# Driving traffic to online store



## RockHarmonic (Dec 3, 2010)

I have a new web store and I wanted to see if anybody has any great ways to drive traffic. I'm already doing flyers and business cards and trying to use word of mouth with friends and family. But what are some good ways to get traffic via online. Craigslist, google,etc??? thanks


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## dptk (Aug 14, 2009)

only options I've found are viral (youtube,twitter,etc) & paid placement (google, yahoo,etc)


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## brenden (Dec 11, 2008)

Hi RockHarmonic,

Register your business in Google Places. Place results are usually at the top of Google search results.

If you have a customer list build up a promo with a special coupon offer to encourage your 'offline' customers to start buying from your site.

If you do any work for charities and give them a discount ask for a link on their site as part of the sponsorship deal. Google juice is all about how many links you have going to your site and that will help you over time.

Of course make sure you've signed up with Google Webmaster tools and submit your site and site map.

Finally, if you are not shy include your website link in your forum and blog posts signature but make sure you confirm to the forum rules. No spamming! The more your website link is out there the more Google will love you.


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## veedub3 (Mar 29, 2007)

All great advice given above. I also suggest becoming a member of other forums, not just t-shirt related, and contributing daily while posting your link at the bottom of your post. remember to obey all forum rules. I am a member of several Volkswagen forums and I get business from them every time their is a VW show.


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## TeeDawg (Oct 23, 2010)

Great tips by all.

the key is to get your name out everywhere without being a spammer. Be relevant. Post on forums, add a blog to your website, have a facebook fan page and a twitter page.

Also, check out some of the blog gurus out there; John Chow, Jeremy Schoemaker, Gideon Shalwick, etc. While their message is about promoting a blog, they have some very useful tips that you can apply to your ecom site. And all of them offer guides for free.

Hope this helps!


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## rangga_cottonabl (Dec 12, 2010)

visit blogs and leave your website link when commenting. but do give insightful comment otherwise you can be regarded as spam


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## MRPRINTER (Nov 12, 2010)

Its amazing no one mentioned joing a chamber of commerce i get a load of business
and its the best way of networking. Also set up your site to link with other sites.
Here is my web site rnrprinting.net you will see what i mean. 
All those other things are great but what makes you any different then any other printer 
on the internet. If you want email me one of your flyers to rnrpritning[USER=602]@CO[/USER]mcast.net
also check out my facebook page r & r printing & mailing.
You can offer free giveaways. And also a lot of people are getting to many virus form youtube


any way goo dluck


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## RockHarmonic (Dec 3, 2010)

Wow thanks for all the great tips and ideas. How does the linking of websites work exactly?


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## brenden (Dec 11, 2008)

Basically Google puts its trust in other people. It can't rely on the site owner as they are biased, so Google says "well if lots of people link to that site then it must be good" so it ranks that site higher in its search results. If few people do then Google ranks it lower.

There is a method rel="nofollow" which you put into a link and that tells Google not to follow it. Therefeore the page owner will not get any recognition from Google (or Google juice as a lot of people call it).

News organisations often use this or you can use it if you are warning people not to go to that site. i.e.:


```
<a href="http://www.dontgohere.com" rel="nofollow">Dont go here!</a>
```
So your goal is to get your website link on as many websites as possible. This includes directories, other industry related sites, blogs, forums, etc. Just remember to not spam and only provide it with valid content as rangga_cottonabl said below.

MRPRINTER I'm intrigued by your comments about virus in YouTube. It would be extremely uncommon for YouTube to host viruses. In fact, using YouTube is a great way to promote your website. The videos host in YouTube appear in Google search results.

An issue could arrive FROM YouTube in that a person uploading a video could include a link to a bad website, but if you don't click on links and only watch the videos in YouTube you would be safe. Google release regular safety reports on sites. Here is YouTube's: Google Safe Browsing diagnostic page for www.youtube.com


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## rbm787 (Dec 12, 2010)

They have given you all you need pretty much. If you have money id say google ads or facebook ads. good luck


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## Rooq (Oct 12, 2010)

rbm787 said:


> They have given you all you need pretty much. If you have money id say google ads or facebook ads. good luck


I have found that Facebook Ads are a great way to go. They give you the tools to target your specific demographic and many more options that allows you to run your ad with in certain times and within your desired budget. 

It also gives you the option to have your ad direct the potential customer to your Facebook page or to your website. Hope that helps.


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## brenden (Dec 11, 2008)

Hi Roog,

I'm very interested to understand what sort of products you promoted in Facebook and what sort of conversion rate you experienced.

My personal experience was poor conversion from Facebook while high conversion from Google AdWords. It made sense to me as people don't log into Facebook to buy tshirts but they do search in Google.

Facebook was much cheaper than Google AdWords (over half) and we had high impressions (over 1.2 million per month). Click through were into their hundreds but conversion was next to nothing.

