Easy Formula For Free Traffic

In the real world, I am a farmer. I raise goats, horses, and garlic, to be exact. Looking at how to capture that all elusive free, targeted traffic is a lot like trying to pen up 15 goat kids who are running loose in the barn. You see, in the barn, there are all kinds of obstacles that keep me from being able to simply shoosh them into the pen. There's horizontal bars, support posts, and all kinds of nooks and crannies that give them an easy escape route. There are too many obstacles and turns between me and the kids - so it's hard to catch them just by myself.

Web traffic is a lot like the this. You, the webmaster, can see the traffic out there, but that traffic has got other places to run to that is between you and them. So how do you "pen" that traffic in?

Well, going back to the barn and goat kids analogy, here's how I bring in the kids (traffic). First off, I've got to know how their base thought processes work. In the case of goats, they are herd animals, which means they prefer to move as one. They are also looking for the path of least resistance when they are moving about. In the barn, I am their resistance - in other words, I want them to come towards me, not away, but they don't understand me - so they go towards something that isn't trying to get their attention in such an obvious way.

I need to anticipate this behavior. So I set up some chain link panels in the areas they tend to run towards, which in effect diverts them more towards me. But they won't run up to me like a good ole farm dog does, they just follow the direction of the chain link panels - as far away from me as possible. But that's okay. Because I've set up the fencing points so that they kind of "follow" it towards the pen. While they are skirting me, I'm slowly moving around with, and behind them. Before they know it, they are at the opening of the pen, and since I am now coming up behind them, they run into it, and I follow up to close the gate.

This is how I look at natural, organic, free traffic on the web. If you want free-roaming visitors to come into your "pen" (website), you've got to set up some guide points to help them along.

My next post will talk about the virtual fence panels that can be used to help funnel more web traffic to your site.

Free Web Traffic To Your Site

This is another established, high-traffic domain that allows you to place a link on their site, within whatever category you want. For a very small fee, you can also create a full-page ad that will point back to your website with the anchor keys of your choice.

This site had a Page Rank of 6 at one point, and with over half a million backlinks, that would make sense. However, I've noticed that it has dropped to a PR3 in the past couple of months. I would think that it is not considered a "link farm", but maybe the sheer volume of the links, without regard to focus or quality, had enough of a bearing that Google does not take it seriously any longer. An interesting experiment to obtain that coveted PR10 status, only to lose precious ground in the last Google update.

Relevant, or complimentary, links is what Google has been talking about all along. Matt Cutts gave a speech a few months back where he gave some simple advice that went along the lines of: Don't force your site on Google - let (Google) find you through natural and popular consensus (relevant backlinks).

AmazingCounters

AmazingCounters.com

This is a free web traffic counter service with lots of different styles to choose from. The site feels, and looks, fun. Signup is very simple, and requires basic information such as email, name, site info, and password. You can choose from scores of counter themes to compliment your website.

I chose the palm tree design - hey, it's still winter here in Northern New York and palm trees are looking real nice about now...

No Reservations

DigitalPoint Free Web Traffic Counter

DigitalPoint.com/tools/counter

This one has been around for awhile now. It is simple, very basic, and does what it is supposed to do - count the visitors to your pages. You can customize this counter with little graphics as shown by the sailboat image below.

eBay Motors

StatCounter Free Web Traffic Counter

StatCounter.com

Very feature-rich for a free website traffic counter. Sign-up is quick and requires your website url, your name, email address, and time-zone specs. You can choose whether the counter will be hidden or visible. There are some other customization selections also. You can track referring sites/links for your visitors. The free account has a limit on the log space available.


View My Stats