Guest Blog Post: How to Build a High-Traffic Website (Or Blog), Part 1

by Steve Pavlina

Since posting my 2005 traffic figures recently, I’ve received many questions about how I was able to start this web site from scratch and build its traffic to over 700,000 visitors per month (Jan 2006 projection) in about 15 months — without spending any money on marketing or promotion.  Building a high-traffic web site was my intention from the very beginning, so I don’t think this result was accidental.

My traffic-building strategy isn’t based on tricks or techniques that will go out of style.  It’s mainly about providing genuine value and letting word of mouth do the rest.  Sadly, this makes me something of a contrarian today, since I happen to disagree with much of what I’ve seen written about traffic-building elsewhere.  I do virtually no marketing for this site at all.  My visitors do it for me, not because I trick them into doing it but simply because they want to.

Here are 10 of my best suggestions for building a high traffic web site:

1. Create valuable content.

Is your content worthy of being read by millions of people?  Remember that the purpose of content is to provide value to others.  Do you provide genuine value, and is it the best you’re capable of providing?

When I sit down to write, I sometimes imagine myself standing on an outdoor concert stage before an audience of a million people.  Then I ask myself, “What shall I say to this audience of fellow human beings?”  If a million people each spend five minutes on this site, that’s nearly 10 person-years total.  I do my best to make my writing worthy of this differential.  I don’t always succeed, but this is the mindset that helps me create strong content.

Think about the effect you want your writing to have on people.  Since I write about personal growth, I want my writing to change people for the better.  I want to expand people’s thinking, to raise their consciousness, and to help them eliminate fear from their lives.  If my writing doesn’t change people’s thinking, actions, or awareness, then my value isn’t being transferred well enough.

When you focus on providing real value instead of churning out disposable content, your readers will notice.  And they’ll refer others to your site — in droves.  I typically see at least 10 new links to my site appearing each day (mostly via trackbacks but also via vanity feeds).

I’m not going out and requesting those links — other bloggers just provide them, usually because they’re commenting on something I’ve written.  Many fellow bloggers have also honored StevePavlina.com with a general recommendation for the entire site, not just links to my individual blog posts.  It’s wonderful to see that kind of feedback.

Strong content is universally valued.  It’s hard work to create it, but in the long run it generates lots of long-term referral traffic.  I’d rather write one article I’m really proud of than 25 smaller posts.  It’s been my experience that the best articles I write will outperform all the forgettable little posts I’ve made.

Quality is more important than quantity.  Quantity without quality, however, is easier, which is one reason so many people use that strategy.  Ultimately, however, the Internet already contains more quantity than any one of us can absorb in our lifetimes, but there will always be a place for good quality content that stands out from the crowd.

If you have nothing of genuine value to offer to a large audience, then you have no need of a high-traffic web site.  And if there’s no need for it, you probably won’t get it.

Each time you write, focus on creating the best content you can.  You’ll get better as you go along, but always do your best.  I’ve written some 2000–word articles and then deleted them without posting them because I didn’t feel they were good enough.

2. Create original content.

Virtually everything on this site is my own original content.  I rarely post blog entries that merely link to what others are writing.  It takes more effort to produce original content, but it’s my preferred long-term strategy.  I have no interest in creating a personal development portal to other sites.  I want this site to be a final destination, not a middleman.

Consequently, when people arrive here, they often stick around for a while.  Chances are good that if you like one of my articles, you may enjoy others.  This site now has hundreds of them to choose from.  You can visit the articles section to read my (longer) feature articles or the blog archives to see an easy-to-navigate list of all my blog entries since the site launched.

Yes, there’s a lot to read on this site, more than most people can read in a day, but there’s also a lot of value (see rule #1).  Some people have told me they’ve read for many hours straight, and they leave as different people.  I think anyone who reads this site for several hours straight is going to experience a shift in awareness.  When you read a lot of dense, original content from a single person, it’s going to have an impact on you.  And this content is written with the intention to help you grow.

