9 Killer Ways To Get Traffic Without SEO Or Social Media
You want traffic.
You want relevant, targeted traffic that will convert.
Yes, we all know you need to have great content, do SEO and share on Social Media.
But there other viable ways to get traffic.
Here are 9 killer ways you can get traffic without SEO or social media.
1. Find And Pull Method
This is perhaps one of the easiest ways to bring traffic to your blog. All you have to do is find popular blogs in your niche and bring the already existing traffic back to your blog. Sounds easy right? Well if you know how, it kind of is.
- For this method to work, you need to find out about relevant posts on high traffic blogs in your niche as soon as they are published. You can solve this problem using Google Alerts, which is a free Google service that sends you emails on new content across the web that may be of interest to you. Set up Google Alerts so that it sends you an email as soon as a popular blogger writes an article very closely related to a post you have previously published (We will get into how to set it up soon).
- For the second step go to the post as soon as it is published, actually read it, and write out a relevant and helpful comment after the post but instead of linking your name to your blog’s homepage, link to your post on related content. This way when they click through, they are immediately on a highly relevant page that they are interested in. And because they read your comment, which was useful and unique, they already think of you as an authority.
Here is how you set up Google Alerts. Where it says search query, type in a term related to one of your posts that you want to bring traffic to.
Set results type to blogs. How often to once a day. How many to only the best results.
These settings will make sure that you only get relevant posts from popular blogs. If you don’t mind getting a lot of emails you can even set the How often setting to As-it-happens, which will give you a higher chance of getting there before anyone comments. You can go back and set up as many alerts as you want for as many of your posts as you like.
2. Viral Content Buzz Community
Viral Content Buzz is a place where you can earn points for sharing other people’s content and use those very points to get other people to share your content.
Yes, I realize this post isn’t supposed to have social media related methods for getting traffic, but Viral Content Buzz doesn’t really have to do as much with social media as it has to do with showing your content to a community. There is no crazy social media tool, strategy or trick involved. You simply have to submit your content to the site and it will send traffic your way.
On some level it’s nothing more than a place where competent people from different niches gather to share quality content. Now, if you happen to like something shared by someone, you can help them out and Tweet it or Like it on Facebook. The more you participate in the community and share other people’s content, the more exposure you can get for your content.
Viral Content Buzz thoroughly checks your social media profiles to makes sure that your Facebook and Twitter profiles that you are using to promote other people’s content are real profiles with real followers and plenty of activity. This makes sure that none of the people joining the community are looking to take advantage of it. Because these are real people with real followings that are genuinely sharing your content, you get a lot of visibility and traffic.
Join Viral Content Buzz and submit your best content. Your content will be shared by people that would not have seen your articles otherwise and you will get traffic that is genuinely interested in reading what you have to say.
3. Derek Halpern’s Drafting Technique
This is a technique popularized Derek Halpern of Social Triggers. The drafting technique takes advantage of your competitors slip stream much like Nascar drivers do. What does that mean? Well, in Nascar (as well as bicycling and other racing sports) each competitor tends to stay right behind the one in front so that they have to deal with less air friction. As the first car spends more energy pushing through the air, it creates a slip stream right behind where there is less air density for the next car to push through. This means that the second car has to spend a lot less energy to achieve the same results.
Here is how you use the slip stream to your advantage. The idea is simple. You see your competitors somehow land an article on big sites and get huge coverage. Instead of feeling sad about it, you can use this to your advantage to get coverage for your own business or website as well.
When you see that someone in your niche has gotten a post on a huge site, you learn two things:
- This particular site accepts guest posts.
- The kind of topics they are looking for in their guest posts.
With this knowledge in hand you can contact the blog or main stream media site and pitch them a similar idea for a guest post you they will be happy to publish. They already published something similar so you know they would be happy to do so again. There is simply less friction. Just make sure it is not actually the same idea and that it is something similar that will add some value to their site.
