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Showing posts with label Website Traffic. Show all posts

Friday, February 26, 2010

TRAFFIC GENERATION ~ The Number One Skill That Will Generate Cash Flow

If you're feeling a bit of confusion and frustration about how to get visitors to your website and generate more sales, I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way until I stopped listening to every "big time" marketer that came along with the latest traffic generating trick.

You've got dozens of gurus vying for your attention and every one of them has the solution to all of your problems. Right? The proliferation of messages that promise a traffic explosion using new techniques can become overwhelming.

Time out.

Take a deep breath.

Sit back in your chair.

Relax.

Now, if you will focus your energy on a very short list of traffic generation strategies that actually DO work, and commit to continually improving your skills in these few areas, you will be amazed at what you can achieve... WILL achieve.

In part 1 of this article series, we discussed the fact that...

There are only 3 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.
3) Steal it.

Since 3 is not an option we're going to consider, that leaves us with "buy it" and "borrow it".

We also talked about the "Holy Grail" of web traffic. What is it? FREE TRAFFIC! I want it. You want it. Every disillusioned internet marketer wants it.

Here's the truth...

It's a myth.

It doesn't exist.

There is no such thing as free website traffic.

We'll resume our discussion where we left off...

In parts 1 and 2 of this series we discussed what your first two priorities should be for buying website traffic (PPC search engines and ezine advertising). Next, let's talk about borrowing traffic.

There are 2 traffic borrowing strategies that we'll talk about here.
1) Search engines.
2) Writing and submitting articles.

There's no disguising the fact that the print books, ebooks and reports written on these two strategies number in the hundreds and even thousands. Therefore, I'll make no attempt to provide comprehensive treatment on either of them.

However, they're both important and worthy of at least a primer. So, let's start with search engines.

If you want to make money with your website today, this week or this year, what is the absolute worst investment of your time?

Search engine optimization.

I know that some marketers don't want to hear this, but it's a fact for some of the reasons stated above and plenty of others. The mathematical (im)probabilities of achieving a top ranking for a search phrase that will result in meaningful traffic that includes buyers is… let's just say the odds aren't in your favor.

There are strategies that work with search engines to drive traffic to websites, but one thing they absolutely do not include is any attempt to optimize a sales page or for that matter an entire website that's designed to convert visitors into customers. The strategies that work with search engines offer them what they crave most, which is content. Perhaps in the future we can discuss this in some detail.

The next big time waster that's closely related to search engine optimization is submitting your website to the search engines. If your site won't be listed in the top 2, 3 or 4 pages of a search engine, nobody's going to see it anyways. This debate rages back and forth even with SEO experts who make their full time living doing nothing but consulting on SEO. Submit? Don't submit?

Following is an excerpt from Jill Whalen's High Ranking ezine. Jill does this stuff full time and she's well respected. I'm including this because it's enlightening. Here we go...

*** BEGIN EXCERPT ***

READER QUESTION: Is manually submitting each site better?

JW: You don't actually need to submit your site at all to search engines -- neither manually nor in an automated fashion. They all have spiders that "crawl" the Web and find all pages that exist, as long as there is a link to them from a page they already know about.

READER QUESTION: Once submitted ...do you keep submitting ...if so how often? (So you don't get kicked out.)

JW: Never.

READER QUESTION: The Microsoft submit supposedly submits to hundreds of search engines and directories

JW: It's a waste of time and bandwidth.

READER QUESTION: Is this good or bad (the number of SE's submitted to)

JW: It's neither, just useless.

READER QUESTION: I heard the more the better ...but there are some pretty cheesy search engines out there

JW: "The more the better" is incorrect. There are only 4 major search databases that matter: Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask Jeeves. Their databases power all of the other engines that make a difference.

*** END EXCERPT ***

Interesting, huh? So, let's move on.

Writing and Submitting Articles:

I KNOW that there are talented writers online who have not capitalized on their writing skills yet.

If you're in this group, you need to write and submit articles.

IF YOU'RE NOT IN THIS GROUP, you need to write and submit articles.

You see, nobody is out there grading you. Google does not moralize over your ability (or lack thereof) to write a coherent article. Google will, however, spider the links back to your IBSoftShop if you include it in your article's resource box. The more you do this, the better you'll get.

Writing and submitting articles is a long term approach to generating traffic that you should start right now. Set time aside weekly to consistently get your name and your site's URL out there in various article directories. Can you spare one hour a week? If yes, do this.

I just published an article on this topic titled "How to Vote for Your 0wn Website in the Search Engines." You can read it here: http://www.gothrive.com/articles/vote-for-your-own-website.html

Next, can I save you some time?

Here's a short list of activities and "programs" that will consume your time with very little if any result:

- Start Page Networks
- Exit Traffic Exchanges
- Safelists
- FFA Pages
- Lurking in Forums

There are others too, but who really benefits from a start page network, exit traffic exchange, safelist or FFA page? The person who owns and runs it. They benefit because they get to market to you and you get to market to other people who want nothing other than free traffic. Remember free traffic? Forget it.

You could spend the next year whiling away the hours on free traffic schemes or you could find PPC traffic that will turn your $10 investment into $49.85 in profit and then duplicate this success 10 times, 50 times or 100 times. Which will you choose?

TRAFFIC GENERATION ~ The Number One Skill That Will Generate Cash Flow. (Part 1 of 3)

If you're feeling a bit of confusion and frustration about how to get visitors to your website and generate more sales, I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way until I stopped listening to every "big time" marketer that came along with the latest traffic generating trick.

You've got dozens of gurus vying for your attention and every one of them has the solution to all of your problems. Right? The proliferation of messages that promise a traffic explosion using new techniques can become overwhelming.

Time out.

Take a deep breath.

Sit back in your chair.

Relax.

Now, if you will focus your energy on a very short list of traffic generation strategies that actually DO work, and commit to continually improving your skills in these few areas, you will be amazed at what you can achieve... WILL achieve.

Websites come in a wide variety of flavors, including...
- Minisites designed to sell individual products
- Portal sites designed to sell a broad selection of products
- Content sites designed to provide information

Of the above site species (minisites, portal sites and content sites), which do you think has the best chance of selling a product and putting income in your bank account?

ANSWER: Minisites.

Let's talk about web traffic.

Imagine 5 different internet users going to Google, MSN, Yahoo or whatever their favorite search engine happened to be, and each individual enters one of the following search queries:

Search #1: hazards

Search #2: household hazards

Search #3: chemical household hazards

Search #4: chemical household hazards for infants

Search #5: protecting infants from chemical household hazards

If you had a website that sold a device that guaranteed the safety of infants by locking cabinets containing hazardous household chemicals, which of the above visitors do you think would be most likely to buy what you're selling? I know. I hear you. "That's pretty obvious, Ron."

We want internet user #5 most. We may also want #3 and #4. Do we want #1 and #2? Maybe... Maybe not. The answer to that is going to depend on what it takes to get them to our site. But before we attempt to answer that question, HERE'S SOMETHING CRITICAL...

My Question to You: "If you were assured that you could get visitor #5 to your website, where would you send them?"

Let's say that your website had a variety of home safety products available. You sell everything from fire extinguishers to first aid kits to carbon monoxide detectors to child safe locks.

Your site's home page has just a little bit of information on each of your home safety product lines. Would you send visitor #5 to your home page?

Or...

Since visitor #5 just did a search for "protecting infants from chemical household hazards", would you have better results by sending them directly and immediately to the web page where they can order your device that guarantees the safety of their child from chemical household hazards?

Please don't think that I'm trying to insult your intelligence. I'm not. It's just that I have received correspondence from other direct marketers online concerned about the low sales of their websites only to find out that whenever that person sent traffic to their site, the traffic was going to their home page rather than to a page that spoke directly to the needs and desires of the visitor.

Alrighty then? Traffic time.

There are only 3 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.
3) Steal it.

Since #3 is not an option we're going to consider, that leaves us with "buy it" and "borrow it".

Before we go any further, let's talk about the "Holy Grail" of web traffic. What is it? FREE TRAFFIC! I want it. You want it. Every disillusioned internet marketer wants it.

