7 Less Frequently Used Tools for Driving Target Website Traffic

Success! Your initial content marketing efforts have paid off. You’ve successfully driven traffic to your website, converted curious visitors into paying customers, and built your email list. Now, it’s time to reach for the next level.

You need to locate new sources of traffic that your competitors are likely not using. Here are the top 7 lesser-known tools for bringing visitors to your website.

1. SlideShare

If you’re in business, you’ve not only seen a PowerPoint presentation, but you’ve probably created more than one yourself. Fortunately, there’s a website that allows you to share your great slide presentations with everybody on the Internet. It’s called SlideShare.

You can think of SlideShare as a place to post great content in slide format. It’s a way for people to exchange ideas using a series of well-designed slides.

It’s also a great source of web traffic for your site.

Research from Column Five Media shows that SlideShare is “the world’s largest professional content sharing community.” That company also calls SlideShare “the quiet giant of content marketing.”

Also, more than 60 million people have visited SlideShare. It’s likely that people in your target market will find their way to that site eventually, especially if you’re into the B2B space.

2. YouTube Annotations

When was the last time that somebody visited your site from YouTube? If you’re like many people who are just getting started out with digital marketing, the answer might be “never.”

That’s okay. You’re new to this.

Now, it’s time to build traffic and achieve even more success from yet another source that lies undiscovered by your competitors.

YouTube allows you to post annotations in your videos. You might have seen them on some other videos that you’ve watched. They look like “bubbles” that you see in comic strip dialogs. They’re usually used to add some written commentary to the video that viewers can read while it’s running.

But wait. There’s more.

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You can also embed a call to action in an annotation. That way, people who click on the annotation will be taken to your website.

That’s a source of traffic often overlooked by some of the most experienced digital marketers.

3. Quora

You’re an expert in your domain, right? Why not show off your expertise while simultaneously improving your SEO by answering a few questions on Quora.

Head over to Quora and find questions related to your niche. Then, answer the questions and provide a link back to your site. Be sure to make the link look natural and not forced. Only leave a link if it really makes sense.

An especially great idea with Quora is to provide a synopsis of the answer to the person’s question and then add something like: “For more information, check out this article.” The “this article” and hyperlink back to an article on your site that offers a more in-depth explanation.

4. Craigslist

Craigslist isn’t just a site where you can find a vacation rental, roommate, and/or a paramour. With hundreds of millions of hits every year, it’s also a great opportunity to drive traffic to your site.

Most people drive traffic from Craiglist by posting products or services. It’s really pretty simple. Just go on and post them.

For example, you can list your service in the service section.

And sell your products in the product category of your choice.

5. iMDB

Believe it or not, iMDB is one of the oldest sites on the web. It’s also a great place to add backlinks to your site.

There’s a catch, though. As you probably know, iMDB is an entertainment-oriented site with an emphasis on TV shows and movies. If your niche isn’t even tangentially related to TV shows or movies, you should probably take a pass on using iMDB so you don’t come across as a spammer.

However, if you can provide backlinks to your site naturally on a website that’s all about the entertainment industry, then head over to iMDB and participate in the forums there. Look for ways to ease in a few backlinks to your site so you can give your traffic a boost.

6. Etsy

Sure, Etsy is a great place to sell your hand-sewn puppets. However, it’s also an awesome source of traffic for your website.

The trick here is that you have to have something to sell. Brainstorm up a few knick-knack type items that will be of interest to people in your target market, then market them on Etsy for a nominal price.

Make sure you include a backlink to your site in the description of the item.

7. BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed gives you the ability to create your own BuzzFeed satellite site with the buzzfeed.com domain. It is really easy, you can learn about it here.

Once you’ve got your own site established, create a viral post worthy of BuzzFeed (listicles, or articles that are lists, are always a great idea). Within the post, link back to your own site.

Rinse and repeat. Make it a goal to post something on your own BuzzFeed site once per week.

Wrapping It Up

The list here is by no means exhaustive. You’re never “done” when it comes to looking for new sources of traffic online. However, when used correctly these 7 sites can help make an impact with your traffic.

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7 Less Frequently Used Tools for Driving Target Website Traffic