Find blogs that are authorities in your niche and take a look at their posts that are guest posts. Make a list of similar ideas you can blog about and send them an outreach email pitching them a one or few of those ideas those ideas. Mention the similar posts already published on their site and tell them why you think your post will be just as good and maybe even better.
4. Link To Bloggers In Your Posts
Link to other bloggers in your post. That’s really all there is to it. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is never linking out. Link out to others in your posts and they will take notice of you, most of them will tweet about your post at the very least. Some of them will even link back to you. This is a easy and free way to get traffic. Just don’t forget about your readers and make sure that the links are relevant.
5. Use The Intro Method To Get Massive Forum Traffic
Using Forums to drive traffic is pretty well known. It’s also one of the easiest way to send traffic to your site.
Here is how you use forums to send massive traffic. This method was originally talked by Diggy at ProBlogger in much more detail. Go to a forum you participate in regularly and simply start a new thread mentioning your newest post like Diggy.
Think about it. If you were at your favorite forum and you saw a thread to a link that was actually interesting and full of useful information, wouldn’t you be inclined to check it out? Make sure your title is catchy and if your forum is in your niche and it has a high enough traffic, your results should look something like this:
Some forums have rules against this kind of thing so check the guidelines first. If this seems like something that’s in the grey area for a particular forum, you can start your thread with simply giving out free information or part of your post and end it with saying “you can find more tips on how to get traffic here”. If people liked what you had to say or found it useful, chances are they will check out the link.
6. Do Interviews
Interviews are like video guest posts. Interviewing someone is also a bit like linking to someone except now they are much more likely to share and link to the interview. There are advantages to both being the interviewer and the one getting interviewed.
- Why Be Interviewed – Obviously this sends traffic, but more importantly this establishes you as an authority in your niche. Why would anyone waste time interviewing someone who isn’t important? Because you will be seen as an authority, people who come to check out your blog or website will be more likely to stick around and comeback.
- Why Interview – If you interview someone and post it on your blog, chances are the person you interviewed is going to share it in every way that he or she can think of and probably even link to you. Interviewing someone who is important makes you seem like a bit of an important figure in your field as well. You become an authority by association. Say for example you saw a post by some random blogger where he interviewed Sir Richard Branson on video. Wouldn’t you suddenly think that this blogger is someone important?
Use HARO to get interviews and be interviewed. HARO stands for Help A Reporter Out and is a service that used by news agencies like ABC and FOX. Here is how HARO works.
When you go to HARO, you can sign up as a reporter or a source.
If you sign up as a source, you will get emails with a list of people who are looking to interview experts in different fields. Each interviewer will give a summery as to what they are looking for in their interviewee, which looks something like this:
If you qualify, and would like to be interviewed, you can simply send them an email saying so, and you will almost always get a reply immediately. By using HARO, you may be able to land yourself an interview on a huge mainstream media outlet.
If you sign up as a reporter, you just have to fill out who you are looking to interview in what subject every time you want to do an interview and your request will be there in the next email.
7. Use Your Email Signature.
Let all those emails you send work harder for you. Place a link to your website in your email signature. People are lazy and don’t like to take time to find out what your site is or even bother typing it in the URL bar. So make it really easy for them. Make your site only a click away by placing a link to it after your name in your signature. If you use Gmail, there are plenty of other things you can do to use Gmail like a marketing machine.
This makes a bigger difference than you think. Steve Krug in Don’t Make Me Think talks about how every action you are asking people to take causes the number of people to go through with it to drop drastically. Why force people to take more actions than necessary?
8. Be A Case Study
Businesses and people always need testimonials saying that their product or service works. Be that testimonial. If you end up being a case study that they showcase on their site, it can end up sending you a good amount of reoccurring traffic as well as establish you as someone of importance. If you try a product or service in your niche and found that it was useful, send them an email saying that you use the product and it did this and that for you. Be detailed in how it helped you.
