I need more traffic to my website. Any ideas?

[SagaLore]

Hawg Buster is only seeing on average 20 hits a day. The sad part is that is better than it was a year ago.

We need more traffic! But even more important, we need to keep the visitors coming back. Ideas? Suggestions? I already have some plans in place but it would be good to get your thoughts too.

site is hawgbuster.com and most of you that bother reading my threads have probably already seen it.


I spent my entire day yesterday (great waste of a sunday) looking for some kind of free java/flash fishing game. I actually did end up finding a few but they certainly weren't free. Anybody know where I can get something like that?

thanks

 

[B00ne]

make a members section with some real bait to lure ppl in - if ya know what I mean

 

[Fausto]

Can you make up a small banner ad to go on various fishing sites? Another option would be to occasionally post on usenet (I'm sure there are fishing groups) promoting your site.

 

[notfred]

What exactly is your relationship to this fishing lure company, anyway? Do you own it? Are you at least getting paid for all the work you're putting into it?

Personally, I woulsn't expect it to receive as many hits as, say, a site selling computer parts. Fishing and the internet don't really go together. Fishermen would rather be out fishing than sitting at home reading about fishing.

How would you get more hits?

Try hiring an expert fisherman to write tips on how to catch more fish, and put up a new one every week. That might help.

 

[guyver01]

add a pay-per-pr0n feature?

 

[littleprince]

You need articles about fishing, and using your lures or something. Unless you have a lot of new product releases, I dont see any reason why I should go back to your site till next season.

Its not like i'm gonna visit your site everyday if you only have a limited product line that probaly wont change more than once a month. Maybe a fishing forums even, where ppl can discusss techniques and lunker spots.

 

[ObiDon]

Nekkid pictures!

Okay, maybe forums or regularly posted articles on various subjects?
I originally came to AT because there was something new (usually a motherboard review) to read everyday. I don't visit the main page anymore though since the action seems to have dropped of a bit.

Now, I just waste all my time here in the forums!

 

[SagaLore]

Okay, good ideas. Glad to know I'm on the right track -

I am indeed creating a members section. It will have sticky content - a forum, news, weather, the moon phases (important for fisherman!), a search engine, a photo gallery (of catches, not naked pictures!), maybe recipes, games (so far I have found a Tetris game and TicTacToe game - simple parlor games seem to attract more).

Most of you are confirming what I had in mind, I just wanted to make sure I was going in the right direction. Any other ideas?

You'd be surprised how much fishing is on the internet. I even found a Fish While Naked site. :Q Had some fine ladies reeling it in. (they weren't actually naked though... most of them anyway...)

 

[Fausto]

You'd be surprised how much fishing is on the internet. I even found a Fish While Naked site.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Nothing good can come from whipping a barbed hook around with your twig-n-berries unprotected. :Q

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Fausto1

You'd be surprised how much fishing is on the internet. I even found a Fish While Naked site.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Nothing good can come from whipping a barbed hook around with your twig-n-berries unprotected. :Q

I think you're missing the point - these were fisherladies. Ya know, like how they have hot babes show off the hot rods. These women aren't actually fishing.

*bonks Fausto1 on the head*

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Offer free stuff on ATHD.

 

[Sophia]

Like (some of) the others have suggested, create good content.

While you're at it, read up on search engine ranking techniques.
Search Engine Forums
Search Engine Watch

For free traffic, my suggestion would be that you focus your efforts on Google, which will get you similar results on AOL (32 million users) and also submit to the Open Directory Project You can attain some search engine ranking, then look at the fee-required-for-submission search engines (inktomi, yahoo, etc.) after that.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Sophia
Like (some of) the others have suggested, create good content.

While you're at it, read up on search engine ranking techniques.
Search Engine Forums
Search Engine Watch

For free traffic, my suggestion would be that you focus your efforts on Google, which will get you similar results on AOL (32 million users) and also submit to the Open Directory Project You can attain some search engine ranking, then look at the fee-required-for-submission search engines (inktomi, yahoo, etc.) after that.

Thanks! I just submitted the site onto the open directory. I'll take a look at those other links too later tonight.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: notfred
What exactly is your relationship to this fishing lure company, anyway? Do you own it? Are you at least getting paid for all the work you're putting into it?

