Thursday, April 10, 2008 Toral: Getting US traffic By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
IN addition to search engine optimization, directories and sprea-ding the word to your friends, another way to lure visitors to your site is through social media or content sharing sites like StumbleUpon.com that can drive huge traffic from the United States.
For the past few weeks, I became an active user of social media sites, like StumbleUpon.com, Del.icio.us, Ximmy.com, Mahalo.com and Digg. com. In these sites I submit daily content that include those from my own sites and those that I found online.
What triggered this is the need to spread the word about a blog post I made last March 31, showing the first quarter 2008 ranking of blogs worldwide, in the Philippines and in Australia. I realized that StumbleUpon.com delivered huge traffic, especially from the US. As of today, the article on worldwide ranking of blogs continues to attract traffic.
However, other articles did not attract as much traffic.
I realized that articles that attract a lot of traffic have the following:
An interesting title. Those stating something specific attract visitors to a blog or website. For example, I have an article with the title, “Creating Project Ideas that Stick.” I changed the title to “Six Principles to Create Project Ideas that Stick,” and the article is getting traffic that it deserves.
A compelling start. The first sentence or paragraph must be interesting enough so that the visitor who saw it will be intrigued to read more about it. Instead of starting with what you did last week or who you met lately, get to the point of the article or product and explain it further in the succeeding paragraphs.
These two points, though simple, are often taken for granted by writers and site creators.
These points do not only apply to articles or blog post but also to product pages and description. That is why, if you’ll notice, most of the successful products and popular articles are written or presented in a way that compels the reader to desire for more. From a marketing and advertising lingo, this is also referred to as copywriting.
So, yes, even if we are not product or service marketers, copywriting still rules to merit the attention of our readers. If done right, we will be able to persuade them to read us more, buy or inquire about the product or service we are promoting, and spread the word about us.
