Can you remember when you first started your website or blog – you know, those days when you received one or two visitors to your site?  You worked your butt off to build traffic and slowly, so slowly you began to notice the trickle of traffic was turning into a steady stream of viewers.  The other day I was searching online for something new and interesting in the Field of Internet Marketing and I kept coming across one thing over and over again – MY OWN SITE!   I have a long, l – o – n – g,  way to to go to reach my goal but it’s nice to see your efforts in black and white – to see that your site is coming up in searches for a variety of different subjects.   It gives you incentive to move forward and find exciting, new, inventive ways to continue growing your Web Presence.  It’s complicated, time-consuming, frustrating and stressful but it’s also WORTH every single bit when you get it right.  Here’s a great article from Enzo F. Cesario with some great tips to help you out:

Saying that the Web is complicated is like saying that football is aggressive. Web trends come and go, with success stories and disasters wrestling for attention in the public eye. Sometimes people get it, and you have an amazing case like the advent of Twitter. Others miss the point spectacularly, such as CNN’s short-lived series where newscasters read excerpts from blogs.

With so much coming so quickly, it’s no surprise that some people are hesitant to expand their business into the online marketplace. It’s intimidating, and the penalties for failure can be harsh. However, here are six good reasons that every business can and should establish a Web presence.

#1 – Common Reference

Today, the Web is an integral part of most people’s lives. It’s not surprising that fewer and fewer people each year go to the newspaper or television for information and entertainment. News travels faster on the Web, and the sheer volume of entertainment available via sites like YouTube, Netflix, College Humor and others all mean less time in front of the television, and more time surfing the Web.

This is a warning and an opportunity. Traditional venues do still have a place simply through inertia and ubiquity, but they also are giving ground to the rising force of the Web. Getting a presence online allows you to keep pace with these growing trends; as people grow ever more dependent on the Web as a means of information and conducting business, it is the Web-oriented enterprise that likely will have its customer base grow, rather than shrink.

#2 – Innovation

The Web is so unrestrained that there are all manner of ways people can develop their creative impulses and come up with the next world-winning idea.

In that spirit, it’s healthy for any business to expose itself to innovation and competition. The increased tide of information may seem overwhelming, but managed carefully and studied diligently it can provide a wealth of ideas that can help your business grow. Any organization that cuts itself off from valuable information is just asking to be bypassed.

#3 – Communication

No other system of communication has been so fundamentally universal as the Web. People crave communication and contact, and the Web has affirmed this through every social multimedia network that has evolved and thrived. This is much more than a simple case of friends catching up on the latest gossip; it is a powerful tool that can keep your business ahead of the game.

The Web is bursting with information. Many experts use the Web to publish materials they don’t want to take the time to ram through slower, more traditional channels, because they’re eager to share. If you have an issue for your business, the Web has an expert ready to discuss it. Getting a Web presence allows these experts to see what you have to offer, and to help you refine it, be it through a forum discussion or a friendly email.

#4 – Efficiency of Exposure

This is where the Web truly shines, as demonstrated by the success of bookselling giant Amazon. Advertising takes time and money, so you want to put your advertisements where the greatest number can see them for the smallest cost. So rather than have many scattered retail bookstores, Amazon has one centralized system that everyone can go to, almost anywhere in the world.

These benefits extend beyond the mail-order mindset, as well. Having a well-designed, effective website for your store can get people interested. Rather than take a gamble on an unknown restaurant, for example, consumers can come to its site and see exactly what’s on the menu, for what prices, and even reserve a table with a convenient online form. As a result, the restaurant fills up tables, and its competition misses out.

#5 – Inexpensive Investment

Very few businesses have to incur a massive expense when setting up their initial Web presence. The cases in which you’d need your own server, for example, are vanishingly rare. Bandwidth and hosting space can be acquired for very reasonable rates, with many hosts offering trial periods and special business discounts. For the many benefits a Web presence can offer, the investment is hardly worth mentioning-but the ROI can be staggering.

#6 – A Case in Point

This is a bit of a ‘meta’ reference, meaning it requires a little thinking outside the usual box. But consider for a moment just where you’re reading this article. Consider what probably brought you to this website. Is it a coincidence that an article about establishing a Web presence can be found on the Web? A bit of lighthearted irony, but it does get you thinking a little, doesn’t it?

People are using the Web, and are going to continue using it. Major legislative battles are being fought over just how the Web should be allowed to function, but the Web most likely is going to be the defining arena of all business for the next century and beyond. Do your business the best service you can, and consider not if you should get a Web presence, but what form is the most appropriate to begin with.

To Read more, visit:   http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

I like to run this list every few months – bookmark it – Save it – it really helps!