I see Facebook working if you are very targeted. i.e. 'Oprah' tshirts. (btw, I don't recommend you print that hehe  Just using it as an example as Oprah is in Sydney at the moment so is all over the news and every news paper you see!

Were you promoting decorated products? i.e. 'Oprah' Tshirt or advertising blanks for people to customize?

Great to share ideas


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## RespecttheCraft (Feb 19, 2010)

I could see facebook ads having fairly decent conversion rates for, say.. a clothing brand, especially if the ads are eye catching enough to get plenty of clicks. someone advertising for blank garments or screenprinting service has a much smaller target market than "every person who wears a t shirt", most of whom are on facebook, but when they search for those products and services, i bet you ten bucks their doing it on google. 

plus when you make a facebook ad it gives yo uthe option to "like" a page without actually havign to visit it, which is a definite plus because then all your status updates you post to your page will show up in their news feed, so you get continual advertising.


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## nosymbolrequired (Jun 29, 2009)

Great info on here - thanks

I use both adwords and facebook advertising. And like respectthecraft said above, higher converstion rates come from adwords than from facebook. However a combination of both works very well. Facebook is almost lifetime advertising, especially to bring brand awareness and build relationships with your customers. Adwords is the first time click and buy conversion

I like both, however I lean more towards facebook ads as I want to build brand awareness, and keep people interested in the brand. Although, i think this works more for brands than for screenprinters etc. If you are paying for a "one-click" experience, adwords is the way to go.

Then, theres the "organic" ranking in google, or using google search and placing higher than your competitiors for that certain keyword. Either choose a keyword that no-one else targets, or get more links than your competitor for the keyword they rank at the top for. Use www.alexa.com to check what your competitors are doing and how many links they have, then try and beat them. However, it is very difficult to get links from other companies and be very careful when it comes to black hat techniques like link swapping, link farms etc. google will throw you out-. search for SEO or SEM articles and read some of them before attempting to re-code your website with the SEO SEM stuff. 

Also, social networking sites, twitter / facebook / digg / stumbleupon / etc are well worth checking out. But choose one that you like using so that you can build relationships with your customers and give them an experience. If you are just on their trying to get a link your (future) customers will ignore you, if you dont join in with their community. 

anyway, hope some of this helps, its just my personal opinion as to what works for me..


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## brenden (Dec 11, 2008)

Don't forget Google PageRank Checker - Check Google page rank of any web pages to check your own PageRank.


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## brenden (Dec 11, 2008)

Hi al,

Inspired by this post I have created a small blog post on the importance of having links on your site. I hope its OK to post a link here: Why links to your website are important | Wilcom DecoNetwork World

If not, moderators please remove


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## Inspired Zebra (Oct 18, 2010)

I have had very poor conversion from Facebook Ads. I am targeting a specific market with a design and not the printing service side. It may be that my ad isn't eye catching or that I haven't set my daily budget high enough to get the traffic I need. I am going to try Google ads and hope it generates more traffic. Good luck!


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## alfzampi (Dec 11, 2010)

You can spend a lot of money for Facebook and magazine ads and not get good results.If you want a free website..... go to http://www.ecrater.com.You can post you designs for free and no cost to sell.


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## brenden (Dec 11, 2008)

Let us know your results from Google ads!


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## dmfelder (Oct 25, 2008)

Getting seen is very important, but also make sure you have a very focused demographic. If you're purchasing generic adwords (cool tshirts, college humor shirts, etc.), you're simply not going to get your money's worth. If you have a focused audience (custom fitness clothing, airplane shirts, etc.), you can spend your time/money on targeted websites/publications and you'll be more successful.


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## kleinandlu (Dec 8, 2010)

Hi...after reading I went to your face book page and found that the links to your website are not working..may want to check that out. Thanks for all the valuable information though learning quite a bit here.


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## alfzampi (Dec 11, 2010)

Thanks.Just leave the you off and it works.Typo error.


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## puzzleswithout (Jun 2, 2010)

RockHarmonic said:


> I have a new web store and I wanted to see if anybody has any great ways to drive traffic. I'm already doing flyers and business cards and trying to use word of mouth with friends and family. But what are some good ways to get traffic via online. Craigslist, google,etc??? thanks


Google Adwords for sure. Also, develop a Facebook and Twitter page. Start making friends via both services and build up a large base, then post semi-frequent updates concerning products/deals/etc.


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## adam.smsg (Oct 22, 2009)

Damn fine tips in here guys. Im also looking at how to drive traffic and Ive found that pretty much doing ANYthing will be beneficial to you.There's no real right or wrong answer. 

Right now Im developing a Zine that Im going to give away with some shirts. Also going to start doing random videos because I get bored at home.

I think the best advice for marketing is just: Do Something. 

Nothing illegal ofcourse... at least dont get caught doing it.


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## kleinandlu (Dec 8, 2010)

Yes thank you very much for this thread...it's very informative.


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## designnbuy (Jan 1, 2010)

SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is the most inexpensive way to draw quality traffic towards websites.. try it.


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