Building word-of-mouth buzz is a secondary traffic-building technique.
Depending on your situation, some of the strategies outlined in this chapter will
work very well for you. Others will not.
Either way, wait to investigate secondary strategies until after your business has
a solid foundation of quality content. In other words, until you have at least 50
quality content pages, your efforts are better utilized by focusing upon…
C -> T -> P -> M
… and building traffic from the major Search Engines. As far as “bang for the
buck” goes, this approach yields a far better Return On Investment (ROI) for
your time.
How do you build word-of-mouth buzz? First piece of advice, don’t bother with
those “recommend-a-friend” scripts. Less than one visitor in a thousand fills
them in. There’s a far simpler way to get “word of mouth.” Deliver great
content.
Want an example? Let’s say that you have a wonderful theme-based site about
succulent plants (i.e., cactus, euphorbia, etc.). You have a terrific page about
all the tricks you have developed for propagating them.
Other aficionados find that page at the engines. Do you think they’ll tell friends,
or forums, or cactus associations, about this terrific info? Sure they will. Just one
more huge benefit of OVERdelivering! But one big warning…
Average content = near-zero world of mouth. After all, have you ever been
excited by “average?”
Great content is the only way to go!
When the time is right, use the following techniques to seed word of mouth buzz,
especially if you are selling your own product or professional service…
• write articles for e-zines or article distribution sites
• make posts in forums, discussion groups, mailing lists, newsgroups (depending
on your niche and situation, these can be fairly effective… or totally useless)
• publish your own blog, a Web log/diary (discussed in DAY 9)
• use a signature file (i.e., contact information, including your URL and preferably
your VPP) in your daily e-mail correspondence.
Depending on your circumstances, some or all of the above techniques could be
effective in seeing an increase in your word of mouth buzz…
Circumstance 1) The “nichier” your site, the better. If your site covers a topic
already well-addressed by a zillion other sites, it will be much harder to stand out
from the crowd and make an impression with your visitors.
Circumstance 2) Your site should have over 50 pages. There must be
substance.
Circumstance 3) Your content should be of outstanding value to targeted
visitors.
If all three circumstances are present, then investigating “word of mouth”
strategies makes sense. There’s no point in making a post or writing an article
otherwise.
OK, suppose you’ve got a high-quality content-rich niche site that delivers
outstanding content. You make a fantastic post at a relevant forum, including
your conservative signature file. What happens next?
Forum visitors visit your site, tell their friends, put a link on their site to yours, and
discuss your site at relevant forums and discussion groups. Talk about a homerun
buzz!
Now, before you proceed to DAY 8, please complete your DAY 7 Goal-of-the-
DAY, and take note of your Ongoing Goal...
Ongoing Goal... Create more relevant, quality content. Build a solid links
program. Be patient and trust the process.
Next step? Paid Search Engine traffic…