1.  Write and submit articles . It is a classic, but it works. This will be indefinite traffic stuck in the search engines for you. Write quality unique articles, not articles that are rehashed or provide no insight to readers, which is a huge problem these days.
2.  Write and submit press releases, think prweb after you do one.
3.  Write and ping blog entries. Always make sure to link back to your website with your blog posts. Try making multiple blogs and have them all link back to one main site.
4.  Make sure your website is listed in DMOZ: http://dmoz.org/.
5.  Advertise your website in the appropriate categories at Craigslist. Try posting your ads in the most populated cities in the world.
6.  If a niche related forum that you frequently visit allows signatures, then make sure to add your website url in there.
7.  Make sure to view related products on Amazon.com. You can try and take some customers from your competitors here by providing your own url if the product is similar.
8.  Review websites in your niche on Alexa to try to take some of their traffic by including a reference back to your site.
9.  Review some related products on epinion.
10.  If you purchase a product that you actually like, then feel free to give an individual respect when respect is due and leave a testimonial. You should be able to get some traffic from that website if your testimonial is left with a url.
11.  Whenever you send an email to someone, always add your website url as a signature.
12.  Keep updating content on your websites/blogs… try at least once per week.
13.  Tag blog posts at social bookmarking sites, especially at http://del.icio.us/.
14.  Add photos to your blog with appropriate keywords.
15.  Tag blog photos at Flickr.
16.  Politely ask your readers to subscribe to your rss feeds.
17.  Try coining your own term. Might want to trademark it if you smell that it will become popular.
18.  Encourage readers to comment on your blogs.
19.  Include translation for your websites/blogs, especially in Chinese.
20.  Do not be boring, write about something that a wide select of people would want to know about.
21.  Make sure to edit your writing (unlike what im doing).
22.  Comment on other related blogs.
23.  Make a custom 404-error page for your website. You can provide a link back to your main website or even try to monetize it by offering a related affiliate program within your niche.
24.  Sponsor a charity, most charities will link back to your website, and you are also doing a good deed .
25.  Sell an item on eBay as a charity auction. Most charities will link back to both your auction and your main website.
26.  Start a publicity campaign, do something that individuals in your niche will take note of.
27.  Brand your website with a logo and a slogan/catch phrase. Think IBM.
28.  Hold a crazy contest that people in your niche will talk about. This will equal more links and traffic to your website.
29.  Build a tool that individuals in your niche will love and enjoy. Then give it away for free. If the tool is helpful, then you will get quality one-way links to your website.
30.  Contact small newsletters sources offline and submit articles to them.
31.  Become friends with editors of an offline publication.
32.  Give speeches offline. Start small and local. Also, do not forget to participate in toastmasters meetings in your area.
33.  Have a GREAT product. All of the marketing/advertising in the world will do you NO good if your product is sub par.
34.  Make something innovative. If you are selling information, what makes your content something you cannot get from the local bookstore, Barnes and noble or even eBay for that matter?
35.  Is your product groundbreaking? Will you leave individuals with no choice but to talk about your product or service?
36.  Are you selling something that wide groups of people want to know about but there is limited/scarce knowledge?
37.  Write good content, if your writing is good then people will share it with their friends. In addition, webmasters will use it as content on their website with a reference back to your article, or at least they should.
38.  Spark emotions. If you get people emotional about something then they will most likely talk about it.
39.  Get a custom t-shirt made with your website url on it, and wear it often.
40.  Build a list of subscribers. Your list is like a golden asset to you if utilized correctly.
41.Write tip articles, such as “Ten easy tips to blank-blank-blank.”
42.  Buy traffic from the search engines by utilizing one of their PPC campaigns.
43.  Open up a myspace account and find targeted friends so that you can promote your services to them.  Do not spam people, myspace is cracking down on spammers and are starting to sue people.
44.  Solicit a link from your local chamber of commerce.
45.  Have an easy to remember domain name. If your domain name is too long or not memorable then people may forget your site.
46.  Add a bookmark option to your website/blogs.
47.  Purchase the misspelled versions of your domain name and have it redirect to your main one.
48.  Use keywords in your image alt tags.
49.  Make sure to include appropriate keywords in your title tag, search engines show more prominence or importance to keywords here.
50.  Place appropriate keywords in your anchor text when linking.
51.  If you have a profile anywhere online, always include appropriate keywords and link back to your website.
52.  Try to get links from websites within your niche with a high pr (pagerank). Some The more one-way links (inbound links/backlinks) you have to your website, the higher your pr will become. Pagerank is important because websites with higher prs tend to have a higher search results in Google. It is a no brainier that if you can get number one for a competitive keyword then you will have enough traffic that you can handle… oh by the way its all free targeted traffic to remind you.
53.  Outsource grunt work. Time is in essence money…. you can hire individuals at freelance services to send emails, request JV proposals, or to answer questions from prospective or current customers.
54.  Offer something for FREE. Abracadabra is not the magic word, FREE is. It is like a worm on a pole for a fish in the water…. its bait! Offer a free mini course or free ebook to help collect more subscribers. You can always offer a backend to monetize on this opportunity, such as an affiliate product for example.
55.  After someone orders from you offer a one-time offer that compliments your product. For example, if I offered a traffic ebook, then after the individual purchase it would make sense for me to offer a traffic conversion bonus for a limited time only.
56. Become the virus within your niche. Make yourself the bug and have people talking about your product. When people talk about your product then you can induce the viral effect. However, you must give people a reason to talk about you, and being like everyone else is not one.
57.  Do your research and find expensive niches to tap into. A good way to do this is to find how expensive someone is paying for a keyword on a PPC search engine. If you can sell items that are more expensive more often then it is a quicker way to get rich.
58.  Become an active respected member of niche related forums. You can do this by offering quality posts. Hint Hint, it is not the number of posts you make, it is the quality. Remember, quality or quantity. Many useless or negative posts will have people looking at you funny.
59.  Test, test, test. Your flushing money down the toilet if your not testing to see what campaigns are bringing you in the most money compared to which ones are costing you money. When you test, you can eliminate the campaigns that are costing you dollars so that you can properly maximize your marketing efforts. Without proper testing, you are pretty much lost and can’t improve. You can only guess to what has or what is working. With proper testing, you do not guess, you know.
60.  Stay up to date on what is going on in the world, you can monetize off hot topic trends.
61.  Network, when you know more people you can find people that can help you get what you need.
62.  Offer an affiliate program for your product or service. Make sure to let your satisfied customers know that you have one, if they like your product then they will be even more delighted to know that they will get money for referring you.
63.  Write and give away a free ebook or report. It does not have to be long as long as its quality information neatly formatted and put together. You can also make a brandable ebook or report and allow affiliates the opportunity to brand their affiliate links in there to pass on to the next individual. You can then send this ebook to your subscribers or submit it to ebook directories.
64.  Add viral components to your blog such as social bookmarking options, and a refer a friend option.
65.  Be funny, people like something that will make them laugh and they will spread it for you if it is a genius idea.
66.  Syndicate your content by using an RSS feeds on your website.
67.  Answer people’s questions on Yahoo! answers with a link to your website in the sources area.
68.  Put a link in the “about me” section of your eBay profile.
69.  Make and upload a viral video to you tube. Use appropriate keywords in the video description for your target audience.
70.  Record an informative podcast and submit them to poplar podcast directories.
71.  Provide helpful answers for Google adsense on their help forum with a link back to your website. Go here to check it out: http://groups.google.com/group/adsense-help
72.  Get people to comment and add content to your site. When they do this, they will provide you unique content, no need to pay for ghostwritten articles.
73.  If you cannot get JVs, then try to bribe webmasters for sponsored advertising space on their newsletters.
74.  Include a media section on your website so that you will give the media an easy way to stay up to date on what your company is doing.
75.  Try to teach a class at your local community college or university. The more exposure you get in the public, the more credibility you will receive.
76.  Make a screensaver and make it easy for individuals in your niche to download it. Have eye candy graphics combined with your company logo to brand yourself.
77.  Write something controversial and spread it freely to your target market. It can be something as idiotic as the Da Vinci code, but as long people talk about it, its a successful campaign. A few hints, something controversial is something that goes against established beliefs in your market.
78.  Write and publish a book. Having your own book is a quick way to gain credibility.
79.  Take a guru in your niche out to lunch, and pay for it.
80.  Start an organization or club about something. This can be done online through Yahoo! or Google groups.
81.  Volunteer. Donate your time to a good clause…you can always network with people and form connections at the same time.
82.  Get involved in your community and try to run some type of outreach program.
83.  Offer good customer service, you may be surprised on how many referrals you get just be having a reliable one.
84.  Consider adding a direct mail marketing campaign to your marketing ****nal.
85.  Put an ad in your local yellow pages to get some local customers. Yellow pages tend to be more successful then newspaper ads because individuals are looking for a particular service when they are browsing through the yellow pages as opposed to newspapers.
86.  Post bulletins in your local supermarket. However, since not everyone may carry a pen or pencil, place your contact information and url on strips on the bottom so that individuals can rip it off and take it with them.
87.  Host your own commercial so you can put “as seen on TV” on your products.
88.  Conduct surveys and publish them. These make you appear as an expert in your field of study.
89.  Break a record or shoot to be in the Guinness world records for something.
90.  Make a sitemap for your website.
91.  Use a favicon for your site.
92.  Make your visitors more involved in your website. You can help accomplish this by adding CGI scripts to your site.
93.  Make sure you have no broken links on your site, and make sure that your website shows clearly in all browsers.
94.  Find domain names that get traffic, purchase them, and have them redirect to your website.
95.  Spell correctly whenever using keywords in writing.
96.  Look at sites related to your niche to try to figure out how they get their traffic.
97.  Properly optimize your website for the right keywords.
98.  Try to avoid java scripts on your website as much as possible.
99.  Do not use frames on your website.
100.   If your website becomes popular and starts getting lots of traffic, try switching to a dedicated server. The longer you site is down equals the more lost visitors you will have.
101.  Write a quality 101 article about a steamy topic that people want to know more about in your niche .

