Little traffic leak - case study

[Joozed]

A while back I came across CCarters traffic leaks thread here and it was useful for building out my own strategies. Figured I’d reciprocate and drop one here in case anyone cares.

I’ve been driving traffic to client sites using petition sites. I start by checking which petition sites are getting some love from Google after algorithm updates. Change dot org is huge but for example actionnetwork dot org doubled its traffic over the last year, so this one looks promising too:

Next I search for petitions on these sites that are getting a decent amount of engagement. Let's say you’re in the travel niche, you could Google “actionnetwork dot org + travel” and find something like this with 17k signatures:

Obviously I make sure the petition is recent and relevant to the site I’m promoting - no point in pushing something outdated that no one’s searching for.

Once I find a good one I ask ChatGPT to help me rewrite it. The prompt might be something like: “Rewrite this petition in your own words. Craft a compelling story that motivates action. Begin by outlining the problem, present a solution, and naturally encourage readers to visit xyz.com.”

After that, I optimize it with a few keywords so it will rank, throw in an image, add a link to my client’s site for some nice DR86 link juice and hit publish. If you’ve got a decent newsletter list you could ask your subscribers to sign the petition to get some extra engagement. For one client I reached out to local media outlets and they started reporting on it : ). The more people engage, the more traffic you’ll get. Oh and don't forget to build some Tier 2 links to your petition page when it's live.

There are tons of petition sites where you can post it to get both traffic and links. I built a tracker to keep tabs on all petition domains where you can apply this tactic. If you’re interested in trying it, let me know.

 

[secretagentdad]

Well that ones a hoot.
Good principles for traffic generation in general.

 

[Terry Power]

I'll have to try that one, always appreciate some good idea generators that one can riff on.

 

[Joozed]

Got another one.

Check out this YouTube channel with around 40 million views per month and 6 million subscribers: https://www.youtube.com/@PoliceActivity. They show bodycam footage from police officers. If you sponsor the channel you’ll get a shout-out in the video description and also a 20-second mention at the end of every video which looks like this:

Even if just 1% of viewers see the URL, that’s still 400,000 eyes on your brand every month. For $20 that’s a pretty solid CPV:

I think it's a good strategy for branding but to get actual traffic, I optimized some of the URLs to attract attention and referred them to the client’s site. Also make sure what you’re offering is highly relevant. In this example: think legal services, crime prevention products, home security, insurance, prepper tools

If you’re looking for sponsorship opportunities in your niche try Googling: patreon.com + "video description", buymeacoffee.com.com + "video description" or just browse through databases like ko-fi dot com or reach out to TikTok channels. Tons of creators have no clue how to monetize their video channels so cheap sponsorships have been an easy win for some of my clients.

 

[BakerStreet]

Got another one.

Check out this YouTube channel with around 40 million views per month and 6 million subscribers: https://www.youtube.com/@PoliceActivity. They show bodycam footage from police officers. If you sponsor the channel you’ll get a shout-out in the video description and also a 20-second mention at the end of every video which looks like this:

Even if just 1% of viewers see the URL, that’s still 400,000 eyes on your brand every month. For $20 that’s a pretty solid CPV:

I think it's a good strategy for branding but to get actual traffic, I optimized some of the URLs to attract attention and referred them to the client’s site. Also make sure what you’re offering is highly relevant. In this example: think legal services, crime prevention products, home security, insurance, prepper tools

If you’re looking for sponsorship opportunities in your niche try Googling: patreon.com + "video description", buymeacoffee.com.com + "video description" or just browse through databases like ko-fi dot com or reach out to TikTok channels. Tons of creators have no clue how to monetize their video channels so cheap sponsorships have been an easy win for some of my clients.

Did you test this out or is this only hypothetical? You said “I optimized some of the URLs to attract attention and referred them to the client’s site.” but it seems like you meant to write “I’d optimized some of the URLs to attract attention and referred them to the client’s site.” As in “I would optimize some…”

I’m asking because all the companies I know that does social media marketing don’t produce an ROI… you need a product that’s super basic and wide reaching for it to fit in this channel. Just my experience though.

If you do have numbers, it’ll be interesting to see.

 

[eliquid]

I’m asking because all the companies I know that does social media marketing don’t produce an ROI… you need a product that’s super basic and wide reaching for it to fit in this channel.

How do you mean?

Are the companies only doing social media and nothing else?

Are they doing social media + other things ( like paid )?

Is it only tracked via last click attribution?

Social media crushes it when it's actually done in the way it is supposed to be done.

 

[Joozed]

Did you test this out or is this only hypothetical? You said “I optimized some of the URLs to attract attention and referred them to the client’s site.” but it seems like you meant to write “I’d optimized some of the URLs to attract attention and referred them to the client’s site.” As in “I would optimize some…”

I’m asking because all the companies I know that does social media marketing don’t produce an ROI… you need a product that’s super basic and wide reaching for it to fit in this channel. Just my experience though.

If you do have numbers, it’ll be interesting to see.