Here's the truth...

It's a myth.

It doesn't exist.

There is no such thing as free website traffic.

"Ya but Ron, what if I could be #1 in Google for 'Internet Marketing' or 'Website Tools'?"

If you were able to get there or anywhere close, what would be required? What investment in time and resources would be required to land a prized spot such as this? Would you be able to get there for free? Furthermore, how long would you stay there?

Let's face it, neither Google, Yahoo, Altavista nor MSN wants any individual to be able to control the results of their search engines. That's why they spend millions upon millions of dollars every year taking steps to ensure that nobody has the knowledge to control all of the top positions.

Is search engine positioning something to aspire to? Perhaps. Given time. But it will not put any money in your pocket in the short term. That's pretty well guaranteed.

There are only 2 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.

Buy it? Yes, buy it. We're not talking about fortunes changing hands. There's no need to take out a second or third mortgage on you home to use this strategy. Traffic can be generated to your site for literally pennies per visitor.

Where will you buy traffic to your website? PPC Search Engines. PPC ("Pay Per Click") search engines give you the best opportunity to find the most motivated buyers and get them to visit your website. This is what you should be considering for your primary method of generating traffic to your website.

Remember above where we considered searcher #1 - searcher #5? We want searcher number five on our website, right? Right. We can and will find searcher #5 on the PPC search engines if we take the right approach. In a little bit I'll give you a list of PPC search engines to consider using, but first let's formulate a game plan.

Here's the basics of PPC advertising:

1) We have a product to sell.

2) We determine what the product has to offer and why someone might want to buy our product. (hint: focus on benefits, not features)

3) We do some keyword research to see if people are out there actually looking for the solution that our product offers.

4) Assuming that there's sufficient demand for our product /solution, we make a list of the keywords and keyword phrases that people are actually using to conduct their searches.

5) We write an ad for our product in such a way that it gets the attention of the searcher. This may mean changing ad copy slightly from one keyword phrase to the next. Try to put yourself in the position of the person doing the search.

6) We bid on the keywords that we're targeting with the ad that we've written and...

Wa-la! Traffic.

Is this a viable option? Absolutely. Google Adwords ads can be had for as little as $0.05 per click. Overture traffic can be had for as little as $0.10 per click.

If you're selling a product for $19.95, how many clicks can you buy and still be profitable? One sale out of 199 clicks and you're profitable. At this rate you only made a nickel, but that was at a conversion rate of only 0.5%! What if you had a conversion rate of 3%? 3% (3 visitors out of 100 become customers) doesn't sound like too much does it?

If you did indeed have a 3% conversion rate on a $19.95 product and were able to buy traffic for $0.10 per visitor, here's how the math works:

100 visitors cost you $10.00

3 visitors became customers and spent a total of $59.85.

Subtract your $10.00 advertising cost from your $59.85 revenue, and you have profited $49.85 (or somewhere close after PayPal or other selling fees).

So now, how much can you afford to spend on traffic?

If you've been running the above advertising campaign long enough to feel confident that a 3% conversion ratio is something that you can count on, then do the math backwards.

Your net profit is $49.85 for 100 visitors. Therefore, your "per visitor" value is $0.50 (I'm rounding up very slightly). Knowing this is a huge advantage.

Can you find more visitors to your site for $0.20, $0.30 or even $0.40? Of course you can, and it will still be profitable! Obviously, the less you spend on advertising, the more you keep. But if you could find a source of automatic traffic that you knew was profitable, wouldn't you buy as much as you could find?

This is exciting stuff! PPC traffic can work for you. Yes, there's a little bit of a learning curve, but that's true with anything new that you do.

Here's a list of PPC Search Engines that you should consider starting with:

Google AdWords (http://www.adwords.google.com)
Overture (http://www.overture.com)
FindWhat (http://www.findwhat.com)
Enhance Interactive (http://www.enhance.com)
GoClick (http://www.goclick.com)
7Search (http://www.7search.com)
Kanoodle (http://www.kanoodle.com)
ePilot (http://www.ePilot.com)
Search123 (http://www.search123.com)
SearchFeed Interactive (http://www.searchfeed.com)
eSpotting (http://www.espotting.com)
Xuppa (http://www.xuppa.com)

There are only 2 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.

In part 2 of this series, we'll continue our thoughts on "(1) Buy it" - traffic that is.

The No-Work, Money-Making Website

While growing up on the farm in North Carolina, I loved gardening. There was something magical about planting a dollar's worth of seeds, watching them germinate, and then feeding the family for a entire season with my efforts.

The only part I didn't enjoy was the weeding and cultivating. That was the WORK! So I was thrilled when I discovered "The Ruth Stout No Work Garden Book." That book taught me how to get all of those great vegetables with no weeding, very little cultivating, and little watering. It really did teach you how to garden with literally no work.

Twenty year later, I discovered just as fertile a garden on the Internet. With practically no investment other than my time, I could put up a website, nurture it, build traffic to it, and in time, harvest lots of sales from it.

Just like with the vegetable garden, there was a lot of maintenance required if you wanted a good harvest.

The site needed to be constantly updated so that the search engines "learned" that they should visit this "fresh" site often.

The site needed to have lots of keyword rich webpages so that it would rank high for relevant keywords, and attract organic search engine traffic. Since I was taught that "content is king" that meant the more content-rich, tightly-focused webpages you had, the better. The content-rich pages meant you could make sales, get new subscribers, and even earn pay-per-click revenue from programs such as Google AdSense.

The only problem with the above model is... it's a lot of WORK.

Then I discovered, "The No-work, Money-making Website. It wasn't completely no work, but it was probably 1/10th the work that I had been doing.

The no-work website encompasses building a content-rich website using automated tools. These tools allow you to gather relevant content (articles, RSS feeds, etc.) from all over the Internet and then instantly generate hundreds ... even thousands of content rich webpages in minutes.

The no-work website encompasses using other tools to automatically update your site, so that each time the search engine spiders visit, they notice new content. Noticing new content on each visit, the search engine spiders make a note to visit more often.

Now here's where this gets really powerful...

As these search engine spiders visit more often, they don't just crawl your current no-work, money-making site. They also follow links to other sites you want to get indexed. So now you can put up your no-work site, teach the search engines to come back often, and then go on to build other sites knowing that getting them indexed is as simple as linking to them from your old sites. It really is that easy :-)

By now you're probably asking what are some of these magic tools I use to build these amazing, no-work sites that literally takes on a life of their own.

Here's are just a few of the tools I personally use:

1) Blogs. Blogs hosted on Blogger.com get noticed very quickly by Google because Google owns Blogger.com By pinging blog directories (and Yahoo using your "My Yahoo" page) lots of other sites take notice of your blog. They visit your blog and follow links to other target sites.

2) I'm a charter member of Content Desk. Content Desk has a tool that allows me to query databases containing tens of thousands of articles (based upon keywords). I can automatically sort the list of articles that is returned based upon keyword density, or a number of other criteria. Then, I can have the software itself create webpages for me using a template I've designed using the template tool built right into Content Desk.

Content Desk is probably my favorite tool because I can, quite literally, add hundreds of article pages to my sites in minutes. My templates also include ads for a "pet" product and/or Google AdSense. I can add content-rich, relevant, very nice-looking pages to my sites in minute, and then move on to the next project, knowing that these pages WILL make me money.

Content Desk limited its charter membership to a total of only 400 members, and that quickly sold out. However, since it's a monthly membership, not all members renew and there are probably some openings. To check on openings, simply visit:
http://WillieCrawford.com/content-desk.html

After arriving at the site, click on the "Charter Membership" link in the upper left menu bar. This will tell you if there are any current openings.

3) RSS Feeds. By incorporating RSS feeds into your webpages, you can set them up so that the content is constantly updated. This gives your visitors something fresh to read each time they visit. This gives the search engines fresh content each time that they visit ... and trains them to visit often.

Content Desk incorporates a feature that works very similar to regular RSS feeds EXCEPT that it doesn't send your website traffic away. With a normal RSS feed, the content automatically added to your site contains links inviting your visitors to click away. It allows you to automatically update your pages, but it also siphons off traffic. Content Desk does this in a way that automatically updates your site without sending your visitors away.