Doug
(c)http://www.imutopia.com/

Having a successful website really isn’t that hard, most people make it hard on themselves by trying to cut corners. Success has already been proven, the recipes are already there. If you’re willing to follow the recipes it’s really pretty hard to truly fail.

The most basic formula for a successful website is…

1. Do some research to find out what people are interested in or even better something that they desperately need. For example; cures for ailments, services, how to guides, and software.

2. Next you create whatever you found in your research that people are wanting.

3. Then you research ways that you can drive the type of people that were looking for what you created back to your website. For example; social media, SEO, classified ads, or paid advertising.

4. Finally you track, analyze, and optimize your website for each source of web traffic that you are using. You must do this step so you can monitor and improve the performance of your websites as not every source of traffic will like your website in it’s current state… The trick is to always be optimizing so that you get the most amount of people taking the action you wanted them to take once they arrived.

There is no secret, and if there was a “secret” then the above list would be it. Now of course for different business models there might be another step here or there but everything builds from that platform above.

In this post I’m not going to be talking about how to research what people want. I’ll address methods of research in another blog post but today’s let’s talk about traffic.

Free Traffic Vs. Paid Traffic

You have two choices… You either pay for traffic with your time and energy or you pay for it with your money. I personally just go after every possible traffic source I can get my hands on and then test it for profitability.

With free traffic you are usually going to have to either hire someone or use your own time and energy to go out and get that free traffic. Paid traffic is more of like a light switch, you just turn it on and off at will. The other benefit of paid traffic is there is nearly an infinite amount of it. Where free traffic can be pretty limited.

If you want to read about our free traffic methods and how to use them then I suggest you read an older blog post of ours called “Free Website Traffic Is 100% Possible.” Or keep reading and we’ll talk about 21 different places I’ve found for paid internet advertising.

Almost every single one of these sources will let you start with a very small budget. Which in my opinion is the key to success with paid advertising. I got my start with $60 in hand that I setup as a $2/day budget and turned it into $300 in sales by the end of the month.

I now spend thousands per month on advertising, but I started small, tracked everything, analyzed daily, and split-tested my web pages to optimize them for high performance. If you do the same then I promise you’ll find at least a couple profitable traffic streams below.

Top 21 Paid Internet Advertising Sources

THE KING! http://adwords.google.com

Google’s Adwords program is the ultimate light switch of web traffic for me. There are just so many different ways inside Adwords alone that you can drive traffic with. I can’t get into it all in this post but they have the normal keyword targetted campaigns, placement targetted (put your ads on other sites), the content network, and then extras like radio/newspaper/TV.

http://sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing

This is Yahoo’s version of Google Adwords, not as good but close and tends to convert better since Yahoo is more “shopping” oriented.

https://adcenter.microsoft.com

I’ll bet you already guessed that this is MSN’s version of Google Adwords. They don’t have nearly the amount of traffic that Google or Yahoo does but they do have an overall higher income bracket of users. So it works quite well for product sales especially to the 45 – 65 demographic.

http://sponsoredlistings.ask.com

Ok I think this is the last time I’ll have to refer to Google Adwords again, but ASK.com is the smallest of “the big 4″ search engines and ofcourse they have a pay-per-click network as well. This is the best network to use for medical/health related offers. Majority of the users are middle class middle aged african-american or hispanic women.

http://advertising.ezanga.com

This is a pretty small pay-per-click advertising network. Can get some REALLY cheap clicks though! I like to start out my testing here since it’s usually cheaper and then take my results over to Google, Yahoo, and MSN for scalability.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/ads

Can’t figure out how to go viral on StumbleUpon? Well you can pay your way in with their advertising network. You basically pay per stumbler that see’s your site and force your way into getting lots of views which can possibly lead to more stumblers stumbling it for free. Good for jumpstarting blogs and other content based stuff like Youtube channels.

http://www.cpvmarketplace.com

Now we’re getting into more of the MASS traffic type of things. CPV stands for cost per view, which like StumbleAds means you pay everytime someone views your webpage. Which is technically what pay-per-click is too, but CPV is usually a lot faster and a little more interuptive. SPLIT-TESTING REQUIRED!!! I’ve found it best to use very short lead in pages because you’ve got about 3 seconds, if that, for the viewer to decide if they like you or not.

http://www.trafficvance.com

This one and the next one are also both CPV traffic sources, so if you get one to work you can most likely scale up by adding the others. I only say most likely because every niche and every offer is different. I haven’t used this one yet, just out of not having the time to add it on, but my mastermind partners rave about it.

http://adservices.zango.com

This is the CPV network I started out with and got over 4,000 visits in under 48 hours. they tend to have a younger audience (teens) so take that for what it’s worth. They get their traffic by trading browsers entertaining content in exchange for downloading their toolbar… Then once you have their toolbar they show you ads (full sized websites).

http://ads.youtube.com

YES! Youtube has it’s own pay-per-click or should I say “Pay-Per-Play” advertising network now. You can get your video shown in the sponsored video section and pay for people to view that video. Haven’t used it yet, still thinking of a good video idea to use. My plan is to use this one in combination with the next one AdMob.com.

http://www.admob.com

The guys who started this network are ROCKIN’. They are getting all kinds of press coverage from the biggest blogs in the world. Basically, they own advertising on the iPhone right now! You can advertise either a website or a video to the iPhone users via little ads on all the different iPhone apps.

http://www.adbrite.com

If you’ve visited any major online forum then chances are you’ve seen AdBrite ads. They link targeted keywords in on-site text to a “hover over” advertisement that appears. If the reader clicks on that ad they are sent to the advertisers website. This network is very cheap and converts really low, great for testing because you can test cheap and if you get it profitable then scaling to others will bring HUGE profits.

http://advertising.superpages.com

Haven’t used this one but it’s pretty easy to describe… Pay-per-click just like Adwords but instead of the ads being on Google they are on SuperPages.com – I’ve heard from others that it’s great for people looking for local clients or marketing to local type businesses.

http://be-a-magpie.com/customer

this one is pretty cool and it’s on my list to test this week. You pay them to get their network of twitter users to post tweets that you wrote. Think of being able to pay people to re-tweet your messages! I’ll be using it to market a couple of the more popular blog posts here to get new readers.

http://www.kontera.com/pay-per-click-advertising

this one is just like AdBrite and if I was smarter I would have grouped them together. Same story of cheap in-text ads that you pay-per-click for but tend not to convert the best.

https://advertise.myspace.com

Social networks are all the rage these days and the big ones like Myspace and Facebook have over 200 million users. You’d also be surprised to learn that it’s not just teens using these networks. Facebook’s biggest demographic is 25 – 45 and Myspace is reported to have over a million users between the ages of 35 – 65. Use their pay-per-click network to put banners right in front of a huge wave of users.

http://www.facebook.com/advertising

No doubt you’ve seen the little ads on the right hand side of your Facebook home page… Well this is how you put them there. As with anything thats mass appeal traffic like Myspace and Facebook advertising you should make sure your offer is pretty mass appeal for best results. Targetting is kind of limited with Facebook ads as you really can only narrow it down to a select demographic and then a handful of keywords.

http://www.marchex.com/advertisers

this is another network I haven’t used but I have used other services they provide and I love the company. They are on my list to test, just haven’t gotten around to it yet. They are like a small version of Google Adwords with pay-per-click and pay-per-call options.

http://www.adparlor.com

This one is kind of like a one stop shop for advertising on social networks. They make it easier then having to have lots of different accounts but in exchange you are paying a middle man fee. It’s pay-per-click and they say you can start with as little as $1 – Haven’t tried them out yet but I think I will next month to consolidate my Myspace and Facebook ads.

http://www.amazon.com/Advertising

Lottsa options here and with one of the worlds MOST TRUSTED websites ever in existence. Everything from selling your products through Amazon to pay-per-click test links. Hmmm… I wonder if you could be a kindle affiliate and advertise on Amazon??? Will have to try that… hahaha

http://www.ampkeywords.com

Another small pay-per-click outfit that used to be exclusive to eBay but is now open. Clicks are cheap and conversions ain’t bad. They also have a refer-a-friend program that can get you free clicks!

