Using Twitter & Facebook to Generate Site Traffic

So how does Twitter and Facebook play into this? If you are anything like me, you were probably skeptical. Here comes another technology fad thing.

I also didn't like the name..."Twitter"?, it sounds too cute, kinda girly I thought. Then, I see Oprah, Ellen and Ashton Kutcher using it...okay, definitely not for me. If you're a guy, maybe you can relate. Who needs this stuff?!

But... you can't deny its popularity. Its in the news every day, and so I decided to give it a try especially at the request of some of my students...and ha ha... I like it now, and here are the reasons why, beginning with the ability to increase site traffic...

1) Remember....Once you decide to put ads on your site, you understand that revenue from these ads is based on the amount of clicks your ads receive, which is directly related to the amount of traffic your site gets. If more people visit your site, then the likelihood of someone clicking increases too.

This is a great thing because from a creative standpoint, it encourages you to constantly update your site/blog, and it also encourages you to maintain high standards for your content. For example, if you are a creative, you will post good animations, well crafted drawings, thoughtful designs, sketches and blogposts.

So here's how you do it, but remember that everybody uses it differently. When you post new content on your site or blog. Simply send out a Twitter feed to let everyone know about it and that's it. If you are consistent in frequency and quality, people will come and visit. I have a group of people who follow my tweets and once in a while, I get new followers who watch for the type of content I post, they get notified (somehow) and they end up following. This is great.

The best thing, is that some followers have thousands of followers themselves, if these "whales" like your content, they'll link to you. This is how more and more people visit you and its quite a remarkable way to spread news.

Facebook works in the same way, and if you've been on it for quite a while, you've established a nice friend list comprised of many hundred individuals. Unlike Twitter, these are close colleagues and friends, who would check out the post out of pure interest and because it helps them out. They trust you and therefore are more likely to visit your post.

2) Since joining Twitter, I can't say enough about the inspiration I've received by following certain people, my blogposts have doubled in frequency since joining Twitter. The following tweets are my favorite and since I started following them, I never run out of topics to blog about. By following them, I'm constantly inspired professionally and personally. I used to follow lots of people, but after a while, you begin to filter the "junk". When you get a chance check these people out - its a great way to stay informed - here are my top 3:

• http://twitter.com/3dm3
  They post nice links to animation, featurettes, and video games all the time.
  
  
• http://twitter.com/StrategyThought
  Very thoughtful tweets on thinking strategically (about your profession and life).
  
  
• http://twitter.com/AnimationMentor
  A must have for every animation student.

Ads: Making Money on Your Creative Website

Sounds interesting and tempting doesn't it? This post will cover how to use ads on your website. It will show you where to go, appropriate places to put them, and other benefits of placing ads on your site.

Let's not forget however, that your creative website, by nature, is created to make money already, your creative website shows off YOU and Your skills: your awesome sense of design, use of color, drawing and painting ability, and if you are an animation or game design major, your animations, level and concept designs. An employer will look at all of this, make an impression of you and will hire you if you fit the job…If you follow the advice I give you on this blog, the impression an employer has of you will be positive you'll get that job you want, or at least, a chance for a second interview. If many people wanting your skill visit your site, and feel that you can help them, then your website is making you money…you are building a clientele and your site is helping you. This is the primary way that your website will make money for you.

The second and third way, is based on ads placed on strategic areas on your site. I will tell you where I place these ads on my site, and the areas where I feel its a “No No”. There are many online ad programs you can use, but I use Google Asense because it seems to be the most common, Google is huge and dependable (so far) and I like the data you get when you use them, I'll explain that as well, but keep in mind too that there are many nonmonetary reasons to put ads on your site too.

For example, the ads you place on your site will be able to track the traffic your site gets. Through the Google Adsense, you will be able to see how many page impressions you have for the day, yesterday, the week, the month, the year, and you will also be able to see what the most popular pages are on your site, that's cool.

