Getting Web Site Traffic the Old School Way
written by Mitch
Here’s a proven old school way to get traffic to your web site or blog. I personally used this method when I started DevArticles - and it helped me get the site up to 20,000 unique visitors a day before selling it.
This method is simple, boring but extremely effective. All of the computer hardware review websites still use this technique as their number one way to drum up traffic, so that should be enough to get you to consider using it.
Here’s how it works:
- Use Technorati to find 20-100 blogs that are similar to yours in that they post about the same or complimentary topics that you do.
- Visit each blog and find the first name and email address of the person who runs the site.
- You can either use your normal email client (Outlook, Thunderbird, Hotmail, etc) or a professional email marketing tool (such as SendStudio) to send out a list of emails. I wouldn’t recommend using your normal email client because you want to send 20-100 emails at a time, and there’s only so many emails you can stuff into your BCC and CC fields.
- What you want to do is send each of the bloggers a brief email every time you add a relevant, interesting post to your blog. Something like this:
Hi [First Name],
Just thought I’d shoot you a quick email about a post I just made on my blog. It’s called “Getting Website Traffic the Old School Way” and you can read it here.
Thanks,
Mitch - I really recommend using each of the bloggers first names in your email if you’re going to do a mass mailing. You don’t want your emails to sound like spam. I also recommend sending your emails as text to avoid formatting problems in web-based email clients which a lot of bloggers use.
There are a few gray spots with this technique - mainly that you’re sending emails to people who haven’t asked to receive them - so if you can, before you start sending out your emails get to know each of the bloggers by sending them an introductory email or by leaving useful comments on their blog. You can also include an unsubscribe link at the bottom of your emails but that makes them seem robotic.
There’s a fine line between sharing a useful blog post and pissing someone off, so keep that in mind if you do decide to use this technique. I’m currently building up my list of emails and getting to know each of the bloggers I will be sending the emails to before I put this technique into action on my blog.
This post was “guest blogged” my me, Mitchell Harper. I also run my own blog where I focus on tips to increase your website traffic to your blog. I have been online for over 10 years and run a successful software company called Interspire.
Find out what I am doing right now by following me on Twitter! If you like this post then please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.
(15 votes, average: 2.8 out of 5)
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That’s a lot of posts in one day!
It’s only seven today.
Haha, beware of the number 1 reason why bloggers unsubscribe! (I read about it on your site)
I was also reading that Google is begining to penalize bloggers who post too often!
Where was that steve?
One of my top commentators ran an article on it.
I’ve read that Google Blogsearch will also be penalizing bloggers who post at predictable times too.
Kumiko
Well thats an easy one to overcome…
I dont think the happy SEO times for blogs will last for ever… I think at either SE’s will look to redress the balance back in favour of conventional sites, or conventional sites / CMS will raise their game.
Why would they penalize bloggers for posting at predictable times???
Penalize for posting too much? LOL I doubt that. Google loves content and loves sites that keeps adding content. If they penalize sites for posting too much then sites like Engadget and NYTimes.com are in big trouble.
I agree. What’s with the logic of posting at predictable times too? It aren’t a crime to do that too, isn’t it? Just doesn’t make sense if it’s true.
Google is becoming more selective in what they index. So there is some variable that keeps track of how many pages on your site they will index. If you add more pages than this, some won’t make it in the index.
But I don’t think you’ll run into it as a blogger. If you start posting 500 posts every day, it might be an issue.
Where some people run into trouble is if their CMS creates a separate page for every comment. In that case you might not get your important pages in the index…or if the CMS produces a bunch of duplicate content (listings under multiple keywords, etc)
You can solve these issues easily with robots.txt
I agree with you lyndonmaxewell. there are blogs, where the webmaster for instance only can post at 07pm. Will he be penalized for that? That’s a strange one…! If the content is good and unique, i doubt that predictable times will be penalized.
Predictable times could be a sign of an automated site or splog running a cron to update.
I would hope being predictable is not the only reason and that there are other flags.
Of course it wouldn’t be the only flag. You’re right though. If a blog is updated at 7:37 every day…it’s pretty obvious there’s something a little fishy..
Kumiko
Yeah, but John is evil like that.
John, post away man. It isn’t like your content is comprised of one liners stating how the sky is blue and your mailman said hi to you today. I find it funny how everyone immediately starts to give you warnings as if the sky is falling, “BEWARE JOHN CHOW!!”
Hush people, let’s not forget John is EVIL!!
John, you should do an experiment and see how many posts you can do in a day, and then post that you do xx posts, and see how many people respond with, “CAREFUL JOHN CHOW” in their comments. 
I’ve heard this before, but it’s something I simply can’t bring myself to do. I think I have some “extreme modesty” issue where I just want to sit in a corner and be discovered if I’m good enough.
Stephanie, this is my very problem. I feel really uncomfortable too. I need to get over my shyness in this department.
I really think that you have to be careful with this technique - you need to build a rapport with the webmaster or they’ll disregard you… I would.
Looks like Sam is back!
There are two problems with this:
1) Spam as discussed
2) Mail addresses are hidden behind PHP forms
Networking is a good idea, but this post is aimed primarily at plugging Mitch’s software … again….
If you are going to the trouble of contacting a site owner via a PHP form (to get their mail address) you mail as well try and do some real networking with them, as opposed to spamming them out for the next 12 months.
You get far better results through networking and getting to know the other webmasters.
Indeed, you have to bear in mind that little appears on JC without there being some sort of angle / spin put on it.
In this case Mitch wants to sell his mailing software.
In this case I think $$$ has been put before an objective overview…
It would not be the first time John used his “how to make money” blog for… making money!
Actually Jez did you read the article? I mentioned SendStudio once as an example of a mailing program you can use. I also mention that this is a it of a gray area when it comes to sending the emails AND that you should get to know the bloggers before emailing them. It’s all in my post.