Well there you have it… Pretty much everything you could ever want to know about where to get web traffic from all in one post (including the linked to post about free traffic). However, just reading about this stuff won’t do anything for you. If you want to have floods of profitable then all it takes is action and action builds confidence!

The following 6 methods are simple to implement and can be done for free by you today.

1. Email Marketing

Your first step should be to send an email to your existing clients announcing the existence of your website. You should also ask your customers to forward your email onto their friends, family and colleagues

Think Web Pages, not Websites

If you are starting a new business and don’t have any customers yet, send an email to people you know who may be interested in your offer.

Remember to email your clients every time you make changes, add new offers or features to your website to remind them to come back.

The next step could be to send your announcement to an opt-in email list. Opt-in email lists contain people or businesses who have requested to receive information about certain topic(s). There are many companies who can provide you with these lists.

Under no circumstance should you EVER send unsolicited email (spam) to people you either don’t know or who have not requested to receive your information.

2. Search Engines & Directories

Submit your website to as many search engines and directories as you can. (A search engine is a searchable database of websites collected by a computer program (called a crawler, robot or spider). When you enter a keyword, the search engine looks for keywords in its database, and any relevant records are displayed.)

Currently there are thousands of search engines and directories on the internet. Some of the main ones include Google, Yahoo, MSN. When submitting your website to the search engines, you can either do it manually by going to the search engine website and adding your URL (website address) or you can employ the services of a Search Engine Submission company, who will do it for you.

Search engines try to rank sites that contain good content higher, so you need keywords and phrases on your pages that best describe your service and products. For example, if you are a florist, use words such as “florist, online florist, virtual florist, wedding florist, florist in Sydney, florist on line, flowers, floral, bouquets, floral arrangements etc.” as many times as possible to ensure high search engine ranking. To find out what keywords your customers may be searching use Google’s Keyword Tool or Wordtracker.

Once you decide on your keywords, use them in:

(a) Your website’s domain name(b) The title of your page – This is displayed in the top bar of your browser window.

(c) The heading of your home page.

(d) The first paragraph of your home page.

(e) Meta tags – Keywords, description.

(f) Titles of your graphics.

While it is important to use keywords as much as possible, it is also important you use them only if they are relevant and do not sound awkward. If you spam your keywords, you may be penalized or even banned by some search engines.

If this all seems too overwhelming, you can employ the services of a Search Engine optimization company, who will make your website’s content more search engine friendly to make it rank higher.

3. Link Exchanges

Find websites whose business complements yours and add their website to your links/resource page. Then contact the company and ask for a reciprocal link. For example if you are a wedding dress designer, you could contact businesses that sell wedding cakes, jewellery, flowers and also venues, celebrants etc. By doing this your website will become a valuable resource for your visitors, since it will provide information they need. They may return to your site over and over to find more information.

On the other hand, you will have visitors coming to your website when they follow a link from your link partners.

Results in search engines are determined by the material you have presented on your site and by other off-page factors such as how many other sites link to your site. The more links you have pointing to your site from relevant websites, the higher your site will rank.

If you need help with this task, you can employ the services of a Link Exchange Company. They are generally inexpensive and can save you hours of time.

4. Email Signature

Every email you send should have an email “signature.” This is text that is automatically attached to the bottom of your email message. This text can be used to publicize your business. You can include your name, business name, email address, street or postal address, website details, phone number, fax number, company slogan, description of your company and its products/services. You can set up different signatures for different purposes.

To set up your signature using Outlook Express:

Step 1: Select Tools > Options from the menu bar.

Step 2: Click “Signatures” .

Step 3: Make sure that you select “Add signatures to all outgoing messages” – within the “Signature settings” section. It is up to you whether you would like your signature to appear in “replies” and “forwards”

Step 4: Click “New” (you can change the name from “Signature #1″ by clicking “Rename”) – within “Signature” section:

Step 5: Type in the text that you would like to appear at the end of your email messages – in “Edit signature” section:

Step 6: If you’re happy with this, click “Apply” and “OK”.

5. Office Stationery & Merchandising Materials

It is extremely important that your website is included on ALL your office stationery so that customers can see it over and over again. That way they are more likely to remember it. If you’ve just had your letterheads printed, you can always add your website address on your wordprocessor, when printing your correspondence. For brochures, business cards etc, consider having small labels printed up. Your office stationery should include not only your website address, but also your email. Consider adding your details to:

    • Letterheads
    • Business Cards
    • Flyers
    • Brochures
    • Labels
    • Packaging
    • Merchandise bags
    • Catalogs
    • Invoices
    • Fax headers
    • Display units

6. Set up a Blog

A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. Blogs are typically updated daily or weekly and can easily be managed by you. They provide a way for you to communicate with your customers directly, give you an increased presence on major search engines, allow you to stay ahead of your competition and so much more.

You can easily publish the following information in your blog: Articles, Media releases, Industry news, Surveys – so you can get feedback from your customers, Testimonials, Product reviews, Interviews, Case studies, Links to complementary businesses, Frequently asked questions and problem resolutions, Inspirational quotes, Research findings, etc.

Blogs give you an increased presence on major search engines, like Yahoo! and Google. If you use Blogger(Google’s Blogging Tool), every message you post creates a new page on Google so in a very short time you could have a lot of pages pointing to your website, bringing you lots of new visitors.

Don’t be scared to try some of these marketing methods – you have nothing to lose!

About The Author
Ivana Katz of Websites 4 Small Business makes it easy for you to get your business on the internet. If you’re looking for a professional and affordable website designer, visit Websites 4 Small Business and download a website plan for free.

1)  Restaurant Reviews: all the hottest spots in town
2)  Blog posts about the different types of cuisines, from the authors personal experience and research
3)  Interesting tid bits about New Zealand food, cafe, and eating culture in general
4)  Info on wine and spirits of the region

New Zealand has a British based cuisine with Mediterranean  and Pacific Rim influences.  This mix creates a mouth-watering range of flavours and food in cafes and restaurants throughout the nation.  The best cuisine from New Zealand emphasises the quality and freshness of New Zealand produce from land and sea, best when shared during the dinner hour, the main meal of the day, when families gather and spend their evening together.

This Blog has made me add New Zealand to my list of “Must Visit” locations.  I never realized the wide variety of interesting cuisines that could be found in NZ.  The pictures and descriptions of food in this blog are amazingly tempting and always leave me drooling – I can’t wait to visit New Zealand.  As soon as I get there I’ll rush as fast as I can to the Empress Gardens in Auckland and order up some Chilli leave prawns and some Chilli sour wontons.  I can’t wait!

“Assuming that everything else is being done correctly, web traffic is probably the most critical element in the success or failure of a web site. Out of the many ways to get a lot of steady traffic, two are vigorously promoted—one is free and the other requires money.

