When you launch a website, any website, it will be a disaster unless you can get traffic to it. Without traffic, your site might as well just not take up cyber-space. It'll be a total waste of time and effort on your part.

As you all know, I created a website building programs which can create a full-on White Hat Content based website in just a few minutes. It uses pre-written articles that have been created by the user.

It's not a scraper or anything remotely like a scraper. Over time I have added extra plugins such as "youtube", "pinging", "comments", "rss", "rate this article", "multi translate" and much more. It's evolved into something that is capable of building a good and sticky site.

Build it and they will come … NOT

But almost all the users of the software stumble over 1 thing, and that is the realisation that build it and they will come simply does not work. The whole reason why my ultra-fast (still the fastest site builder available anywhere) and ultra-flexible (what other site builder auto-updates when you make some changes) came into existence was to cut down the time spent to create a website, which allows MORE time to be spent on promoting it…

For some reason, users started believing that the reduction in time spent creating sites would allow MORE sites to be built in the original amount of time. This is simply not true. Without decent traffic, you'll never be successful.

The perfect site build

Let's take the example of a 10 page website on the subject of "diamante dog collars" - the obvious route of monetisation is Google adSense. It is possible that the site owner might link up with a seller of dog collars for an Affiliation. Using my own software, this site might take 5 minutes to build. This leaves the rest of the day free to promote the new site…

Let's look at promotion

Promotion is all about getting links to your site, and bring the site to the attention of as many TARGETTED visitors as possible…so let's look at some ways to start the promotion ball rolling;

1. First of all, we need to make use of RSS. By using a tool such as "RSS Submit", we can simply input the URL of the site's RSS feed and this will be pumped out to multiple RSS aggregators and directories. In one go, you have some backlinks, let's say 30 links comeonline within a month from this method. Total Links: 30
2. Yahoo Answers. This is an area of Yahoo in which people can ask and answer questions. Find some questions that are to do with the subject of your site, and answer them. I would suggest that 3 questions per site per day for 30 days is a good start. After 1 month, that's another 90 links. Total Links: 120
3. Blogs and Commentable Websites. Go on the hunt for targetted blogs and sites that allow user comments. Be sure to answer blog posts/articles with more than just a "hi nice site" type of answer. Give some real meat to the conversation and add your link. Most blog/site owners will thank you for being a good poster. I would suggest that finding 5 such sites per day for 30 days is a good start. That's 150 more links. Total Links: 270
4. Forums. Always good for promotion. As per point 3, make sure you take part in any conversations - it's not a "drive by" posting, you need to get your name known as an expert in your chosen field. Make sure you have the ability to have a "signature" containing your URL. Most forum owners will thank you for being a good poster. I would suggest joining 2 forums and making 1 post per day to each, for a total of 60 more links. Total Links: 330

Next up, we have some SEO action;

1. Submit a Google Sitemap to google
2. Submit your RSS feed to yahoo
3. Submit your site to MSN

And now, we have to talk about "Article Marketing" - this is basically writing an article about your chosen subject and making it available on the "article aggregators". Each article will contain a link to your website, and these articales are available for use by OTHER webmasters. Assuming that these webmasters follow the TOS, YOUR link will show on their website. Article marketing is one of the easiest way to get a whole load of backlinks, tens, hundreds, sometimes even thousands!

Article Aggregators for you to submit to;

1. Ezine Articles
2. Article City

There are lots more, have a hunt in Google. I suggest that you write 15 articles for both the above article aggregators during the 30 days. As a (very) rough estimate, I would say that your articles will be re-printed on other peoples websites a couple of hundred times during the first month. That's 200 more backlinks. Total Links: 530

Top Commentators

You will have noticed that many blogs (osWorld included) "reward" good posters by giving a back link based on the total number of comments made. The value of this is enormous, but you need to find blogs which have the "top commentators" installed. It's quite easy

seochat.com has a handy dandy little tool for finding such blogs. I would HIGHLY suggest that you do not abuse this as blog owners can get nasty really quickly. Linked to point 3 above, PLAY NICE! Start hunting for blogs that are in your niche and take part in the conversations - this is another few back links for you… Total Links: 550

Social Bookmarking

There is a plethora of "social bookmarking" sites. These are sites which are like online bookmarks, so others can see sites that you like. I'm sure most readers will have heard of digg, del.icio.us and so on. There are loads, have you heard of all these?

• Fark
• Yahoo
• Furl
• Reddit
• Blinklist
• Shadows
• Spurl
• Newsvine
• Simpy
• RawSugar
• Blogmarks
• Blinkbits
• Ma.gnolia
• Jots
• Wists
• Connotea
• LinkaGoGo
• De.lirio.us
• Netvouz
• Scuttle
• FeedMeLinks

You can submit your site and/or individual site pages to any or all of these websites! If you can also entice your readers to do so, this makes for a great way to increase traffic. Put links on your websites that allow for easy bookmarking!

Other ways to get links

All of the above methods are free of charge, so let's look at "paid for" ways to get backlinks;

1. Text Link Ads. Obvious example - you pay $x for a 1 month backlink.
2. Software. There is software available to help you search for good places to make backlinks. There are some examples here - Paul also sells other such software, all of which is very good.
3. Buy Links. Easy as 123. Find a website and offer $x for him making a link to your website.
4. Buy a Review. Again, easy as 123. ReviewMe comes to mind. You pay $xx for a review on someone elses site.
5. 1 million dollar sites. Basically the same as buying a link.

Some more ways to get traffic

1. Give something away. People love free stuff.
2. Make a competition. Give away an iPod (or whatever), get listed on loquax and watch your server melt-down because of the traffic.
3. Make a "widget". Get it uploaded to Google widget area. Make sure it has your branding!

And some offline ways

1. Stickers! Stick them everywhere, on your outgoing letters, on car bumpers, on signs etc etc.
2. T-Shirts. Obvious - most of the web2 startups do this.
3. Other goodies. Mouse mats, baseball caps and so on. There's a plethora of merchandise just waiting to have your website URL printed on it.
4. TV/Radio advertising. Obvious and expensive!

As you can see getting backlinks to your website is easy, but is hard work. After 1 month you should be able to have added at least 500 backlinks, all of which will bring a in stream (or perhaps a trickle) visitors.

Ask any experienced website builder and they will tell you if "content is king", "TRAFFIC IS SUPREME COMMANDER"

It's all about the traffic. Nothing else matters. I'm damn sure that you can think of loads more ways to get traffic. Go to it!

No-one is saying that all of the above is not hard work and is not mind-numbing. But if you want your site to be a success, be prepared to put in the hard work that is necessary to get traffic!

And once you have some traffic…

Well, you need to try to keep it. And that means interactivity - user comments, rate this article, polls, surveys, competitions and so on. A returning visitor is just as great as a new visitor!