We’ve all been there at least once. Some of us even more than once. Ah yes, the agony repeats itself and we are thinking, what are some ways to get traffic to a new website? But let’s find the strength and courage to proceed and have an open mind. With many different situations, it’s hard for me to know which exactly you are in, so I’ll go through several different tactics. Reading this post, think outside of the box, and try to apply all or at least some of these to your new website. Getting traffic to any website can be challenging, not to mention a brand new website with a brand new domain name. So, how do you get traffic to a new website, here are 12 real ways! What do I mean by real? I explain that in the end.

1. Mention the URL absolutely everywhere you can
2. Do guest posts
3. AdWords and other CPC platforms
4. Expired domain names
5. Sponsored articles
6. Give away free stuff or create a “buzz”
7. Get an influencer to promote you
8. Create content like crazy and share it on social media
9. Hold a webinar / seminar
10. Submit content to Reddit, HackerNews, Google News, etc
11. Email or IM as much people as you can, but don’t spam
12. Do it the “Mark Zuckerberg way.”

1. Mention the URL absolutely everywhere you can
[FREE]

There are so many options with this one, that it can be a separate post! I understand that there are more effective and less effective ways where you can mention your URL but let’s list some of them. With several listed below you need to invest a lot of time, but at least in most cases, it’s absolutely free. In this post, I don’t have the space to go deeper into the effectiveness of each “URL mention” you do or cost that’s involved, but what I can do is get the juices flowing. I can get you on the right track.

You can mention your URL in:

1. Email signature, forum signature, WordPress comments
2. Social media profiles
3. Promo materials (business cards, banners, stickers, fliers, presentation)
4. On your physical product
5. Tatoo it on your forehead (ok, maybe skip that one)
6. Everywhere you can

Get a .tattoo domain name, and tattoo it on your forehead. OK, maybe skip that one. #HowToGetTrafficClick To Tweet

2. Guest posts
[FREE]

This one might take more time because you have to do the outreach and create the content but it is well worth it if done right. With this tactic, you are actually doing SEO and getting backlinks but if the website is popular with traffic, some of that traffic might come to your website as well. Especially if the topic is relevant for those website visitors. There’s a ton of material and even tools that can help you with this, and it can become quite time-consuming. With new websites, we might not have that luxury, but at least 10 guest posts from solid blogs can make a nice impact if the right keywords are picked and the topic serves the niche we are targeting.

Not exactly a guest post, but another similar tactic is to go on platforms like Quora, StackOverflow or you can find a popular forum in your niche like Warrior Forum, WebHostingTalk and provide valuable content there! Within your content in some occasions, you can leave a trace back to your website.

3. AdWords and other CPC platforms
[PAID]

I know, I know…. I am not revealing anything new here, but I have to mention AdWords and other Cost-Per-Click platforms. Think about it, if you have a brand new website, you need to have at least some marketing budget! Besides search engine marketing on Google, Yahoo and Bing, there are sponsored programs on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You can also go with networks such as AdNow, MGiD, Media.net, Content.ad, and many other. In some of those, a $100 can go a long way. Besides, this also means instant traffic! Literally, in a matter of minutes, you can have traffic flowing to your website!

1. Search engine marketing (Google, Yahoo, Bing)
2. Social Media Advertising (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest)
3. Advertising on Networks (AdNow, MGiD, Media.net, Content.ad)

4. Expired domain names
[Nearly FREE]

Paying $8.03 for a domain name per year is hardly a paid tactic, but it’s also not free. With some experience, free tools (or paid ones) you should be able to find domain names that have some traffic (even targeted) and they expire. This is somewhat a shady tactic, but I wanted to throw it in just to throw you off and get you to think outside of the box.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you have a web hosting company website where you would like to send some traffic. Web hosting companies go bust often and they let their domain names expire. Imagine a newbie web hosting freelancer, starts a website, get’s initial traffic and then after a couple of years shuts down. You can get that domain name, and redirect the traffic. In other cases, a web hosting acquires a much smaller web hosting company, and after some time, if they don’t pay attention or have better things to do, they might leave that domain name to expire.

5. Sponsored articles
[PAID]

This one is sort of like “guest posts” but on steroids. I understand that many webmasters that are looking to build up traffic on a new website, might not have the budget because they are starting with a new project. But for those that do have a budget, this is your ticket! Find a website that has a ton of traffic with your target audience. Pay them to post a sponsored article! Your Domain Authority will shoot through the roof, and you will get traffic instantly! However, be prepared to pay anywhere from $500 to $5,000.

6. Give away free stuff or create a “buzz” [Some cost]

We have a new website, so we are giving away shirts! How cool is that? Maybe your product aren’t shirts, but surely you can think of something to create the buzz! This tactic can come in handy even if it is not a brand new site, but a redesign.

COMPETITION TIME

WIN A FREE T-SHIRT from our new website https://t.co/x234DRLliG

To ENTER: RETWEET & comment below your tee of choice

Good luck pic.twitter.com/7vvKb1fljN

— The MMA Bible (@TheMMABible) July 30, 2018

7. Get an influencer to promote you
[PAID & nearly FREE]

In this day an age, there are so many bloggers, Insta-celebrities, Youtubers that there are influencers in practically every niche! Find your influencer, and pay them to promote your website to their following. Sometimes money won’t be enough, they have to like your product as well. But, as with sponsored articles, it could be well worth it! Imagine Cristiano Ronaldo advertising your product on his Instagram account. Open your bank account, prices start at $500 depending on the influencer’s account. Some internet marketing experts and influencers also take affiliate commission so maybe you get in their good gracious. Example, if the influencer’s following isn’t so big, perhaps you can send them some free samples in return for a review or mention!

