How to get first visitors

[okplaygo]

Hello guys, I'm the owner of Ok Play Go , there's been few months since I started and I'm having a really hard time figuring how to get my fist visitors. I mean, I joined several banner exchange systems, but all of them will only show ads of my site if theirs are shown, and without visitors, my ad is not impressed.

I've also been reading several articles about SEO, but I guess nothing will matter, after all, I don't have a good number of backlinks. (although I did make my site much more "search engines friendly", sent my website to those bigger directories and joined some "arcade reviews websites").

So, my question is, how do I start having visitors? I'm barely hitting 10 absolute visitors a day and I'm starting to worry if I will ever have them. How did you guys got those very first ones?

Thanks in advance .

[RickyG]

You answered some of these already

Banner exchanges - you might have to buy to get visitors. You will start to have repeat if they like your site
Google adwords - same as above
Link exchange - trading links with other arcades
back links - many places to do this. Article and blogs. Get your site out there
Signitures - add your site to your sig.....like here.

Show up to AWF chat today - http://www.arcadewebmasterforum.com/...her-Chat-Night!!

RickyG

[Geo3kant]

Template does alot too, when i visited your site.. i was like "boy this background takes long to load".. but then i noticed there was none! What im trying to say is.. to me, your site looks broken/left behind.
The first impressions has to be good in order to get returning visitors. Trafficwise, well ricky pointed that out pretty well

[okplaygo]

I don't know, maybe I'm doing completely wrong, but when I think of making a website, i tend to think "How would be a website I would like to play in?", and well, I just can't imagine myself entering one of those sites that are incredibly overwhelming with banners, ads and game thumbs...

Not trying to say I'm incredibly satisfied with my design, 'cause I'll definetly be improving it soon (I'll change text sidebar to some games thumb/desc text sidebar and decrease number of thumbs in the middle opening space to some game descriptions).

But when I look to most arcade websites, they make me want to puke, really, no serious website out there is as overwhelming as some arcades are. Not to mention those that look completely the same one after another, I just don't get how people can like these kind of website rather than mine, and the conclusion I get is simply because they never entered mine or a more serious one as kong and newgrounds (and I think kong actually has the best design out there, out of every flash games website, it is pretty and clean).

Anyway, if someone has specific suggestions on how to improve my website's design, I'll surely appreciate .

[RickyG]

you dont need to run a ton of banners or ads on your site if you are buying traffic

[cyruskafaiwu]

Find web communities and post your site on there. And create backlinks. When I started my first site, it was mainly coming from search engines.

[gubugnet]

I don't know, maybe I'm doing completely wrong, but when I think of making a website, i tend to think "How would be a website I would like to play in?", and well, I just can't imagine myself entering one of those sites that are incredibly overwhelming with banners, ads and game thumbs...

Please dont take offense by this but the first step to getting traffic is putting your own interpretations aside. You are not building a site for your self again not trying to offend or be an A$$ but you are building for an established sub culture of visitors. I 1000% felt as you do 3 years ago when I started my first arcade but arcades taught me a lot and rule number one is build for the audience or demo.

Not trying to say I'm incredibly satisfied with my design, 'cause I'll definetly be improving it soon (I'll change text sidebar to some games thumb/desc text sidebar and decrease number of thumbs in the middle opening space to some game descriptions).

But when I look to most arcade websites, they make me want to puke, really, no serious website out there is as overwhelming as some arcades are. Not to mention those that look completely the same one after another, I just don't get how people can like these kind of website rather than mine, and the conclusion I get is simply because they never entered mine or a more serious one as kong and newgrounds (and I think kong actually has the best design out there, out of every flash games website, it is pretty and clean).

Gamestop owns kong and at times there are 8K visitors there so that is a big difference. None of us can build a site entirely on that model because our pockets are not as deep so you might have to find a happy medium at first. Now here I go again with this saying. Around 3 yrs ago the webmaster of bootyarcade told me some wise words " thumbs gert clicks " at the time he was doing 100K UV a day. I laughed smurked debated etc.. but over the years I have shared this with many guys and I can name 5 easy off the top of my head that ALL came back after months of everything else under the sun and said "you know what I guess it is really about the thumbs "

Anyway, if someone has specific suggestions on how to improve my website's design, I'll surely appreciate .

