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?
Copyright 2005 Ron Hutton
Ron Hutton is a 20 year sales and marketing veteran with a passion for coaching and training. Subscribe to "GoThrive Online", for big juicy marketing tips in small, easy-to-chew, bite size servings. 17 Free Cool Tools... http://www.gothrive.com
move in cleaning service Wilmette ..There are a number ways you can go about marketing... Read More
Do you want to generate more orders at your website?Here... Read More
There are many ways to promote your website for free... Read More
Why Award Sites?Award sites are, in essence, directories that hand... Read More
Yes, if need more web traffic, this free list building... Read More
1. Vary the keywords in your link 'anchor' textUnless you... Read More
We all know that the secret to success on the... Read More
There are two types of tools I sometime use to... Read More
Recently the wife and I were watching Million Dollar Baby.... Read More
Getting quality links to your site from related web resources... Read More
Just launched your website? Now what?You are finally ready with... Read More
So, you've spent hundreds of thousands on a state-of-the-art website.... Read More
If you agree that traffic is the true currency of... Read More
If you sell products or services, chances are you have... Read More
Are you spending hundreds of dollars on advertising campaigns, only... Read More
Here's what your website must have to get lots of... Read More
Trying to get traffic to your new website or to... Read More
>When many of my clients first come to me for... Read More
Traffic exchanges are everywhere. A traffic exchange is a clever... Read More
There's nothing new about using joint ventures to get traffic... Read More
Web sites are on my mind, since I just updated... Read More
What are web site keywords and how do I go... Read More
In the real world when you buy real estate the... Read More
Why on earth would anyone want to install a piece... Read More
It's a strange world, this place we call the internet.... Read More
green cleaning service Lincolnshire ..When adding a link directory to a web site there... Read More
I am not a web designer or search engine optimizer,... Read More
We all need traffic. It's the life-blood of an online... Read More
Wouldn't it be great if your website was listed on... Read More
1__MESSAGE BOARDSIntroduce yourself smoothly, by posting informations and be available... Read More
So, you have a great product or service, yet your... Read More
We all know that the secret to success on the... Read More
We will begin this topic with one assumption, that our... Read More
It's no secret, the lifeblood of any website is the... Read More
If you are looking at ways to increase traffic to... Read More
Does anyone really enjoy the tedium of spending hours upon... Read More
This is the first in a series of three articles... Read More
Considering all of the money you spend on promotion and... Read More
? What are traffic exchanges?Traffic exchanges are used by 100,000... Read More
Qualified traffic is the lifeblood of any web site today,... Read More
You have just uploaded your web-site and it looks great!You... Read More
A prospective client asked me to view his web site... Read More
"How do I get more traffic to your site?" That's... Read More
Link development can be an absolute nightmare. It takes up... Read More
It's a strange world, this place we call the internet.... Read More
Large companies tend to spend huge amount of money on... Read More
Everyone wants to know the big secret to driving traffic... Read More
This is the third in a series of three articles... Read More
Writing LinksIn the first part of this article we learned... Read More
#1 Make sure your business card includes a persuasive "FREE... Read More
Traffic Building |