Good Ways To Get Traffic To Your Hubs (And Bad Ways)

1. 70

   WryLiltposted 11 years ago

   PHILLYDREAMER started a topic about changing traffic conditions due to Panda and Penguin and working on attracting more traffic.
   
   As I keep saying, people need to learn to diversify their traffic sources (and writing places, and monetisation methods, yada yada.)
   
   After the overwhelming response to my common newbie mistakes to avoid advice, I thought that there are plenty of other areas where people often waste hours and hours when they could be using better methods. So I thought we could start sharing some GOOD ways to increase traffic and some BAD ways. I'll start.
   
   Good ways to increase traffic (both on and off your hub):
   
   Made For Pinterest [MFP] Images
   
   Using teaser text to encourage click throughs from social media.
   
   Using teasers in your image descriptions (this goes into the description box when pinned to Pinterest) AND titles. And writing good titles. I can't repeat this enough - titles WILL make or break your hub and are 75% of your hub. They get seen by Google crawlers, seen by people who SEARCH on Google, shown on social media... you have ONE short title to grab attention for your WHOLE hub in the approximately 2-3 seconds a person sees your link before moving onto the next one.
   
   Creating a Facebook fan page, posting funny and interesting images that go viral, with a link to a [semi-related] hub in the description.
   
   Creating a basic blogger blog with short teasers linking to your hubs (not one I'd personally do, but some people have surprising success with this.)
   
   Learn the golden rules of social media interaction: Trust, Engage, Scatter.
   -Trust: Develop people's trust in you by giving them good tidbits of information. Tips, hints, even sharing interesting links that you DIDN'T write.
   -Engage: Post things they can relate to, engage with, laugh at, share.
   -Scatter: Once they trust that you actually have something good to say and they are starting to engage with you, you can start scattering your own links in your updates [recommended: only 1 in 4 updates should be self promotion].
   This method works across Twitter, Facebook fan pages, Pinterest and many social bookmarking sites. You can tweak it for each site, but it is a great way to increase interest, shares and click throughs on YOUR content.
   
   Post comments on competitor's articles that allow URL comments. Only the high ranking competitor's articles of course. If your comment is high quality and shows you know what you're talking about, you can get a lot of click throughs (one of my top traffic articles used to get 50% of its traffic from a competitor's post. Till I outranked them. LOL)
   
   Use lists. People love lists. Don't tell people that you are offering them "Ways to cure itchiness". Offer them "25 ways to cure itchiness". People like choice and variety!
   
   If you are a creative writer, check out Cardisa's hub on SEO for creative writing and poetry.
   
   Join a forum related to a topic, add a few related links in your signature then start interacting a lot, even for a few weeks. Show you know what you're talking about, and even mention that "there is more info in my link/s below" [make sure you check the forum rules on self promotion]. Even if you only do this for a few weeks, if it's a public forum, posts can end up in Google, not to mention forum members finding them in an internal forum search.
   
   Bad ways to increase traffic (or ways that waste time or piss off your friends):
   
   Social bookmarking your own hubs.
   Repeatedly. Even though you have no followers and never share anything else.
   
   Sharing every hub you publish on your Facebook and Twitter personal accounts. Every single hub. And rarely if ever posting anything that WILL interest your friends or followers.
   
   Backlinking randomly. Without awareness of your competition, how saturated your topic is, keywords, backlink quality or topic.
   
   Buying backlinks. Wave bye bye to your Adsense account if you get caught doing this.
   
   Not thinking before you post. Would YOU approve that comment/look at that link/go to that page? If it feels like you're spamming, you probably are.
   
   
   
   Disclaimer: Anything you post here may end up in a hub somewhere, someday. Maybe. You know me...
   
   Feel free to post your own suggestions for ways to get, or not get, traffic. Or ask questions regarding ways of getting traffic that you're not sure about...

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   1. 71

      WalterPoonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      QUOTE: "As I keep saying, people need to learn to diversify their traffic sources (and writing places, and monetisation methods, yada yada.)"
      
      WryLilt, I agree with diversifying traffic sources, but trying to write 25 hubs in HubPages is already a mouthful. Honestly, I'm still wondering how to diversify writing places and not spreading myself too thin.

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      1. 70

         WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Get up a good base in one place first. Try the 30 day challenge.

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2. 98

   Rochelle Frankposted 11 years ago

   You are a treasure Wry, (may I call you Wry?)
   Some of us have learned a few of these things the hard way, but I always remember my Mom saying, "Life is to short to learn everything by experience."
   Using the experience of others (like you) is always a time  and brain saver.
   
   I recently saw some of your Pinterest graphics, which are very eye-catching.
   
   Thank you for all of your great suggestions. I'm going to study this one more, when I have a few minutes.

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   1. 70

      WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You can call me Susannah if you want. But yes, Wry is easier to spell
      
      I always appreciated great advice from people like Marisa Wright when I was starting out. But I still made a lot of mistakes. The more I can prevent other people making, the better!

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   2. 71

      WalterPoonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      QUOTE: "Life is too short to learn everything by experience."
      
      "Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others." -- Otto von Bismarck
      
      Rochelle Frank, your mum says it better than Bismarck!

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         Rochelle Frankposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Right--- glad I was raised by Mom and Dad and not Bismark.

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            WalterPoonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            LOL... Bismarck had "an extremely aggressive and domineering personality", according to Wikipedia. You may not like what you are today, after he frequently changes the landscape of your face, hahaha.

