Increasing website traffic... instantly

April 8, 2006 2:26 PM

Are there any free and lawful ways to goose website traffic instantly?

FFA and timely posting in a popular discussion forum are old school and not all that reliable, but they're the only things I can think of that can cause sudden spikes of traffic.

posted by rinkjustice to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Free porn. (I actually worked at a company that used free porn as a way to test their system capabilities. And if it crashed it only meant people weren't able to get their free porn).
posted by ShooBoo at 3:17 PM on April 8, 2006

On the topic of discussion forums: back when I read/posted on slashdot more, I used to play around with phrases linked to content that I thought would get attention in a slashdot sig. There were a few I hit on that were very effective -- at least hundreds and sometimes thousands of new hits for certain pieces of content There were many more phrases that were not effective, though, so it was clear that simply having something there doesn't work, it had to be catnip for the groupthink.

If you know of places where you know what you want to post fits that description, you might be able to use a similar strategy to goose traffic rather quickly. This is hard to know, though, and if you're too excited about something, you run the risk of being branded a troublemaker or astroturfer. Tread with caution.
posted by weston at 3:21 PM on April 8, 2006

If you have something that is actually of value (i.e. content) then getting traffic through social-bookmarking sites like digg or reddit can bring you a lot of traffic in a hurry, and similarly with slashdot, boingboing, etc. But again, you have to have something that is topical, timely, and original in order to actually post to those sites.

If you are just starting a site that doesn't really have anything compelling yet then I think you're asking the wrong question. You should be asking "how can I make something that people want to see" not "how can I get people to see what I have." Build something that is actually useful or insightful and go from there. Trying to draw visitors to a site that has no real original content is what tends to turn into scummy blackhat SEO type stuff which gives the whole practice a very bad connotation.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:22 PM on April 8, 2006

Rhomboid has one of the best suggestions. Write some "100 Amazing Design Resources" kinda posts, submit them to Digg and del.icio.us, and watch all the rabid fools mop them up :) Lists always do really well, although their popularity is now beginning to wane.
posted by wackybrit at 3:51 PM on April 8, 2006

I post to Ask Metafilter asking "how can I get a lot of hits on my website," and then some user inevitably asks, "alright, we give in, what website?" and then I post a link to it.

Then someone else posts a callout of the self-link on MetaTalk, but of course, that only gets more hits.
posted by salvia at 4:43 PM on April 8, 2006

Alright, we give in, what website? ;)
posted by salvia at 5:02 PM on April 8, 2006

Companies like handytraffic.com do this kind of work. They own "typo domains" and when someone types in goofle.com or something they're sent to your site for as many times as you're willing to pay.

Its legal but not effective. I think most people would think "what the hell is this" and close the browser window.
posted by skallas at 5:36 PM on April 8, 2006

I once was in a contest with a friend to see how much university bandwidth we could take up. At the time they measured bandwidth, but didn't cap you.

I went on slashdot and posted a direct download to a Divx copy of the cowboy bebop movie about a year before it's US release.

That did a good job.

No do you want traffic or actual convertible impressions?
posted by delmoi at 6:04 PM on April 8, 2006

Thanks for all your excellent responses!

And salvia, I can't tell you what website it is. It's a secret!
posted by rinkjustice at 7:27 PM on April 8, 2006

And salvia, I can't tell you what website it is. It's a secret!

Ah, the best kind!
posted by salvia at 8:40 PM on April 8, 2006

The best way to get more traffic to your website is to keep it a secret. It's free and legal too.
posted by 5bux at 11:28 PM on April 8, 2006