On the free end, we have traffic exchanges where you can sign up and list your site and earn credits by surfing and clicking on other members’ links which converts into how many times your site will be displayed. Assuming you have all day every day to do that, I suppose that’s a fantastic idea, but I have found that to be the most time-consuming and boring exercise of all marketing strategies I have employed.

There are people who use these religiously and swear up-and-down by them—and they get great results—so they say. It’s an option and it won’t cost you any money (unless you opt for the paid upgrade which some of them have), but you had best be prepared to invest some time. Me, personally—I need to be maintaining my site and running my business—I do not have time to be clicking for ad credits.

The paid option involves services that will sell you web traffic in the form of hits, visitors, guaranteed visitors, or guaranteed signups. When you go to the sites of these services, you will find that they promise you the moon and the stars, but for the most part, seem to deliver only star dust. I have tried several of these companies and I have had dismal results—and that is the concensus of successful online marketers.

It seems that there are some, at least, that employ dirty little tricks once they get your money. Some of the underhanded ploys include sending you hits when you have paid for visitors, counting repeat visitors as new visitors, redirecting people to your site from expired domains who have no interest in what you are selling, showing a thumbnail image of your site rather than a full page view—and the list goes on.

For someone starting out, guaranteed traffic can be a godsend if you’re getting the real thing—but that’s the problem—you don’t always know. The immediate goal of someone starting out online is to get into profit as quickly as possible and this is best achieved with a steady volume of traffic because it all comes down to a numbers game—with x amount of traffic, you get x number of sales.

I am unaware of any unbiased reviews of the specific companies selling guaranteed traffic, so my best advice would be to pose the question in forums such as the Warrior Forum, and get other people’s experience. Article marketing and building back links are slow to take effect; of course, once they do, then you will start to get lots of free traffic from the search engines, but that doesn’t help you in the short-term. It takes a daily, steady flow of traffic to make an impact—if you can find the right service at the right price, it can get you where you need to be in a cost-effective and time-saving manner.”  -   Michael Crank

Video marketing is hot for your online business and for good reason. When compared to traditional sales messages, video is the hands-down winner for grabbing the reader?s attention. If your return on investment (ROI) is not converting enough cash, you need a stronger call-to-action. Adding video to your website may just be the shot in the arm your sagging sales need.

There are many ways to use video on the Internet to market your practice. The first is adding video to your exisiting website and the second is building a direct marketing dental video website from scratch. Every dentist that wants to compete for business on the Internet will eventually have to have some form of video content on their dental websites to maintain the standards that are currently being reached by some on the Internet. By building a dental video website from scratch you will be able to take full advantage of the technology available to you to create a unique and custom website that meets its objectives.

Uploading videos to Youtube and other diverse video sites will broaden your influence on the internet in the quickest growing area of search engine marketing. A superior benefit that videos have over other time honored marketing concepts is that videos have the viral advantage over articles, e-books, etc. Allow your videos to be played on demand and let people download your videos so that they can watch them even while they’re not connected to the internet.

An estimated 90% of people would rather watch a video, than read. So how about giving people what they are longing for? Using videos on the internet marketing spectrum brings forth a lot of advantages and renders quality solutions because of its impact on the visitor. With such advantages and traffic creation, video marketing has emphatically become one of the most familiar marketing methods in the online market arena. The ability to drive all the traffic you want from the greatest search engine in the universe is a fairly enormous breakthrough that could alter the lives of thousands of website owners forever.

According to the Wharton School of Business, video enhances comprehension 50% in comparison to a live presentation. That’s why videos work. For multi-channel marketing, they?re powerfully effective. The next time you turn on your television, observe the number of advertisements that prompt the viewer to order a free,no obligation. This tactic is not only effective for list building. It also increases the likelihood that the customer will view the video, and testing reveals that up to 97% of consumers will eventually watch it. Online marketers are now using what offline marketers have known for years: Video marketing works.

There are other ways to integrate video into your online business aside from adding it to your website. You can also offer it as an opt-in incentive to people who sign up for your mailing list. Once you?ve captured your site visitor?s name and e-mail address, send a link to the video in an e-mail. The video should contain information that is timely and valuable to the target market.

When it comes to taking your online business to the next level, break free from the chains of one-dimensional selling. Studies have shown that online video significantly increases conversion rate over sales copy alone. Remember?Use the same sales strategies that you use with sales copy. Sell the sizzle not the steak, and end with a strong call to action that gives your website visitor a strong incentive to buy.

Submit your internet marketing videos to the venues computer turn to for videos, such as YouTube, Google Videos and Yahoo! One great benefit to submitting with one or all of these is that your video will be hosted for free, keeping your website bandwidth for your customers.

Videos and video marketing are not just here to stay, they are the future of online marketing. As the larger corporations including TV and movie makers are now using his medium, it makes sense to join the party. Video marketing is one of the fastest growing online tactics with an audience that is hungry for more – so long as it is reasonable good quality and entertaining.

Video marketing can be an excellent way to generate web site traffic. Video marketing is essentially free (other than the cost of the camera to shoot the video) and can be a very powerful strategy in getting targeted traffic back to your site, as well as in other facets of the marketing process like building relationships and branding yourself.

Below you’ll find twelve ideas to drive qualified leads to your Web site over the next year. Even if you don’t follow this exact order, it might make sense to start with January and February’s tasks because they lay the foundation for the rest of the year.

Video marketing is like a double edged sword. You gain views from people who look at your video and you gain search engine visibility. This is what has every Internet Marketer and online guru going crazy. Online Video Marketing has double impact in a short period of time.

A website is a must-have marketing tool for small business owners, but just because you have a website up and running, doesn’t mean that it’s doing what it’s supposed to do in terms of marketing and sales. If your website isn’t performing in bringing in clients and converting prospects then take a look at 3 critical areas where your website might be failing.

Todd Ash Is An Entrepreneur and A Master Of Network Marketing.To Find Out More About Succeeding Online Click Here To Visit Toddash.com For Free Information

FREE, NEW SEO Toolset From Bruce Clay!

Do you want to drive killer targeted website traffic without spending a single red dime?

If you answered yes, make sure to tap into the power of search engine optimization.

If you know how to optimize your site on the search engines, you are increasing your chance to get indexed by major search engines and get targeted website traffic in the process.

The goal is to get your site on the top 10 for multiple keyword searches.

Here are 3 power steps you can use starting today to promote your site using search engines…

Step 1 – Website Optimization.

Step 2 – Get Incoming Links.

Step 3 – Setup a Reciprocal Linking Campaign.

Lets get down into dirty detail as to how to apply search engine marketing to promote your website…

Step 1 – Website Optimization.

Make sure to optimize your site with relevant keywords in your niche.

Use your keywords in your domain name, title tags, meta tags, header tags and top and bottom portion of your website.

Donot abuse the use of keywords. If you do this multiple times you will be tagged as keyword spammer.

Just make sure to include your keywords 2% to 3% times in the content of your website.

Next step will show you how to get incoming links to your website which search engines really love.

Having more links pointing to your site will boost up your website traffic.

Step 2 – Get Incoming Links.

Work hard to get incoming links to your website.

Quality and quantity of your inbound links will determine search engine ranking of your website.

The easiest way to get started with getting tons of inbound links to your website is by using article marketing.

Write articles and distribute them to various article directories.

