e-commerce website, how to get more traffic?

Hi, so I have an e-commerce website and it's been up for almost 2 years now. I have been manually building links to it, paying for packages here on BHW and Fiverr. I also have an active Instagram account. I want to get some ideas for driving more traffic and sales to my website.

Adwords, Facebook, and a many other programs won't take my website because I'm selling e cigs. So it's hard to put money into those type of ads. I've also tried some sites like Shopzilla but the ROI wasn't good.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

This thread might be helpful:

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/making-money/758805-real-life-example-how-you-can-make-ecommerce-site-pays-you-decent-cash.html

P.S. Try Google Product Listing Ads?

Make some YouTube videos of the e-cigs (reviews, unboxings, etc.) or maybe even smoke trick compilation videos. Then, put the link to your store in the desc and as a watermark over the video.

Can't approved for the google product listing ads as it's against their ToS.

make sure that you are building the best keyword which can drive traffic.. share your links on social media with good followers.. and also remember that seeing results of out these process may consume little..

I'm going to try making my own PBN's. Need some recommendations from you guys though.

1. when buying an expired domain, should the amount of backlinks matter or is the PR, DA, PA, etc. good enough?
2. should i shoot for the high comp. keywords even if my budget is for 5 PBNs?

Burberry said:

I'm going to try making my own PBN's. Need some recommendations from you guys though.

1. when buying an expired domain, should the amount of backlinks matter or is the PR, DA, PA, etc. good enough?
2. should i shoot for the high comp. keywords even if my budget is for 5 PBNs?

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1. PR hasn't been updated for a long time and DA/PA can be easily inflated with cheap spam. I would look for majestic's CF/TF indicators instead, especially TF but they are all just indicators and you still need to evaluate all domains by hand.

2. If your budget is only for 5 PBNs then I would advice you not to shoot anything. It won't budge if your desired kw is anything more than very low competition. Invest in decent youtube video instead and link to your site from description and comments. Spam the hell out of it with cheap fiverr gigs.

Don't forget to do social media marketing (SMM) properly. These days products are sold more by campaigning on Facebook, Twitter etc. Also, make an app of it on Android and iOS.

You're buying SEO services, that's good, however you need to be patient now until results will come.

mikpel said:

1. PR hasn't been updated for a long time and DA/PA can be easily inflated with cheap spam. I would look for majestic's CF/TF indicators instead, especially TF but they are all just indicators and you still need to evaluate all domains by hand.

2. If your budget is only for 5 PBNs then I would advice you not to shoot anything. It won't budge if your desired kw is anything more than very low competition. Invest in decent youtube video instead and link to your site from description and comments. Spam the hell out of it with cheap fiverr gigs.

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Unfortunately Facebook wouldn't approve my ads either because of the e cigs. So I'm currently using IG with Instagress, and posting good content daily. I do like a 1:5 ratio for pics leading back to my website, and just regular pics that viewers would like.

I've had no luck with Facebook, no movement at all. Same with Twitter. Have tried Pinterest and StumbleUpon as well, but not sure if it's doing anything.

I'll look into the app, but have had no prior experience with that stuff. Any recommendations as to how to get the app made on a budget?

One word. Cloaking.

This could get pricey though but it will enable to promote it on FB or adwords.

Paper-Boy said:

One word. Cloaking.

This could get pricey though but it will enable to promote it on FB or adwords.

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This is your best bet. Always make sure that your picture ads on Facebook are compliant with their ToS though. Cloaking only protects your URL and sends them to a safe page. Same goes for AdWords.

If you want to try Cloaking out, I recommend Fraudbuster or one of the ones here on BHW. I know FraudB offers a trial, but I'm not sure if the other guys do. It's your best bet as ecigs are tricky markets to legitimately advertise.

Have you tried having a FB fanpage dedicated to smoking and smokers? Hot girls smoking/vaping whatever, repost vids of people doing smoke tricks, communicate with fans then deliver some ad links to your vid. There's some clever ways to do it such as downloading a trick vid, then editing your URL ((Obviously as clean as possible)) or add your FB page watermark on it. People rip off videos ALL the time and slap their watermark on it to get more exposure.

Post on smoking type pages on FB, throw in a subtle ad post etc. There's some creative ways to do it if your budget is low and your time is high.

Thanks for the cloaking advice, I'm looking into it right now and seeing where a good point is for me to start with. You are right about one thing, it is pricey just to test.

However, as per cloaking -- Do sites like FB/Google use real humans to click through to your link or are they all robots? If they use actual humans for the approval process, I don't see how cloaking will help.

I have a few more questions:
1. If the approval process is done manually by an actual person, I don't see how cloaking will help?
2. Do the search terms that I choose for the campaign matter? Say if they're against the sale of e cigs or vape products, can I still pay for those search terms? Or what if I include one of those words in my campaign title? (example: Buy e cigs now!)

Aty said:

You're buying SEO services, that's good, however you need to be patient now until results will come.

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He's been waiting 2 years.

randybishop said:

He's been waiting 2 years.

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I can always be patient as this isn't my main source of income (since it's not generating any income).
In the past I've also paid for SEO but the rankings didn't get me close enough to the first page and it didn't help. I dropped the project for about a year so I could focus on my career in real life, and trying to reboot now.

Going to go HAM this time and increase my budget by like 6 times, and hopefully it leads me somewhere within the next 3 months or so.