4) Traffic On Steroids. This is another system for automatically updating/changing content on your site. Traffic On Steroids actually takes a core database of articles/content that you set up and then rotates it in your target webpages. The net effect is that each time a visitor (or search engine) visits a page, the page is different. This is very effective at training the search engines to come back often... and increasing your pages' ranking. Incorporate Google AdSense into these pages and you have another hands-off money magnet.

You can also incorporate a product data-feed into your page using Secret Money Generator and have pages that are constantly updates AND have a catalog of products built in that all pay you an affiliate commission. Secret Money Generator is at:
http://WillieCrawford.com/money-secret.html

You can check out Traffic On Steroids at
http://WillieCrawford.com/traffic-on-steroids.html

I've just shared with you a few of the dozens of tools I use to create nearly-hands-off websites. I do still look at some of them from time to time to see if I can make them perform better. However, you could LITERALLY never touch many of your sites created with these tools for years... and you'd still have a nice revenue stream from them.

It’s all about working smarter, not harder. It's all about using technology to leverage your time.

TRAFFIC GENERATION ~ The Number One Skill That Will Generate Cash Flow. (Part 2 of 3)

How You Can Make Your Ad Command Attention

There are lots of ads for lots of product out there , so it is very easy for your ad to get lost in the shuffle. To avoid this, you must do all that you can do to make sure that your ad gets noticed. Here are some things that you can do to ensure that your ad commands attention.

1. Place colorful graphs, pie charts and other charts in your ad copy. Use charts that will grab a person's eye and also support your product claims. For example, if you are selling a product that boosts website traffic, a screenshot of your site's traffic stats can be very effective.

2. Highlight buying incentives like free bonuses and money back guarantees. You could place them in boxes or in front of a different colored background.

3. Use short sentences or sentence fragments in the body of your ad copy. A short burst of words can catch a skimmer's eye with one quick glance.

4. Highlight all the important keywords and phrases in your ad copy. You could use bolding, underlining and color to highlight the important words. I see keywords both bolded and highlited in yellow in many ads nowadays.

5. Always remember that we live in a visual world. Place attention grabbing pictures above and within your ad copy. A powerful technique is to use before and after pictures of people using your product.

6. Use a headline that catches the attention of your target audience. One of the most effective ways is to use a free offer as your headline. The "shocking claim" headline can also be effective, provided that you can back up your claim, of course.

7. Make your ad's keywords and phrases stand out by enlarging the text. This technique works wonders with headlines and sub headlines.

8. Make your products list of benefits and features stand out by using a symbol in front of each of them. The symbol could be a dash, solid circle, star, etc.

9. Use sub headlines to break up your ad copy andto capture a skimmers eye. You could make them even more powerful by highlighting them with color.

10. Use attention grabbing adjectives to describe your product. For example sizzling, incredible, high power, ultramodern, killer, eye popping, etc. But, be careful not to overdo it.

Using the above methods should dramatically improve the chances that your ad will get noticed by potential customers. And that is the first step to ultimately making the sale.

Consultants - Writing Articles for the Internet Blankets the World with your Expertise and Style

A Consultant could be an Expert about Absolutely Anything

Calling yourself a “consultant” demands further clarification. A consultant who… What specific problems do you handle? And who needs what you know? Everyone? (Never true) Businesses selling to seniors? (A precisely defined niche) Success depends on how clearly you can define yourself and what you offer. How easily can potential clients understand it?

You provide clients more than your expert knowledge and problem-solving skills. Your delivery style (tricks) are every bit as valuable as your knowledge base. We all relate to some businesses (personally and professionally) more effectively than to others. Great match-ups require something akin to a mating call to help a consultant find and connect with ideal clients.

Every consultant is unique in important ways. Your challenge is to express those significant intangibles — so they set you apart from others using the same job title. Do clients understand what you can do for them? How you’re different from the competition? Why they’d prefer you?

Article Marketing is Your Ideal Stage

Whether you’re selling a service, speaking or training, nothing persuades like offering a sample. Writing articles that highlight your style and expertise does that for you. A meaty, 600 to 800 word article is long enough to deliver a tangible taste.

Once it’s widely posted, the message can be read by thousands. Some readers will search for what else you’ve said, or click over to your website. Writing repeated in-depth articles further establishes your niche, point of view, and expertise. They’re building your name recognition and readership in short order.

Your stock-in-trade is information, so packaging it into articles makes you a content creator. The Internet voraciously demands a steady diet of new material. Websites, ezines (and now blogs) efficiently deliver ideas to targeted readers. But sad to say, too many articles consist of rehashed, low-grade material. Stand out with fresh, professional-quality information. Being a cut above builds respect and trust — a must for doing business down the road.

Local Search can Further Define Your Market

Unlike a plumber or day care center, most consultants needn’t be confined to the local arena. Your Internet exposure connects you to a national or global audience, if that’s your goal. But if your target market is closer to home, articles still help to position you.

Recent research by The Kelsey Group show that 70% use the Internet to make local buying decisions. And nowadays, 36% of search engine queries request local search results. That means the person includes a geographic term in their search engine query. For example, a query with: “employee benefit consultant” + Denver only lists the small pool of appropriate Denver providers.

Every consultant needs to make sure their information appears in local search queries, http://www.yellowpagesage.com/localsearch.html . The trend toward local search is growing quickly. Businesses can easily be left out—which makes them unfindable by online searchers. Who can afford to miss 70% of their client base? Having your own website isn’t necessary — but still helpful for a variety of reasons.

Potential Clients will Check You Out Online

Surveys reveal that over half of respondents consider search engines a better source of buying information than Yellow Pages, newspapers or magazines. When someone enters your name or company into Google (in quotes), what comes up?

It helps if your name is unusual. If not, follow up with “search within results” for a qualifier term (like your specialty, “employee benefits”) to find your cites.

In just a few moments, searchers get a picture of your professional standing and scope of recognition. They’re likely to be swayed by what they see. Who mentions you, and what are they saying? What kinds of links come to your website? If you’ve been publishing articles, they’ll also show up — enhancing your credibility and incoming links.

In my own case, a Google search for my name showed about 100 cites before I started article promotions. Now that’s well over 3,000. So many cites boosted my website traffic and Page Rank as well.

If you haven’t gone “ego surfing” on Google for mentions of your name, you should. Because the public will. Make sure there’s plenty of stuff for them to find that does you proud.

Get More Website Traffic

If you’re an online marketer and own a website, you know the key to making sales is getting more traffic to your website. You also know all web site traffic is not created equal. You not only need lots of web traffic, you need lots of targeted traffic. That’s the key and once you have it, your sales will increase exponentially.

The best way to get targeted website traffic is to use Pay-per-Click (PPC) services such as Google AdWords, or Yahoo or a host of other pay services. You also need to know what you’re doing or you could find yourself spending lots of money, getting poor results and losing money very quickly. Also, when you’re first starting out, you have a limited budget, and starting with PPC campaigns may not even be an option for you at this point in time.

That’s where free traffic exchanges come in. Free traffic exchanges can be a great way to get traffic to your website. You should also know there’s really no such thing as free because you must spend your time surfing through other websites to earn credits. Free traffic exchanges are a great way to get lots of visitors to your site however, so spending an hour a day surfing, is not a lot to ask if you’re making sales from your efforts. And isn’t this why your in this business to begin with?

Free traffic exchanges are a great marketing tool for a many reasons. The best reason is that you get lots of people looking, and hopefully clicking on your website or promotional pages. But there are hidden benefits to free traffic exchanges you may not have even considered.

Search engines love free traffic exchanges because of all the incoming and outgoing links they generate. Plus the rapidly changing content is another reason the search engines love traffic exchanges. Exchanges that have more content also generate a higher page rank, and therefore more traffic, and increased memberships. The key is to find exchanges that are very active and have lots of members. The more members they have, the more potential customers you get looking at your offer and your chances for sales conversions are that much better. But bigger isn’t always better.