Next step will show you how to setup a reciprocal linking campaign to boost up your search engine ranking.

Step 3 – Setup a Reciprocal Linking Campaign.

This is a bit boring and time consuming task. But once you have few hundred link partners you will start receiving killer traffic to your website.

You have to be sure that your website is rich in content if you want other quality websites to link to your site.

About The Author

Do you want to learn how I do it? Watch this ‘FREE Report’ and Discover How I Created a Killer Cash-Pulling-Machine that Attracts 23,883 Visitors and Earns $6665.49 on Autopilot from just 20 Days of Lazy Work…

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http://www.CashPullingMachine.com/free-report.html

Viral Marketing is allowing people to give away and use your free product or service in order to multiply your marketing quickly over the internet. The idea behind viral marketing is that you include your ad with the freebie people give away or use. Below are ten high impact viral marketing strategies:

1. Allow people to reprint your articles on their web site, in their e-zine, newsletter, magazine or ebooks. Include your resource box and the option for article reprints at the bottom of each article.

2. Allow people to use any of your freebies as free bonuses for products or services they sell. Include your ad on all your freebies.

3. Allow people to use your online discussion board for their own web site. Some people don’t have one. Just include your banner ad at the top of the board.

4. Allow people to sign up for a free web site on your server. Since you are giving away the space, require them to include your banner ad at the top of the site.

5. Allow people to add their link to your free web site directory. Just require that they return a link back to your web site, advertising your directory.

6. Allow people to provide your free online service to their web site, visitors, or e-zine subscribers. They could be free e-mail, e-mail consulting, search engine submissions, etc.

7. Allow people to give away your free software. Just include your business advertisement inside the software program.

8. Allow people to give away your free web design graphics, fonts, templates, etc. Just include your ad on them or require people to link directly to your web site.

9. Allow people to place an advertisement in your free ebook if, in exchange, they give away the ebook to their web visitors or e-zine subscribers.

10. Allow people to give away your free ebook to their visitors. Then, their visitors will also give it away. This will just continue to spread your ad all over the internet.

Author – Ian – Marketing Magic

It’s a common problem: your website has cost you time and money, and now its just sitting there in cyberspace looking pretty and doing nothing much else. You need more website traffic! So what can you do to turn things around and not only make your site pay for itself, but get it to give your business a decent boost?

There are a lot of ways to get more website traffic, but the very first thing you need to do with an under-performing site is to check that the basics are in place. If you’re building a brand new site you can do it right from the start.

First, are you using the best keywords? Keyword research is the very foundation of getting more website traffic. It will give you a whole list of phrases people are using to find sites just like yours. You’ll see how many searches there are for each keyword or key phrase, and how many other sites you’re competing against for that phrase. Ideally you’re looking for phrases with a high number of searches and low competition.

Do a related terms search as well, to find search terms that are related to your seed word, but that don’t contain it. For example, a related terms search on “concrete” may turn up “cement” and “render”. You’ll probably find some jewels that you can do a vertical search on and find a whole lot more relevant key phrases.

The more keywords you uncover, the more chance you have of finding those elusive ones with low competition but high demand that you can rank highly for.

I recommend using a subscription keyword tool for the best results (you do seriously want more website traffic don’t you?) but if you’ve never used a keyword tool before try out a free one first.

Fundamental number two is to write useful content. When you search the web you’re looking for information, right? So are your potential customers. Give them that information and give them plenty of it. You’ll find it much easier to get a high search engine ranking and more website traffic, and the visitors you get will be more likely to deal with you.

You’ll know what to write about from your keyword research, and from your own industry knowledge. What are the questions your customers always ask you?

Fundamental number three is to optimize your page for the search engines. Each page should be focused on one keyword, and you need to put “hooks” throughout your page so that the search engines know what it is about.

The keyword should be used in the page title, the meta description, the page heading, and sprinkled through the text. Most experts say the keyword should be around 1-3% of the content. Try to use it in a text link as well.

Don’t go overboard with the use of the keyword or the search engines may see it as spam and actually lower your page rank.

Incoming links, usually called back links, are another essential part of getting a high ranking and more website traffic. Search engines see quality back links as a vote for your site. The more votes you have, the higher your ranking. Not all back links are created equal though. The best link is a one way link from a related authority site, and from a page with not many other links on it. The worst is a reciprocal link from an unrelated low quality site, with the link to your site buried on a page with hundreds of others.

When your site has about twenty pages of good content, start submitting it to relevant directories for a good one way link, and join a quality link exchange program for good reciprocal links. Don’t join link farms or exchange links with trashy sites.

Having a high search engine ranking is not much good if no-one clicks through to your site. By writing an appealing title and meta description you can double or triple your click through rate. They should both contain your keyword, and they should also be written as an ad for your page.

Look at other titles and descriptions on the search engine results page and see what would get you to click through. Don’t copy, but use them for inspiration. Try a few variations of your own, and you should be able to come up with something that will boost your click through rate and get you more website traffic.

So if your website traffic isn’t where you want it, go back to your site and check the basics. If they’re not right you now know what to do.

Article by Warren Newson from www.building-a-web-site.com. Click the link now for more about traffic building and website building

The List – Acquiring a list in a legitimate manner is extremely important. Spammers are notorious for sending their messages to any email address that they get a hold of, you do not want to do the same things as spammers or you will suffer the same fate. The best way to get a list is to grow it naturally with a web form on your website that points to a database where your records are stored. Invite people who visit your site to give you their email address in exchange for a newsletter or product update.

Purchased lists are a risky alternative to growing your own. People on lists, regardless of what the list broker promises, do not opt-in to receive your messages. Even if they opt-in to receive some messages that might be like yours, they are more likely to forget and reach for their spam button the first time you send them something. If you must use a purchase list, do so carefully and try to get them to confirm participation.

Confirm Opt-in – Once they sign up it is important to confirm their subscription. This can be done in a number of ways, but by sending a confirmation email to the email address they used, you can both verify the address they used is theirs and allow them to confirm. Granted, some people may change their minds or forget about confirming their email, but a confirmed opt-in will help you in the long run maintain a clean email address list and improve your email reputation.

Honor Opt-out requests – Requests for removal should be acted on immediately through any channel through which the recipient contacts you. If they call, email a reply, or log into a web page to manage their subscriptions, once they unsubscribe, you should not send them any more email. Even though the CAN-SPAM law allows you ten days to remove someone from your list, why would you want to continue to send email to people who do not want it and risk your email reputation.

Maintain a Clean List- Remote ISPs punish you if your list contains a large percentage of previously failed emails. You want to make sure that you have a way to remove failed emails from your list right away. If even a small percentage of your emails fail, your send may be slowed down to a particular domain, or blocked altogether. Many domains maintain rigorous whitelisting, greylisting, and blacklisting procedures that can ruin an email campaign in the middle of the process.

Gather Information – When people sign up, it is a good idea to find out more about them. You have to have a balance though, most people will not want to fill out their life history just to receive your email. Try to collect a name along with the address and maybe their geographical location. You can ask for that, or try to glean that information using the IP address on which they are logging onto your site. If have a subscription management area on your website, you can ask a number of questions that will help you segment your list.

Segmenting your list helps you send more targeted information to your customers. The more you know or can find out about them, the more specialized and personalized your email messages become. Message personalization and list segmentation are what make email marketing so valuable to your growing business.

