Adult website traffic sources don’t need to be new, unique or revolutionary in order for them to yield solid results — although it helps. This can lead to newer site operators ignoring tried and true traffic generation techniques, such as the following 10 adult traffic channels that will provide a strong foundation for taking your business to the next level.
TRADITIONAL SOURCES
The biggest lesson for operators is a simple one: there is more than one way to build traffic and it takes more than one method to get enough of it today.
As with all websites, linking between sites is a major component of web traffic flow, with adult websites historically gravitating to large, free porn portals, including link lists, TGP and MGP sites, tube sites and more, all with the intention of sending traffic from the sites that have it, to those that need it — including yours. While many of these sites send fewer visitors than they once did, and those that you do get are harder to sell to, popular sites command legions of loyal adherents that appreciate referrals to quality porn, without the need to use blind links or other coding trickery that gave some a bad name in the past.
Building and submitting galleries, free sites, blogs and other promotional vehicles can still pay dividends — and when done in-house can help replace affiliates while providing better control over content distribution — providing a profitable one-two punch to traffic building initiatives.
SEARCH ENGINES
Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) form the basis of many website’s traffic plan — with strategies ranging from SEO initiatives designed to garner free search engine traffic, to advanced pay per click efforts delivering predictable traffic flows. But given the highly competitive and fast evolving nature of today’s SEO and SEM arena, without real world experience and a substantial budget, your results are likely to be limited.
Having noted this, search results increasingly rely on social signals as a ranking factor that enables operators to leverage their social media and link building efforts to gain new visitors and better listings.
CROWDSOURCING TRAFFIC
One interesting aspect of the Internet ecosystem is that it brings like-minded people together to share their thoughts and feelings, as well as resources; such as a new site that they came across. These folks find blogs, forums, review sites and other venues soliciting two way discussions and user feedback a good way to help guide their purchase decisions — learning about product pluses as well as service concerns with a given supplier, rating their experiences and offering tremendous consumer insights to your potential customers.
Savvy marketers will find their way into these discussions, learning from complaints while putting their product’s best foot forward. While spamming is never a good thing, submitting a paysite to various review sites is one proven method for generating traffic at the same time as receiving valuable feedback.
SOCIAL MEDIA
One way to encourage folks to want to do business with your company is through the efforts you put into social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more. While some companies, especially small firms without a social media manager, question the value of these efforts, it is important to remember that whether or not your company participates in these venues, its customers are — with any number of independent user groups and review communities commenting on your products and services — with any negative comments or reviews taking traffic and potential sales away from you.
Why not take control of that narrative and use it to your advantage?
Remember, just as in search marketing, if your company’s social media footprint isn’t composed of good news it’s only because you didn’t do a good enough job of pushing the bad news down the page, leaving traffic building link backs to your site in the process.
PUSHING PUBLICITY
Brand conscious adult entertainment companies can elevate their public profile by making news headlines — but hopefully in a positive way! Think of activities that media companies will be interested in reporting on: while adult news and information sites such as XBIZ.com are more than happy to report on a studio’s latest release, a new site launch, management moves or other day to day industry happenings of interest to B2B audiences and beyond, reaching a broader consumer audience will require more mainstream appeal.
Do you offer something that the news media would be interested in, such as a creative approach or superior technology? Use a press release to get the word out and visitors in.
REPEAT CUSTOMERS
It’s often easier and more profitable to repeatedly sell to the same customers than it is to recruit new prospects and then turn them into new paying customers. One way to reach current customers with new offers is by sending mailings to members and clients, such as newsletters, surveys and special offers. Another way is by offering outstanding customer service so that the customer wants to do more business with your company.
Don’t underestimate the value of this investment in relationship building: marketing analytics firm SumAll reveals that companies can see 25 to 40 percent of total revenues coming from returning customers, with an average of three to five years needed to reach rates of 25 percent or more — a timeframe that can be speeded up through excellence — which brings the added benefit of economic stability. For example, SumAll says that its figures reveal that businesses enjoying a 40 percent level of repeat customers earned 47 percent more revenue over a 12 month period than did similar businesses that only have a 10 percent rate of return customers.
A PERSONAL TOUCH
When it comes to business to business relationships, it is the personal touch that sells. This can take the form of attending and sponsoring adult industry events and conferences, where one on one face time can build bonds leading to better business — including deals that might otherwise have not been possible through more impersonal methods — such as message boards and e-mail or instant messages, where parties may not actually be known to each other and are forced to rely on anonymous board personas as a gauge of who they are doing business with.
If you are looking for network building partnerships or the type of traffic exchange that might only result from a face to face meeting, then try the popular speed networking sessions at XBIZ events.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Of course, when it comes time to really grow your business and traffic levels, those personal relationships you’ve built will put new opportunities on the table, such as leads for properties that might come up for sale or a partnership. There are two main ways to obtain website traffic — you can either grow your own or get it from someone else that has it, so purchasing or otherwise acquiring sites or media companies that generate traffic is a fast way to boost visitor volume.
Just be sure to study the historical traffic statistics for any property purchased for its traffic potential, such as a domain name, website or affiliate network, since “last minute” ad buys or other traffic purchases are often used for a pre-sale pump up of visitor volume.
OLD SCHOOL ADVERTISING
Additionally, do not forget the classic traffic generation methods from the brick and mortar world that might deliver the edge you need; such as advertising in print magazines and newspapers, as well as via radio and television.
PAY FOR WHAT YOU WANT
Finally, one of the best (but potentially most expensive and least productive) traffic sources involves paid advertising from traffic companies such as ad networks, brokers, and redirects that are able to finely slice and dice traffic, allocating visitors on demand; segregated by parameters such as geographic location, browsers and operating system, time of day, day of week and more.
AdXpansion.com, EroAdvertising.com, ExoClick.com, JuicyAds.com and others are all ready to help you with paid traffic acquisition and can also help you to sell ad space on your site for an additional revenue stream to help offset traffic expenses.
XBIZ’ Adult Business Directory provides a listing of top traffic services, along with TGPs & MGPs, link directories and review sites, adult search engines, blogs, banner exchanges and other resources, which when taken as a whole, provide a synergistic approach to adult website traffic building.
The biggest lesson for operators is a simple one: there is more than one way to build traffic and it takes more than one method to get enough of it today. Try them all and see.