Although I’m not big on competing with others, it’s hard to compete with an original content site.  Anyone can start their own personal development web site, but the flavor of this site is unique simply because no one else has had the exact same experiences as me.

While I think sites that mainly post content from others have the potential to build traffic faster in the beginning, I think original content sites have an easier time keeping their traffic, which makes for a more solid, long-term foundation.  Not everyone is going to like my work, but for those that do, there’s no substitute.

While I do occasionally write about time-bound events, the majority of my content is intended to be timeless.  I’m aware that anything I write today may still be read by people even after I’m dead.  People still quote Aristotle today because his ideas have timeless value, even though he’s been dead for about 2300 years.  I think about how my work might influence future generations in addition to my own.  What advice shall I pass on to my great grandchildren?

I tend to ignore fads and current events in my writing.  Wars, natural disasters, and corrupt politicians have been with us for thousands of years.  There are plenty of others who are compelled to write about those things, so I’ll leave that coverage to them.

Will the content you’re creating today still be providing real value in the year 2010?  2100?  4000?

Writing for future generations helps me cut through the fluff and stay focused on the core of my message, which is to help people grow.  As long as there are people (even if our bodies are no longer strictly biological), there will be the opportunity for growth, so there’s a chance that at least some of what I’m creating today will still have relevance.  And if I can write something that will be relevant to future generations, then it will certainly be relevant and meaningful today.

In terms of traffic building, timeless content connects with people at a deeper level than time-bound content.  The latter is meant to be forgotten, while the former is meant to be remembered.  We forget yesterday’s news, but we remember those things that have meaning to us.  So I strive to write about meanings instead of happenings.

Even though we’re conditioned to believe that news and current events are important, in the grand scheme of things, most of what’s covered by the media is trivial and irrelevant.  Very little of today’s news will even be remembered next week, let alone a hundred years from now.  Certainly some events are important, but at least 99% of what the media covers is irrelevant fluff when viewed against the backdrop of human history.

Ignore the fluff, and focus on building something with the potential to endure.  Write for your children and grandchildren.

4. Write for human beings first, computers second.

A lot has been written about the optimal strategies for strong search engine rankings in terms of posting frequency and post length.  But I largely ignore that advice because I write for human beings, not computers.

I write when I have something meaningful to say, and I write as much as it takes to say it.  On average I post about five times per week, but I have no set quota.  I also write much longer entries than most bloggers.  No one has ever accused me of being too brief.  My typical blog entry is about 1500–2000 words, and some (like this one) are much longer.

Many successful bloggers would recommend I write shorter entries (250–750 words) and post more frequently (20x per week), since that creates more search engine seeds for the same amount of writing.  And while I agree with them that such a strategy would generate more search engine traffic, I’m not going to take their advice.

To do so would interfere too much with my strategy of delivering genuine value and creating timeless content.  I have no interest in cranking out small chunks of disposable content just to please a computer.  Anyone can print out an article to read later if they don’t have time to read it now and if the subject is of genuine interest to them.

Part of the reason I write longer articles is that even though fewer people will take the time to read them, for those that do the articles are usually much more impactful.

Because of these decisions, my search engine traffic is fairly low compared to other bloggers.  Google is my #1 referrer, but it accounts for less than 1.5% of my total traffic.  My traffic is extremely decentralized.  The vast majority of it comes from links on thousands of other web sites and from direct requests.

 

Ultimately, my traffic grows because people tell other people about this site, either online or offline.  I’ve also done very well with social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg.com, and reddit.com because they’re based on personal recommendations.  I’ve probably had about a dozen articles hit the del.icio.us popular list within the past year, definitely more than my fair share.

I prefer this traffic-building strategy because it leaves me less vulnerable to shifts in technology.  I figure that Google ultimately wants to make it easy for its visitors to find valuable content, so my current strategy should be in alignment with Google’s long-term strategy.  My feeling is that Google would be well-served by sending more of its traffic here.  But that alignment simply arises from my focus on providing value first and foremost.

How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site or Blog, Part 2

Read more from Steve Pavlina at StevePavlina.com.