PR 
3 Comments The Effect Of Free PR
A question I have seen many times from many an new affiliate is “My site is featured in PublicationY, can I expect to see any additional traffic?”. In my experience it’s hard to gauge what type of additional traffic you will see, if any at all, from a mention in a book, TV or Radio show or Magazine/Newspaper. I have had websites mentioned in all aforementioned media, and have seen differing results.
Here are my findings to date, and they cover numerous websites that have gained exposure over the past 5 years;
BOOKS – I’ve had a wide range of websites reviewed in the Good Website Guide over the past 5 years, however the book contains 1000′s of websites including my competition.
RESULT: No noticeable traffic increase.
TELEVISION – a niche website featured on a niche program which listed only a further 2 websites. Sadly as the websites were mentioned 10 minutes into the start of the program, which lasted over 1hr, it resulted in people forgot by the time the program ended.
RESULT: No noticeable traffic increase.
RADIO – similar to Television. If most people’s listening habits are like mine, the radio is on in the car or as background noise while doing other things such as reading, gardening etc. If a website is mentioned, unless I am at a computer at the time, I forget the URL or simply don’t hear it in the first place.
RESULT: No noticeable traffic increase.
MAGAZINE/NEWSPAPER – by far the best in my experience. In 2001 a website of mine was reviewed in the Sunday Times and the increase in traffic was noticeable, 4 years later it was reviewed in Computer User (from memory) and a spike wasn’t even evident.
RESULT: Differs every-time.
I was recently asked by TradeDoubler to take part in an interview with the Readers Digest about how the affiliate industry works, and how people can turn a hobby into an income. They wanted to quote me as Chris Frost who runs xxxxxxxx.co.uk so I had a chance of free promotion. As the Readers Digest typically attracts the silver surfer age group, it couldn’t see it helping increase traffic to a Lingerie or Sports themed website so I opted for my re-designed Discount Code website. The reason for this was that the design was new, and also I’m aware of my folks shopping habits – always looking out for a bargain.
I received a copy of the publication at the weekend, and sure enough there are quotes from me talking about the affiliate industry along with comments from TradeDoubler. The article is short and sweet and I guess time will tell if the Readers Digest will increase inbound traffic or not.
Over all I always welcome free opportunities to publicise my websites, however it’s more of a little ego boost that little old me is mentioned in a publication rather than a dead cert to gain 1000′s of new visitors free of charge.