Well, then I don’t really get the point of sending the mail out; if you already got to know the author, chances are he /she already knows about your website, making it unnecessary to point them at your website
I’d personally rather use Technorati to find some people who are willing to write an article about your website for a link in return, suggesting that by email seems way less like ‘check out this cool m0rtgag3 site now!11′ to me
Yes mitch I did read the article and thought it was good, but, to a point it was written with your software in mind.
You dont need an industrial strengh mail program to network with other bloggers, but as HMTK points out this is a commercial blog….
Hi Jez. Do you not agree that in order for me spending half an hour writing the post, it’s fair that I include a link back to one of my products? I think it is… Sorry if I have offended or mislead you. That was not my intention
Hi Mitch, I do not feel mislead, good luck selling your program, it does look pretty cool ….
The trick is to start with sites that are in your class. So if you get 1000 visitors per day, don’t immediately start with a site that gets 100,000. Look for another site that gets 1,000 to 5,000 visitors today AND (this is important) posts a lot of links.
If they already post a bunch of links and your article is related, they are much more likely to see you as providing help.
In many cases, they are very thankful to get the tip from you. This is especially true for sites that advertise a “tips” email address specifically for sending them stories.
The thing most people don’t realize is that many of the larger sites feed off of the smaller ones. So for example:
I emailed dumblittleman one of my articles. They liked it and ran a story on it with a link. Lifehacker.com saw their story and ran their own with a link back to my site.
You can work your way up the chain over time, but start with people who are in a similar class where you can easily have a mutually beneficial relationship.
Also it doesn’t hurt to have a link on your site to them already.
The TechZone news release list has over 1000 addresses. This is something we’ve been doing for years. It’s one of the secrets to our traffic.
Time to do some research to find out which ~650 addresses I’m still missing
I can’t believe I forgot to ask you if you do it for TTZ John - I knew you would. I designed the TweakTown.com website YEARS ago and I know Cameron (the owner) uses it and it works REALLY well.
P.S. I’m giving a few thousand dollars to Ronald McDonald House over the weekend. For everyone that leaves a comment on this post on my blog:
http://www.harpzon.com/articles/97/1/Post-a-Comment-and-Ill-Donate-10-For-You/Page1.html
I’ll donate $10 on your behalf
50 people have commented already. I want to get it to 100…
Are you building a mailing list
Probably, but you can always tag it as spam
I think this is a nice touch, $10 is a generous donation for a comment, and an expensive way to harvest mail addresses.
As I mention below, a far more genuine scheme than the scrounger JC plugged who was offering $1 for a keyworded backlink to raise money for “charity”
I get really annoyed every time I think about that idiot, I cant believe people fall for that kind of bull, how naive can bloggers really be????
And I cant believe JC plugged it for him….
Yeah, that was pretty bad…
Yeah John, why did you plug that scheme?
Did he pay you for that plug??
No I am NOT building a mailing list. You don’t even enter your email address to comment on my site so what am I going to build an email list with? Your first name? Jez, take a chill pill and go lie down.
Hi Mitch,
Yes Ill take a chill pill.
I wasnt suggesting you were, I was replying to someone that did, and said that even if you were that $10 was still generous.. Anyway sorry if ive upset anyone
Ok the other guy didnt suggest that at all and I said you probably were,… sorry
My comment was thus:
Good idea Mitch,
much better than that tosser on JohnChow trying to get 500 backlinks by giving $1 to “charity” for each link.
That was a disgrace, I cant belive JC plugged it for him….
I work in Public Relations and do a whole lot of pitching to try and get the company I work for media coverage and a lot of that pitching is via emails to people I’ve never contacted before, which can have some interesting results at times.
I’ve been doing this for nearly a year now and keeping it simple, like the example, seems to be the most effective way to get generate a response or interest. Pitching the media is a lot different than pitching blogs and I do both on a regular basis. It’s really all a matter of trial and error and sticking to what you notice works. Most of the time you won’t even get a response, but you may end up with a mention or shout out anyways.
By far the most important part of this all is what you title your email. It has to be short, catchy and make the reader want to open it and go further. If you’re title isn’t good enough, no one will bother to open or read your email and you’ll get no where.
Cheers,
Soultrance
I didn’t realize this was a formal method, I just thought people with some sense would connect the dots. I’ve come to find that many things that we started out doing by brainstorming methods have been methods many bloggers have used for a long time. That’s why the importance of networking with bloggers is so important. It brings a different perspective to the way you do things.
Thanks for this Mitch!
This really does seem like an easy method, you just need to be careful not to come off as a spammer!
That is why you become a part of the community before you contact them.
very true!
Exactly. NEVER spam without getting to know the bloggers or it’ll backfire.
I would approach it a little differently, target the top blogs in your field and sending them a note telling them who you are, what you do and asking if there is a way to partner up. That way you make them feel as if it’s there idea and if you have good content, most will want to do something.
Jane May…After joining their community, I think your idea is the most effective in the long-run.
Joining the community is the best option but it is also time consuming.
Hi Jane,
I agree, I think you have to do the networking though, Mitch implies you just grab the mail addresses and set your automation… that alone wont win you any friends IMO….
I suppose it depends a lot on the value of the mail also, if it helps them genereate easy content and is considered a benefit, then that would work ok, but as I say, merely grabbing addresses and firing self promotional mail shots off is not a good plan…
You also need to allow them to unsubscribe….
You’re right Jez, I would be annoyed at this method. I think creating that relationship first is important. I think that’s why so many bloggers don’t make it past the first few months, because they don’t establish those relationships.
Personally I wouldnt entertain the idea of a mail shot, I suppose its different if you have products you want reviewed, as is the case for both JC and Mitch…