9. Take Advantage Of Communities like Bloggers.com
Bloggers is a huge community of bloggers from every niche. Participating here will send you the best kind of traffic because everyone here is capable of linking to you. Not only will you directly get traffic to your blog from Bloggers but you will also end up getting traffic from any of these visitors who end up linking to you.
Getting traffic from Bloggers is simple. Create a full profile like and just start exploring. Find people in your niche that interest you and comment and vote on their profiles or blogs. Most of the time they will vote you back and you will end up getting that much more exposure in the community.
How do you get traffic to your website?
This is a great post. I’ve used several of these but learned a couple of new ones and you did a great job of explaining the ones I’ve used. I’m going to try Viral Content Buzz. I use Social Buzz Club for a similar thing… Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Tom. I was actually introduced to Social Buzz Club by Mrs. Ileane of BasicBlogTips.com a few days ago. So far it looks pretty useful.
Great post as always Mark. The Find and Pull method is something I am really excited to try. “Be A Case Study” also seems so obvious in hindsight but no one ever thinks about that.
Thanks Allison. Glad you found the Find and Pull method to be interesting. And yes a lot of ideas can seem obvious once we know about them.
Hey Mark,
Thanks for the introduction to HARO. Seems like a great way to get interviewed and establish yourself as an authority.
Iv’e never had any problem doing interviews but finding opportunities to get interviewed always seemed a bit difficult. HARO definitely solves that.
Thanks Dror. HARO is pretty awesome and doing interviews is a great way to set yourself apart from the norm.
This is a truly fantastic post. You mentioned some things that I do already to drive traffic like engaging in blogging communities (BizSugar – where I actually came across your post) and some that I don’t.
I especially like your Google Alert I idea – it’s really neat. I actually do a similar strategy where I look for blogs related to my latest post on Google’s Blog search engine and I sort them by date. I also loved your tip about linking directly back to specific post rather than your home page. Brilliant!
Thanks for sharing this awesome post and I happy to have found your blog. Great read and great to connect with you!
Ti
Thanks Ti! Glad you liked the post. BizSugar is great for driving targeted traffic.
Yup, linking directly to a related post is way more effective at getting people to actually engage with with your site. Great to connect with you as well.
Some great out of the box things here! Thanks for sharing. Just wondering, would an RSS feed/Google Reader be more efficient and quicker than Google Alerts at bringing you blog updates?
Hey Paige,
Thanks! Out of the box was what I was going for.
RSS feed is probably more efficient but with Google Alerts you get a neatly packaged email few times a day.
Mark,
Hi I am one of the founders of Viral Content Buzz. We really appreciate the kind mention here.
I like the point about how bloggers will get traffic directly from the VCB dashboard. Very true but a benefit most people don’t ordinarily think about.
Also the fact that you wrote about us and now I am commenting here, perfectly illustrates your point about linking to or writing about other bloggers in your niche. Flattery will get you everywhere.
I also took the time to read this article in it’s entirely and there are lots of great nuggets of advice here! : -)
Hey Gerald,
Yup, I think it’s a very important fact that a lot of people miss. Not to mention the fact these people would also be webmasters in your niche that would probably like to link to you.
Hahah yes, flattery always seems to work.
Glad you liked the post, and thanks for commenting : )
I find Reddit is a great source of traffic for me. I also love the community. Good post!
Thanks Sean! I have always liked Reddit, and I am constantly on it in my free time. It is pretty good for driving traffic as well, but it falls too much under social media for this post.
Great list! I always recommend that clients promote their website in many ways other than SEO to have a well rounded online marketing approach.
Conducting interviews we have found is a great way to connect with other SEO/SEM experts to provide our blog readers with other points of view and valuable information…also the visitors that are generated from the promotion of the other experts is an added benefit as well!
Thanks Nick. More often than not, getting traffic from these methods will indirectly end up helping your SEO efforts.
Hey Mark,
Great pointers but no.2 Viral Content Buzz is about social media/sites.
anyway great share!
Akos
Community site like bloggers.com are a great way to drive traffic. You find people who appreciate your work and share with others also.
Very true.
