11 Devious Traffic and Page View Building Ideas

Well, this is as “devious” as a Sage can get.  My ideas are not sinister –they are just steps that I’ve taken at each “fork in the road” to maximize the time that a visitor will spend at Rich Sage dot com looking at many, many pages.  These ideas are not in theory, but they are working ideas that I’ve put to use and are running now.  Just this month I’ve got a 50% jump in my visitor count, and that is no accident.

My only shortcoming with these steps is that I have not added much image/video based content, which I hope to do in the coming months and years.  In the image category, I want to add a gallery with people I meet and “guys” and “gals” who dawn a Rich Sage t-shirt and sent me a picture.

My 11 ITEMS are Continued Here…

So, there is much work to do on that part, but the process is off to a great start building traffic and much of that success is due to the below steps I’ve taken.

1. Continued Link: Each post is truncated about 20% into it, and a “Continue…” link needs to be pressed to read the complete post.  I see a lot of sites that put the complete post on the first page.  Often the reader will not go beyond that first page.  In my case, the most important details are on the complete part of the post, and to read that the ‘continue…’ link has to be pressed, resulting in another page view.
2. To Be Continued or Part ONE of TWO: Long posts take time, and often don’t get completed.  I’ve resorted to posting them in PART ONE, PART TWO, Etc. type format.  It’s a great idea to have long, resource full posts, but those take time, resulting in a lot of incomplete posts.  I’ve got about 40 posts on queue at any given time, and I find that long one never get done.  I have started to “break them apart” into many parts and posting part-by-part, which is much easier to complete.
3. See My Directory: Often I collect groups of posts and make a directory.  Once a visitor goes to the directory, they tend to click more and more links since they are at a subject that interests them in the first place.  One good example is my “$123 dollars per day with AdSense” Directory page, where my links to a series of posts about AdSense are getting more and more views from searches. I’ve embraced this idea so much so that I’ve got around 10 other directory type posts lined up  –well, some like the TOP 100 posts which is reached from the main menu is already live.
4. Target=NEW: This causes a new page to open. Obviously, the old page with the visitor at the site is left open.  How long the original page stays open is anyones guess.  I am running Google Analytics and all this data is recorded.  Each step means more time used by the reader resulting in better stats.
5. Linking to Most Popular Posts: It’s a given that what is popular now, will remain popular for a bit more.  With that idea in mind, I link more and more to popular posts. More traffic. More bookmarks. More return visits.  My post like the “11-Step, Make Money Online Start Up Plan” I am posting in many Web2.0 locations (a summary) and linking back to the original post for more information.  It is certainly getting much more exposure, and works like an introduction to my philosophy.
6. Free Ad Forum: This is a community I’ve created to help fellow online marketers, and it’s getting more and more popular.  Just help people and the visitors tend to come back often.  Just last week I’ve added AdSense, but that is just to add content.  I don’t see it as a big money maker.  I do expect to see a lot of people there who are running their own business, and I think many of them will click on to my page about the “Underground” and sign up.  I need all the people I can get to read it.
7. Community Area: This is just a brand new idea, but, I’ve taken a passion of mine and created an area for everyone to discuss everything about it. My ‘Sustainable Living’ Area –Utopia Community, will greatly aide the discussion and return visitors.  I’ve just gotten started.  Not many posts at all.  However, today I got a great idea to find new posts and get the forum rolling.  I am going to start a few contest to award the prizes to posts that have the most responses.  This will get that community rolling.
8. Membership Area Ad Page: I’ve got a few membership areas running.  The membership program that manages it is on the main domain.  AND it forces me to keep the membership areas at the same domain.  That means every time a member wants to log on, they need to visit the site.  Traffic, traffic, traffic!  For example, the “Underground” has it’s login on the front page of RichSage dot com.  So do the main links to all the forums that I am running on the site.  All this means that the main site is like a “gateway” to the rest of the areas.  However, only the main sites’ traffic counts.  And that is going thru the roof!
9. Great Posts to Web 2.0 Sites: The posts that are helpful to others, I post to Digg, Sphinn and Reddit.  About once a month or so I post to many of the 47 Web 2.0 site.  You can get a list of them here: http://www.socialmarker.com/ (Social Marker.com). I only do this step about once a month with a great post.  The process does take some time. I cannot do it daily.  My next step is to take some of my better articles and do the same  — post it to all 47 sites and get some great exposure.
10. Brand, Brand, Brand: Everything that I do online, IM wise, is done as the Rich Sage.  More and more people identify with the wise and lovable guy  — well, I live as such, so this is not too hard to do. [:D]  I have noted that the times that RichSage and Rich Sage are seearched keep going up and up.  I have no doubt that when my brand is on t-shirts to coffee mugs, it will keep getting searched more and more.
11. Tell the Truth: Often I’ve read about tricks and short cuts to get things done faster.  I’ve resisted these temptation and resorted to doing things the old fashioned way:  To work and earn it.  That process I think works well, especially in the long run.  And I believe it is lasting.  I do as I say.  This may seem very old fashioned at a time when people online are doing all kinds of crazy attention getting rituals.  But, for me, the consistant and steady approach to success if fine.  I stick to it.

The results of my efforts are that this month I see a 50% improvement in traffic compared with the last highest month, which was May:08.  I think this is very significant because this is a bit slower during the summer time.  So, I am looking for even greater progress in the fall and winter.

By-the-way, I am thinking ahead on this:  Soon I’ll have a GALLERY running with pictures of RichSage Divas and RichSage Prodigy fans.  These are pictures of people who wear my t-shirts and upload a picture.  I am sure that area will showcase a lot of pictures that will keep people glued to their screen.

Carpe Diem,
Rich Sage