Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Traffic Makes The Web Go Round!

It also keeps your websites, marketing schemes, or affiliate programs from  crashing and burning to the ground! This lens showcases the in`s and out`s of learning how to increase your website traffic!

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Martin Garcia
PinpointPages.com
local websites

Could you put something in about "bandwidth?" That seems to be a tech term people throw around that non-tech people don`t understand. Doesn`t it have something to do with when a server crashes because too many people want to visit that site at the same time?

CraigL,

You`re right on.  Everyone knows that when you open too many programs on your home computer, it gets slow (sometimes VERY slow).  It`s because you`re using all the memory.  It`s similar with a website.  Somewhere there is a server computer that contains your website.  Every time someone visits your site, they`re actually visiting that computer. 

Most web server computers have enough power to support the average website, but if your website starts to get REALLY popular, your visitors will either experience slow-loading pages, or they could even get an error.  At that point, it is time to increase the bandwidth of your hosting.  This basically means you`re paying a little extra to have your host allot more of the server`s power to your website.  Does that make sense?



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Ryan J StarPointe Marketing Website Development, Hosting & Marketing Consulting

Ryan, makes sense to me. I thought it was something like that, so it came to mind on a Web traffic tutorial. SuN has some very cool basic education threads put up by folks who know about each topic. This one looks good. :-)

Yes that is very true about web traffic. Since this topic is about building web traffic I thought I`d add something. Writing articles is key, if you want to gain traffic and one way links for your site. The main thing many authors miss is submitting your articles to article directories is not enough. You must submit your articles to other webmasters for the full effect to take place.

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To learn how to build a successful online home based business visit http://www.zipbz.com.

Um, bandwidth is technically a different measurable/manageable performance element than the resources that are available/consumed on the actual computing device(s).  Your server (and other devices, like online storage, tape systems, etc.) consumes limited, local resources like memory, diskspace and CPU cycles - these can be tuned, managed and upgraded. Bandwidth is essentially how big (and effective) the "pipe" is, through which your data has to travel to enter and leave your server.  The "pipe" (from your customer to your application) is actually a whole network of big and little pipes, network devices, other servers, etc....that all add up to a level of data throughput and quality commonly referred to as "bandwidth" (this isn`t exactly, technically accurate, but close enough).  "Bandwidth" can obviously be tuned and managed by those who own it - though there may be many players involved. The ones closest to the typical bottlenecks in the bandwidth equation, are at the end of the pipe, so to speak - i.e. your server host, or your customer.

So, your site may slow because of "bandwidth" problems, or "Server" problems, or even because of your badly-coded/configured software on the Server (though the result is server problems). Your site design should definitely take into account the bandwidth and server resources available, how quickly they can be upgraded, and what kind of resource demand you expect from your users (i.e. how many, how frequently, how much they download, how many more next month, etc.).

It has been my experience that most site which are slow are poorly constructed and/or designed. Here are some examples of potential performance issues:
* Over done or inappropriate use of flash
* poorly written javascript
* overdone and/or non-optimized imagery
* invalid html/css
* websites created in frontpage or any other wysiwyg

Generally this is the cause of most sub par site performance. If your site suffers from not enough bandwidth....those are the best type of problems to have. Generally it can be fixed by moving to a dedicated server. Most hosts park many websites on a single server to keep costs down.

Regards,
Howard

Regards,
Howard


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ourmonmouth.com Full-Service Internet Solution Provider and Business/Community directory of Monmouth County New Jersey.

Let`s also remember hhyyooooooge graphics used as page backgrounds! :-) Talk about slow!

Hi all,
This topic is so confusing to me at this point (meaning, I know that I am near clarity and I`m really glad!).

I read all over the place about writing articles, writing articles, writing articles. Well, what if one is just not a writer? Take me for instance, what in the world do I have to write about that would be of interest to anyone? I know how to make dance skirts, but I really don`t like the idea of giving away the secret of what I do so others can duplicate it and be direct competition for me. Is that a lousy way of looking at it? Maybe I`m missing something.

Then there`s the subject of writing about topics related to my product. Ok, so dancewear is related to my product, dance, gift giving maybe. I wouldn`t even know where to begin writing. Isn`t article writing for writers? I`m a designer, that`s pretty much all I know and it`s just a talent that I have for basically coming up with ideas of putting styles and fabrics together.

So, there it is. My state of confusion. What do I write about in order to drive traffic to my website, which by the way, is www.katchykids.com. I did write the "About Us" page and the "Welcome" page and I`m very proud of myself. I must say it took me hours of writing and re-writing it though.

The next question I have is, when I finally do get a clear picture of what to write about, then I actually write it, then what? What is a webmaster and which one/ones do I send my article to?

I started a Squidoo lens, have a topic, but don`t have a clue what to write about...yet. I know that I will. I know that I will figure out how to drive traffic to my website and that miraculous day will arrive when my first dance skirt gets ordered. I just know it.

Thanks and can`t wait to hear from all.
Joy


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Designer/Owner, Katchy Kids Dancewear I make every skirt with love! www.katchykids.com

Nothing in particular is THE answer to driving Web traffic. Some of the things that work well include writing articles, but they`re not absolutely necessary. If you`re not a writer, don`t know one, and can`t hire one, then don`t worry about it. :-)

Doing certain things helps increase traffic. It doesn`t "cause" that traffic. More often than not, a good product, fair prices, and excellent customer service go just as far in driving word of mouth and traffic to the site.