Writing / tips: Driving traffic to your site with 5 practical tips

Over the past 6-7 years I have written a number of successful tutorial sites that have gotten on average 1k unique hits a day; and over this period, I have learned a few things that may help you drive MUCH more traffic to your site. This is in no particular order, so you have to decide which elements to keep, and which to discard.

By understanding the needs of people and what drives traffic you can dramaticly BOOST the traffic to your existing sites, or new ones that you are developing.

Challenge: By giving your readers something that they really need to think about (riddles, games, logic, etc) they will find themselves on your site for longer / more often. I spend about 20-30 minutes gaming a day, however there was a game posted on digg not too long ago that kept me busy for about 5 hours (in 1 sitting). The name of the game was 'gridlock' for the record. Why did i play so much? The author of the article said he had made it to level 40, naturally i HAD to make it to 41.

Intrigue: By making your readers both curious and intrigued by your content you will find yourself innundated with traffic. In the case of blogs, it will be your shear sense of creativity that will generate this 'buzz'.

Novelty: Just because something is corny doesn't mean that its not going to be great for a few days. Novelty is ever changing and if you can stay ahead / keep up with it you will find your traffic increasing exponentially. Think of social bookmarking sites as an example, a few years ago when digg.com first launched, there were a mere 1000 or so users, now there are MULTI millions of users. Anything you can do to give your website a 'fresh' or 'new' edge, will help you greatly in the long run.

Repetition: Repeating yourself (with different phrasing of course) is essential for your readers to learn / understand what your trying to get across. This should be considered ESSENTIAL in complex tutorials or walkthroughs. providing pictures MAY alleviate the necessity, however always 'sum things up' at the end.

Suspense: In mass media suspense is what keeps us watching through commercials, it keeps our eyes glued to the screen and butts firmly in our seat. If you provide daily content, do not be afraid to put off til tomorrow what can be finished today if in the process you can create suspense. I've seen this used VERY effectively in works in progress and 'ongoing' stories, or even in 'developing stories'.

Lets review: Challenge your readers minds, Make them think their seeing something truly unique, Repeat yourself when necessary to better convey your point, keep up with the times and provide a sense of 'novelty', and remember: keep them glued to their seats if you can.

Good luck.

Xero.