"Traffic
from FFA's. Really"
By Mark Joyner
Back in the old days (in Internet time, two years
ago was "the old days"), submitting your site to free
link pages (AKA Free-for-All Link Pages or "FFA" pages)
was not a bad way to promote your business. That is, for a small
amount of effort, you could get a medium amount of traffic.
The theory was: "If you submit to one hundred FFA sites,
you may get a click or two. Automate this process and submit to
hundreds and you may end up with a decent amount of traffic."
Eventually, software appeared which would submit your FFA links
to hundreds of pages at a time. The solution to your traffic-building
woes, right?
As you probably know by now, this just isn't the case. It doesn't
work that way, and here's why:
Once this automation software began to proliferate, the effectiveness
of the FFA postings went down dramatically. That is, your listing
would last about 10 minutes on any given page since there were
hundreds of other people out there submitting at any given time.
It stands to reason that if your FFA listing shows up on a page
for less time, your link has a smaller chance of getting seen.
So, what I'm saying is, if you are submitting using a popular
software program, your chances of getting traffic from those postings
is lessened.That is why the FFA submission feature in Webmaster Multi
Tool is free:
Now, my company still submits to FFAs on a regular basis. Why?
Two reasons:
1. There *is* still a way to submit to FFA sites that will get
you good traffic, and it will probably surprise you. It's something
most people don't take advantage of.
2. There is a whole other reason to submit to FFAs that will bring
you traffic *indirectly*.
Are you confused? Don't worry, it will be clear in a minute.
Now, as for #1, this is really cool. Remember the paradox about
FFA submissions - if you could automate, you would increase your
chances of getting seen, but the act of automation itself actually
lessened the overall result. What if you could automate the process
*without* lessening the result? Wouldn't that be great?
The good news is that you can automate and still get results.
An amazing little tool called "Free Link Finder" takes
all the good things about FFA submitting and removes all the bad.
You see, the paradox occurred because everyone using the software
was using the same list. If you were submitting to a list of FFA
pages that no one else was using, wouldn't your chances for exposure
increase? Of course they would - dramatically!
Free Link Finder does this by spidering the net (based on search
criteria you feed it), finding FFA pages, and submitting to them
one by one. You simply give the program a set of search criteria
and set it loose. Then go on about your other important business
while the app generates traffic for you. This is very
cool.
I use this app all the time and the results are *far* better than
what I get using a canned list everyone else is using. Since the
sites to which I'm submitting are generally pages that are submitted
to less often, every submission I make brings exponentially better
results than what I would get from a FFA submitter that submits
to the same list over and over.
Give this a shot and see for yourself. (Keep in mind that a well
crafted title for your submission will increase your results even
more. As always, experiment with various titles to see what works
best.)
OK, so what about Reason #2? It takes a few logical jumps to understand
how this works, but let's give it a shot:
a. Some search engines use "link popularity" when deciding
how to rank your pages. That is, if more sites are linking to
you, your link popularity is higher. The logic being that if more
people link to you, the quality and importance of your site is
probably higher. (The free version of Webmaster Multi Tool
lets you check your link popularity on all of the engines
that support it.)
b. If you can somehow increase your link popularity, all of your
listings in the engines will be given a bit more weight.
c. You can artificially increase your site's link popularity by
submitting to FFA pages. That is, many of the FFA pages to which
you submit will be spidered by the engines. Your links will be
found and increase the link popularity for that particular URL.
This is an instant, automated way of giving your listings a boost.
Now, let's turn this into an action plan. This information will
only increase your traffic when you *act on it*.
*Action Plan*:
OK, let's put all this together. Here is an action plan you can
use to increase traffic to your site with just a small amount
of effort on your part:
- Basic Steps
a. Use the free version of Webmaster
Multi Tool to check your site's link popularity.
b. Use the free version of Webmaster Multi Tool to submit your
site to over 1,000 FFA pages.
Then, check your link popularity again one month later. It should
be higher by at least a few hundred.
- Advanced Steps
c. Download Free Link Finder and begin using it regularly: Free
Link Finder
d. Over time, you will build a huge list of FFA pages to which
you can submit. The URLs of each of these pages are saved to a
file. Upload this file as an HTML page to your site. Then, turn
the Swiss Army App spider submitter loose on that page and submit
each of those FFA URLs to the engines. Do this *right after* you
submit to the FFA pages. This will ensure each of those FFA pages
is spidered by the engines. Do this once a week.
e. Check your link popularity after doing this for two months.
It will have gone through the roof.
Remember folks, this information will only increase your traffic
when you act on it. Download both of those apps now before you
forget. This is an easy way to increase your traffic.
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