How to drive traffic to my niche websites?

Can anyone help me think of innovative ways to drive traffic to niche websites?

I have 2 sites that I am trying to drive traffic to. Let’s just say traffic/clicks are slow at the moment. One is a retirement information resource called http://afteriretire.com, the other is a dorm room shopping site, http://ballerdorm.com.

Your suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks!!

Answer
I’ve taken a look at your retirement site. From what I can tell, there are only 3 pages. If you really want to get a significant amount of traffic, you need to add a lot more content – about 50 pages or so.

I know that sounds daunting, but you will only really draw traffic if the search engines see you as a legit information site that really helps people. You can start out with the three pages you have and then make more pages branching off of each one.

For instance, in the Income page, do another page linking from each step that goes into more detail about that step, etc.

As you flesh out your sites, you can then submit them to free or paid directories which will also increase your ranking in the search engines. Too, you can get link exchanges with other related sites, perhaps from retirement community sites, etc.

This is just a few ideas. For more detailed helpful info., check out the free ebooks available in my profile. They were a help to me when I was getting started. You may benefit from reading them as well.

All the best.

Niche site for Google Adsense or not?

I have a blog on how to save money. It’s a small niche topic so it’s hard to post quality content regularly, but targeted enough for Google Adsense. I thought about creating a self help and personal development site like Steve Pavlina. I would never run out of excellent content to print, but I’m afraid my Google Adsense ads would be very irrelevant because of so many sub-topics. What to do?

Answer
If you go to the Adsense questions and answers in Google, you will find a lot of information and resources on how to deal with this.
One suggestion is ‘section targeting’ where you can specify which part of your website you want Google to target in selecting ads. Here is the link:

https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=23168

Regards, Zyfert

http://webhosting.cybersprout.com

Would you like to join niche bbw dating site?

I am a BBW. Over the years, I’ve tried lots of personals sites with limited results. I always wondered if the responses to my ads were few and far between due to my size. At the end of Aug 2006, my friend gave me a link to go on, it was http://www.pluscupid.com . So I joined it. After a few weeks I started chatting to Frank. At this moment we’re looking to buy a house. We’re expecting our first child together. If you are a bbw and feel hard to find a partner, would you like to join this niche bbw site?

Answer
God, I’m out of touch – just what does BBW stand for?

Congratulations to you and Frank, that is a great story!

How do I find info about the number of hits a web site gets each day?

I’m interested in looking at how many unique visitors Site A vs. Site B gets. Most of the sights I will want to look at are not the big names, but smaller, more niche associated…(Offroad enthusiast). I remember seeing a site a few years ago that had this type of information (I believe they even had categories that listed the top sites in that category) but can’t seem to find it throught searching now.
OK – Let me clarify a little. I don’t need the counter / stats for my web site. What I woul dlike to do is get the stats for different offroad web sites without having to ask / wade through each site.

Answer
the closest thing is alexa.com but for smaller sites the results are too extrapolated.

siteadvisor has some kind of stats also.

what type of hosting through go daddy do i need to run a rss feed niche site? ?

Answer
Yes, you can do that on their hosting plans. Check the details:

http://www.hosttell.com/godaddy/

I recommend either Godaddy Economy or the Deluxe plan.

Broad authority website or niche specific, which is best?

There are 2 schools of thought on the best approach to choosing a domain name and building a website. They are (1) build an umbrella site that is broad and authoritative, based on one higher demand keyword or (2) build a niche site that is of course, specific to one or two keywords, with far less demand.

Which of these do you think is best, in relation to seo and making money? Please give reasons for your answer.

Answer
There are a number of pros and cons

BUILD AN UMBRELLA SITE

Pros:
- can grow to become an authority site, which means great search engine rankings for a wide variety of keywords
- can be a one-stop destination of target audience where everything they need is on one site
- if you lose some keywords, the site still has hundreds of other keywords
- huge traffic potential
- faster to get links as other sites are more likely to link to this big site

Cons:
- requires more resources to create, develop, and grow
- when you get hit with a search engine penalty, your entire business falls
- it’s like putting all eggs in one basket

NICHE SITE

Pros:
- easier to create, develop as it has a smaller scope
- allows you to dominate a segment, especially if the field is hard to crack with lots of authority sites

Cons:
- limited traffic
- hard to grow and get traffic
- to earn more, you need to have more of these smaller sites

For years, we’ve followed the broad authority website approach, and it works great for our business model (advertising). It is easier to attract advertisers to the site, and even using third party ad programs such as Adsense yields extremely good results because it is harder to be smartpriced, it has more diverse keywords, and traffic is better.

BUT — we got hit by a Google penalty 3 year ago, and lost 80% of Google traffic. That hurt big time, so we are adding other smaller niche sites to at least provide some backups for the main site.

What directories can I submit my site to for free?

I have a site with a very specialized niche and circumstances and would like to know which decent directories I can submit it to that will fit the point of the site as well as mesh with directory regulations.

The site is:

1. A subscription based community.

2. Focused on alternative modeling and photography (Goth, Punk, Emo) with tattoos and piercings and other body modifications.

3. Involves some artistic nudity so is for 18 years (or the age of majority) and up.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Answer
You can easily search and build a list of top ranking Free Classifieds Directory in the search engines with the right, targeted, strategic keywords such as:-
Free Classifieds Directory
Biggest Classifieds
Best Online Classifieds
Best Classifieds
Community Classifieds
Free Ads Uk
Free Ads Tv
Free Online Ads
Free Advertising Sites
Free Classified Sites
Free Classified Websites
Post Free Ads

Here is a list for you to add to your advertising portfolio.
These are the directories where you can submit your site for free (absolutely no charge, no reciprocal link conditions, whatsoever).

Is there are niche site that focus on men’s shopping?

I am looking for good deals on Men’s clothing

Answer
Express has great inexpensive clothing!

http://www.express.com/catalog/section.jsp?categoryId=1

What’s the best niche for a site?

I’m a bit short of good ideas, can someone give me some ideas please?
What are the subjects that people like the most?

Answer
The best ‘niche’ to choose is something that you love, since you are going to be writing a lot about it! It’s not a good idea to ever copy content – so make sure you are able to come up with a whole load of ideas for articles or blog posts to write about.

What is your favourite hobby or activity? What are your favourite gadgets or toys? What do you do every day in your life? It’s a good idea to choose something you are familiar with and also good if you are already in the habit of doing it regularly.

Once you have a short list of ideas, go to the Google Keyword Tool External and search for all the keywords you can think of in association with your subject – look carefully at the number of monthly searches for your chosen subject and the amount of competition. If you can find something that has low competition and many searches each month, you are on to a winner.

Don’t forget, all website projects take time to grow and mature to success, it is VERY important for you to choose something you are passionate about, because you will need to work hard on it to make it a success.

Good Luck. x

Catherine