6 ms·

Show HN: TrafficGun – Grow Your Traffic Easily

45 points by yabbadabbadoo 11y ago

yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
Hi guys, I'm the co-founder of TrafficGun - a platform to make cross-promotions b/w bloggers easier. Happy to answer any questions.
- kposehn 11y ago
  Can you provide more details on one-way traffic?
  - yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
    Sure! If you find a site who metrics - traffic, niche etc - that you like, you can send them a request to write about your site/product in exchange for a fee. The fee is set by the owner of the site.
    - bduerst 11y ago
      So it's basically a link exchange for blogs? What's the incentive for a popular blog to link to less popular or newer blogs?
      - yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
        When you get a request for cross-promotion, you can see the metrics of that site (traffic, niche, age etc). If the metrics aren't to your liking, you can simply decline the cross-promotion request. Also, it's actually not about exchanging links - in fact, we strongly encourage all users on our platform to nofollow the links. This is about teling your readers "Hey! There's this interesting blog you should check out" - and getting the same in return.
- danielvinson 11y ago
  Why call it TrafficGun? Feels like a weird name and carries bad connotations.
  - bpg_92 11y ago
    Maybe something related to mailgun.com ?
gscott 11y ago
Our Overlord Google does not approve unless if you mark all the links nofollow.
- yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
  We strongly encourage all users on our platform to nofollow all links. TrafficGun isn't about SEO/links. Its about gaining real, live visitors.
  - captn3m0 11y ago
    That clarifies it a lot. Thanks
    - yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
      You're welcome :)
  - kposehn 11y ago
    Encourage instead of require? Any particular reason for that?
    - yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
      It's in the best interest of the site owner to nofollow, so we figured encouragement is good enough :)
fowkswe 11y ago
"3b. One-Way Traffic Or you could just do one-way traffic. Details inside." Can you explain?
- yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
  Sure! If you find a site who metrics - traffic, niche etc - that you like, you can send them a request to write about your site/product in exchange for a fee. The fee is set by the owner of the site.
- kposehn 11y ago
  (reply here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9459681 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9459681)
captn3m0 11y ago
>You can also drive one-way traffic just to your site. How does this happen? I'm guessing it would involve payments, is that so?
- yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
  Yes. If you find a site who metrics - traffic, niche etc - that you like, you can send them a request to write about your site/product in exchange for a fee. The fee is set by the owner of the site.
coderdude 11y ago
This reminds me of the highly-untargeted spam emails that I get all the time from people asking if they can write blog posts for me. Naturally, they would contain a lot of links to some other site. The idea has definitely been done before. Think PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews, etc. Sounds like an excellent way to get yourself deranked by Google.
- yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
  Hey! Thanks for the feedback :) 'highly un-targeted' is the keyword in your comment. With TrafficGun, there's no spamming ppl with unwanted requests. Every user on the platform is amenable to cross-promotion. As for PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews etc - our focus is primarily on cross-promotions b/w bloggers who vet each other. Finally, re:Google - We encourage all users on our platform to nofollow all links. TrafficGun isn't about SEO/links. Its about gaining real, live visitors.
  - coderdude 11y ago
    Content for the sake of exchanging traffic by means of links. I'm not convinced this is much different (if any different) than what I mentioned. SponsoredReviews focuses on bloggers writing ads for products. Your idea is to have the arrangement be two-way so that both sites write about the other but then you have the issue of all these sites stacking up two-way links which looks like link exchanges. I doubt Google is going to be thrown off by the nofollow links. It's been abused to stop pagerank 'leak' to the point of losing its original meaning. I don't think emphasizing the use of nofollow is going to save anyone from Google realizing sites are putting out farm-style content.
- bikerider415 11y ago
  I've used those sites before. This seems different in that they're not gaming advertising but actually exchanging like-kind content. Google doesn't derank for that.
  - yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
    Exactly!
kajecounterhack 11y ago
> "Submit your site(s) to TrafficGun and we'll verify it's metrics - " s/it\'s/its/r
stanmancan 11y ago
Just created an account and ran into a bug almost immediately. When I added my GA account it pulled all of the websites under one specific GA account, I'm assuming the one that has somehow been marked as the default. Within GA I have multiple accounts, but they're all under my one google apps account. I'm unable to see (and thus add) any website that's not grouped within this account. For example, pretend within GA I have the following groupings: Personal Work Customer 1 Customer 2 Each one of these 'sub accounts' within GA contains the websites I've associated with it. With TrafficGun, it only see's the websites under 'Personal' and not Work, Customer 1 or Customer 2.
- yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
  Hey Stan, pls ping me at help@trafficgun.com with your username - and I'll be happy to take a look at your account :)
matt_morgan 11y ago
What makes "3a. Cross-Promote" something other than a zero-sum game? Does it presume that most people have more time to devote to reading stuff online?
- yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
  Does it presume that most people have more time to devote to reading stuff online? On a niche-by-niche basis, yes. For instance, I keep a list of personal finance blogs that I check out regularly. When one of those blogs features a personal finance site I haven't seen before, I check that out as well and consider adding it to my list. One of the best ways to grow your blog traffic long-term is getting other bloggers in your niche to write about you. TrafficGun makes this easy.
proksoup 11y ago
Reminds me of what my first impression of LinkExchange was. Webrings! Everyone wins. No sarcasm.
- yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
  TrafficGun isn't about SEO/links. Its about gaining real, live visitors. To this end, we strongly encourage all users on our platform to nofollow all links.
  - proksoup 11y ago
    Wait --- how do the real live visitors get to your site if not a link? I don't follow how nofollow makes it not a link web ring? No sarcasm, I used webrings in 1996 to great effect. Not for SEO. For real live visitors.
    - yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
      Ahh, my bad. I thought you were implying this was some sort of link exchange scheme for SEO. But yes, cross-promotions work great for growing traffic long-term. See this comment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9459902 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9459902
- jakejake 11y ago
  Ah web-rings! I remember they were quite fun and interesting at first. I'd actually click from one site to the next in a ring to check them all out. Of course that was a time when there were limited numbers of sites for niche topics, and discovering them was a more "word-of-mouth" thing. I was also surfing on a 56k modem. Not to poo-poo on what seems to be an honest effort with TrafficGun, though. I don't know if the sharing spirit of website owners is the same as it was back then, but it would be nice.
  - kristopolous 11y ago
    It's how it works. All the star, follow, reblog platforms basically expose your presence on that persons "blog" in a push manner. Twitter, tumblr, pinterest, instagram ... They all have a number of indirect ways of this. And as someone who has had to do icky marketing on these platforms, doing that process is the best way to grow.
semmem1 11y ago
Any cost to this?
kristopolous 11y ago
A web-ring. How retro.