I tested this on different types of popular video categories: cooking, gaming, beauty etc. What I meant by optimizing is this: if you're promoting a brand with a name that might not immediately grab attention and let's say you're sponsoring a fitness channel, you might want to consider registering a more targeted URL like FixBackPain.com. This makes it clear what viewers can expect when they type in that URL or click on the link in the video description. You can then redirect that URL to your main site that sells products/services for back pain relief . And eliquid is right, this should always be part of a larger strategy.

 

[BakerStreet]

I tested this on different types of popular video categories: cooking, gaming, beauty etc. What I meant by optimizing is this: if you're promoting a brand with a name that might not immediately grab attention and let's say you're sponsoring a fitness channel, you might want to consider registering a more targeted URL like FixBackPain.com. This makes it clear what viewers can expect when they type in that URL or click on the link in the video description. You can then redirect that URL to your main site that sells products/services for back pain relief . And eliquid is right, this should always be part of a larger strategy.

Good for you. At my day job, we have an influencer database software we subscribe to for like $6,000/year and we do outreach to influencers and pay for sponsored posts on their feed. It ranges from $300 to a few thousands, depending on influencer. We track it w/ a tracking link and it is last click attribution... and this channel is only profitable every other week.

Seems like product/market fit for influencers is pretty hard. If you have a basic product like NordVPN or Incognito or something like that, it seems to be doing fine. Other products, YMMV.

@eliquid The company does all channels and its last click attribution. Issues with social is that it is hard to scale unlike SEM, real time bidding, display, etc. It's also a YMMV a lot as some influencers don't convert. Also cost of sponsorship varies a lot.

 

[eliquid]

@eliquid The company does all channels and its last click attribution. Issues with social is that it is hard to scale unlike SEM, real time bidding, display, etc. It's also a YMMV a lot as some influencers don't convert. Also cost of sponsorship varies a lot.

That's going to be the issue.

You're not going to get last click attribution for paid social.

Will some come in, sure.

But paid social isn't for last click. It will always be horrible judged by that for a lot of products.

You're going to have to start looking at other metrics/attributions to judge it, or else you will also mistake the channel as a whole

 

[BakerStreet]

That's going to be the issue.

You're not going to get last click attribution for paid social.

Will some come in, sure.

But paid social isn't for last click. It will always be horrible judged by that for a lot of products.

You're going to have to start looking at other metrics/attributions to judge it, or else you will also mistake the channel as a whole

Maybe but I just do what I’m told and changing attribution model is above my pay grade.

 

[Joozed]

Here’s another fun hack that actually works: people love compliments. First I create a selection of sites that are indirect competitors of our clients. For example if a client sells yachts on their website, I’d make a list of indirect competitors like private jet companies, luxury real estate or high-end vehicles.

Next, don't write a boring listicle like “5 Best Private Jet Companies”. Write a more unique and engaging blog post like “The Unseen Stories Behind 5 Industry-Leading Private Jet Companies.”

We do quite a bit of extra research on things like awards they’ve won, asking our client if they know any insider info or finding interviews with the founder that mention something funny.

Once this blogpost is live on our client’s site we reach out via email. If there’s no reply, we try social media, targeting people in the marketing department or CEO (Twitter and LinkedIn work best for this in my experience).

Results have been quite good and a bit all over the place; most companies shared the post on their social media channels (one had 30k+ followers), others link back to it from their blog and one included it in their newsletter. The backlinks are relevant since they’re related to my client’s niches and always target a similar audience. This approach might help with relationship-building between the companies too but I’m no expert in that. I’m just here building links for my clients in weird ways Anyone else successfully implemented this?

 

[BakerStreet]

Here’s another fun hack that actually works: people love compliments. First I create a selection of sites that are indirect competitors of our clients. For example if a client sells yachts on their website, I’d make a list of indirect competitors like private jet companies, luxury real estate or high-end vehicles.

Next, don't write a boring listicle like “5 Best Private Jet Companies”. Write a more unique and engaging blog post like “The Unseen Stories Behind 5 Industry-Leading Private Jet Companies.”

We do quite a bit of extra research on things like awards they’ve won, asking our client if they know any insider info or finding interviews with the founder that mention something funny.

Once this blogpost is live on our client’s site we reach out via email. If there’s no reply, we try social media, targeting people in the marketing department or CEO (Twitter and LinkedIn work best for this in my experience).

Results have been quite good and a bit all over the place; most companies shared the post on their social media channels (one had 30k+ followers), others link back to it from their blog and one included it in their newsletter. The backlinks are relevant since they’re related to my client’s niches and always target a similar audience. This approach might help with relationship-building between the companies too but I’m no expert in that. I’m just here building links for my clients in weird ways Anyone else successfully implemented this?

I did. I did awards for bloggers. I just made a badge for them on paint and sent it out. Same idea.

Are these your personal clients or do you work for an agency or is it your agency?

 

[Joozed]

I did. I did awards for bloggers. I just made a badge for them on paint and sent it out. Same idea.

Are these your personal clients or do you work for an agency or is it your agency?

Cool, I like the awards approach too!

It is my agency—15 years and counting. Started selling on Wickedfire. I'm sure many will remember that forum : ).