Fellow Internet marketing professionals are putting a lot of emphasis on the search engines, as they proclaimed that more than 80% of their website traffic comes from them.
OK, fair enough. If you can get your site listed on the first page of Google, then you can have potentially an avalanche of traffic pouring into your website. But what if you wake up the next day and find that your site is nowhere to be found?
Internet marketing experts with an astute business mind will tell themselves not to put all their eggs into one basket. By concentrating solely on the search engines, you will be subjecting yourself to the tiresome ever-changing algorithms of the search engines.
So why do you have to be a slave to the search engines, when you can use other traffic sources not connected to them at all? You will have a better chance of long-term success with these alternative traffic sources, provided you put them into good use and execute them efficiently.
Below are some of the unconventional traffic generation methods which you can put into practice to spice up your Internet marketing efforts.
1. Social Networking
Social networking websites are once known as fun dating sites, but not anymore now. They are now gaining much more respect as established social networking sites. Myspace, for example, is consistently ranked in the top six of the Alexa rankings, so you can just imagine the massive amount of traffic that it is getting. If you can tap into this vast network, then you are literally stepping on a goldmine.
All you need to do is to create a profile, gain a lot of friends, and invite them to your own website. Just imagine if you have got thousands of friends. You would have potentially thousands of hits to your website. Friendster and Multiply are two other social networking sites that are worth a try.
2. Blog and Ping
Some people are saying that blog and ping are no longer as effective as before. But with the explosion of blogs on the Internet, this Internet marketing strategy is still worth a try. Generally, blogs are online journals that command a huge and loyal readership. There are also a number of blog directories to help blog readers find their favorite blogs.
You can set up a blog to promote your online business, and then ping your blog to the many blog directories whenever you have made a post. By doing this, you are effectively telling the directories to come and visit your updated blog. Do this over a period of time and you will generate a steady flow of traffic to your site.
3. Tag and ping
Tag and ping is the newest and also the hottest Internet marketing strategy for bloggers on the Internet right now. Blog directories like Technorati and Del.icio have introduced this technique for their members to take advantage of this innovative traffic generation method. Instead of keywords, they use tags.
Now, what are tags? Tags are simply words or phrases that you can use to categorize your blog posts, and this effectively puts you in full control. The interesting part is that every tag will have its own landing page, and the latest entries to be submitted will be found on top of the list for that tag. This is a great way for your blog to attract massive readership, and it will eventually bring success to your online business.
4. The power of Digg
The immensely popular Digg website is a collection of the best news stories on the Internet. News stories are contributed by the members, and they get to vote for their favorite stories via a process called digging. The story that receives the most number of digs will get to appear on the main page, and this is where the fun begins.
Digg is consistently ranked in the top 100 of the Alexa rankings. So if your story do appear on the front page, a huge avalanche of traffic will pour into your profile page, and thousands of them will click through to your website. And this is only for one story. What if you regularly contribute stories to Digg? The numbers will really add up and then multiply exponentially. You are only limited to your own imagination!
So my friend, it is really high time that you say goodbye to the search engines, and say hello to the interesting and innovative methods outlined in this article. These are hot new Internet marketing techniques, so put them into good practice now so that you are one step ahead of your competitors.