OK the subject was traffic and IMO design will not get you traffic.
Design might get better CTR
Design might get more page views
Design might get more repeat visits
but initial traffic in my humble opinion NO

A good song is not a hit song. A heavily published song can be a hit however regardless of how critics like it. So for design all I can say is consider something a bit more ostentatious and consistently add new games with nice thumbs.

Now lets talk traffic and I will reference RickyG here because when I first started my arcade he gave me a traffic tip. What he suggested was to go to older versions of PHPAS and add my backlink. He gave me a search string for Google and said do the first few pages because those are the guys with PR ( that was the case then ). Today PR alone will not get you to the front of the bus. I took this idea and tweaked it by

A) I used a Firefox plugin to autofill forms and so then I could do more than just the first few pages of results

B) I looked at other scripts for this opening and derived strings for them ( Same stuff Rick taught me just improvisation on a theme ).

C) I got some backlinks via exchanges with other guys

D) I started social bookmarking and trading diggs & stumbles with other guys in arcades who were doing the same.

That is how I got my first traffic + pages indexed in google and rankings. This all requires consistent time invested don't do it and give up instead do it until it works.
This is nothing new but it still works I built backlinks and submitted some articles for this popular game ben 10 alien device and I am on the first page now ( gubug #6 fairly new game and not to long ago I done this ).

Do articles, blog comments, RSS feed subs etc.. and keep networking with webmasters for more backlinks or dare I say traffic trading. Take your earnings and reinvest into your site and in time it will grow.

[RickyG]

Now lets talk traffic and I will reference RickyG here because when I first started my arcade he gave me a traffic tip. What he suggested was to go to older versions of PHPAS and add my backlink. He gave me a search string for Google and said do the first few pages because those are the guys with PR ( that was the case then ).

Yep...that was then. Brings back memories

[Jason C]

Alfred, I gotta say your above post was great. I do also remember reading somewhere you said "thumbs get clicks" and since then I always tried to optimise my site with nice custom thumbs that are large, attractive, and inviting. So +1 on that one.

As for getting the first visitors to come, well..... I just watched that movie "The Social Network" and how did Zuckerburg get his first hits to facesmash.com or whatever? He emailed his friends, who visited (because they're his friends) and since they liked the content (right or left) they emailed their friends and so on. Viral. Samething for facebook.com, his CFO had a list of email address and in one scene someone is viewing his email and she says "this guy has been spaming me this site" and her friend or whatever is standing next to him and has her open it and then they all join up. Ok Im not 100% sure if thats the way it went in the movie or in real life but my point is Social Activity and this movie gave me the idea or rather kinda made me realize something.

So I guess I should say is invite all your facebook friends and tell them to invite their friends. Make a fan page and post on it daily. Promote interactivity with your users, even if it is your friends and family. The word will spread if people like your site.

Do you have a son, little brother/sister, kid down the street who is in junior high or high school? This is going to be the majority of your users. Tell them to show their friends at school. Again, if they think your site is cool, it'll go viral and you'll have 1k a day before you know it.

Referencing to what gubugnet said above, you have to put behind the concept of making a site for yourself and you must make the site for your users. Where you can add your personalization is to build a site that is specific niche. I used to waste my breaks and lunches at work playing "Sniper Assassin" and "Urban Sniper", I love sniper shooting games, so I created a website that only has sniper shooting games. These types of sites are easier to rank for in commonly or less commonly used search terms. This is where you need to do your homework and choose a keyword or phrase you have a chance to rank for (google adwords tool, etc helps). Example, you'll have a better chance at ranking good for "ben 10 online games" then "online games".

Of course this stuff takes time. If you want instant gratification, go buy some traffic from mibbi.com or bannerflux.com. Create a nice 728x90 ad, remember "thumbs get clicks". Buy 1000 clicks and analyse what happens when the campaign is over. If users like your site, you'll see a rise in direct traffic and search traffic for your domain name after your campaign ends. If you're not seeing return visitors, you'll know that you need to work on the quality of games, showcasing the best games, and/or modifying your template.

Geesus that was a long post, hopefully I made sense and it helps. Good luck!

[Jason C]

Yep...that was then. Brings back memories

Even though Ive never been shared with this technique, lol Im kidding, but if you think about it you can use a search string to whats called a "footprint". Here's a tip like if you're looking for do-follow blogs that you can comment on. Search for "commentluv" or "keywordluv" or "YourName@YourKeywords". Here's another tip, install SEOquake add-on for FireFox. use one of those search terms. click on the arrow to arrange the sites via PR. comment on high pr page. There you go.