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Get More Hits
So you have a website and it has a layout and you have content. Now what? The visitors, of course! Visitors are the most vital part of your website (after content) because without them, your site would die. Whether you're looking for your first visitors ever or just a few ways to get more hits, here are several things you can do.
AFFILIATES
Affiliates are a great way to pull in some extra traffic. However, be choosy because you don't want to link to a bunch of sites that get no hits. Then they're taking your hits. That's a bad thing. On the opposite side, it would be slightly rude to apply to be a site's affiliate that gets thousands of visitors a day, and you only get ten. So affiliate with similar sites, and be sure to go to their sites often to make sure it isn't dead. Remember this as well: don't affiliate with 50 sites! Go for quality, not quantity, or it just comes off as pathetic.
TOPSITES
Topsites are really helpful in getting traffic, but they won't be if you aren't getting hits already. The closer you are on the list to being number one, the more hits you'll get from being listed. You shouldn't join topsites for the first couple weeks or so until you have at least ten or more visits a day (a visit is a unique person, a hit is a refresh). Once you start pulling in traffic from other means, you can join a few topsites that have sites similar to yours, and start reaping the benefits.
PLUG BOARDS
Plug boards are those quilt-like boards of people's site buttons. You just add your button and it's instant advertising. The problem with these is you only get maybe five or so hits, depending a lot on what site the plug board is at, before your site comes off the board (your button goes off when enough people have plugged their site after you.)
GET REVIEWED
If you get your site reviewed by someone, not only will it help you improve your site, they usually link to all the sites they've reviewed (and what their comments were, of course).
PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOUR VISITORS LIKE
If the people at your site keep emailing you to say,"Wow! I love your blinkies!" then make more blinkies. Although you should still keep making more of the other content you have, make a LOT of the stuff people really like. Chances are, they'll come back daily if you keep adding more of their favorite graphic. And once you've been making blinkies non-stop for months, you'll be really good and then EVERYONE will come to you for high-quality blinkies.
TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT YOUR SITE
This is one of the best methods because if you have a lot of friends, that's a lot of visitors, but also because then your friends will tell their friends because they came to your site from you and not just randomly surfing the net.
ADVERTISE ON FORUMS
I'm not saying you should start 20 threads advertising your site- oh no, that's one of the worst things you can do. I'm saying you should join several forums about graphics and provide a link to your website in your signature. If you're an active poster, people will eventually click the link and find your site. Also, if it's a graphics forum there may be a Site Plugging board, so be sure to check.
BUTTON EXCHANGES
An exchange is like being affiliates with someone, but usually with less strict requirements. You have one page with a wall full of buttons that link to the people who are linking to your site. Because there are so many buttons, your link probably won't get all that much exposure.
ROTATIONS
A rotation is when you put a code on your site that randomly picks a site that has joined a particular rotation, and a link to the rotation site itself. The more popular a rotation is, the more sites it's on, but it also means there are less odds that your button will be displayed (since it's random).
BE ORIGINAL
Yes, it's an over-used cliche. But by being original or perhaps making something original (like some type of graphic) you will suddenly become the only site on the block with the hippest jazz. Of course, you'll probably get a lot of sites after you copying whatever you came up with, but visitors usually know the difference between the original originality and a cheap, poser version. The hardest part is coming up with something that hasn't been done and that people will want! :)
I hope these tips help you get more visitors, and remember that getting steady traffic takes a while!
