Traffic Method #239 - Share.
Hey, You're New Here! We love new people.
Please do us the honor of returning. You can subscribe by RSS feed, or get updates by email. We also welcome your feedback on the posted information. When filling out the form, don't forget to leave your link and your first name.
I know what you’re thinking, particularly if you’re a traditional type of marketer. We’ve discussed this already in my Give Marketing series, but those two articles were about “what-to” more than “why-to”.
Let’s go deeper, shall we?
You want to know how you can possibly get more, or better quality of traffic from sharing - isn’t pointing people to resources other than my own giving traffic away needlessly? What if the person never comes back? Why should I help other people who may not help me back?
I know, I know, you’re not running a charity, you’re running a business. And no, I’m not going to give you any hard evidence that this works, as I normally would.
So you scoff at this idea of Sharing as a traffic method. It’s backwards, crazy, new age, bleeding heart.
Or. It’s the reason why your competitor’s site goes up in traffic instead of down by linking to your site.
Or. It’s the reason the Blogosphere works so well - it’s an environment where those in the know, those who are successful, become more open, and more sharing, which drives interaction and repeat traffic.
Or. It could be why some sites are considered resources, and others are seen primarily as hype machines.
And. This is the key to unlocking the need to subscribe in your visitors.
How can this possibly work - sending a person somewhere else? Giving your visitors free information instead of holding your hand out for cash each time? Offering your advice for free, with only a gentle product reminder at the end as opposed to a hard push?
I don’t know.
It just does.
.
.
.
What are you still doing here? That was the end of the article.
What do you mean “Convince me”?
Fine. I’ll give it a shot….
When you’re networking with other business people, sharing what you find to be of value at another site with your audience is a display of confidence. It says “I believe in my resource enough to point you to another, because I know that if you enjoy mine, you’ll be back.”
It also shows your business networking contact that you support them. It says to them, “Thank you.”
Sharing also tells the people who visit your site that you care enough to take the risk that they may forget about you.
It’s a reality that some first time visitor will do a search, come to your site, and leave without subscribing, clicking or buying, never to return. This could be a result of not having the proper subscription options visible enough, or that you link to something so marvelous that in their excitement, the surfer just… forgot about you.
And later, they may even remember you, but not be able to find you again. It happens.
It won’t happen any less if you don’t share information, give free tips, give away free advice in your podcast, link out from your site, or splice external links into your feed.
It’s a reality we all have to cope with - why not face it head on instead of hide from it?
And really, people are naturally attracted to givers. And as they congregate for that free bit, they are self-targeting for you. I don’t want a free hammer because I don’t… hamm. Or what ever it is you do to nails with those thingees.
But a whitepaper on Social Media? I’m SO there. Heck yeah I’ll give you my email address. Maybe you have something I can buy that solves my problem — there, I just self targeted for you.
You do it too.
Think back to the last resource site you went to that you subscribed to - why did you subscribe? Was it to get something free? Or to give yourself the best chance of remembering a place that you were about to exit?
I could go on like this forever. The takeaway point - if you have people in your ear trying to convince you that being more open won’t work, or that linking out of your site is folly, think of the effect it would have on you if you were shared with, or shared by someone who is influential in your field.
Let that be your guide. Just for a little while. Just for a week, don’t just blindly believe me. I have no hard evidence besides the blogosphere and socialsphere.
So try it yourself.
How To Get Unstoppable Traffic? Go Evergreen. Read the true story of how one of the site owners, ill and preparing to retire, created traffic so powerful that she couldn’t turn it off.
Bookmark | Save | Share | EmailComments
29 Responses to “Traffic Method #239 - Share.”
Trackbacks
- The Zero Cost Traffic Ezine » Volume V, Issue VII
- The Zero Cost Traffic Ezine » Volume IV, Issue VIII
- The Zero Cost Traffic Ezine » Zero Cost Traffic | Free Webinars Galore | Volume IV, Issue IX
- [series] How to Increase Your Sharing Influence in Half the Time » IYWT
Leave a Reply
Don't Forget to Fill Out Your Link! We DoFollow.
