and videos and, most importantly, let everyone there know that you'll have the coverage on your site in the next few days. Time is of the essence here, but once you've got a great writeup (with photos!), send emails to your event contacts to help boost the buzz.
• Results: Depending on the size of the event and the people you form connections with, this can drive thousands or even tens of thousands to the site. Covering something private (with permission), exclusive or underground can be even more rewarding, though big, public events often make an easier starting point.
• Examples: We covered the SES NYC 2005 show to great effect and the Washington Post currently has a terrific blog covering tech shows and events.

The Washington Post's Technology Blog on Events

#6 - Top Ten Lists

• Ingredients: A great idea and ten little numbers.
• Process: This might be the easiest of the bunch, but it's also the hardest to make work consistently. Top ten lists are everywhere and unless yours is particularly well-targeted, well-timed and well-marketed, it might end-up fizzling. The keys to great lists are - knowing your audience, knowing your subject matter (and writing as an expert) and presentation (the right content at the right time read by the right people). Tricky? Yes. Worthwhile? Absolutely.
• Results: We've seen top 10, 5 and 20 lists make it onto Digg, Slashdot and even into the mainstream press. While tens or hundreds of thousands of visitors certainly isn't the norm, it can definitely be your goal.
• Examples: Letterman's Top Ten might be the most famous, but on the web, Nielsen's Top Ten Web Design Mistakes and the recent Top 10 Unintentionally Worst Company URLs (that made both del.icio.us/popular and Digg) are good examples.

The Late Show's Top Ten Lists Online

#5 - Online Tools

• Ingredients: A service that you can code into a tool to save someone time, effort, money or, alternatively, provide entertainment (plus a solid developer, preferrably skilled in AJAX).
• Process: Tools aren't always able to attract visitors independently, so much like mashups, you'll need to do some promotion. Fortunately, there are dozens of online tool lists and plenty of folks blogging about their creation (like the aforementioned Ajaxian). The tool itself needs to serve a real purpose (or make people laugh) and it needs to be unique. If you're in the retail industry, imagine a tool that could be used to help visitors custom create a product, or organize a set of products in a useful, humorous or fun way. For B2B, cost calculators for customers can be useful, but are often un-exciting. Imagine how you can expand the use of your services to fit a wide audience, then make it fun and interactive.
• Results: Tools can generate traffic slowly over time, or they can have huge bursts. Often, they spread virally through email and social networks if they're built right (and look great - so pay attention to #4, too).
• Examples: SEOmoz's page strength tool got a bit too popular last week and crashed our server. It threatened to do it again yesterday. Some other great tools include this activity/calorie calculator from the Fitness Jumpsite and the website Hipcal, an online calendar tool.

SEOmoz's Page Strength Tool from Last Week

#4- Graphic & Web Design

• Ingredients: A useful site, a talented CSS designer and a list of design portal sites (this one and this one come in handy).
• Process: Re-design your existing site to the best of your ability. Use pure CSS, graphics, color and layout that mesh well and make it not only easy to use your site, but aesthetically remarkable, too. If you're struggling for inspiration, look at the sites that make it to the front page of this site.
• Results: The design portals themselves can send 1-2 thousand uniques per day if you make their front pages, but the additional value you'll get from other bloggers and sites picking you up once you make it there is also worthwhile.
• Examples: There are thousands - as I noted before, just look at CSS Thesis or CSSBeauty to get the idea. Even a dentist's office site or a manufacturer of toilet seats can get traffic here.

CSS Thesis from Veracon.net

#3 - Leveraging Social Networks

• Ingredients: Solid, targeted content, a writer who can create compelling titles and descriptions and this list of social sharing sites (from Ekstreme's Socializer Tool).
• Process: Create great content (from one of the ideas here or something totally unique), then submit it to the major social bookmarking and link sharing services. You can also use this tactic in a long-tail fashion by tagging many small pieces of solid, but unremarkable content to services like del.icio.us, technorati, etc. with regularity.
• Results: Digg's traffic effect is well known, as is Slashdot's, but even the smaller services like Reddit, Furl, Shadows and StumbleUpon can send several thousand visitors to the site.

Rand's StumbleUpon Profile

#2 - Blogging & Blog Comments

• Ingredients: A blog, some elbow grease and a tactful, savvy, industry writer.
• Process: Regularly blogging about your industry, passion or profession can have enormous payoff if done properly. There's a host of considerations, but for the purposes of this short list, it's enough to simply blog well and take advantage of the inherent traffic provided by blog & RSS feed directories, tagging your posts at Technorati and commenting thoughfully and intelligently around the blogosphere. Even though those links don't get link credit (due to nofollow), you'll get clicks and attention if your comments are intelligent and provocative.
• Results: A successful blog can be the biggest marketing tool and online traffic source for many small and medium business websites. But, be prepared to giving it love and attention, as the value may be best felt after months or years of writing.
• Examples: There are tens of thousands of great blogs, but a few non  sequiter favorites include Better Living through Design, Montreal Food, Re-Imagineering and Creating Passionate Users.

Disney & Pixar's Re-Imagineering Blog

#1 - Reporting Remarkable News

• Ingredients: A story that's so big, everyone will be writing about it and a talented writer who can passionately and effectively cover it.
• Process: This is the same process that sells newspapers and makes journalists. But, in the case of the web, the news can be smaller, as long as it's deeply tied to your industry or sector. Being the first to report is good, but by also being the best report on the subject, you firmly establish yourself as an excellent source for the current news and the future.
• Results: Some of the highest traffic boosts possible come from news reports as thousands of popular sites write about their own experience or opinion with the story and credit you, sending what can often be tens or even hundreds of thousands of visitors over a few days.
• Examples: Techcrunch has a remarkable reputation and ability to get news before anyone else, and some specific reports, including Henk Van Ess's SearchBistro post on Google's human-reviewed SERPs and Slyck's coverage of torrent-favorite Pirate Bay's servers being snatched by police.
  

TechCrunch Leaking News of Google Calendar

#0 - Offering Something Incredible

• Ingredients: An idea whose time has come.
• Process: We're cheating by putting a #0, and cheating again because there's no set formula for this one - it's a build-it-and-they-will-come product. If you launch a site with goods, services or a gimmick that is simply irressistable, massively useful, universally appealing and hard to live without once you've tried it, rest assured that the Internet will respond by sending you appropriately stratospheric levels of traffic.
• Results: These are the sites generating millions of uniques each day - traffic that borders on the insane.
• Examples: Think Zillow, Flickr, Craigslist, Kayak. In a smaller way, our Web2.0Awards met some of these criteria and received a few hundred thousand visitors as a reward.

Zillow.com's Home Price Valuation System

These tactics can very easily fit under the umbrella-term "linkbait," though not all of them are as useful for the purpose of link growth as brand awareness. If you've got stategies of your own to share or insights about how these can be tweaked and optimized, please do share.