Some free traffic exchanges may do very well for one marketer, and be a complete waste of time for another. If everyone were promoting the same website or affiliate program in the same traffic exchange for example, then chances are you would not make many sales. Even if you were promoting the best product or service on the internet, if everyone promoted the same thing, your chances of someone purchasing through your website or links, are slim to none. Also, when people see the same ad over and over again, they get desensitized to it. Don't fall into this trap. It's one thing to try and sell a very popular product/service/ebook etc, but it's another thing when a million other people are trying to do it too. Competition is a good thing, because it validates your market, but too much competition is tough and it's time to move on to something else.

We all know clicking on ads in a free traffic exchange can be very boring, monotonous and can take a lot of time. That's why you need to make the best of your opportunity or you will just be wasting a lot of your time and effort on something that just isn't working. If you have your own niche website, then you already differentiated yourself from the pack. If you are an affiliate marketer, then you need to find products/services that everyone else isn't promoting, especially within that particular traffic exchange.

One way to use free traffic exchanges to your advantage is to join a few at first, and see if your sales pick up. If your sales aren’t doing well, then test out a few more. When you do find a few traffic exchanges that appear to be generating sales for you, then narrow those down until you find the one, or two that are working. Now concentrate your efforts on those because they’re the ones you want. At least for now anyway. Things may change, so keep an eye on your campaigns and if sales seem to be falling off, then it might be time to change your offer or find another traffic exchange that could pick your profits up again.

As I mentioned, your individual promotion is everything. If you're trying to promote something everyone else is, I don't care what traffic exchange service you're using, your sales conversions are going to be very low, or nothing at all. You cannot always blame the exchange. Sometimes you have to look at yourself and think if you're doing all you can to make sales.

If you're going to use multiple free traffic exchanges, and I recommend that you do, you should get yourself a multi-tab web browser. Many of these browsers are free and run on PCs and MACs. The tabs feature allows you to have one web browser open with multiple tabs each going to a separate website. You could easily put 5 or 6 of your free exchange sites in these tabs, and earn credits for all of them at the same time. So instead of surfing for 1/2 an hour or an hour earning 200 hits for one exchange, you could earn 200 hits for 5 exchanges in the same amount of time. This is a huge time saver and multiplies your earned hits by 5X or 6X.

Getting free traffic to your website can be a lot of work. If you don’t have the money to spend on full blown PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns like Google AdWords or Yahoo, free traffic exchanges are a great way to get the traffic you need, for Free!

Pay Per Click Advertising

Advertising your services or products on the Internet is both extremely effective and extremely competitive. There are several ways to go about attracting traffic to your website; Pay-Per-Click is one of the options you can choose from, along with developing an SEO, or search engine optimization campaign. Both pay-per-click and SEO are targeted to get your website placed as close to the top of
search engine results as possible. One of the differences is that it takes minutes to set up a pay-per-click campaign
versus months for a good SEO campaign.

Pay-Per-Click is a simple type of paid advertising that most search engines, including some of the largest ones, now offer. It requires a bid for a "per-click" basis, which translates to your company paying the bid amount every time the search engine directs a visitor to your site. There is the added bonus that when a per-click site sends your website traffic, your site often appears in the results of
other prevalent search engines.

As with all marketing campaigns, there are advantages and disadvantages. If you understand the process and monitor
your pay-per-click campaign frequently, it can be very effective. One of the greatest advantages is that you never have to tweak your web pages to change your position in
search engine results, as you must do in a typical SEO campaign. What you do have to do in a pay-per-click campaign is pay a fee.

Another advantage is the simplicity of the pay-per-click process. You just bid and you're up and running. It doesn't demand any specific technical knowledge, though the more you know about search engines and keywords, the easier - and more effective - the process will be.

The downside is that pay-per-click is essentially a bidding war. A higher bid than yours will lower your position on
search engine results. This means that you will have to raise your bid to regain your position - which can obviously become quite expensive, especially if you are
bidding on a popular keyword.

In order to determine if pay-per-click is a cost effective form of marketing for your business, you must do some
computing to figure out how much each visitor to your site is worth. You can compute this value by dividing the profit
you make on your website over a given period of time by the total number of visitors for that same time period. For
example, if your site made $5,000 in profits and there were 2,5000 hits, each visitor would be theoretically worth 50
cents. The basic formula is profits divided by visitors.

The figure of 50 cents per visitor is the point at which your business breaks even. The idea, of course, is to show a profit, not to merely cover your costs. Therefore, you are aiming at a figure less than 50 cents per click.

Be aware that the most popular keywords often cost considerably more than 50 cents a click. The only way around this is to bid less for these phrases or you will be
paying too much for each individual hit.

The key (pun intended) to success is to learn everything you can about search engine keyword research. The good news
is there isn't a limit to the amount of keywords you can add to your bid because additional keywords do not add additional cost. This translates into a lot less hassle for you because there is no need to optimize your site to index a particular set of keywords.

Obviously, some keywords are much more effective than others are, but they will not cost you anything except time to set-up your account in your pay-per-click bid. Of the popular search engines that offer pay-per-click, one called Overture provides an online tool that will give you the data on how often particular keywords are entered into their search engine. They also offer suggestions for keywords after you enter a description of your site.

In pay-per-click, this written description is crucial. You must understand that the object of your description is not to generally attract visitors, but to be as specific as possible so that only those visitors who are likely to buy your service or product go to your site. You must use expert marketing copy to guarantee that your description is
both precise and enticing to attract the most ideal candidates to your site. This description is your most powerful tool to insure that your bid is profitable.

Another essential element of pay-per-click advertising is that you constantly monitor your bid. It is very important that you bear in mind that the results of the top search engines providing pay-per-click advertising, which are Overture and Adwords Select, usually appear on other
popular search engines. Because of this, the competition for top ranking is intense, and very often you will find
that the bidding price balloons too high for pay-per-click to yield a profit.

If this happens, it is advisable to withdraw your bid on that particular keyword and try another one. Remember: when
you pay too much per click to make a profit, you are in essence losing the bidding war.

Since losing is not acceptable, you must have a plan in place to closely track the effectiveness of your keyword. It is advisable to monitor your keywords on at least a monthly basis.

Not only is careful monitoring important, but the analysis of visitor behavior can produce invaluable knowledge about
consumer motivation, habits, and trends. Expert monitoring and consumer analysis is essential to your overall business needs, and will also insure that your pay-per-click campaign is a success.

This article may be freely reprinted as long as all links and author information remain.

Use Your Website Traffic Statistics To Improve Your Results

You have built a great website and have started to see your traffic counter spinning up rapidly. This is good news right? Maybe it is, maybe not. You need to look deeper than just the number of visitors to your site. You need to analyze the stats for a number of different reasons. But before you dive deep into the analysis and make full use of this information, you need to understand how to interpret the data.

Your web hosting company probably provides you with basic web traffic information. The data you receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you don't understand how to apply it to your particular business and website. There are two main stats you will notice; visits and hits.

The visit figures are the most accurate measure of your website's activity. Hits simply means the number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your site. As you can see, hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

So it would appear on the surface that the more visits you see recorded, the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.

The aim when analysing your web site statistics is to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Another excellent stat is the exit page stat. This stat will show you which page your visitors are exiting your website from. This stat can help you determine effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have what you think is a great entry page and from there you expect visitors to move onto different pages of your site you would expect the exit page stats to show this. But if you have a high exit page statistics from your entry page then you know that visitors are not navigating your entry page. This will tell you you need to adjust your entry page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital information about the effectiveness of individual pages, and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it's time to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they find what they are looking for on your site, and even better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find your site will give you a vital understanding of your visitor's needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website by typing in your company name, break open the champagne! It means you have achieved a significant level of brand recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

As you can see keeping a close eye on your website traffic statistics will turn your average website into a visitor friendly site. Happy site visitors means sales!

How To Win The War of Pay per Click Advertising.

Do you know what is the most important question among
most internet marketers specially newbie’s. It’s "How to get
highly targeted visitors to there site?" Believe me, I know
it because I received this question from my subscribers
almost daily.

