10/27/2009: "increase website traffic with a trapdoor!"

out there in internet world there are some very very clever and slippery people.
the amount of tricks and schemes to get you to use a website and earn them some kind of reward is staggering!

the reward could be increased traffic or cookie dropping so they get a commission etc.

one technique i come across most often is the blog or forum owner, who posts for nothing more than attention, a way to encourage others to post and drive traffic to their site.
people love giving their opinion - it is natures way of proving themselves or summat, but they cannot resist falling into the trap laid perfectly for them by the forum/blog owner!

i read marketing blogs all the time, fascinating they are, not because of all the little snippets of insider information, these are rare, but more for the complete contradiction they show in the user and the gullability of the readers:
example - i wont name the website/blog here as its unfair, because im not particularly interested in getting any "feedback" or increasing traffic etc. plus i dont want you getting caught in the trap yourself, which you invariably will!

from reading the two main posters on the blog - they drop in bits of info about how successful they are, one poster in particular posts about how he has relied on one website for most of his income, that his family and himself can live off, and successfully manage. now he wants to branch out and have a few other websites, all carefully chosen, etc, and good opportunities to expand his portfolio, blah blah blah.
in earlier posts he tells us about how he has benefitted from this procedure and that way of doing things, in other posts he reminds us of a way of life he enjoys (expecting us to believe its all from one website) but the post (or the traffic trap) is the one that is very clever:

he is planning to set up a blog using a popular content management system - he lists how he sets it up and what few add ons he uses when he sets up... this is "the trapdoor" to which others will fall through!
before i go any further think about this - he tells us he is successful, he drops hints about how he is expanding the number of websites he has, how he sets targets for himself, and in other posts he portrays himself as a bit of an expert on SEO and various other aspects of website building, even to the point of telling the readers that he is being hired by a company to promote their website - as a sideline!

back to the post - he is fully qualified to set up and use this CMS system, yet he apparantly uses very few add ons and knows little of how to configure a website??? how odd!
here's the trap... if he writes a post, detailing about this CMS that he uses, it is just his opinion and thats that, if he posts very little detail with the CMS's name in the title, and "plays dumb" - then visitors to his blog then post about what they use and what they find works best!

this bloke is successful, regular readers hold him in some esteem, trying to weedle information and tips out of him, this is human nature's way of increasing their own self esteem by foolishly believing they can actually provide this "guru" with information he does not know!
now what will generate more traffic?:
- a blog post on a content management system used all over the net, with his own tips
- or a blog post about the CMS with a couple of tips, and 30-40 comments from other people, with links pointing at add ons for the CMS and increasing the value of the post in a search engine?

if this bloke is for real and really does struggle with setting up a website, so much so, that he has to post what little he knows on a blog post (revealing this to the internet world), then how come he can support himself and his family from approx one single website and its sales clicks?
this doesnt add up - very clever it is as well, his "post" will now carry much higher weight in search engines than if he just posted all he knows about setting up a website using this particular CMS!

another quick example of the obvious "trapdoor" approach:
instead of a blog, this person owns a forum...
the users of this forum are good old fashioned normal people like you and i, the forum owner posts on a particular subject.. lets say "croatia"

he posts asking the others on the forum what it is like there - hes been thinking about a holiday there - can anyone recommend any resorts etc.

the "trapdoor" is set - the regular people who dont run websites, ie, the basic users of the forum of course want to contribute, off they go posting about when they went there and where abouts they went, what the food is like any good places to eat, activities, etc.
BINGO - the trap has been sprung, the forum owner has generated interest, has planted a seed about holidays, has gained some valuable information from people that have been there (for free) and as happens, a month or so later, the post is edited to contain a link to a great website about croatia.

of course what the forum members dont realise is.... 3 days before the post is put on the forum by the owner, his own croatia website (selling holidays etc) is launched - the website linked in the post later is his own (driving traffic to it) - the information from forum members about croatia resorts, places, activities, etc allows the owner to add more content (for free) and it generates more traffic via search engines for people searching for "croatia" which also generates more traffic for the forum.

it is a very clever process, if you want to increase your website traffic then plant a seed, using a trapdoor post and help yourself to a higher ranking as more people post to it!

(should you wish to leave a comment then please do so, i will normally reply to it, but this post is not intended to be for this reason!)