So far the best traffic method I ever come across online, especially the tip number one. As a fact this is my first time of hearing about google alerts and I’d make use of this advantage fully. Thank you for sharing such an amazing post.
Glad you like the post so much.
Very insightful article. I am very impressed with viral buzz and bloggers.com. Being able to converse your content and post is very beneficial.
Hey Marco. Yup, Agreed.
I’ve used the interview strategy, and that does work quite well. I’ve started a new blog, and I’m still struggling to find my audience, so I plan on employing some of these strategies!
Hey Dave,
If you are just starting out the interview strategy is perfect, because it not only helps you get traffic but it also starts positioning you as an authority.
Such a nice list especially viralcontentbuzz i think it’s really useful, but it take some time in the queue to be accepted dont know why
Ok, I loved this post. I don’t know why, but I get frustrated trying to do all the social media stuff. And I’m not a fan of Twitter. I do realize this may be a huge detriment to growing traffic. So, I was so happy to read this post, and rewrote all the steps into my “TO DO” notebook. Seriously, thanks!
Hey Jennifer,
You’re not alone in getting frustrated by Twitter. A lot of people do. To be honest it’s really not that much of a detriment to growing traffic, because there are plenty of other ways that you can spend that time getting traffic (like the methods in this post
).
- Mark T.
I fond this information to be very informative. I really like the
Viral Content Buzz Community idea. I’m going to you this right
away.
Awesome Ron
The method you have described here is awesome. Also another great way is submit facebook pages on various fb page directory. Also this is important method to get traffic without seo!
Hey Dipankar. I’ve never tried that and I am going to have to give that a try.
A very wonderful post Mark,
Getting traffic to a blog is one of the most difficult things bloggers face. It’s not just about creating the but, but getting people to visit it.
I’ve heard and used many of the methods you mentioned here and I must tell you that they works when done well. I registered with bloggers.com some months ago but forgot it, thanks for reminding me of the community again.
I haven’t heard of Haro before, but I will check the site out.
It’s about finding out what works for you because what works for others might not work for you and vice-versa.
Thanks for sharing such an awesome post Mark.
BTW: Thanks for your visit to my blog, really appreciate.
Hey Theodore,
Glad to see you here.
Yup, a lot of bloggers seem to think that its all about writing great content. while that plays an important role, all the great content (or product for a business) means absolutely nothing if they can’t raise traffic.
Haro is pretty awesome. Its one of the best ways to connect with other bloggers.
Glad you liked the post Theodore.
No problem, always happy to visit awesome blogs
- Mark T.
Hey Mark. Thanks a lot for sharing about the Email Signature thingy
I was a bit confused about it when it comes to Gmail.
Hey Amal,
haha no problem. Yea process can be a bit confusing.
Not bad, Mark; not bad at all – great USABLE traffic tips here.
Thanks for coming by TGC!
Hey Ana,
Honored to have you here.
Yup, that’s what I’m always going for, usable and immediately actionable tips. No point in writing something if others can’t benefit from using it.
Always happy to drop by TGC. Plenty of usable tips there too
- Mark T.
Hello Mark,
Great in-depth article! I don’t know Viral Content Buzz and will give it a whirl.
Hey Cendrine,
Great to see you here. Yup viral content buzz is great and you know its reliable because its founded by Ann Smarty and Gerald Weber.
- Mark T.
A very insightful post how to drive traffic. I love the idea of Viral Content Buzz because I think it’s very useful. And, I think also that this is so appealing to online business owners and entrepreneurs because you can share other people content and let other also to share your content. I hope to use all this killer ways to get more traffic without using SEO and social media.
Thanks Oliver, VCB is pretty great. It not only helps you directly drive traffic but also helps you out indirectly with SEO.
Hope it works out for you
Hi Mark,
Great article. 1,4 & 7 are my favorite which I follow already. Will try others since you insist. Thanks for the good read my friend!
Hey Karthik. Let me know how that goes
Very good traffic tips indeed. I like the HARO idea, will sign up and see how that one goes.