45 points by yabbadabbadoo 11y ago

Hi guys, I'm the co-founder of TrafficGun - a platform to make cross-promotions b/w bloggers easier. Happy to answer any questions.

kposehn 11y ago
Can you provide more details on one-way traffic?
- yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
  Sure! If you find a site who metrics - traffic, niche etc - that you like, you can send them a request to write about your site/product in exchange for a fee. The fee is set by the owner of the site.
  - bduerst 11y ago
    So it's basically a link exchange for blogs? What's the incentive for a popular blog to link to less popular or newer blogs?
    - yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
      When you get a request for cross-promotion, you can see the metrics of that site (traffic, niche, age etc). If the metrics aren't to your liking, you can simply decline the cross-promotion request. Also, it's actually not about exchanging links - in fact, we strongly encourage all users on our platform to nofollow the links. This is about teling your readers "Hey! There's this interesting blog you should check out" - and getting the same in return.
danielvinson 11y ago
Why call it TrafficGun? Feels like a weird name and carries bad connotations.
- bpg_92 11y ago
  Maybe something related to mailgun.com ?

gscott 11y ago

Our Overlord Google does not approve unless if you mark all the links nofollow.

yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
We strongly encourage all users on our platform to nofollow all links. TrafficGun isn't about SEO/links. Its about gaining real, live visitors.
- captn3m0 11y ago
  That clarifies it a lot. Thanks
  - yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
    You're welcome :)
- kposehn 11y ago
  Encourage instead of require? Any particular reason for that?
  - yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
    It's in the best interest of the site owner to nofollow, so we figured encouragement is good enough :)

fowkswe 11y ago

"3b. One-Way Traffic Or you could just do one-way traffic. Details inside." Can you explain?

yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
Sure! If you find a site who metrics - traffic, niche etc - that you like, you can send them a request to write about your site/product in exchange for a fee. The fee is set by the owner of the site.
kposehn 11y ago
(reply here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9459681 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9459681)

captn3m0 11y ago

>You can also drive one-way traffic just to your site. How does this happen? I'm guessing it would involve payments, is that so?

yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
Yes. If you find a site who metrics - traffic, niche etc - that you like, you can send them a request to write about your site/product in exchange for a fee. The fee is set by the owner of the site.

coderdude 11y ago

This reminds me of the highly-untargeted spam emails that I get all the time from people asking if they can write blog posts for me. Naturally, they would contain a lot of links to some other site. The idea has definitely been done before. Think PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews, etc. Sounds like an excellent way to get yourself deranked by Google.

yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
Hey! Thanks for the feedback :) 'highly un-targeted' is the keyword in your comment. With TrafficGun, there's no spamming ppl with unwanted requests. Every user on the platform is amenable to cross-promotion. As for PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews etc - our focus is primarily on cross-promotions b/w bloggers who vet each other. Finally, re:Google - We encourage all users on our platform to nofollow all links. TrafficGun isn't about SEO/links. Its about gaining real, live visitors.
- coderdude 11y ago
  Content for the sake of exchanging traffic by means of links. I'm not convinced this is much different (if any different) than what I mentioned. SponsoredReviews focuses on bloggers writing ads for products. Your idea is to have the arrangement be two-way so that both sites write about the other but then you have the issue of all these sites stacking up two-way links which looks like link exchanges. I doubt Google is going to be thrown off by the nofollow links. It's been abused to stop pagerank 'leak' to the point of losing its original meaning. I don't think emphasizing the use of nofollow is going to save anyone from Google realizing sites are putting out farm-style content.
bikerider415 11y ago
I've used those sites before. This seems different in that they're not gaming advertising but actually exchanging like-kind content. Google doesn't derank for that.
- yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
  Exactly!

kajecounterhack 11y ago

> "Submit your site(s) to TrafficGun and we'll verify it's metrics - " s/it\'s/its/r

stanmancan 11y ago

Just created an account and ran into a bug almost immediately. When I added my GA account it pulled all of the websites under one specific GA account, I'm assuming the one that has somehow been marked as the default. Within GA I have multiple accounts, but they're all under my one google apps account. I'm unable to see (and thus add) any website that's not grouped within this account. For example, pretend within GA I have the following groupings: Personal Work Customer 1 Customer 2 Each one of these 'sub accounts' within GA contains the websites I've associated with it. With TrafficGun, it only see's the websites under 'Personal' and not Work, Customer 1 or Customer 2.

yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
Hey Stan, pls ping me at help@trafficgun.com with your username - and I'll be happy to take a look at your account :)

matt_morgan 11y ago

What makes "3a. Cross-Promote" something other than a zero-sum game? Does it presume that most people have more time to devote to reading stuff online?

yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
Does it presume that most people have more time to devote to reading stuff online? On a niche-by-niche basis, yes. For instance, I keep a list of personal finance blogs that I check out regularly. When one of those blogs features a personal finance site I haven't seen before, I check that out as well and consider adding it to my list. One of the best ways to grow your blog traffic long-term is getting other bloggers in your niche to write about you. TrafficGun makes this easy.

proksoup 11y ago

Reminds me of what my first impression of LinkExchange was. Webrings! Everyone wins. No sarcasm.

yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
TrafficGun isn't about SEO/links. Its about gaining real, live visitors. To this end, we strongly encourage all users on our platform to nofollow all links.
- proksoup 11y ago
  Wait --- how do the real live visitors get to your site if not a link? I don't follow how nofollow makes it not a link web ring? No sarcasm, I used webrings in 1996 to great effect. Not for SEO. For real live visitors.
  - yabbadabbadoo 11y ago
    Ahh, my bad. I thought you were implying this was some sort of link exchange scheme for SEO. But yes, cross-promotions work great for growing traffic long-term. See this comment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9459902 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9459902
jakejake 11y ago
Ah web-rings! I remember they were quite fun and interesting at first. I'd actually click from one site to the next in a ring to check them all out. Of course that was a time when there were limited numbers of sites for niche topics, and discovering them was a more "word-of-mouth" thing. I was also surfing on a 56k modem. Not to poo-poo on what seems to be an honest effort with TrafficGun, though. I don't know if the sharing spirit of website owners is the same as it was back then, but it would be nice.
- kristopolous 11y ago
  It's how it works. All the star, follow, reblog platforms basically expose your presence on that persons "blog" in a push manner. Twitter, tumblr, pinterest, instagram ... They all have a number of indirect ways of this. And as someone who has had to do icky marketing on these platforms, doing that process is the best way to grow.

semmem1 11y ago

Any cost to this?

kristopolous 11y ago

A web-ring. How retro.