Introduction
Anything you do online is pretty much useless without traffic. It doesn’t matter how many pages you create, how much time you spend researching, and how many articles you write if you never get any traffic.
Traffic = Potential Customers = Money
Unfortunately, traffic is the one thing most online business owners overlook. They live by the “build it and they will come” mentality, preferring to spend time making their site look pretty and have lots of bells and whistles, without spending much time thinking about how to actually get people there.
In this report, I’m going to teach you a few quick and easy ways to get traffic to your website. You’ll need traffic in order to build a list, get clicks on AdSense ads, or sell products. No matter what you do, traffic is the ultimate key.
So let’s get started.
Free vs. Paid Traffic
Many people believe that all traffic should be free, but this isn’t always true. It can be worth it to pursue paid traffic avenues if you have a product that has been proven to convert very well. The trouble is, you will need some free traffic in order to test conversions, first.
I use one main rule of thumb when deciding whether or not to try paid traffic:
· If I am selling a product of my own, or if I am sending traffic to a page that focuses on selling on specific product, I will try paid traffic.
This means that I WOULD send paid traffic to a sales page or a review page, but I would NOT send paid traffic to a blog, forum, article directory, or other information-style website.
Paid traffic should be reserved for situations where you are promoting something very specific that has already been proven to convert. Otherwise, stick with free traffic.
Article Marketing
Article marketing is a very popular method for getting traffic. In many markets, it’s one of the best ways for bringing in large quantities of targeted visitors for free.
Most people have no idea how to use article marketing effectively. They write two or three articles, and then they give up; claiming article marketing isn’t effective because they got no traffic from it.
The truth is article marketing can be extremely powerful if done correctly. Many people get tens of thousands of visitors every month just from their articles, and make five or even six figures from that traffic!
In order for article marketing to be effective, you must make sure to write each and every article around a specific keyword phrase. This phrase must have a significant number of searches each month, and very little competition. This will help ensure your articles get traffic from search engines.
Articles won’t usually get a lot of traffic directly from article directories. Most of their traffic comes from search engines. If this is true, you may be thinking, why can’t I just put the articles on my own website? Well, articles directories already have built-in authority with search engines. This means pages on them will usually rank faster and easier than pages on domains with less authority. Thus, you can use their authority to grab search engine traffic and funnel it to your own site.
How is this done?
Whenever you submit an article, you are given a section of text at the end that is known as the “resource box”. In this area, you can add some text and link to your own site.
Your resource box is one of the most vital components of your entire article. If the resource box is boring or doesn’t give readers a reason to click through to your site, they will leave without visiting it. Make sure to spend time crafting a compelling resource box, and you will be able to make the most of the articles you submit.
Forum Marketing
Some people dismiss forum marketing as old-fashioned or ineffective, but forum marketing can still be extremely lucrative if done correctly. Obviously, most people don’t know how to use it properly, but those who do are really cashing in with it.
First, you must find forums in your niche. There are a couple of good ways to do this. The first is to simply search Google like this:
· “your niche keyword” forum
· “your niche keyword” message board
Another way to find forums in your niche is:
Simply enter your main niche keyword into the search box and you will be presented with current threads on various message boards and forums. They track thousands of different forums in almost every niche imaginable.
The trick to using forum marketing effectively is to be subtle. You cannot rush into a forum as a new user and start posting links to your sites in every post you make! You will end up banned, or at the very least users will just ignore you.
Instead, you must add a link to your site in your signature and never, ever mention it. Some forums don’t even allow this, so be sure to read the rules before you start posting. If the forum allows it, add a link to your signature and just start posting.
Make sure to post thoughtful, helpful messages. Reply to questions and give people helpful answers. Be friendly, and make sure to avoid forum fights like the plague. You never want to be involved in controversy, because it will only hurt your reputation.
You want to accomplish to main things. First, establish yourself as an “expert” in your niche. Secondly, get attention to your signature link. You can accomplish both of these by simply being friendly, posting often, and giving people helpful advice.
Video Marketing
Video marketing is another marketing method that many people avoid. Some feel they can’t make videos, and others think it’s just not worth the effort.
It definitely IS worth the effort, and it’s a lot easier to make videos than you probably think! You can make a simple video very quickly by putting together a slideshow presentation with Microsoft PowerPoint and exporting to video format.
You can also outsource video production for as little as $10 per video at various webmaster forums such as WarriorForum.com and DigitalPoint.com, or on sites like oDesk.com and eLance.com
It only takes moments to submit a video to YouTube and some of the other video sharing websites. Be sure to add your site’s URL to the video itself, and add a link to your site in the description of the video, too. This will help you get a lot of traffic, especially if you target keywords with your video titles!
Social Marketing
Social marketing can be tricky. It’s not enough to simply build large lists of followers and send your links to them. People will eventually tune you out if you don’t post things that are interesting to them.
You must cultivate your friends lists carefully. Don’t spam them to death with commercial posts. Instead, be sure to send them fun and useful information on a regular basis. Eventually, they will start to look forward to your posts, and they will notice them. This will make your social marketing much more effective, so your posts will get more traffic when you do make commercial posts.
The two best sites for general social marketing are:
Both sites DO allow marketing, but you should be sure not to overdo it. If you get complaints, you could still be banned.
Safelists
Another form of marketing that many marketers have abandoned is the safelist. A safelist is an email marketing list that is usually free, but may be paid. You join the list, and you are allowed to send your own mailings out to the other people, and they can send their offers to you.
Safelists are considered useless by many people, but the fact is, they can actually be extremely lucrative in some niches, especially business and marketing. It can be tricky to find the best way to monetize a particular safelist, but once you do, they can definitely send some traffic and money your way!
Check out:
Feeder Sites
Feeder sites are pages that are hosted on various free hosts and web 2.0 sites around the web that can attract search engine traffic and funnel it to your site in the same way as article marketing.
There are many different types of sites you can use for this purpose. Some sites allow you to build simple pages, while others let you build free blogs or full websites.
When using feeder sites, you must be sure to base all of your pages around keywords, just like you do for your own site and for your articles that you submit to article directories. Don’t worry about these pages outranking your own site. They may, but remember, you’re funneling that traffic to your own site, anyway. Plus, wouldn’t you rather have 6 pages that you control on the front page of Google rather than just one? This is possible if you create a lot of different feeder sites on various hosts!
Some sites to try include:
These are just a few of the most popular sites. There are hundreds of sites out there that can be used for building feeder sites and pages. Don’t forget some of the free blog sites like Blogger.com and WordPress.com. These can be very useful for pulling in search engine traffic and funneling it through to yours.
Remember, these pages can help you dominate the search engines, helping you control even more of the traffic in a niche!
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