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3. 94

   Gcrhoads64posted 11 years ago

   Great advice as always, Wrylilt. You wouldn't happen to know of a hub that explains the Facebook fan page traffic promotion, would you?

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      WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I might write one, one day. For a good example check out any Facebook page run by Empower Network. They are a pyramid scheme who has it down to an art.

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         Gcrhoads64posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you.

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4. 73

   livewithrichardposted 11 years ago

   All solid advice Wry.... Personally, I wouldn't try starting a new FB Fanpage unless you have the time to manage it wisely.  Instead, I would locate existing Fanpages and Groups and get busy with them.

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   1. 70

      WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Very true.

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      Carola Finchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It is risky to post a lot to other fan pages..  It worked fine for me for a while, and then someone flagged me as spam. I ended up having to change my password because, supposedly, someone "hacked" my account.  Having a fan page really works - I have gotten hundreds of readers that way.  I have a personal website that works well for me too.

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      1. 70

         WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Good point. Just as I pointed out in the OP, don't spam. And Facebook will ban you for pasting the same content in multiple places.

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         livewithrichardposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         The point of a fanpage is to engage and interact with other fans... that does not mean one should shove their own content and never engage others... That is SPAM and nobody wants that.
         
         Yes, I know fanpages are a good source of traffic... I currently have 3 of them and get decent traffic to the niche blogs they were created for.  I don't post links from my Hubs on fanpages unless I know it is part of an ongoing conversation.  I post links to blog posts which sometimes link to hubs with a similar theme.
         
         I spend at least a half hour each day on upkeep with my fanpages... now mostly out of habit but by doing so they continue to grow.

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5. 70

   WryLiltposted 11 years ago

   Bump

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6. 84

   peachpurpleposted 11 years ago

   very good suggestions, I had tried facebook, twitter, stumbleupon and pinterest. I guess posting the pictures aren't enough unless with funny sentences below them. I will try on that and hopefully will gain more traffic.

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7. 80

   Greekgeekposted 11 years ago

   -- Be specific. In poetry, it's artful to use elliptical language and metaphors without naming what you're talking about. On the web, it's the reverse. Say what you mean. Name names. Own your nouns. People aren't going to click on a vague title like "Amazing Thing that Happened to Me," but "When Wombats Attack: Menaced by a Marsupial" might nail some search terms as well as piquing people's curiosity.
   
   --Do a little keyword research, but not to research the most-trafficked terms that might be vaguely related to your topic. Instead, the goal is to familiarize yourself with the lingo of your niche. What words do people use for the topic you're talking about? Search engines are more likely to send you the audience that's interested in what you have to say, if you speak your readers' language.

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8. 0

   Will Apseposted 11 years ago

   Is there a good social media site for misanthropes?

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      paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      
      A girl after my own heart...

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         Will Apseposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Didn't your mother tell you about writing on young women?

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            paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Have "Pen" – Will Travel

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               Will Apseposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Well, it wouldn't pass QAP. Not enough depth, old chap.

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                  paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  

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                     Will Apseposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     That would probably do it.

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   2. 76

      Laura Schneiderposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Try reddit.com. They're just plain weird and attract weirdoes as well as regular folks.
      
      But it can get you lots of traffic spontaneously (or none at all)--very spotty, but worth looking into. Note that you can't add too many links in a short period of time or they'll make you wait (why?!?), and they suggest a ratio of 1:10 to keep the site from being just a big self-promotional site (one of your sites, 10 of others').
      
      They even let you create your own "subreddit"s (categories) which you can own and add your stuff to.
      
      Quirky site appeals to geeks bigtime. My two "subreddit"s are "ChainMailArtisans" and "HeyThisIsImportant". A few more years and I might even understand Reddit. LOL (Minimal/no help/direction on what to do with the site or how to "succeed" or even what "success" consists of on that site. Weird/geeky/cool.)

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9. 69

   younghopesposted 11 years ago

   as always Wry you have made an interesting forum post here, and i have learnt a lot from you, due to your advice now i also opting for MFP images. hope it works out

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10. 73

    Anita Colemanposted 11 years ago

    Thanks for the Golden Rules in your forum discussion. I will tack them up near my computer so I don't forget them. Have a great day.

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11. 70

    brakel2posted 11 years ago

    Wry. I have links at end of old hubs to Amazon. In  addition I have links to good info on subject. Paul E. recently posted not to do that. Will Google penalize extra pertinent links?  Should I take them away - all of them?

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    1. 88

       Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Why on earth did he say that?  It makes no sense.
       
       The HubPages blog advises not to post Amazon ads at the END of your Hub because they won't sell anything.  They won't hurt you though.
       
       Google loves "reference" links - if you've listed a number of links for further reading, and they're all good sites, that won't hurt at all.

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          Jean Bakulaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          We can write stuff on our Pinterest pictures? I did on a few that I thought needed more explanation, but wasn't sure if that was frowned upon. I know, I should read all the directions before I start something. I'm bad at that. I just looked at Bubblews, never heard of it before this thread. I like the bubbles

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          1. 70

             WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             You can definitely post words on images, as long as it's not just there as a watermark - the text needs to add quality to the picture.

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                Writer Foxposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                Is there some reason why you felt the need to bump a three-month-old Forum thread?

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                   Will Apseposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                   Definitely, I small blaze somewhere near...

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                      Writer Foxposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                      Yes, you are a small blaze.  It's coming right off the top of your avatar head.

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                2. 70

                   WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                   I see a lot of newbies making the same mistakes again. Can't hurt to help a few.

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