Well, earlier when I started my internet business I also faced
this problem. I tried safe-lists, I bought so called guaranteed
visitors, even I blast my ad to 10 million (Yes, you are right.
It’s 10 million) sites but couldn’t make a single sale.

Than I changed my strategies and get this problem solved by
finding a right solution, and that is "Pay Per Click Advertising".
Pay Per Click Advertising is a great solution for traffic worries
which directs a highly targeted traffic to my site. Yesterday
only I got around 280 visitors and I made 24 sales.

Pay-Per-Click is a simple type of paid advertising that most
search engines, including some of the largest ones, now offer.
It requires a bid for a "per-click" basis, which translates to
your company paying the bid amount every time the search
engine directs a visitor to your site. There is the added bonus
that when a per-click site sends your website traffic, your site
often appears in the results of other prevalent search engines.

As with all marketing campaigns, there are pros and cons.
Where there are flowers there are thorns also. what you
have to do is to protect yourself from thorns and let only
the fragrance touch your inner sense. I am going to tell
you advantages the Pay Per Click Advertising.

One of the greatest advantages of PPC is that you never
have to tweak your web pages to change your position in
search engine results, as you must do in a typical SEO
campaign. What you do have to do in a pay-per-click
campaign is pay a fee.

Another advantage is the simplicity of the pay-per-click
process. You just bid and you're up and running. It doesn't
demand any specific technical knowledge, though the more
you know about search engines and keywords, the easier -
and more effective - the process will be.

Now came the very point in your mind that what is bad
about Pay Per Click Advertising. The downside is that PPC
is essentially a bidding war. A higher bid than yours will
lower your position on search engine results. This means
that you will have to raise your bid to regain your position
- which can obviously become quite expensive, especially
if you are bidding on a popular keyword.

In order to determine if pay-per-click is a cost effective
form of marketing for your business, you must do some
computing to figure out how much each visitor to your site
is worth. You can compute this value by dividing the profit
you make on your website over a given period of time by the
total number of visitors for that same time period. For
example, if your site made $5,000 in profits and there were
10000 hits, each visitor would be theoretically worth 50
cents. The basic formula is profits divided by visitors.

Be aware that the most popular keywords often cost
considerably more than 50 cents a click. The only way
around this is to bid less for these phrases or you will be
paying too much for each individual hit.

Since when you are doing the business for earning money
and you are losing a heavy part of it then you must have
a plan in place to closely track the effectiveness of your
keyword. It is advisable to monitor your keywords on at
least a monthly basis.

The only way to assess your success in this field is monitoring,
not only monitoring but careful monitoring. You can easily analyze
it by visitor behavior which can produce invaluable knowledge
about consumer motivation, habits, and trends. Expert monitoring
and consumer analysis is essential to your overall business needs,
and pay-per-click campaign is a must for this.

How to get traffic to your website!

Today, the biggest problem that new website owners have is: “How they can get traffic to their website?” Significant amount of time and energy is spent today on this single task. You or your webmaster needs to commonly focus on:
- Get ranked well on the most important search engines (Google, Yahoo, Msn, Ask.com, etc.)
- Pay Per Click (PPC) programs
- Cost Per Click (CPC) programs
- Link Exchanges
- Directory Submissions
- And more…

All of these methods are valuable for getting traffic to your website. If you are not competent enough to rank well your keywords, you can obviously hire a SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) for this work. From search engines you can get a very large portion of traffic to your website.
Today, everyone wants to know the big secret to driving traffic to their website. Every day I see an article or an ad talking about driving people to your website; driving traffic to a website has become the “holy grail” on the Internet. People are realizing that if you build it, they won't come... unless you give them a reason. Website traffic just doesn't happen by itself. Your website is just one of many millions on the web and people rarely just stumble upon your site by accident.
There are many ways to drive traffic to your website. You can buy traffic from vendors that will pummel your website with hits from automated programs. This will increase your hits but will it increase your bottom line? Probably not. You can set up blogs that spider (connect to) your website increasing your traffic count. Does this drive users to your website? Only if your blog is so interesting that people are reading it. There are thousands of blogs posted on the internet and your blog is just a needle in the internet haystack.
Another trick is to create RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for your website and subscribe to other RSS feeds. This again will increase your hit count but will do very little to drive potential customers to your website unless you're providing valuable information. Tricks will increase your hit count but do very little todrive potential customers to your website.
People often turn to traffic exchanges. Quite simply, a traffic exchange is a program where you sign up and agree to surf sites in exchange for some credits. These credits are then used when other members of the exchange surf to your site. This traffic is not highly targeted traffic. In fact, if this were your only method of advertising your website, you'd probably fail. BUT it is a great method of getting traffic to your site in addition to the other methods listed above.
So, why do people use traffic exchanges? Here are a few of the benefits:
- Increase your Alexa rating! Did you know that some search engines factor your Alexa rating into their algorithms? More traffic means higher search engine placement!
- Increase your branding awareness. Any marketing expert worth his salt will tell you that branding is extremely important to stand out amongst the billions of websites out there. More traffic equals more sales. A percentage of people surfing will be enticed by your ads and click on them to find out more information. Another source of revenue. Many traffic exchanges will actually pay you money to surf. More importantly, as you refer other people to the network, you'll earn a percentage of the money that they earn! It may be small amounts but if you work the system it could amount to a lot of money.
Now, before you head over to Google and search for Traffic Exchange, I'd recommend knowing a few facts:
- Some traffic exchanges are simply out to get money from you and will refer very little traffic to you.
- Some traffic exchanges have poor systems in place to stop cheaters from running programs to increase their credits faster.
Finally, some traffic exchanges will allow popup, active x controls, site rotators, etc. in their network. Any of these can stop your auto surfing from working, or even worse, allow your computer to be infected with a virus.
The best part about Traffic Exchanges is that you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The worst thing that could happen to you is you get a little bit of traffic which increases your Alexa rankings and you don't get any money.
Of course, for the system to work, you've got to make sure that you do some surfing yourself. The makers of the exchange programs realize this and some of them even have an auto surf feature where you get a reduced number of credits while your browser happily loads page after page every 10 seconds or so.

Using Your Online Presence to Drive Offline Sales from Your Customer Base and Beyond, Part 2

In the last article in this series, I talked about a few basic ways to drive in-store sales by using your online presence. In this, the last installment of the series on this topic, I’m going to cover some more in-depth strategies to boost sales at your brick-and-mortar location.

Create an Online Customer Rewards Program

You can institute a customer rewards program that you post on your web site exclusively to drive offline sales from your online presence. First, encourage both current and new customers to sign up for the customer rewards program when they buy something in your store. They can then visit your website and participate in the program from the convenience of their homes. For example, you could set up a points system whereby your customers acquire points for every purchase, and then keep track of their progress on your website. Once they rack up a certain amount of points, they can redeem them for merchandise, discounts, etc.

Having a program like this in place will encourage repeat visits from customers to both your store and your website, and once they’re there, you can introduce them to new specials, upcoming sales, etc. This will, in turn, encourage repeat patronage from these customers. Many times, in fact, customers will actually buy more products than they normally would if the rewards that you feature in your program are incentive enough for them to desire more points. High-profile rewards could include things like plane tickets, new electronics, spa packages, etc.

If you’re at a loss to what kind of rewards program to implement, there are a ton of turnkey solutions out there. A quick online search turned up customer-loyalty solutions from Destination Rewards (http://www.drloyalty.com/), Online Rewards (http://www.online-rewards.com/index.html), and iRebates (http://www.irebates.net/) along with countless others. Obviously you’ll want to shop around, do some research, and make sure that you find a solution that best fits your needs. And of course these are paid programs, but often times turnkey solutions are lifesavers for busy businesses owners.

Develop Online Incentives to Visit Your Store

A great way to encourage patronage from your current customers – and new customers, for that matter – is to develop online incentives to visit your store. When customers visit your website, encourage them to sign up for your e-newsletter for an exclusive online coupon that can only be redeemed at your store.

These coupons don’t have to be complicated to work, either. For example, if you’re already having a sale, you might offer a coupon that entitles customers that sign up to receive an extra 5-10% off the sale price. Consumers love promotions like these – they make them feel like specially valued customers and leave them satisfied with their purchase because they got a good deal.