Author: James Kinkade
 

I’ve heard it said, and even seen it written, that blogging is better than SEO for getting traffic. Are blogging traffic or SEO traffic generation techniques better for you, or does it not really matter?

Actually, a lot depends on you and which you like best: blogs or traditional websites, and also what you want the traffic for. I also wonder why the distinction is being made, since anybody serious about internet marketing and getting plenty of traffic, will use both. There is really no need to choose one or the other. However, when I hear such arguments I get the feeling that it is more academic than which provides the more traffic. Feelings, however can be wrong, so it is worth discussion.

When you think about it, the type of traffic you get from a blog could very well have different needs and interests to those that reached your site after carrying a search on Google or Yahoo using specific keywords. OK, you can get to blogs from search engines also, and through the use of keywords, but if you are looking to buy something you wouldn’t normally log onto a blog, would you?

Let’s say you wanted the best price for a gross of Titleist golf balls, you wouldn’t visit a blog site. Similarly if wanted to discuss their benefits, you would go to a blog or a forum. Sometimes it gets difficult to tell the difference these days, since blogs are becoming increasingly more interactive, but you get my general drift. I hope!

With a blog you can advertise whatever you want to, and the same is true of a website. However, you are more likely to make a direct purchase from a website, and to seek information from a blog. Hence, the traffic you get on a blog are information seekers and those on your website may also be looking for info, but might also be wanting to make a purchase. So right away we can kind of separate blog readers from website visitors.

It’s not a well defined separation, but bloggers tend not to be looking for something different to what a search engine user is looking for. If you have a blog on your website, your blog page will be likely to attract prospects that will tend to be more regular visitors than those that are checking out your website. If the latter don’t respond to your opt-in form, you will be unlikely to see them again, but a visitor to your blog page might return frequently.

However, to return to the question: what is better, blog traffic or SEO traffic, as long as each is free it doesn’t really matter I would have thought. I suppose that it could be argued that the SEO traffic is more focussed because they have used your specific keywords to get to the page they landed on ,and blog traffic could come from ezines and other sources that are perhaps not specific to any product you are selling. Me, I would accept any traffic no matter where it came from, and quite frankly once the traffic gets to your webpage it is up to you to convert it to sales.

The difference between the two is that if you don’t make an immediate impact with the SEO visitors, you could be struggling to keep them returning to your website, but you are likely to have more time with the bloggers, since they tend to keep coming back to the blog. The SEO visitors might register with your opt-in page, but that only allows you to keep in contact with them, and you still have to try to induce them to return to your website.

On the other hand, the blog readers need no such inducement, since they visit your site each time you publish a new posting. That is assuming that your blog is on your own website, and not on the blog server as many (perhaps most) are.

Perhaps I am completely on the wrong track, but I will keep tabs on it and report on my website what my findings are regarding blog traffic and SEO traffic, and whether or not one tends to buy more that the other. It is useful to know, since for a website that is designed to sell products it can determine whether or not it is worth having a blog on your site or keep trying to improve your SEO.

That is a big decision to make, and if it could make the difference between success and failure then it should be determines mathematically and scientifically rather than by conjecture and opinion. It is scientific testing that frequently makes the difference between those that are successful in internet marketing and those that fail.

So, is blogging traffic or SEO traffic generation the best? Who knows? I hope to know shortly though, and I will share it with you on my site when I finish my testing.

Author: If you want to find out more about traffic generation, or even the result of Pete’s testing, then visit Improved Search Engine Rank where you will discover a way to generate free traffic using SEO that even blogs cannot compete with, but Blog Profits shows you how to use blogs properly.

How do you know what type of content is really going to attract the right searchers? In this article I wanted to cover a few very basic tips that you can keep in mind when building high-performance strategies. Remember that good search engine marketing is not about trying to manipulate or “fool the search engines.” Good SEO skills are more about creating genuine relevancy for well-written content that deserves to be found because it is truly the most relevant and useful to your audience of readers.

What students quickly discover in the 5-Day classes is that the optimization skills are not nearly as hard as many people make them out to be (even for the most competitive phrases,) once you’ve been trained and understand the full scope of influences that are at work. The biggest advantage that we have had is all about the “accuracy of information.”

1. Write content that your audience is already looking for within the last 90 days.

True keyword research is not about “guessing at keywords” but its all about researching actual data. How are your SEO research skills using Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery? At the SEO Workshops we teach much more than the traditional “keyword research” methods. We help students learn “Keyword Forensics” and how to quickly tap into the hidden niche trends that 99% of most Webmasters never even notice.

2. Does your Web copy speak to the reader or does it speak about yourself?

Remember that your Web site should be focused on your audience first and appeal specifically to a niche interest. When writing your Web copy, you need to dialog in an appropriate tone and format for the right audience. Some of the most interesting content will have more appeal if it speaks to your audience in terms of “you.” You can, you might, you will, yours, your and youâ€^TMre INSTEAD of we, ours, weâ€^TMre, we will, we can, etc.

3. Focus on writing for the human audience first and search engines second.

While search engine optimization is important to your visibility, try writing your content first. Most people donâ€^TMt write their best when trying to optimize and create content at the same time. Focus on creating highly useful content that is extremely focused on one topic per page. Once you have completed your writing so that you are pleased with it, then go in to do a mild re-write for the search engines.

4. Tips for triggering idea generation and giving your strategies a unique twist.

While many people seem to spend time exploring their competitor’s Web sites, we encourage you to lead the way with new ideas. Try not to be obsessed with what the competition is doing, but be creative and start your own new trends. Spend just a little more time working on your projects this week than you did last week. Setting yourself apart from the competition is easier than you might think and gives you a huge advantage over others.

5. Creating your content so that it “speaks” to a specific audience of visitors.

Think of how your Web copy reads and ensure the dialog flows smoothly. Read your work out loud and see if you can improve the tone of your message With natural expression. Keep your specific audience in mind. How you write for senior citizen (in tone and in format) may differ considerably from writing for an audience of for example “new parents.” Always ask yourself “what is important to these readers?” Rely on researching accurate data to eliminate guess work.

6. Remember strong calls to action

Without a firm call to action, donâ€^TMt expect the reader to naturally guess at what you want them to do next. Plain ordinary dialog that asks the reader to take the next action will usually work best. Dialog that is written for voice (similar to the way a broadcaster writes to project their personality.)

7. Build your search engine optimization skills in the beginning with the “stress free” approach.

If you are new to SEO, you may want to focus on the long tailed niche phrases since most searchers are doing fairly descriptive and intelligent searches these days. Ideally You want to attract those who already know what they are looking for and just need to find your pages more easily. With practice and the right training you can go after highly competitive phrases too but youâ€^TMll find that the best conversions nearly always come from the niches. Also remember that it is the basic SEO skills that carry you through and must come before any of the advanced strategies. The result will be stable top rankings that stand the test of time with minimal fuss.

8. Give your readers a non-threatening reason to respond right now.

What is the objective for your page and does your Web copy work effectively at fulfilling that objective? It may not always be about trying to sell a product or a service. It should not be about fulfilling your needs first but it should be about meeting the needs of why that searcher first conducted a search. Meet their needs and deliver up something that satisfies their search first and then give the visitor a non-threatening reason why they might respond to you. Do you want their e-mail address? or do you just want them to pick up the phone and call? Never lose sight of the fact that the Web is a marvelous two way interactive experience, if you want it to be. Make your Web site a vehicle for relationship building and remember that many readers may actually have the desire to interact and participate through Blogs or other “User Generated activity.” Give your visitors something that involves their participation.

