I’m here to tell you how to get traffic to your website. I’m going to make this simple and I’m going to give you a lot of examples. There will be no ambiguity about how to get started.
Before I get into things too deeply go download my free report on how to get unlimited traffic using articles.
I’m a huge fan of article marketing for many reasons. But, that’s not exactly the topic for today. So, go grab that report if you’re looking for article marketing magic. I don’t want to stop you.
With that out of the way here’s what you need to know. People are looking for great information. They are looking for shortcuts. They are looking for examples. They are looking for entertainment. If you want traffic, just give people this stuff.
Seriously.
But, there’s a “trick” you need to know…
Drew Eric Whitman talks about the Life-Force 8 in Cashvertising. (It’s a wonderful book; pick it up.) It’s a list of eight different foundational desires common to all humans:
- Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension
- Enjoyment of food and beverages
- Freedom from fear, pain and danger
- Sex and sexual companionship
- Comfortable living conditions
- Feeling of superiority and winning
- Care and protection of loved ones
- Social approval
Now, if you combine what you know about your market or niche with the Life-force 8 then you will pretty much always have winning content. If you write a great blog post and you hit on one (or more!) of these common desires in the right way, you will generate traffic.
I’ll explain how and why in a minute. First, let’s look at an example…
Say you’re working in some “hungry buyers market” like how to stop smoking. A really good blog post would be about exactly how many extra years you’ll add to your life when you quit. This could easily tap into: life extension, winning, and taking care of loved ones. Do you see? You’re going to live longer, you’re going to be a winner and you’ll be able to take care of your family since you’ll be alive.
There are many ways that blog post could be improved but do you see how easy it is to hit many of the foundational desires? And imagine how easy it would be to crank out the content if you were pretending you were writing a letter to a friend. The words would just pour out of you.
Now, you might be thinking that this is great way to develop great content. But, great content doesn’t generate traffic by itself. A beautiful sunset is just a beautiful sunset unless there are photos, people talk about it, the photos get passed around, people listen to your stories about it, and so on. In other words, the sunset has great value but it doesn’t have traction.
In the world of logic… the sunset I just talked about is necessary but not sufficient. In our world of blogging and getting traffic to your website, there is a need for great content, but great content doesn’t magically generate traffic.
So, at this point, I’m going shift gears. But, let’s review quickly.
- You need to understand your niche. (When in doubt see desperate customers.)
- You need to focus on the Life-Force 8. (Go buy Cashvertising.)
- You need to write great content. (Use the “letter to a friend” model. It’s awesome.)
In short, I just gave you a simple plan and easy system for generating high quality content. But again, that’s the necessary stuff… but it’s not sufficient if you want to generate traffic to your website out of thin air.
As a quick sidebar, I’m going to assume that you’ve got your website or blog properly set up. I’m talking about SEO stuff, like onpage optimization, offpage optimization, and all that good stuff.
So, you’ve got content and you’ve got a great web site. Super cool.
Now it’s time to talk about getting backlinks and building backlinks. This is much easier than you might think. Here are some really easy ways to build backlinks…
- Be a guest blogger
- Submit press releases
- Post blog comments
- Link to your own content
- Write and submit articles
(Be sure to link to your own content… You want those internal backlinks. But, most people forget about this. Such a shame!)
Of course, there are hundreds of other ways to build backlinks. All of these tactics work. Almost all of them take time or money, but they work. So, you’ll have to review your budget and what you want to invest.
OK, so let’s return to the short summary above… assuming you have great content you will get awesome backlinks. What happens is that when people see, hear and read great content they link to you for free.
- They will Digg your article.
- They will bookmark your site on Delicious.
- They will talk about you on Twitter.
- They will point to you on Facebook.
When you are AWESOME people will write blog postings about you. They will tell the world why you are cool. They will reference your material. And, in all of this, they will create backlinks to your website and your blog.
Some crazy stuff happens after that…
Google will find all those links and you’ll start showing up more and more when people are searching. Each link is a little vote for your blog. And, as the links pile up, your position just gets strong. “The rich get richer.”
But wait, there’s more –!
So, I promised examples. Well, let me give you a ton of examples and spill the beans on a magic weapon too. Here it is: People love lists. Even more important, people love to link to articles and blog posts that are made of lists. The world is list crazy.
The examples are awesome because they demonstrate the power of lists…
- How to get traffic to your blog
- 10 Ways to Develop Blog Post Topics
- Facebook Mind Control: Cool Tricks
- 20 Things You Didn’t Know
- How to Drive Traffic using LinkedIn
- 9 Ways to Get More Traffic from Twitter
- 7 Cool Facebook Media Tricks
Of course since this blog posting is about how to get traffic to your website that list of lists above is about traffic. But, you can still see how powerful lists are… they work.
People link to lists. People read lists. People loves lists.
So, my advice is that if you want to create linkbait… if you want people to link to your awesome content, then it’s time for you to use the power of lists.
OK, so with that said, please link to this blog posting.
~ John
p.s. That’s another way to get backlinks and to fuel your linkbait. You need to ask for help. You need to ask other people to help you kick butt. So again, please link to this blog post. Post on Twitter and Facebook. And, be sure to post a comment below so you get credit. Plus, you might as well get the backlink from my blog, right? 
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Very Cool Post! I ‘Digg’ your style. Your writing took me on that ‘Slippery Slide’, as Joe Sugerman would say.
I’m a novelist learning to sell my novel, and my brand, using the web, and wow! What a steep learning curve! It’s been fun and interesting and frightening at times. Every time I get it right, every time I see sales improving and find myself connected with new people, I get excited. And I’m very excited that I’ve discovered your website, John. A lot of things I’m already doing right, and I’m getting a lot of help from the right people, but there’s always more to learn and always more people to connect with. Thanks for the great advice.
