Entrepreneur, startup founder and technical marketer Chris Bolman shares 8 actionable growth hacking strategies to grow your website traffic, improve user/customer acquisition and increase lead generation. Growth hacks include suggestions and references to Github, Google News, Friendbuy, BuzzFork, Quora, Medium, Visual.ly and more.

1. 8 Clever
Hacks to Increase Your Website Traffic
Chris Bolman
chris@chrisbolman.com
t @ChrisBolman

2. My background*
*i.e., not just some guy who feels entitled and wants to hop on a trend
(well, ok, maybe a little.)
8 Clever Growth Hacks to Increase Your Website Traffic
t @ChrisBolman

3. Let’s Begin, Shall We?
Today we’ll be growth hacking with:
8 Clever Growth Hacks to Increase Your Website Traffic
t @ChrisBolman

4. Hack #1:
• BetaList distribution: 25K email subscribers*,
14.5K Twitter followers; typically good for
~150-250 unique sign-ups on your landing
page. Not really a “hack,” just do it
• You MUST sign up before you launch your
product, but after you have a landing page set
up to collect email addresses/signups. Don’t
miss this opportunity by sitting on it
• Once you have your landing page ready to go,
pay the small fee to expedite your listing. It’s
worth it
*estimate using (avg. betalist unique traffic to landing page) / (0.5 * avg. industry email CTR)
8 Clever Growth Hacks to Increase Your Website Traffic
t @ChrisBolman

5. Hack #2:
+
• Step #1: Use Google News API to find
journalists who write about topics relevant
to your startup or company
• Step #2: Use MTurk to get their email
addresses
• Step #3: Send them press kits, get press
• See: https://github.com/JustinWi/
NewsDownloader
8 Clever Growth Hacks to Increase Your Website Traffic
t @ChrisBolman

6. Hack #3:
• Craiglist is a convenience and discovery
engine. Ways you can get discovered include
(1) job posts, (2) gig posts, (3) “beta tester
wanted” requests. Get creative, although this
can cross over into “black hat” territory fast
• You definitely don’t have to be in real estate
(i.e. AirBnB) to leverage craigslist for
awesomeness, although if your hack isn’t
interesting or provocative your traffic quality
will be low. Automate to the extent possible
• These strategies can also be used to a
lesser extent with smaller task marketplaces
like Taskrabbit
8 Clever Growth Hacks to Increase Your Website Traffic
t @ChrisBolman

7. Hack #4:
• Want Dropbox-style affiliate referral links
without having to roll your own? Friendbuy
has a straightforward, integrated API, widget
and analytics solution for affiliate sharing
setup with a lower technical learning curve
• Read more here:
https://www.friendbuy.com/developers/
• Other module/library inspiration for devs:
Anafero: http://anafero.readthedocs.org (Django)
Rails Referral Tracking: https://github.com/danvoell/
rails-referral-tracking (RoR)
8 Clever Growth Hacks to Increase Your Website Traffic
t @ChrisBolman

8. Hack #5:
• Audience/distribution: >200,000 monthly
uniques (source: Compete.com)
• Tech and business journalists often comb
Visual.ly looking for content, and are happy
to pull your infographic (assuming they like it)
and incorporate it into an article or feature
• Great distribution channel for inbound linkbuilding and press discovery
8 Clever Growth Hacks to Increase Your Website Traffic
t @ChrisBolman

9. Hack #6:
• What: targeted social marketing automation
and follower attribution for Twitter
• Why: generates Twitter follows, mentions and
website traffic (via your Twitter profile URL) at a
fraction of the cost of more mainstream social
advertising methods
• Learn more: www.buzzfork.com
8 Clever Growth Hacks to Increase Your Website Traffic
t @ChrisBolman

10. Hack #7:
• Audience/distribution: 1.5MM monthly
uniques (source: Compete.com)
•Also not really a hack (just do it), but
important to use a holistic, balanced content
marketing strategy (don’t just shill your
product in un-constructive answers)
• Focus on early responses (or responses to
unanswered questions) and standalone,
thought-leader posts for content syndication
• Also a great knowledge repository for
growth hacking inspiration and strategy:
http://growth-hacks.quora.com/
8 Clever Growth Hacks to Increase Your Website Traffic
t @ChrisBolman

11. Hack #8:
• What: Essay-format public blogging platform
created by Ev Williams that’s read by most of
the people in tech who matter
• Why: If you’re an early-stage startup, it’s
unlikely your blog gets anywhere near the level
of per-post traffic [example: left] that Medium
does
• Remember: Natively link back to your
project, content or website within your post
and within your article, when appropriate. Use
UTM tags for article-specific attribution
8 Clever Growth Hacks to Increase Your Website Traffic
t @ChrisBolman

12. Good Luck
&
Happy Growth Hacking
Chris Bolman
chris@chrisbolman.com
t @ChrisBolman