Hey Shalu. HARO is great. Give it a try, I’m sure it’ll help you out.
Your comment linking strategy really works because I ended up here by your comment in social triggers
. You have a nice site too, must keep reading.
Hahah great to see its working.
Thanks Juhlien, happy to see you like the site.
This is a marvelous piece. I am certainly going to check out the Google Alert.
Thanks.
Hey Emmanuel, Google Alert is great, but I suggest checking out some of its alternatives as well, because I have a feeling that they are going to shut down Google Alerts sometime soon.
Thanks a tonne friend…. Really great tips you have provided..
Your welcome Hiren, glad you liked the post.
Traffic generation is easily one of the most important things on every internet marketer’s things to do list. Generating traffic, and targeted traffic at that, can easily be one of the hardest things to do, yet is one of the most essential things to do.
The techniques you have listed here are really interesting and some of them were new to me. thanks for the info, great article ( and very easy to read and follow ).
Hey Chris,
Absolutely true. Getting traffic is what most bloggers underestimate when they are just starting out, yet it is essential.
Thanks Chris. Glad you liked the post
- Mark T.
I think your tips are excellent, many of them I have not come across before. It’s really refreshing to find great new ideas like these. Many thanks.
I have had success using Yahoo pipes to get website traffic. In fact for one of my websites it became my number 1 referrer within about a month which amazed me. It was the easiest and fastest traffic result I have ever had! The interesting thing is, it is still at number 1 many months later.
For one of my other websites it ranked high for a while but then dropped a little.
What I did was, I made several pipes for different keywords, and used the feed from my blog along with other relevant blogs that I liked.
Hopefully that may help others! Jo
Hey Jo,
Thanks Jo. I’m glad I could teach you something new.
I don’t have too much experience with Yahoo pipes. Looks like I’m going to have to give that a shot.
- Mark T.
I came to read your article a little late, I found it in another article I read. I really like what tips you give us. Some of the tips from this article are new to me, I must implement them imediatly. Thanks for the great read.
Hey Sita,
No prob. The great thing about evergreen content is that it’s never too late to put it to use.
Glad you liked the post.
- Mark T.
Really this is good advice for me. I’ll apply that. Thanks for valuable information.
No Prob Benella. Happy to help.
hey Mark
first time I’m on your site…
that’s an interesting and intriguing post. I mean, who wouldn’t want to learn how to get traffic without SEO, and without Social media!
You got me clicking, and commenting! Two rabbits hit with a single stone. LOL
I’ve tried most of your proven tips before, my favorite is premium blog commenting (I wrote a few guest posts on it already).
I also use interviews in my content marketing… I usually feature them as “guest posts” on other people’s sites… and they’re win-win-win!
Did you guys think to interview someone and feature him or her answers in a guest post?
What do you think are the pros to this method? What about the cons (if any)?
Best!
I think that blogging without SEO, it will not be that challenging for me, also you can learn allot of stuffs in your way up. Also a good SEO optimization will bring you visitors and money!!
Now, this is what I called a pot of massive knowledge and EXTREMELY helpful content for marketers. out of your 8 points I have learned 5 new ways to get more visitors to my websites which really cool. Having these new ways of marketing I will be able beat my competitors. AWeSOME AWESOME awesome post man. keep up the good work.
This is a nicely written article. I don’t think we should all depend on Google as a source of traffic.
this is one of the best posts I’ve read on your site. I’ve been testing a lot of non Google traffic generating strategies and i gotta say this idea sounds exciting. Thanks for sharing dude!!
Thank you for the post. I have heard bloggers.com and ViralContentBuzz from this topic and they are both helpful. I’d also like to add HubPages adn Triberr. Thanks again.
Very good post. have been using Google alerts lately, and did not think about targeted my actual post and not home page. Thanks for the tip
This is a good post.
I believe that N-5. work best.
“5. Use The Intro Method To Get Massive Forum Traffic”
Thanks for this Info.
Guy