Want more free tips like this? Try Free Traffic Tips :: Free Traffic Methods Re-Cap Part Three or Traffic Thursdays | Traffic Methods #229 - 235 or even Share Better - Find Tools that Help In All Stages of the Process!
For twice monthly or weekly updates and extra traffic information, you can elect subscribe to the Zero Cost Traffic Ezine, which features Free Traffic Tips blog updates and additional web marketing related news.
Privacy Policy
Comments protected by Lucia's Linky Love.
-
Reach Me Faster on Facebook!
Translate
Beautifully said. But then, I’m a firm believer in the idea that you have to give to receive. Give wisely, and let karma bring it back around.
That’s lovely of you to say. And I believe you’re very right about that… more attention seems to be granted for things we share than things we hoard…
Sharing traffic is something I definitely need to work on… great article, Tinu.
I’ve submitted it to Sphinn….so other people can read it too.
http://sphinn.com/story/4133
Cheers.
Nicely stated. I don’t understand why more people don’t get this concept.
Maki, I heard you were a sweetheart, but there’s nothing like witnessing it. Thank you for Sphinning me. You’re awesome.
Awesome post Tinu, and so very very true. I love “spreading the love” and sending traffic to things I find of interest.
It just might help the other blogger (cool) and it is likely of interest to my readers.
Heather
Thank you Heather. Haven’t seen you about in a bit. Marvelous to see you. You’re right, and I forgot about that benefit — sharing is FUN too.
The server seems to be working a little better today so gave you a Stumble too
You’re SO awesome Andy. Thank you.
Although I’ve been here before, I landed on this page through a link on Andy’s blog. So it really does work
Great article. Something I wish I could have read when I first began blogging.
P.S. I think you’re dofollow plugin is broke
Definitely seems to be working Josh, though it is Lucia’s Linky Love so you might need to read and comment a little more (it is worth it)
Wow, Andy, you’re certainly faster than me.
What he said, Josh. Though I may need to make the latest change clear on the link.
Ah ok, I just saw a bunch of pink links and thought maybe you forgot to reactivate it after an upgrade. (I’ve done it)
This was a great post and I believe in Karma. It only makes sense. Thanks for posting and I will be back.
Howdy “Chessnoid”,
What’s your real name? I like to be able to call people by their right name. See you soon…
I’m newish at blogging…and got pretty discouraged at first, but your article, plus other advice of the same vein is convincing me to put more effort into it.
Nice article!
Hello Dylan,
Lovely to met you. I’m glad our tips could be of help!
Josh - I missed your second comment because you keep getting caught in our spam queue. You’ve solved a puzzle for me - I couldn’t figure out why links kept turning pink in my Firefox - I guess that’s how the nofollows are highlighted! Thanks for that.
This is a fantastic article and so well-written!
Love the blog, by the way… it’s my first time here!
i second this.. or maybe 21st this thought..
sharing resources actually build a certain loyalty and trust among people.. if you direct your visitors to other blogs or sites, which they weren’t aware of, people come back to your site later to get to know and see more such stuff that they weren’t aware foe arlier.. you become their webopedia so to say…
Thanks Jayne. You’re welcome back any time, and I’ll be by to see you soon.
Maneesh,
Very true. Very concise way to put it.
I’ve been handing out traffic like candy and haven’t seen much of it come back my way … on the other hand, it’s probably good for word-of-mouth PR, people saying ‘hey, that guy has great traffic and sent me some! Nice fellow!’ or whatnot
Weel, there’s an art to it — the benefits aren’t just PR related. I could write an entire book on that. I may if I have time this weekend. How and when do you share traffic - and are you “sharing” it, or giving it away? Do at least some of the people you share with have the same philosophy as you? What direction do you share in?
The concept is very good and appealing. A generous approach is really rewarding in the medium and long term, though may not be in a very short term. Mutual cooperation and help is the idea which cannot be rejected by large number of people. I would be thankful if you could enlighten us on various other aspects of web promotion.
Thanks and welcome Tarun. Technically the entire site is about website promotion. I’d say scroll down and browse the tags until you find a topic you want to know more about. You can start with the social media posts, they’re most like this one:
http://freetraffictip.com/tag/social-media/