Website Traffic Tips from Overstock.com founder
This past weekend on StartupNation Radio we were joined by guest host, Patrick Byrne, founder and CEO of Overstock.com.
The theme of the show was all about creating a web presence that takes your business to new heights. Patrick should know… his company is on a course to do a billion dollars in revenue this year!
During the show, the questions from callers were excellent. Hats off to our audience for making the show so interesting and informative!
Here’s one of the great takeaways from Patrick during the show: To generate awareness and traffic for your site, he advocates the concept of "narrowcasting" rather than "broadcasting" your marketing message online.
Rather than focus your efforts on advertising your message to a lot of people and expecting to get 1% to respond, figure out ways to focus your energy only on that 1%.
One of the ways he recommended doing this is to have links to your site set up on other sites that clearly cater to your target customer.
For example, let’s say you own a business where you teach people how to knit. If you know of someone who’s got a site that sells knitting products, that’s a natural place for you to have a link to your website.
This is called "affiliate marketing," and can be an extremely powerful method to grow the traffic to your site.
Anyone have additional comments/ideas???
July 21st, 2005 at 9:19 am
Additionally, you want to be sure that you not only get your site listed on other relevant sites, but also that you list the sites that list you.
This is called reciprocal marketing and you’d be surprised how many companies forget the reciprocal portion of the arrangement.
Following this guideline will help your business by improving its relevance among the major Search Engines. The Search algorithms look for sites that are linked from many other sites by assuming that these are the most usefull because they are being cross-promoted. Reciprocation is great!
July 26th, 2005 at 1:39 pm
I agree and have started a link program called [link=http://tcattorney.typepad.com/linkbacks/' target='']Lawyer Link[/link] among non-competing attorneys designed around reciprocal links. I will let you know how it goes.
Enrico Schaefer
[link=http://www.traverselegal.com' target='']Traverse Legal, PLC[/link]
July 27th, 2005 at 8:03 am
How do I link & recipricate to my website which is http://www.picturelaw.com ? I provide evidence photographs & video to trial lawyers, and accident attorneys.
Jerry Martin
August 9th, 2005 at 5:52 pm
Check out this lawyer link program, [link=http://tcattorney.typepad.com/linkbacks/' target='']http://tcattorney.typepad.com/linkbacks/[/link]. Mission: to create a network of non-competing law firms exchanging links to boost search engine ratings.
December 6th, 2005 at 12:18 am
I agree on the niche concept. It is very effective! I’m already doing that and compete with so many larger sites but i am always looking for new and additional avenues to reach recent college graduates via online. It seems that overture is a waste and by advertising on monster, i have a fixed rate and know what i am getting. I spend valuable money posting on monster and hotjobs and a few others. Any suggestions to reach this narrow niche of young People 18-24 years old? Thanks for your suggestions!
February 17th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
Elizabeth, consider advertising on the social network sites that this age group (18-24) use or continue to use. Some suggestions would include [link=http://www.facebook.com/'' target=''_blank'']http://www.facebook.com/[/link] and [link=http://www.myspace.com/'' target=''_blank'']http://www.myspace.com/[/link].
Consider a Google search for other social network sites. This may be one way of reaching the population you want. Also consider partnering with college institutions to promote what you have to offer. If it is related with any department, even the career department, go for it! See if they would be willing to refer students to you. The free referrals may be well worth your time and effort. Summed up, if you can market for free, go for it!
March 3rd, 2006 at 5:41 pm
My website is basically a virtual mall…how do I narrow in on a specific niche. should I just target womans apparel, for instance? How do I get my website known?
March 11th, 2006 at 11:00 am
I use an [link=http://www.mylinksmaster.com' target='']automatic link exchange[/link] program to save time. It gets your link on thousands of sites and you can pick and choose which type of sites or which niches you want your link posted on. Works particularly well for MSN search engine.
March 11th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
"Narrow-casting" has been the mainstay of direct mail marketing for many years….back in the day it was known as clustering or crm or block by block or zip code targetting…interesting how the great marketing concepts stay relevant year after year.
I have also linked and been linked ot relevant sites…and one way to do this is to become an active member or participant in some high-profile blogs…last week I participated on modern[i]poooch[/i].com and pet-pet.com…both have linked The Pet Set to theirs and have featured products.
The reciprocation aspect of this is very important…I have added sites to mine that fit with my brand and business model.
March 15th, 2013 at 10:07 am
Christian Louboutin…
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