The best part I like the most, and its totally personal, is that since I have ads on my site, and I get paid for each click or page impression, I have to do my best to generate traffic. This means I have to continue to generate meaningful content, that people want to check out. This puts me in a state of constant creativity, I’m always posting cool stuff on my blog, and I’m constantly creating things like small animations, new paintings, tutorials and sketches and letting people know about it.

Let’s talk about where to place your ads, but let’s start with the bad news first….let’s start with the Don’ts.

Don’t place ads on your gallery or demo reel page…the pages that show off your work. This is totally tacky. Imagine slapping stickers on to a portfolio…that’s what you are doing when you put ads on the artful/design areas of your site. Stickers are good if you are a NASCAR driver, but you are not, you haven’t even started your career, so don’t do it. Also, don’t place ads on your contact page or bio page.

On the flip side, DO place ads on the commercial portions of your site, and the primary place I place ads is on my blog, and one, well designed, strategically placed ad on my homepage. I started putting ads on my homepage because I wanted to see how many people were visiting my site, at the time, it was getting roughly about 200 page impressions a day, doesn’t sound like much, but in about a week that’s over 1000, and almost 4000 page impressions a month. I figured, since Google Adsense, compensates for the amount of page impressions, I might as well give it a try. I was hesitant at first, but once the ad was up, I liked seeing the data arrive about my main homepage.

The part I was worried about the most, was that I just didn’t want to have a gawky ugly ad on my site that didn’t belong, so I designed it to be part of my homepage where it wouldn’t draw too much attention. The ads were terrible looking at first, but after about a month, the Google Ads figured out the best ads to place on my homepage, and started putting ads that are relevant to the content of the page. It was nice to start seeing ads for the Hellboy II DVD, anime, aniboom, Star Wars Toys and WACOM tablet ads (which are beautiful ads by the way), once in a while though, ugly ads show up, but that’s okay, ugly or not, the site still looks good.

Surprising to me however, was the activity my blog, “The Caged Tiger’s Templar” was receiving. This is a blog that I would keep for myself regardless of whether or not I have ads on it or not. I use it to log cool things I see on the internet that inspire me, like game and movie trailers, animation and visual effects examples, demo reels and tutorials, and after I post them, share these with my class. This is invaluable and I love it. The entire blog continues to grow with content that I like and am happy that other people other than my students are checking it out.

Since I update my blog all the time, Google will sense that the information is current and new, so it places it high on certain search queries. This is not always the case, but once in a while it does, and again it helps drive traffic to my site. After putting ads on my blog, I also realized that the page impressions on my blog, rivaled the page impressions to my homepage.

And the last thing, is Google Analytics, similar to Google Adsense, it gives you more information about the traffic of your site, like bounce rate, and what keywords people are typing in a search to find you. That’s amazing interesting information you should know about your site, its free and it’s a skill that makes you an invaluable asset to a company.

So there you have it, the reasons why you should place ads on your site, and the correct places to put them.

To begin, start by signing up for Google Adsense and follow the directions for placing ads on your site and blog. If you have a Blogspot account, navigate to your dashboard > page layout > and look for the Widgent called "Adsense". There, you will paste the code given to you after signing up with Google Adsense and you will be well under way.

So, personal question....You are probably wondering how much money I made doing this? To be honest, I wish I made more…as much as these guys who make thousands of dollars per week (Steve Pavlina), very inspiring, but for me, here’s a realistic number. When you reach your first 100 dollars, Google will cut you a check. It took about 2 years to reach that and am approaching a second check soon. I figure, the more I drive traffic to my site by producing great stuff, and by posting on my site, the things I like the most, it can’t go wrong. It can only grow.

I’m always on the lookout for ways to broaden my blog activity, not just to animation students and animators, this is a small niche, but to broaden my market and reach more people, I was prompted to design a blog, “3 Seconds to Impress” to help people like yourselves make effective sites. I wrote about placing ads on your site because many students have requested it. Hopefully this helps you out.

Just remember, that your site generates money all by itself, if you do this, without doing much and it grows on its own as long I add to it to make it grow. The next step for you, is to use Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic to your site.