Be sure to encourage your customers to check your website for announcements and specials regularly. Let all current and potential customers know that, by giving you a little information, they can take advantage of incredible savings offers. Advertise that you do this. Become known for it – your website traffic will increase dramatically and so will your bottom line.

Once you have some online incentives in place, you can partner with other savings/coupon-aggregating sites that feature savings for their site visitors from all sorts of businesses. Some of them require that you pay to have your business listed with them, but others are free. Two popular sites of this type are CoolSavings.com and CouponMountain.com.

Institute an Online Referral Program

As you probably know, word-of-mouth advertising is a very effective way to get new customers. Well, if your customers are already talking about your business – or even if they aren’t – why not give them a reason to send their friends to your store? Implementing a program to encourage customers to refer people to your store is another great tool for driving in-store sales, and using the web to do it makes it hassle-free because you can automate most of it.

For example, you can add a section to your website where customers can register for your referral program, just like they would for an e-newsletter. Once they register, you’ll have their information in your system so the next time someone says they were referred, you’ll know who referred them and you can add loyalty points to their account or just give them cash, which is always a hit.

In addition to rewarding customers who refer other customers with immediate incentives, you could run a contest and reward the customer that gives you the most referrals with a more substantial, larger prize. This will emphasize the fact that you encourage referrals and that you reward the customers that refer new customers to your store.

One note about getting referral information from new customers: often times, even when one customer says, “Tell them I sent you” to a new customer, the new customer forgets to mention it, and then you end up in a situation where you’ve inadvertently upset the customer that referred them in the first place, because they’re not getting the reward they thought they would. To avoid this, you should train your sales staff to ask of everyone that checks out how they heard about the store.

Not only will you be sure to find out about all the customers that are referring other customers, but you’ll also learn a lot about how customers are hearing about your business in general, which might very well give you insight into some of the media you’re using or into potentially innovative ways to market your business in the future.

Each of these ideas will help you bring current or new customers that visit your website into your store. Make sure that you take advantage of the new in-store traffic though – when a new customer walks in your door, make sure your sales staff are greeting them properly and offering to help them without coming off as pushy. And make sure your store environment will foster repeat visits. It’s one thing to drive traffic into your store, but it’s another to retain those new customers. Give them a shopping experience they won’t soon forget. Taking these steps will ensure repeat visits, loyal customers, and lots of referrals.

The Facts You Should Know About Internet Marketing.

I wakeup this morning and see my lovely wife. She was
sleeping and looking like angel. I thought probably I am
the luckiest guy in the world. I have a gorgeous wife, a
cute doll (my daughter). I have money and time to enjoy
life, and I dont need to worry about my future. Suddenly I
remember those days when I started Internet marketing.

I can't forget those worst days when I used to work 16
hours a day. I come from my JOB (Just Over Broke) and
started working on my computer till 4.00 o'clock in
morning. I had dark circle under my eyes. I had no time for
friends, family and even for my love. I did every thing I
read and almost exhausted my Credit Card but I couldn't
make money.

It happens with almost every newbie's. So the question here
“what is the secret of Success in Internet marketing”? The
answer is your own OPT-IN LIST and Targeted visitors on
your website.

OPT-IN LIST:
Youve probably heard about “The List” many times. This is
the only fact that there is nothing more valuable in your
online business than your email list. EVERYTHING you do
online should grow your list, even if it's one person at a
time.

Think about it... if you've got a list, you can send
valuable content, and then create lots of product offers as
time goes on. But if you DON'T have a list... it doesn't
matter how many offers you create, because NOBODY will
see them.

A Proven Fact:
A very crucial element of online marketing is a proven fact
that people are likely to do business with those they
trust. The best online ways of building trust with a
prospect is through e-mail marketing. Give your prospect
something valuable and gain there trust.

5 Ways to Boost Your Website Traffic for free.

01. JV Partnership:
Youve probably heard about Joint Ventures before. They are
one of my biggest sources of traffic. Initially its hard to
find JV Partners especially big names because nobody knows
you so start with smaller marketers. Don't forget to keep a
list of everybody you have had a successful JV with. They
know you and they like to work with you in the future.

02. Write Articles and submit to article directories:
Writing articles and submit to article directories is
another great method to attract tons of visitors. It takes
little time and builds your credibility all over the web.
It improves your sites search engine ranking because of
link back to your site.

03. Forums:
Forums are the best place to drive targeted Visitors to
Your Website. You can also increase your marketing
knowledge, make joint ventures and get quick help by
joining some marketing forums. If you're serious about
building your online business, it's must. Be sure to check
out the rules of forum before any posting.

04. Viral Tools:
Viral e-books and reports can drive massive traffic that
you cant imagine. Why? Because it's VIRAL. Your reader can
customize the book with there affiliate links and giveaway
for free. Thats why it spread like a virus all over the net
and send traffic to your site.

05. Link exchange:
Link exchange is permanent source of traffic infact it
gives you double benefits. You get the traffic from your
link on other peoples site and at the same time it pushes
up the ranking of your site on search engine.

Pay per Click Search engine is also a good way to get
instant and targeted visitors but it's not free. You need
to do a lot of homework and make a huge list of relevant
keywords before starting or you may burn your hands.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Download my latest Report “Amazing Traffic Formula”. How to
get a flood of Targeted Visitors to Your Website and build
your own opt-in Subscriber List... At NO COST!!
http://www.umtezine.com/atf/aatf.htm
Free Rebrand and Redistribution Rights Included.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Some Hype you should avoid:

A. Guaranteed 10000 Visitors for $….

You have seen it every where on net. When you buy a package
you will come to know that you haven't made a single sale
by the time the package runs out. The reason behind it is
that they show your site in a small pop-up window and
pop-ups are not much effective. The other reason is your
site shown in front of untargeted people who are not
interested in your product.

B. Blast your ad to over 10 million sites….

There was a time when it really worked but its no longer
true. There are so many automatic submitters these days and
there's very little chance anyone will ever see your ads.

C. Send your ad to 10million email address….

This type of Marketing Are Now Considered SPAM! And if you
are reported for SPAM, you can lose your ISP, website,
e-mail account, and much more!

D. Guaranteed Search engine ranking….

Top placement on search engines is a hard task and requires
lots of money and time. There are millions of websites
across the internet and everyone wants a top search engine
ranking. If you are not in Top 20 for your keyword you'll
not be getting many visitors.

E. Just Push one Button and get 1000 visitors a day type
Software….

Internet is filled with this hype “Targeted traffic at the
push of a button”. They show your site at autosurf traffic
exchange programs where everybody uses this type of
software to gain credits and nobody actually sees your si

Turning online purchases into profit.

I have some advice for improving your bottom line, whatever that may be.
It could be many things ranging from improving website traffic to increasing sales or even just expanding your mailing list.
But whatever your bottom line is, you have two choices when setting out to achieve it.

Your first choice is to employ an assortment of free traffic, sales, or opt-in subscriber generating techniques.
These can be effective but generally take time and results are usually slow.

Most people adopting solely this choice end up failing and frustrated. But at least they haven't lost their pants in the process.

The second choice you have is to pay for services designed to improve your bottom line. This will almost certainly speed things up and improve the results you achieve both short and long term.

If you find yourself choosing this second option, make sure you can measure quantitative results as you need to know what ROI (return on investment) is being achieved for each paid service.

Most of you are probably a combination of both choices. And if you're anything like me, you probably started using free techniques before moving to paid alternatives.

Enough beating about the bush.
What's my advice? Simply this.

If you pay for any form of online advertising or promotion, do yourself a big favour and explore services designed to assist this process without attempting to influence your decision-making in any way.

Affiliate directories and Customer Acquisition Exchanges also known as "Customer Reciprocation" are 2 such services.

These are really an extension or improved version of link exchanges as they can provide paying customers instead of potential traffic generation (leads, click-throughs, or visitors).

It's that simple. These paying customers earn you sales or commission, depending whether they purchase your own products or products from your affiliated merchants.

So what are you waiting for?

