This is a guest post from Steven Snell, a web designer for Vandelay Website Design. On his blog he regularly writes new articles on web design, marketing, SEO, and blogging.
From time to time your website or blog will receive temporary waves of traffic. During these periods your visitors and page views will increase for a few days or so, but then return to normal levels. These traffic surges can be caused by any number of factors, including popularity on social media sites, press or news coverage, a link from a major website, and advertising.
Many times website owners find that these waves of traffic come and go, and they are left with little to show for it except for some elevated statistics. If you are prepared for waves of traffic you can increase your chances of turning a temporary increase into a permanent increase.
In order to benefit from a short-term spike in traffic you will need to know what you want to gain from your visitors. Do you want them to purchase a product, click on advertisements on your blog, subscribe, bookmark your pages, refer others, or give a link back to you?
Depending on your goals, there are some changes that you can make to your blog in preparation for increases in visitors. If you start to see traffic rising to your blog or to a particular post, be sure to maximize the effect of that traffic.
Below we will look at some of the different ways that you can make the most out of short term surges, and list some of the things you can do to make it happen.
Product/Service Sales:
- Replace any outside ads on your pages with ads for your own products and services.
- Include relevant information about your products and services in the body of your articles and pages.
- Offer a time-sensitive discount.
- Make it easy for visitors to find the appropriate pages (place links to selling pages in prominent places).
Gaining New Subscribers:
- Make your RSS link very visible.
- Use a standard RSS icon that will be recognized by readers.
- Add an email subscription option if you don’t already offer one.
- Include an invitation/request for subscribers at the top (or bottom) of your posts.
- Use a free giveaway to new subscribers.
- Show your current number of subscribers if the number is high.
Encouraging Repeat Visitors:
- Place links for “bookmark this page” or “add to del.icio.us” high on the page.
- Mention an upcoming article or post to increase anticipation.
- Respond to comments that are left.
Increasing Advertising Income:
- Place ads in a prominent location where visitors are likely to see and/or click.
- Use ads that are relevant to the particular page or post.
Don’t try to make improvements in all of these areas, or your website will become very cluttered and ineffective. Choose the areas that are most important to you and focus on preparing your pages and posts for those purposes. Anticipating and being prepared for temporary waves of traffic is crucial to converting the temporary surge into long-term gains.
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I agree on all the tips provided. I should probably list my RSS buttons higher on my page.
Great tips, although you placed the best one outside of the list:
“Don’t try to make improvements in all of these areas, or your website will become very cluttered and ineffective.”
That last tip is definitely the one which should be prioritized over all the others, and don’t be afraid to change and experiment sometimes on things you can track.
Like ad placement, rss placement, etcetera. See how it influences your profit and subscribers over time.
I think I will make my RSS button big like I seen on other websites, well maybe half the size atleast :c). And your right Slevi that it is probably the most important to make sure you don’t over due it and try to experiment with what works and what doesn’t.
Thanks for this Sarah, because my blog is new (and so am I) I could choose any one of these ideas and benefit I think.
I am experiencing a small surge via links through a meme, and I believe the elevated statistics is all I’ll have to show.
Still, I’m learning a little bit at a time.
Sarah,
Thanks for posting the article! It is really appreciated.
Slevi,
I think you also have a good point about not being afraid to try different things. How can you know what you’re doing is the best way if you haven’t tried others?
Menopauseprincess,
If you are new and getting a surge in traffic that’s a good thing. Just keep looking at your blog to see how you can make it more appealing to those new visitors. If you’re lucky some of them will become regular readers and then you’ll be on your way.
Steve,
Thanks for the encouragement. I will follow your advice, and try to patient along the way.
Great post Steven, i’ll be checking out your website more often now
Thanks Shaun.
Sarah,
It’s funny that you decided to post this article today, because I’m being tested on my own words. Before today the highest number of unique visitors I’ve had in 1 day was 3,000+. So far today I’m at 18,000, so we’ll see if I’m able to get some long-term benefits (hopefully subscribers).
Wow Steven, that is just amazing numbers and I’m glad I can help contribute to your highest total unique visitor day :c). Can’t wait till you make a report for it, you certainly seem to be good at getting new visitors and keeping them!
1 thing I’m unsure: Will Email Subscription work? I have yet to start offering email subs.
Felix,
Email subscriptions are a great thing to be able to offer to your readers. Not everyone will want to use RSS. FeedBurner has a free and easy email service that sends out 1 email per day (unless you have no new posts). I suggest giving it a try.
Felix, I currently have 5 subscribers through FeedBurner so some people do like to get updates through e-mail for sure.
Good tip overall.
@Felix — email subscription does work. About 8% of my subscribers are email based.
[...] Benefiting from Temporary Waves of Traffic at BlueJar. [...]
I dont have my own blog yet but I am learning as I read different opinions from blog owners. I would say that the most important thing when I go and post is a “notify of comment via email” as it keeps me in the look.
If the site is well optimised then the waves would be great.
I love your writing style.