Getting traffic to your websiteYou probably know the usual ways to generate traffic to your website – through blog commenting, advertising, guest blogging, etc. However, there are some more unusual ways to generate traffic which can bring results but which few people know about or use. Some of these techniques are simply unusual while others are unknown.

Special Characters

This one is really odd, but it works. Most people, when they try to come up with ways to generate additional traffic to their websites or blogs focus on SEO efforts, building up their backlink profiles and the like. However, what not everyone remembers is that search results still need to be clicked on by human beings in order to generate traffic.
Basically, this method takes advantage of the title tag in your meta descriptions to create more interesting titles which may entice people to click on your link as opposed to some else’s. For example, this might be more interesting as a restaurant link’s title tag:
♦♦♦♦♦5 Star Restaurant — Seattle♦♦♦♦♦
This is done using the ascii code “♦”. You can find a complete list of codes at this website. You simply add the code in when you create a title tag and voila, your link stands out from the rest.

Use Animated Slideshows

Yes, you can create ordinary slideshows for your website and share through Slideshare. However, I found that Slideshare doesn’t actually let you post slideshows with full animation. A different site which I have registered for, called AuthorStream does allow you to post such slide shows.
This means that your slide shows stand out and are more likely to be clicked on. You can even syndicate with Slideshare and include a link in your Slideshare show which says “if you want to see the full experience, click on this link instead.

Create Reports and Give Them Away

You can create reports which you send out to various websites which will distribute them far and wide. In essence, they’re like mini books. However, instead of protecting your copyright on them and trying to offer it only as an inducement to sign up for your website, you send out the reports to the web at large with your website link embedded inside of them.
This then brings in additional traffic which would never have found your site through more traditional methods of SEO. There are lots of such sites on the web, but some of the more popular options include Free eBooks and Scribd.

Give Away Software

If you have the technical knowledge or the money to do so (it’s really not that expensive), you can create software, generally some kind of simple, useful app, which you can give away for free. Again however, the key is not to offer it only on your site but all over the web at places like download.com and tucows.com.
Then, you include a requirement in the software to register at your website. You can even include a nag screen which comes up say every 30 days or so suggesting an upgrade. Just make sure not to overdo it and make sure to make the software genuinely useful.
If you don’t know how to do it yourself by the way, you can usually hire a programmer at places like Elance or Guru.com to do the work for you. Programmers in third world countries are often quite inexpensive and do a decent job (just make sure the writing is handled by you or someone who speaks English fluently as this is often a weak point).

Create Embedded Software

Finally, this is a spin on the software giveaway above, but it’s another idea which doesn’t get to much attention as a way to drive more traffic to your website. In this instance, you create useful web based software.
The software is the kind of thing that someone might want to embed into their website (for example, I’ve been looking for an embeddable stock market game for my personal finance blog but haven’t found one yet). You then include a link in the software which links back to your site. Blogs and other sites all over the web will then embed your software and provide links back to you.

Bottom Line

Most of these ideas simply require thinking outside the box in order to make them work. They aren’t radical and most don’t cost a lot of money. However, in a world where SEO is increasingly done the same way by most companies, these ideas can help you to build traffic in ways which you never thought possible.