How to Attract Real, Live Visitors to Your New Website
By Sid Smith

I clearly remember the first several weeks after making my new website "live."

I was writing two, sometimes three articles a day. I hunted down other writers and encouraged them to send me articles to post on my site. I even found a couple of writers through Craig's List and paid them to write for me.

Every morning, I'd check the stats to see how many visitors I got, where my primary keywords ranked in the search engines, and whether or not people were commenting on the articles.

The silence was killing me.

But, then …

It took a couple of months, but slowly the number of visitors started increasing. My site ranking went from nowhere to page 8, then page 7, then page 6.

Within nine months of launching the site, I was getting almost a thousand visitors a day and had five keyword phrases on the first page of Google.

Can You Do the Same?

Creating a new website and waiting for visitors is a lot like having a party which nobody attends. It's a miserable, gut-wrenching experience. And, unlike the party, you get to experience the loneliness and isolation every day for weeks on end.

I tell you this, not to make you give up and go away, but rather to encourage you to keep at it, even in the face of what may, at first, appear to be a waste of time.

Every new website goes through a period of "failure," where you have few, if any visitors, and there's an ungodly lack of noise. That's natural. In fact, I'm experiencing it once again as I re-launch my new business and personal websites. It's not fun.

However, what differentiates the successful websites from the dust-gatherers is the simple act of perseverance. The successful website owners keep going.

They keep adding fresh content, and they keep spreading the word about their fresh content.

The Secret of Website Promotion

The "secret" of website promotion isn't really a secret. Internet marketers, SEO experts, and online marketers have known about it for years.

The Internet is basically a vast repository of information. Imagine going to a beach and carefully placing your special seashell in the sand. Your seashell has a note that explains who you are and how you can help others.

Now, imagine that this same beach has thousands of nearly identical seashells with nearly identical messages. What are the odds that yours will be found by any appreciable number of people?

But, what if you spread hundreds, or even thousands of shells on the same stretch of sand, each shell having your clearly-distinguishable mark? Your odds of success would go up exponentially.

The secret of website promotion, as I hope is obvious to you now, is what I call "Content and Content Syndication." Let me explain.

What Do I Mean By Content?

You have a certain amount of knowledge and experience. You also have your own unique set of skills. "Content" online is nothing more than what you're reading right now. It's an article, a video, a podcast (audio), a PowerPoint slide show, or a set of photographs you've taken.

The more content you have "out there" — both on your own website and spread across the Internet landscape — the easier it will be for people (and the search engines) to find you. It's also one of the key factors in getting a high search-engine ranking.

Like I said, it takes a level of perseverance and time, but having valuable content is the key factor that separates "seen" websites from "invisible" websites. This is particularly true in the service industry, which includes freelance writers, graphic artists, and consultants.

Content Syndication Speeds Up the Process

Once you've created the content, then what?

You "Syndicate" the content … to other websites, to "directories," to social networking sites, and more. That is, you distribute your content to a wide variety of sources online, which will increase your exposure by orders of magnitude.

This is really all I did when I built my first site from nothing to a thousand visitors a day. I created content, and I syndicated that content. In fact, that's all I did, and I achieved fantastic results.

I've done the same thing for my clients, often with magical results. With one recent client, this simple process of content creation and syndication drove their site from un-indexed to #2 on Google for one of their keyword phrases — in less than two months.

I can't guarantee you'll see the same results. The above-mentioned client is in an industry that is notoriously technically illiterate, so it wasn't hard to beat out their competition. In a more competitive market like web copywriting, getting this kind of search-engine ranking likely won't happen quickly, but there's still tremendous value in persevering.

You will get seen and noticed, if not by the search engines, then quite possibly by a prospective client who likes what you have to say. They'll trust an article you wrote or a video you created far more than anything you might say in a brochure or on your website. That's the nature of the Internet.

Why This Process Will Work For You

For every 100 people who learn about content creation and syndication, only one will follow through. It takes time, energy, and a great deal of patience. It also takes a bit of trust in yourself that what you create is of value, even if only one in a thousand articles you write is a game-changer.

The process works, and it works extremely well for those who are willing to persevere.

If you're willing to give it a shot, and you'd like to learn more about this idea of content creation and syndication, then be sure to listen to my Wealthy Web Writer webinar I did last week.

In the webinar, I explain how to go about creating your content, "spinning" it into multiple variations, and different media formats. Then, I go through what I believe are the best — and easiest — ways for a freelancer to syndicate your content, getting both "Google points" and the attention of your target audience.

Do you want to know the fastest and most reliable path to getting people to visit your website? Check out that webinar!

This article, How to Attract Real, Live Visitors to Your New Website, was originally published by Wealthy Web Writer.