Gain Internet Fame without Being Internet Famous: Success Isn’t the Only Avenue to Fame

The internet can be cruel for an up-and-coming business. You need fame in order to present your services to the public and yield success, but you’ll need to be successful to gain fame, so this is something of a catch-22. Fear not – there are still ways to get traffic and traction without having to rely on fame and celebrity.

Don’t Be Just Another Face in the Crowd

The goal is to get traffic quickly. Google is like the Los Angeles freeway of online traffic, so target keywords that will allow you to get ranked on the first page of Google searches. This drastically increases your chances of connecting with a potential client. Think of it like a matrix in math. You have conversion rate on the vertical axis, and search volume along the horizontal axis.

As your keyword gets longer, it narrows the search to more specific links; this is great for your conversion rate, but it just won’t get searched for that often. On the flip side, if you choose something so broad that it’s searched for a million times a day, you’re going to have virtually no chance of getting noticed. You’d be a small guppy in a very large ocean. Aim for a keyword with 100 or fewer searches a month, and you’ll have a good shot of winding up on the front page.

If you already have some established traffic, you can use a resource like HitTail.com for long tail keyword suggestions based on your current traffic. Once your traffic is analyzed, you can use the information to locate solid landing pages or relevant blog posts you should write. If you’re lacking traffic, spend a few hours on Google’s Keyword Tool and try to find some low-competition keywords that fit your business well.

Craft Killer Landing Pages

Getting a visitor to your landing page is the first step, but converting them is the ultimate goal. A lot of people will tell you to display a big green call-to-action button, strong visual cues, or an email sign-up form. These are important, but they lose sight of the most important part: your offer.

Think of it as a physical store. Sure, you see checkout lanes and they’re necessary, but in most every store, from electronics to groceries, the first things you see are the special offers and coupons. Nobody boasts a checkout lane – the customer already knows they exist. Get your visitor interested the moment they “ walk in ”, and make them actually want to buy what you’re selling.

Face it, at the end of the day it won’t matter how well-designed your landing page is. If you don’t have a good offer, then you can’t attract a customer. Put lipstick on a pig, and it’s still a pig.

Juicing Up Your Links

When you’re jump-starting a site, links can be frustrating since they’re one of the few aspects you don’t have a ton of control over.

First, make sure to review all of your old web properties and send a link to your new site so you can draw some link juice. We were able to rack up about a dozen links from our old sites right from the get-go. Second, link your site from every social media profile you have. It won’t provide a ton of link juice, but it’s an easy way to jump-start your site (if nothing else, it can’t hurt).

Third, start blogging on your own site. Create unique content, send it to social sites, and get your content out there for people to see. Not all of it will do well, but you’ll start to see some people linking back to you.

Lastly, start submitting guest posts to other blogs in your industry; save your best stuff for these posts. Initially, you’ll likely only get a link in your bio, but over time, you might slip a link in your blog post where relevant.

There are a million other ways to get links, but these are a few ways that should get you some nice initial links. Whatever you do, do not pay for links. It’s simply not worth it to take shortcuts – the tortoise definitely beats the hare in the link-building race.

You’re not going to get traffic based on established success because you just don’t have it yet. On your trek to building your business, these are just a few tips to gain early exposure and feedback without relying on fame.

Image Credit: Loop Oh