9. Remember that your readers always want to feel like they are in control of their Web experience.

People often use the Web for researching topics of interest or doing preliminary price comparisons or for looking up information. While most people explore the Web for their own purposes, the more that you put them in control of their experience the better. If appropriate, you may want to consider adding addition tools or functionality to your Web site in order to enhance its usability for your specific audience.

10. Did you know that if you write your content so that it naturally “reads very well.”

You will naturally gain some bonus for having created content of quality. By this, I mean content…that reads well to a human being. Don’t stuff keywords all over the place. Instead, use moderation in everything you do. One of the things you need to understand is that “theme based” search engines like Google, are actually using a measure of artificial intelligence (AI) to measure how well your article “reads” based on all of the overall context of your body text (other than the keywords) based on data that a search engine has gathered concerning a specific topic. This is great news for writers because if you are making a transition to writing for the web, you’ll find some search engines are literally rewarding pages that are “well written.”

John Alexander has taught live SEO Workshops since 2002 at http://www.SearchEngineWorkshops.com as well as Online Webinars at the SEO Workshop Resource Center at http://www.SEW-WRC.com

 During a recent radio interview, one of the callers asked for several ways to get fast, cheap, sustained website traffic. She added on top of that “tall order” that she didn’t want to use pay-per-clicks!

Digging deeply into my toolkit of traffic generation techniques that had actually work beautifully for me, I suggested joint ventures and article marketing. Then I had to admit that article marketing often doesn’t produce an immediate flood of traffic but that it can be sustained and highly targeted.

Joint ventures get you fast and cheap traffic because you’re arranging for those who already have the attention of your ideal customers to send them to you. You’re convincing those who already have the trust and respect of your ideal customers to point out to them that you can help to solve their pressing problems.

My “answer” to the question of the quickest way to generate sustained, inexpensive website traffic still is joint ventures. As a joint venture broker, and Executive Director of The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers, I’ve seen first-hand how large, successful joint ventures with just the right partners can deliver 7-figure days.

However, the joint ventures that so typify product launches in the Internet marketing niche often miss delivering real “sustained” traffic. They are mostly “flash in the pan” launches where the traffic flow dies-off even faster than it builds up.

A better option for generating inexpensive, sustained, targeted website traffic is an affiliate program, or strategic partnerships. The strategic partnerships can even BE an affiliate program, where the partners have agreed to promote certain products within that affiliate program contributed by various members of the alliance.

In ultra-competitive niches, such as Internet marketing, where you often see dozens of new product launches per week, strategic alliances are almost a “requirement.” It’s sometimes so difficult just to get noticed that the secret to breaking through the clutter is TEAMWORK.

You often need to find a group of likeminded individuals, and then work to jointly develop, launch and promote group products and projects.

An example of a product launched using this model is the ebook “20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online” (http://20Ways.org). This ebook was written by members of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle (http://TIMIC.ORG), then group members created the buzz that got the product noticed and eventually started other affiliates promoting it.

The “20 Ways” ebook had a viral twist to it too though, and that’s what created and will sustain it’s growth. That viral aspect is the customer-only affiliate program. A customer is eligible to register as an affiliate, and then use their affiliate link to sell the ebook at 100% commission.

The 20 Ways Ebook was indeed launched via a strategic alliance, an affiliate program, and viral marketing. It’s a launch formula that you could easily model, and use to generate a steady stream of quick, inexpensive traffic.

Some would look at the “20 Ways” ebook though and ask “What’s the point – if you then give away 100% commission?” The answer is that you need to build-in backend sales. Add links to your product that drive repeat customer back to you, or offer additional products to those customers on your download pages.

When I further contemplate the question of the fastest, easiest, cheapest ways to generate sustained website traffic, I would still have to say joint ventures… and an affiliate program. An affiliate program fits the “inexpensive” criteria because you only pay for performance. If the traffic doesn’t convert to sales, it costs you absolutely nothing. Any costs involved in an affiliate program comes from revenue that you wouldn’t otherwise have anyway.

The only twist missing from the “20 Ways” model that I would incorporate in hindsight… is to perhaps make some part of the ebook rebrandable. Perhaps use software such as Viral Document Toolkit to allow customer who buy resale rights (as an upsell) to change links within the ebook. No kind of resale rights are offered for the 20 Ways ebook, but it is a twist that you might want to consider for one of your products.

Anyway… joint ventures, an affiliate program, and releasing viral rebrandable products are all proven methods of quickly, easily, and cheaply setting in motion a sustainable flow of traffic!

This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Now your website is up and running, don’t think you can just sit back and get traffic to your website without lifting a finger. It is not that easy; well, it can be if you know what to do. Think of your website as organic, something that continually evolves and grows into the future. So how are you going to get website traffic? I will give some tips here in principle.

Then, I will take you to more detail and then I’ll give you access to traffic knowledge you possibly can’t get anywhere else on the internet or in a book. Let’s take it one step at a time.

You have done everything right. Now you need to let people know you exist. Maybe you are wondering if you should buy website traffic or, maybe, if there are things you can learn to get more website traffic more quickly and easily.

Some ways to improve your website traffic include content and article marketing, in-bound linking, Web 2 strategies, free website directories and search engine optimization. If you do nothing, you will likely get very little traffic.

1. Content and Article Marketing

To get traffic you need top quality content on your website. If you don’t, any visitors you do get will click away from your website immediately and move to the next one in the list.

Support your content with article marketing. Write good quality articles relevant to your website’s content and submit them to online directories.

This will help get you noticed and listed in the most popular search engine directories. Remember to stick with quality. Check places known for their stringent approach toward quality such as ezinearticles.com to get an idea of what you should be doing.

2. Creating Links

Start a link campaign. The best way is to get in-bound links commonly known as back-links from similar or complementary website owners. Another way to create links is to make informed comments on blogs and forums that allow you a link to your website address. This is effective and many will click your link simply out of curiosity, especially if you have interesting things to say in your field. But remember, it is not the quantity of external links that is important; it is the quality of them. Keep away from reciprocal linking, it is most often not worth the effort.

3. Web 2.0 Strategies

Web 2 strategies, often known as social marketing, have become a huge online marketing tool. YouTube, Flickr, Reddit, Propeller, MySpace, Facebook, Stumbleupon and Digg are all examples of social marketing tools that have come to the forefront in recent times. There are many ways to use these communities to promote yourself and improve website traffic in an ethical manner.

4. Free Website Directories

Promote your website to online newsgroups and free directories. These can be invaluable for getting your name out there quickly. Take care with directories and make sure you’re not submitting to a link farm. Search engines don’t take kindly to link farms. Make sure the directory offers significant traffic. Google themselves promote Yahoo directory and niche directories as good places to list your site. Yahoo charges a hefty fee but you have to decide how much credence you place in your site.

5. Search Engine Optimization

Make sure your website is optimized so search engines list you. Once you are listed your web address will come up when people type in your keywords. To optimize your website use keywords in your content, the same keywords in you meta keyword tag, a sensible and relevant meta description, headlines and page titles. Don’t cheat! You need to learn a little more about On-page and Off-page optimization. You can Google these terms and find out more in detail later.

No longer do we live in an age where we can expect people to come to us. We have to target our audience and encourage people to visit. Usually with quality. Remember, that in the end, real people will decide the future of your site so don’t be in a rush.

This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com