3 Tips For Grabbing (and keeping) Those Visitors!
 by: Justin Kilcher

It is not always easy to get word out about a your new website or blog as I have been finding out recently. Sure anyone can spam their links on every messageboard, link directory, blog directory, and e-mail lists but you will be hardpressed to get the quality visitors you are looking for, especially if your working in a tight niche. This problem also runs deeper when it comes to keeping return visitors coming back to your site. How do you ensure they will read beyond the title? How you do make sure they dont instantly click the first link they see to avoid your horrific website? I have devised a small list of guidelines that I try to follow in my pursuit of marketing my websites. Most of these are nothing new but are often not common knowledge to everyone.

(1) Good Content

This is the absolute nail in the coffin when it comes to attracting visitors to your site and to keep them returning. People are willing to put up with a somewhat poorly designed site if your content makes up for it. You want to try to capture your readers attention and have them fiending for more when they are done reading. Unless your are running a strictly informational website, leaving something to be desired at the end of your article, blog, whatever, can also have a positive effect if done correctly. Having your visitors stop, reflect, and come to their own conclusions is great in that it keeps your visitors engaged even after they are done reading your page! Most of my favorite blogs incorporate this at one time or another and it keeps me coming back day after day to see what they will engage me with next.

(2) Switch Up The Layout

This is often a very overlooked step in my opinion. I dont know how many websites I visit everyday that have had the same boring layout, images, and color scheme since they day they went live. It doesnt always draw me away from the website but it also doesnt keep me as excited and engaged as it could. A solution I have incorporated is making several CSS files for 1 website. Making only subtle changes to the color scheme, secondary text and images, and ads, provides your visitors with a fresh experience breaking the monotony that most websites ooze. You dont want to make changes to areas of navigation, content, or logins because that will confuse most people and they will leave your site. Im working on a cycle of interchanging my CSS files every 1-2 weeks and it seems to be working out for the best so far.

(3) Networking With Peers

This is probably the most obvious tip out there. Nothing will help you spread the word faster than by exchanging backlinks with others in your niche. This is a very simple and appreciated practice with bloggers but sometimes poses a more difficult endeavor with regular websites. If you find a willing participant, offer to exchange links or write guest articles for each others websites. Dont forget to submit those articles to your favorite article banks as well.

This is by no means a comprehensive approach to building a new and sustainable visitor base but rather a few ideas Ive been playing with and have seemed to work out well. I wish you the same luck!

About The Author

Justin Kilcher

I am a 22 year old Web Designer and blogger at http://www.missingpilot.com.