Each time you purchase online and don't take my advice, you're missing out on paying customers willing to purchase through your own referral URLs.
Choose wisely and turn your online purchases into profit.

Side note - I've mentioned thus far your online advertising and promotion purchase intentions but did you know that all online purchases you make can gain you paying customers?
That's because customer reciprocation services incorporate unrestricted global shopping directories.

A comparison with Ebay makes interesting reading.

Whereas Ebay matches buyers and sellers of products through an auction process, customer reciprocation services match buyers and sellers through referral URLs via their own exchange engines.
In effect, they work like limited versions of Ebay.
The exchange process can only be completed for people who promote product using referral URLs.

However, they expand on the Ebay model in the sense that with Ebay, sellers can only offer their own product whereas sellers are able to offer both their own product and those of other merchants through the use of customer reciprocation services.

3 Freebies That Guarantees Constant Traffic

3 Freebies That Guarantees Constant Traffic
By Oluwafisayo http://profitbomb.com

In 1931, Ted and Dorothy Hustead decided to
move to a town that had four things; a good
school, a Catholic Church, a doctor and an
opportunity.

They wanted to open their own pharmacy.

They eventually chose Wall, South Dakota, as
the perfect location. To others, however,
Wall seemed to be in the middle of
nowhere - somewhere between the Black Hills
and the Badlands.

The first year was a tough one - thick dust,
intense heat, and strong winds.

In their desire to move on to a more
welcoming place, tired, throat - perched
travellers rarely stopped. Then, Ted and
Dorothy came up with an idea.

They made a sign that read: Free Ice Water At
Wall DrugStore.

The sign became something of a novelty. They
made more sighs and put them farther and
farther from Wall - eventually, as far as
other countries of the world.

All druggists, of course made "free" ice
water available for their customers. Nobody
however, had thought of advertising the
luxury.

Eventually, some 4000 to 6000 customers a day
stopped at Wall DrugStore.

Josh Billings remarked, "Common Sense is
instinct and enough of it is genius.

"When it comes to attracting traffic,
everybody has ideas BUT it all seem not to
work!"

I was almost ready to quit when I found a
blend of strategies that work. Top Internet
marketers use it to achieve tons of results,
brand their names all over the Internet,
explode sales and achieve record breaking
list size in minimum time with little or
absolutely nothing spent.

It is all captured in the word FREE and
truthfully, if you have nothing FREE working
hard for you out there, it is time to get
down to work and get up with one!

Here are 3 easy to implement freebies you
can start with right now.

1. Give Out A Collection Of Free eBooks.

Go around the web and harvest a collection of
free ebooks, then give it away for free on
your website in exchange for people doing
something e.g. signing up for your newsletter.

2. Write Articles and Give It Away Free.

I wrote 2 articles last year and got 700+
subscribers from it without lifting a finger
after submitting it to a few article
submission sites.

It is surprising to note that my list still
grows today as a result of those articles.

3. Pull Your Articles Into A Report and Give
Away Reprint Rights To it Free.

This sounds insane but if you are smart, it
can make you a success overnight.

All you need to do is bury your other
programmes in the middle of your ebook and
"wham," you start getting dangerous results.

The Most Effective Free Advertising

After a few months of advertising my online business opportunities’ website, I have learned a valuable, but true advertising fact. The best way to advertise an affiliate program is through writing articles and submitting them to syndicated sites for others to use, thereby creating links to your own website.

If you are new to website promotion, you may need to know how this works. First, you need to read, and then you write about what you have learned. I have found that there is definitely no shortage of information on the web. Take the information and put into your own words, your thoughts and feelings regarding what you have learned through your reading, and experiences and knowledge of your own. Sit down and write from 350 to 700 words about what you think or have learned in this process. When submitting them to article publishing sites for approval, make sure to add your website links in the author’s note, to link your website to other websites. Then when other website owners need valuable content to post on their website, you have gained the opportunity to put your link on someone else’s website. They go to the article publishing sites to find good content, and if they like yours, you get a free link. Easy, and free. You can join a power linking forum and get a complete list of article syndication sites to submit your articles to, or do a search of your own. You then can either submit your articles manually, or pay an article submission site to submit them for you for approval. Since I want mine free, and have the time, I do my own submissions manually. Please take the time to correct grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure before submitting your articles, and be sure to read each sites rules for submission to insure your articles are considered for publishing. Some of them have some strict rules and guidelines, especially regarding where your links can be placed in the article. Most will only allow links in the author’s note box.

The next thing you need to do is set up a blog. This, too, is free and lots of fun! There, you can even post your very own personal journal. I have chosen to make mine about online business promotion, and post only articles about online businesses. Do a search for free blogs to find the one that is right for you. Post your articles on your blog. It’s easy and fun to do, with copying and pasting from a word document. You can also post your photos on your blog. To build your traffic, make sure you include a link to your main website near the top of your blog. The more content your blog has, the better the search engines love you. If you need more content than you can possibly write in the beginning, you can use articles others have written on the subject you are creating for your blog. Article publishing sites are full of good quality articles on just about any subject you may want to choose. But you must always include the author’s note at the bottom, to give the author credit and the opportunity to have his or her link displayed on your site. After you have given your blog valuable content, you need to “ping” your blogsite, so search engine spiders will find you. This helps to build your traffic to your blog. Then due to your link on your blog to your main webpage site, you increase your main website traffic. I use “Ping-O-Matic” for mine. It gets submitted to many different sites at once, and very simple to do.
Next, you can link your blog to other blogs by joining a bloglinking site. You get lots of free traffic, and other bloggers leave comments on your blogspot, leaving a link, and you can link on their blogs the same way. Free, Free, Free, Traffic!

Website Traffic: Build It and They May Come Back

Your website is finally built. It’s professionally designed, has compelling content, and it has vast amounts of helpful information about your products or services. But, and this is an important but…is your website working for you?

Your offline tools and advertisements may get your customers and prospects to go to your website home page once. But you want them to return many times. Here are some things to improve your website’s sales power:

1. Update Your Portfolio: If you have a portfolio of your work (photographers, architects, landscapers, designers, writers, etc.), keep your "latest and greatest" work current. Send an enthusiastic e-mail to your customers to let them know it’s been updated.

2. Write Articles: You are an expert in your field. Customers are hungry for the information only you can provide. Give them helpful advice and tips. On your homepage, let website visitors know about this section.

3. Add a Discussion Forum: Your website designer can help you add a discussion forum. This allows visitors to communicate with each other, and your staff can provide helpful answers.

4. Create a "Links" Page: Customers like being able to find out more information regarding their purchasing decisions. With a links page, you can map the way for them to visit other related websites.

5. Publish an Ezine: Publishing an ezine will help position your business as an expert in your field. In addition, you will be providing tips to your customers that will help them. It sets you apart from your competitors and instills confidence and trust in your readers, making it easier for them to do business with you. Archive your articles on your website on an ongoing basis to refresh your content for business.

6. Ask Your Site Visitors: Is there something in your business you are considering? Do you want some feedback on a service? Why not ask for your customers’ opinion? You can post an online opinion poll and down the road, post customers’ responses.

7. Start a Blog: If you are committed to posting regularly, a blog can be a great way to build relationships with your customers and leads. You can give them advice about services or products, you can offer them helpful advices, and you can give business updates. Best of all, a blog is easy to set up and update!

ACTION ITEM: This week, look at your website. Would a visitor want to come back? If not, write down several things you can add to your site that will entice people to return. Take the necessary steps to get it in place. Then, update your site!

Generating Traffic On A Budget

Most webmasters keep their prized web traffic generating systems to themselves or charge an arm and a leg. I am one of the guys in the trenches. Before I share with you the simplest and easiest methods to generate website traffic I will begin with a little background information.

I have several websites and in the past ten years I have worked with gurus that promised to deliver traffic to my sites. In fact I have paid from $200 to over $2,000 for traffic to my sites. I had one person that charged a reasonable fee and my traffic went from 500 visitors to 8,000 visitors. Three years later his fee wasn’t that reasonable, but I decided to go ahead and try another website. After three months and two thousand dollars I saw no results.

