How to Steal Traffic

When you’re trying to build traffic to your site, you’ll try anything to see those numbers climb. Stop spinning your wheels and get strategic. It’s a simple logical formula. In the world of the Web marketing universe, there are already communities formed around the ideas and interests that pertain to what you do and what you sell. Your job is to find those tribes and become a part of them so that you can lead their members to your site, where – assuming you’re doing your job of publishing unique original content on a regular basis – they’ll find good reason to set up camp.

Step 1: Start with what you know.

Identify the popular websites and blogs where the types of people whose needs and interests align with your offering are hanging out, reading and interacting. Become an active participant in these communities by commenting on blogs and joining discussion forums. If you focus on adding value to the conversation, people will be naturally curious to learn more about you, and they’ll seek out your site to see what else you have to say. Just make sure to include a link in your signature so they’ll know where to find you.

Step 2: Broaden your horizons.

If you’re not making much headway in terms of getting attention and traffic in these circles, it’s time to break out of your comfort zone. Click through to other commenters’ websites and explore their blogrolls and commenter links. Eventually you’ll find yourself three or four degrees removed from your usual niche, and you’ll discover a whole new constellation of communities where you can focus your networking efforts.

Step 3: Aim for the top.

Once you’ve earned your stripes as a trusted and valued member of others’ tribes, start reaching out to those who lead them. But don’t just email them out of the blue asking them to help promote your site. Instead, show your continued interest in being a valuable member of the community. Send them a compelling original article that’s custom-tailored to their audience and the tone and personality of their site. Make sure it's flawlessly crafted, has an attention-grabbing headline and offers a distinct perspective with no wishy-washy language. By providing them with a ready-made blog post, you’ll boost your chances of scoring the exposure you desire and the opportunity to get in front of a new audience of people to whom you can demonstrate your expertise and entice to follow you back to your own home base.

Step 4: Deliver on your promises.

If you're doing all this hard-core grassroots marketing to drive traffic to your site, it’s important to ensure that first-time visitors aren't disappointed when they get there. Make sure you deliver on the high expectations you’ve created through your insightful blog comments, forum contributions and guest posts. When new visitors arrive at your site, they should discover a library of compelling cornerstone content that speaks to their interests and concerns. Find the unanswered questions that exist around your specialty offer your expert opinion. Provide real solutions to the problems that keep people up at night. Be bold and make sure you aren’t just saying the same thing as everyone else out there. Useful and unique is the name of the game. Otherwise you'll be doing all this work to reel in new readers only to let them slip away again.

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Designed to Inspire: A Showcase of Powerful Nonprofit Donation Pages

For most nonprofit organizations, donations are their lifeline. Raising awareness for the cause is important, but it's contributions from the public that keep the lights on and provide the fuel to fulfill their mission. Good website design is crucial for any business competing in today's marketplace, and nonprofits are no exception. The design of a donation page can make or break a potential contributor's decision regarding whether or not to give to an organization and, if so, how much. Here are four examples of simply but powerfully designed donation pages that connect with donors to keep the coffers full.

American Red Cross

The donation page for the American Red Cross shines in its simplicity. While the scope and depth of the organization's work is far-reaching, they make the process of supporting their efforts very straightforward. All too often, nonprofits give donors many different ways to give in hopes of catering to their personal preferences. However, this can actually have the opposite of the intended effect by muddying the mission or overwhelming potential contributors with too many choices. The Red Cross succeeds by taking a different approach: they streamline their many diverse efforts into four giving categories (Greatest Need, Disaster Relief, Local Chapter and African Drought) to make the choice to give clear cut and simple. They also leave the door open for those who might be interested in other options with a separate traffic funnel in the right-hand sidebar area. With so many organizations competing for donor dollars, it's critical to present options that are easy to grasp, resonate with contributors and provide strong motivation to give.

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army’s donation process epitomizes ease of use, a trait that goes hand-in-hand with providing straightforward giving options. The layout of the page is simple but highly effective, with eye-caching images that are not only visually appealing but provide strong navigational cues directing visitors to three simple but distinctive giving paths: monetary donations, a customized gift or gifts in kind. Again, if the user desires, there are more nuanced options available as well. But keeping the most popular options front and center is a great way to draw in first-time donors.

Compassion International

Emotional engagement is key to drawing in potential supporters. The donation page for Compassion International does a great job of making that emotional connection on a couple of different levels. First, the giving options are presented strategically in terms of the types of needs that potential donors can help the organization to meet. The wording of these needs (i.e., “Highly Vulnerable Children,” “Disaster Relief,” “Child Survival Program,” etc.) conveys a tangible sense of immediacy to engage visitors right away. Second, areas of most immediate need are flagged with red exclamation points. This subtle but effective visual detail attaches an added sense of urgency to these options.

Come&Live!

Come&Live! is a nonprofit ministry focused on supporting musicians and the arts community. Their online donation process is strikingly simple. It begins with a call to action on the home page that's as straightforward as it gets: “Donate. We Need Your Help.” When visitors click on this banner, they're taken straight to the donation page, which consists of one brief form. Designate the amount of the gift, fill out the necessary personal information and you’re done.

Keep it simple and powerful

The task of raising the funds needed to sustain any nonprofit is no easy task, but a well-designed donation page can greatly multiply the efforts of your human resources. And as these four examples show, the best, most effective approach is almost always the most simple and straightforward, keeping the primary focus on making a strong emotional connection between your mission and the passion of potential donors.

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