Influencer knows many ways to get traffic to a new website, hire one!Click To Tweet

8. Create content like crazy and share it on social media [FREE]

With this one, I think you are seeing a common thread. Either you have to work like a madman, or you will need to part ways with money. I totally understand that separating the wheat from the chaff is what is most important. But, this is a free post, and I am just trying to give you some ideas! You have to decide what is the right course of action. One thing is for sure, If you create a ton of content and share it, people will come. You can post on your blog, post videos on YouTube, share photos on Instagram, Pin images on Pinterest any content whatsoever, people will find you. There’s a ton of material on each of those, pick one and go for it!

With amazing content, you get noticed, and sometimes “bigger websites” pick up your content and run with it. One time my company did a research on the 4-letter .com domain names. Our post was picked up by a large media website (slate.com) and the traffic came pouring like crazy! In other cases, your great content might become viral on social media, and you may get lucky with thousands of retweets on Twitter.

Create crazy content, share it like crazy and you might get crazy traffic.Click To Tweet

9. Hold a webinar / seminar
[FREE or PAID]

Yes, there are paid tools that can help you host webinars professionally, but there are always free options that work well if you have something meaningful to say. With paid tools like GetResponse, you can create a landing page that helps with an email list where you can advertise your webinar. All this is done automatically and with the same software! But, you can also go live on Facebook or Youtube and share your story for free! If your content is “newsworthy” or valuable, you can get traffic just with that. When Tai Lopez goes live on his Facebook profile (and Snapchat, and Youtube simultaneously) people listen and afterward they visit his new website! Same with a seminar! Your local business hub is probably holding seminars all the time. Get in touch and offer a good presentation in exchange for some exposure.

10. Submit content to Reddit, HackerNews, Google News, etc [FREE]

Depending on your website some of these aren’t relevant to you, but you get the picture. I’ve had freakish traffic from Reddit (30,000 hits in a day on this post) and HackerNews (10,000 hits in a day) but those communities can smell spam from a mile away. Another tactic I’ve heard, but haven’t had the experience is getting into Google News. Google news sends quite an amount of traffic (for free) on a constant basis if your website is news related. To see what I am talking about, head over to news.google.com and search for something like “Facebook stocks” or “price of Gold”. You will get a list of news websites that are tracked by Google News.

11. Email or IM as much people as you can, but don’t spam [FREE or PAID]

Perhaps the website is brand new and was just born, but you are not! I am sure you have some friends, family, acquaintances, business connections or at least some people have emailed you in the past. My guess is, your contact list isn’t just a single email address that is [email protected]. So whip up your Gmail account, or what have you and inform your circle! Send them a warm email with a sincere “Hello World, I have a new website”! Ask for feedback, ask for a referral, ask for a share and offer something in return depending on who you are emailing.

Just like many other ways of getting traffic to a new website, this one also offers free or paid solutions. If you are emailing dozens of people, your free Gmail account will probably do. But if you have more of them, and have collected their consent earlier, you can use a service like GetResponse. The reason I am mentioning them again is that I have been using GetResponse for two years now, and I am happy to recommend them and earn a commision. Actually, in the past, I blogged how after using their autoresponder I closed a large client that paid the entire annual subscription! But there are many competing services, and some of them are even our clients. Aside from email, you can also send IM (instant message) to your connections on social media platforms like Facebook or Linkedin, or platforms like Viber, WhatsApp and WeChat.

12. Do it the “Mark Zuckerberg way.”
[Nearly FREE]

If you watched the movie Social Network, and I know you have, you have seen the scene when TheFacebook.com was about to go live for the first time. In the movie, Mark Zuckerberg then turns to Eduardo Saverin and essentially says: Get your laptop out, you have everybody’s email on Fenix! So even in the movie where it’s all fun and games, Mark Zuckerberg didn’t just sit back after he published his website, and said: I built it, and they will come. Nope. He turned to someone with a juicy email list of his targeted audience and emailed them about his new website.

Start partnerships like affiliate marketing. Why work, when someone can work for you, for free? They just have to have a good reason! Or, you can take a different perspective, why would you be the only one having fun? In the 11th way I advise to create an email list, and contact people. If you don’t have an email list, there are entrepreneurs that have very good lists. Yes, you can pay to advertise on those lists, but if the list owner will get an affiliate commision, if everything else checks out, they might email their list for free. This tactic is basically combining number 11 and number 7 (get an influencer) but with a twist (affiliate marketing).

Ways to get traffic to a new website? You know a ton of them!

So, these are the twelve REAL ways of getting traffic to a new website. I thought it was pointless to trick you into thinking I wrote 100 ways of getting traffic to a new website, and then writing about obsolete tactics like “submit your URL to directories” or tactics that aren’t in direct correlation with immediate traffic like “make your website mobile friendly” or “install SSL certificate, they are important”. Some of the tactics I’ve mentioned here have multiple suggestions so you can really choose what works best for your situation! It takes a lot of hard work and money to get traffic to a new website, but I really hope that you do end up succeeding in that.

If you liked this post, please share it on social media, and let me know in the comment section what you thought about it. Also, I would love to hear what worked best for you and how you got traffic to your new website! In the future I might go deeper into one of these tactics, or expand this post with new tactics, so please contribute with your thoughts.