Personally, I woulsn't expect it to receive as many hits as, say, a site selling computer parts. Fishing and the internet don't really go together. Fishermen would rather be out fishing than sitting at home reading about fishing.

How would you get more hits?

Try hiring an expert fisherman to write tips on how to catch more fish, and put up a new one every week. That might help.

I'm the webmaster of the site. I design and maintain it for free. My incentive is that whatever sales we can achieve online, I get 10%. The story goes... a few years ago when I was working at a local ISP, this guy emailed us and asked if we knew anyone who did web work on the side. I volunteered and have been working on it ever since. Originally he was going to pay me based on work done, but since maintaining this kind of site was constantly ongoing, we striked a deal based on commission. Right now we mainly sell to other vendors within the Pennsylvania area, we have a few vendors in Canada and some other states. We even had interest come from Japan. He doesn't work on this full time though, and his partner had died about a year before I started working on the site. His partner was the one that started the site, it was hideous, but he knew more about the web than the current guy. So I'm extremely motivated to get this company going because I will benefit from it in the future. The success of HawgBuster is riding on this website.

 

[MrCodeDude]

I second whoever said, nekkid ladies.
-- mrcodedude

 

[yllus]

Join a free banner or traffic exchange if nothing else works. For the most part you simply need to see what the most popular sites in your segment are and try to get links from them to lead to you.

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: Fausto1
Can you make up a small banner ad to go on various fishing sites? Another option would be to occasionally post on usenet (I'm sure there are fishing groups) promoting your site.

DO NOT ENCOURAGE USENET SPAM YOU EVIL LITTLE MAN.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: MrCodeDude
I second whoever said, nekkid ladies.
-- mrcodedude

great, I should just change the name of the site to Bass-and-Ass.com

 

[Daaavo]

Sell something to Goku. He will immediately try to exchange it because he was confused with all the fancy numbers, letters and pretty pictures on your website. After you tell him that he's going to have to pay for shipping back to you, on top of a re-stocking fee, he'll blow his cookie and write a case study on Reseller's Rating on why life isn't fair with you screw up while ordering something online. After a couple days, reply to his rant on resellersrating and publicly offer him something small and shiny to patch things up. He'll go for it and then come to ATOT to glout about how he bent over this online store, for a shiny object, because of a mistake he, and he alone, made. The people here, after reading his fascinating story on Reseller's Rating, will be interested in seeing what this was all about and visit your website.


-edit-

Oh yeah, and throw in a couple naked chicks on the front page. That'll keep me coming back.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Daaavo
Sell something to Goku. He will immediately try to exchange it because he was confused with all the fancy numbers, letters and pretty pictures on your website. After you tell him that he's going to have to pay for shipping back to you, on top of a re-stocking fee, he'll blow his cookie and write a case study on Reseller's Rating on why life isn't fair with you screw up while ordering something online. After a couple days, reply to his rant on resellersrating and publicly offer him something small and shiny to patch things up. He'll go for it and then come to ATOT to glout about how he bent over this online store, for a shiny object, because of a mistake he, and he alone, made. The people here, after reading his fascinating story on Reseller's Rating, will be interested in seeing what this was all about and visit your website.


-edit-

Oh yeah, and throw in a couple naked chicks on the front page. That'll keep me coming back.

just one correction - it's "gozu", not goku. don't want to affend any super saiyans or they might kameia-meia us.

I'll keep the naked chicks in mind. I'm sure that will be a big hit with the kids. "Click here if you are 18 or older to enter our bait shop otherwise click Exit"

 

[bmacd]

post pics of things that smell like fish....

-=bmacd=-

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: bmacd
post pics of things that smell like fish....

-=bmacd=-

:Q

"Daddy, what's that?"

"That, son, is a carp."

*insert joke content here*

 

[Ranger]

How about a way to upload pictures of the monster (photoshopped) fish people have caught.
People love to show off.
Andy

 

[clarkmo]

Shucks dude. Coupons and click thrus. All the coupon sites will be pimpin your site for a little piece of the action.

 

[RossMAN]

Click Profile and include your website in your sig (make it clickable with the right HTML tags) along with a brief description.