10 Websites That Boost Your Traffic For Free

At the beginning of a startup’s life there is hardly time for marketing as you are spending most of your day developing and refining your product. But don’t forget that some traction is very helpful for gathering feedback in the early stages of product development. Here are some websites you can submit your startup to and generate traffic, for free.

These websites help you getting the first early adopters and increase your chance to prevail when contacting the tech press.

1. Hacker News

 

Hacker News is a great place to get very helpful feedback from tech-savvy users and also to generate a humongous amount of traffic if you are lucky and get onto the front page.

2. Startup Bird

 

Startup Bird is a platform to present new startup ideas from all around the world. Startups only need to fill out a short description, state their USP and if the publisher is interested your startup will be featured on their front page.

3. Kickoff Boost

 

Kickoff Boost presents new and interesting products and smartphone apps on a daily basis. You just need to add a short description of your service and hit submit.

4. Crunchbase

 

Crunchbase, part of the TechCrunch Network, is a behemoth of the startup world and firstly a directory of startups and their company structure, news releases, etc. Definitely worth the time for a backlink but compared to the other portals not as viral.

5. Betalist

 

Betalist publishes startups with all kinds of backgrounds, not solely technology-driven companies. Next to a lengthy submission process you have the possibility of doing an interview which is a great opportunity to expose your brand further.

6. Bootstrappist

 

Emails have the highest conversion rate and Bootstrappist allows you to leverage that. In exchange for a good story Bootstrappist sends out your message to over 9,500 tech-savvy subscribers.

7. Killer Startups

 

Killer Startups is interested in the story behind your tech startup and features you on their front page. In order to do so Killer Startups provides different models: free users need to wait up to six months as demand is high, users who pay $167 get featured within 48 hours.

8. App Storm

 

App Storm is a big review network that also has a web app subsidiary. Startups can submit their project for free and also send other interesting news.

9. Side Projectors

 

Side Projectors is a market place for startups. The portal showcases cool projects and lets you search for co-founders or possible buyers.

10. Firespotting

 

Firespotting at first sight seems like a copycat of Hacker News but it does its job: simply submit a title and URL and wait for traffic to come in. The purest form of startup marketing 🙂

BONUS: Startup Vitality

In case you don’t want to spend your time on submitting your product to various portals there are services that do the job for you. Startup Vitality leverages their network of sites and allows you to gain instant exposure in 24 hours. Their service starts at $ 389 with 1 premium network member, 5 network members, 72 hour turnaround and a traffic preparation guide. Surely the best method if you have the spare change.

Whether you do it one way or the other, you should make sure to read this practical guide to get media coverage for your startup at OnStartups.

Want more tips’n’tricks for getting free traffic?