K D Grace
Hi John – As usual, the information from one of the star “Rhodes Bros.” is very informative and helpful. I’ve found it’s useful to actually write down and map out your traffic plan in advance of execution. Execute, then tally the results. I also found it helpful to start with one or two methods, master them, and then add something new. For example, a subject like “article marketing” is, in itself, like peeling an onion. First, write and submit an article to a directory. Then learn how to maximize and improves each part (like the resource box). Then promote the article on other sites. Then promote your article to others and ask them to social bookmark it. On and on it goes.
BTW, as of tonight, I’m shutting down my affiliate sites and concentrating on my own products and coaching. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Thanks for the additional inspiration. – E
Great ideas here, John! I’m still plowing through the SEO Juggernaut. Man, it’s so hard to sit still for so much info!
(I hope it’s ok to leave my link this way, in the name fields.)
-David
Regarding Juggernaut SEO… take your time!
Soak it up on your schedule.
* Listen in your car.
* Watch on your computer.
* Enjoy on your iPad or iPhone.
~ John
John – great post, man. That “Life-force 8″ is a fantastic list, and as you said, if you can work some of those into what you write (esp pitches), you’ll be converting people left and right. Re SEO and backlinks – what has been your experience w/profile backlinks?
Matt,
Surprisingly, I’ve heard they work well. I have some folks on my team handle that for some of my niches but it’s mostly experimental… and I do not reply on it. It’s just part of the mix of things I do in addition to heavy duty article marketing.
In general, I really don’t like anything that smells like a trick or loophole… at least not for long term business building and investment.
~ John
I read your blog post about traffic and I like the idea about lists. I would like to know more about how you use this list on a web site to get more people interested in your content, so I could get more traffic in the long run. And would a person use more then one list on there web site and on this list does everything have to be about the one subject or just in a general way on the board term itself. I like the list idea, but somewhat confused. Thank you for the great information on traffic.
Lists act as linkbait. That means, people feel GREAT about linking to you. If you get more links, you get more traffic. Shazaam!
By the way, I cover this in extreme detail inside Juggernaut SEO.
http://juggernautseo.com
~ John
I like your suggestion of asking for help! I’ve seen it time and time again – especially with respect to comments — If you ask for them, you’re likely to get them.
Hi John,
Sent here by James Jones. This blog post contains so much good content I’m going to have to some time going through it. Short post but so comprehensive.
Love your foundational desires and also the “people love lists” concepts.
You’ve put links to every item on the list!! Wish there were more hours to the day!
Cheers,
Tamar
People are really batshit crazy about lists. It’s so true….
~ John
I really like your idea of using lists… I never thought of using a list before I read this.
Thanks John!
Fabulous article. And given your “list” of additional articles, I think I’ll be spending a good part of the afternoon right here. Thanks.
Great stuff, John. The backlink technique (including internal backlinks) is something I know I should do more often, so thanks for the reminder about just how valuable it can be. Also, focusing on posting lists of ideas or techniques. Thanks for sharing.
Backlinking… to your own material is essential from an SEO perspective. Google loves these links and you’ll see them show up when you run backlink reports… It works!
Plus, you’re helping people if you link to relevant, high quality content that you’ve created. So, it’s way more than just making Google happy.
~ John
Great info my friend. I am glad I found your site. I signed up for amplify.com, this is the first I had heard of it. One comment, People buy or do things by their emotions and justify it logically!
John – learning from your massive library of valuable information in the Juggernaut SEO program, its become clearer where our loyalties should lie with authority blogs. Its about human thought driving technology to create connections with the right people because your content counts. Its a case of prioritizing the value you place in content and the moral methods employed to market that content.
I’ve devoured this blog post with great interest – so much so, I created a video you can watch here, that goes over the key aspects. Hope you get a kick out of it as much as I did making it..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-d7FzEQr6s
Kieran,
Wow, that’s awesome… !
~ John
John you go above and beyond. I have enjoyed your little Fireside chats (Bonfires) so much the past few weeks in Juggernaut SEO. I sure have been encouraging everyone that I consider as friends to take your course.
Btw- check out Amplify.com. I use it to promote all of my articles to several different social sites all at once. I Amplified this post for you.
The best of success to you, though I know you do not need my blessing.
Rich
Rich,
Thank you for the note about amplify.com — It’s now on my action list.
~ John
John, I honestly believe you were thinking too small with the term “juggernaut”. Can I provide you a better name to reflect the power of all your great information?
Unfortunately, I cannot…but I’ll bet there is a word or phrase that better describes the amount of usable, potent knowledge that you pack into every training, blog post, comment.
Wicked awesome! Each blog post is a thrill ride of energy and positive force moving us forward, sharply focused, weapons drawn! I feel as if I should be riding a stallion with sword a-waving every time I finish reading your stuff!
Work on that “juggernaut” issue, will ya? Seriously, how could you aim so low! hehe…(tongue in cheek)!
Ross
Thanks for the great post, John. it gave me some ideas for my upcoming product! You certainly do it right…
Wow John another excellent post, I’ve been following your advice recently and I am starting to see big improvements in my traffic. You seem to just keep on cranking out quality content. Your my favourite guru as of today.
…let’s hope I’m your favorite internet marketing TOMORROW.
~ John
Love It!! I really am seeing the power of backlinks lately and your methods are POWERFUL. Bottomline this is great stuff. I love how you scratch a little on the surface how to generate traffic but the folks that have been going through your course like me, see it in action and in detail. Ready for our next webinar!
Rob,
Thanks for the comment. Getting backlinks is really easy. You’re not going to see instant results but in just a short time… the results do pile up. It’s that compounding that builds your business.
~ John
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