by Holly Buchanan

Wow - I just checked the stats on thesoccermommyth.com and we had a million visitors today! We sold more books than John Grisham! And Ben and Jerry’s just put out a new brand of Chunky Monkey that tastes just like the old brand, but has no fat or calories! Mmmmm….it’s so good.

Holly - wake up, wake up! You’re trying to eat your pillow.

Oh - sorry. Boy, that was a great dream. I bet you’ve had similar dreams - overnight you suddenly got hundreds of thousands of visitors to your website. It does happen (though not overnight). The question is, how?

There’s a short simple answer, and a longer more tactical answer. Let’s start with the short simple answer.

Be Remarkable

As Seth Godin often points out, you have to be remarkable if you really want to get people’s attention and turn them into customers/clients/brand ambassadors.

Is there something about your website or content that makes people so excited, they tell their friends. (Remember, women are the number one source of word-of-mouth) Is there something so compelling visitors will continue to come back for repeat visits? What is the deep need or motivation that you are addressing?

Some examples of websites that have generated incredible word of mouth and huge traffic are - Zappos shoes. Zappos does not have a 30 day return policy, or 60 day return policy, but a 365 day return policy. They are currently offering free shipping both ways. They understand one of the biggest fears of shopping online is that something won’t fit, so they make returns ridiculously easy.

Another example is rockyou.com. They recognize that women love to share photos. But instead of just emailing static photos, how much cooler would it be to create a slideshow with cool animation, captions, and music? Rockyou.com makes this tool very easy to use. I created this slide show in 5 minutes. (Warning - music will launch automatically. If you are at work, turn your volume down).

Shefinds.com understands women today are often too busy to keep up with the latest trends and shopping opportunities - so they do the work for you. As the site says:

“We study the trends and surf the web for the best items and then send you a link in the SheFinds weekly newsletter. We also find you online coupons if they exist. All you have to do is click. SheFinds doesn’t carry any inventory, so we don’t push anything we wouldn’t wear.”

Michelle Madhok of Shefinds says the site has grown tremendously, and now has 300,000 visitors a month. Michelle credits the increase in traffic to SEO, cross-linking Shefinds with other like minded blogs, syndicating their content to site like Glam, MSN, Yahoo, AOL and Real Simple, PR placements, and “by doing great content that gets people to come back.”

If you want lots of traffic, offer something remarkable that meets a deeper need or motivation, or allows someone to interact with you and your product in a unique way. Give them a good reason to come back to your site again and again. Tap into the power of word of mouth.

That’s the short easy answer. Now, the longer tactical answer.

Specific Steps for Increasing Traffic to Your Website

OK, this could easily be a small book - so I’m going to hit a few highlights.

Embed a blog in your website. Blogs are a commitment, but if you write content that is compelling and answers your visitors questions - posts that are keyword rich - search engines and visitors will eat them up. It’s a great way to get organic search engine visibility. Keyword rich pages should also be a part of your website strategy. Blogs are also a way to have fresh content on your site and encourage visitors to return often.

Use Images - Make sure you are including keywords in your image alt attributes or image titles (if they’re in a blog post). Search engines can read those tags and they can help you rank on those keywords.

Use Video - There are many ways to use video, from customer testimonials, to videos of presentations, to videos of product demonstrations, to videos that let you get to know more about the people behind the company. On thesoccermommyth.com we have a video in the lower right corner. We almost get more comments on the video than we do on the book. (warning, bad dancing is involved)

Comment on other blogs and discussion forums related to your topic. Be a part of the conversation. Also, most comment features allow you to provide a link back to your own blog or website.

Use tools like Digg, StumbleUpon, put up a Facebook page and a Myspace page - make it easy for people to find and hear about you.

Paid Advertising - Here’s an article on DoshDosh which lists out 8 types of paid advertising models.

Have a PR strategy - This should include press releases on PRweb.com. Who are the journalists who cover your space? Reach out to them. Put on special events. Sponsor events.

Create an email list - This list may be the most valuable thing you create. Offer white papers, free reports, newsletters (that are short and to the point - women don’t have time to read all the newsletters in their in-box) free samples, offer something of value in exchange for their email addresses.

DoshDosh has some more ideas on how new websites can build traffic.

And Copyblogger has a complete list of terrific resources on the subject of increasing traffic to your website.

One final thought - be transparent. Be more like a statesman and less like a lawyer. And be yourself. Have the courage to tell it like it really is. And do it in your own voice.

Good luck with your efforts! Let me know how it’s going.