As many people know the search engines create algorithms so nobody can beat the system. The gurus figure a way around this and charge lots of money to drive traffic to your site. Then the dance continues and the search engines create new algorithms. Next thing you know you are going back to the guru or searching for someone new.

Many of us have been sold a bill of goods about generating traffic to our websites and the lure of getting on the top ten. I can tell you from personal experience that I have been in the top ten and it wasn’t that big of an impact. The hook the gurus use to charge a higher fee is the number of keywords you need to get in the top ten. After a while you’ll realize that ONE keyword may have over one hundred variations.

Working with gurus creates a roller coaster of traffic to your website. Your traffic and sales are dependent on the gurus and the search engines algorithms. When you stop working with the gurus, or their magic isn’t working, your website traffic and sales hit bottom.

Yes there are rewards working with gurus, but you better have a hot site that sells. Start with methods that cost less and allow your traffic to build. Check your status reports to learn more about your visitors and the keywords they used to find you. A good hosting provider will offer this with your hosting package.

A wise marketer once told me that it was best to get off the roller coaster and put my money into methods that build steady website traffic. As an owner of a website, you learn how to update your own pages so you are not dependent on someone to update your website. The same goes for generating website traffic. When you take the time and invest in building traffic on a regular basis, then you will be free from the gurus and the search engines algorithms.

The simplest and time proven techniques that take very little time are your best answers. One method I know you have heard over and over is submitting articles. Let me give you the WHY submitting articles is important. When you are found in the search engines you are just another listing on all those pages. When submitting articles, I get a loyal audience that reads my articles each week. In fact, when they visit another website and see other articles I have written on other topics, it builds more credibility, rapport, link popularity and traffic.

Generating website traffic is using a combination of methods. Submitting to the search engines is still important, but it is only a part of your overall traffic building strategy. With most search engines it may take one to three months to see results.

Now here is the INSIDE INFORMATION most gurus won’t tell you. I am using a traffic generating system that is available to anyone at no cost. In fact it is simple to implement and takes only ten minutes of your time to set-up. This system is instant and you will see an immediate increase in your traffic and it you can verify your results with your own status reports.

3 Ways To Swarm Your Website With Highly Targeted Traffic For FREE!

Targeted website traffic is the lifeblood of any website looking to generate revenue. While FREE traffic from the search engines seems the most logical way to go, actually staying ahead of the game can be tough. Here are my top 3 ways to send your traffic counter spinning without the headaches.

1. Trading Links With Other Webmasters:

By mutually agreeing with another webmaster to trade link exposure on each others site, you're expanding your market reach significantly. Not only does this generate instant traffic from the link partner, but you'll also BOOST your Google PR and link ranking with other search engines as a bonus.

This helps you rank better in the listings, generating even more FREE traffic, without doing any complicated SEO.

There are some great tools to help you get started trading links. Some of them are even free. I don't recommend them personally because annoying banners or other types of ads compete for the same space, doesn't look very professional.

Alternatives to FREE software worth checking out are...

The ALMIGHTY Zeus - The one I use. Tough to get used to, but an excellent piece of kit. The darn thing learns and just keeps getting smarter the more you use it. (And a FREE trial so you can become a master before you buy)
http://www.cyber-robotics.com

Reciprocal Link Manager - Not as sophisticated as Zeus but much easier to learn if you're pressed for time.
http://reciprocal-manager.com/

Axandra's Arelis - Lots of great reviews for this one and more in the Zeus mould.
http://www.axandra-link-popularity-tool.com/index.htm

2. Writing Articles to Publish Online:

This technique is a very close second to my favourite one which I'll share in just a moment. The amount of exposure you can get from writing a simple article is astounding.

After you've written it up, you submit to the major article directories, then just sit back and watch the traffic stream in.

As an added bonus you start to gain more respect within your industry. Articles have this uncanny knack to create an aura of expertise around the writer.

You also benefit yet again with search engine ranking, as other webmasters with mailing lists publish your article on their site. Creating yet another link back to you.

Articles are a VERY effective pre-selling technique too.

How much more targeted would a prospect be arriving at your website after reading one of your articles in an email or on another site?

Not only did you get the recommendation from the publisher, but if they enjoy reading your article and get some value from it, you've already broken down one of the main barriers of selling...

TRUST!

Here are some cool resources to get stuck into:

Editorial guidelines:
http://ezinearticles.com/editorial-guidelines.html

Some great "How To" advice:
http://www.promotewitharticles.com/howto.html

And a nice BIG list of directories and announcement lists:
http://www.marketingchick.com/howto/article-marketing.shtml

3. Viral Marketing:

Viral Marketing is defined as “Any advertising that propagates itself the way viruses do”; E.g. When Hotmail users send e-mails, they “infect” the recipients with the tagline at the bottom of their messages.

If you UNLEASH a 'Viral Marketing' campaign, it will just keep on multiplying, spreading your message around the web like wildfire. I absolutely LOVE this method of sending quality traffic to my website for FREE.

Generating free traffic with 'Viral Marketing' is easily the most rewarding use of your time. Taking good steps to craft the right offer and layout of your 'Viral Marketing' message is essential. But get it right, and not only will a truck-load of qualified visitors come to your website, but an air of respect and expertise is generated around you and your business.

Internet Marketing Basics: What worked years ago still works today!

Internet marketing can seem mystifying not only for beginners, but for moderately skilled internet marketers. With all the courses, forums, blogs, reports, seminars and teleconferences available to help people learn how to get traffic to their sites, it is one of the most overwhelmingly dense subjects on the internet.

Unfortunately, and this is perfectly true, most of the advice or "expert" tips are outdated or completely false. Since anyone can publish on the internet, you have a mixed bag of good information followed with much more bad information.

The mysticism of internet marketing is created largely by this glut of some good and mostly bad information. It makes the whole topic SEEM like rocket science when, in fact, much of what was true about internet marketing years ago is true today.

Most people think that since search engine marketing changes every five minutes, that ALL internet marketing tactics must have changed as much in the same amount of time. Not true.

The basics, like trading links, article syndication, testimonials, forum signatures, joint ventures, affiliate programs - most work as well today as they did years ago. That is, if you know how to value the work above for what it will truly do for your website traffic.

Funny thing is, no one places much value on the above tactics anymore because there is always some "new" tactic around the corner that claims the death of everything that came before it. And most people blindly follow that advice as if it were true.

Most of the time, this is to the detriment of their internet marketing efforts. The basics are what work all the time and what have always worked on the internet.

You can always experiment with new things, as long as you have not forgotten to do the basics. The basics proven to drive traffic, page rank, link popularity, and branding to your business.

Conservative, relevant reciprocal linking
Article syndication
Participation in your field and among your market (forums)
Blogging
Offline advertising
Non-reciprocal linking tactics
Press releases
...and many other proven methods.

Everything else is just a big experiment until proven to work over time. "Over time" being the operative words. Lots of flash in the pan crack pot schemes work for awhile. But most never stand the test of time.

Links from a widely syndicated article will never fade away, yet I see people chasing down fly-by-night linking pyramid schemes as if they truly believe something like that is a smart thing to base their internet business on!

Tens of thousands have walked away from their dreams, gone back to their depressing, predictable, slave-labor jobs never knowing how close they were to actually succeeding.

Good people have left this business proclaiming it an utter lie that any average person can make it with an internet business and an internet marketing plan.

I guess there is truth in that statement. Average people do in fact quit this business before they ever get started because average people fall for tricks and schemes that above average people avoid on their way to success.

If you have read this far, you are probably in the above average category. Why? Because average people would have take one look at the list of things I mentioned that are the bread and butter of internet marketing and saw nothing but hard work. And they'd be right!

Above average people don't shy away from work though. I don't know a single soul (and my rolodex has some of the biggest names in internet marketing in it) who got where they are today without a lot of hard work.

You can succeed in internet marketing if you are not afraid to work, and not constantly tempted by those who say you can succeed without it!

Focus on the basics of internet marketing and stay with them as you try new strategies. We all experiment. But successful internet marketers never leave their bread and butter tactics behind unless they cease to be effective.

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