Archive for the ‘Web Traffic’ Category

While having a great sales page is very important in internet marketing, what is vital is getting traffic to that sales page. The best sales copy in the world is useless if no-one reads it. There has been much written about SEO strategies and using Web 2.0 content sites to help build your traffic, so this article will focus on a more demographic-specific form of traffic building: forums. Internet forums, and their newsgroup predecessors, developed to give like-minded people a place to discuss their favorite topics. These topics can be anything from cooking to skydiving; whatever you`re looking for, there`s a forum for it. For the purposes of internet marketing, forums are an invaluable research because they are entirely populated with people who are already predisposed to buy your product. For example, let`s say you are working with a product that is all about teaching people to build websites. If you go to a forum filled with web design novices, then you have pinpointed potential customers, making it more likely to get sales. When using forums at a marketing tool, you have to remember one key tenet: you must provide value in order for potential customers to buy your product. While this is true in all other stages of marketing, it is even more true for forums. Don`t post a lot of links and then expect members to just click on them and buy your product. You must post useful information to the topic at hand. As with the example of web design, should a member post a question on formatting images on a website, don`t simply write a post saying, “Buy this product,” write something along the lines of, “To format an image using HTML you do this, but if you would like to bypass the hassle of manually formatting images each time, you can try out some web design software like This Product. It will cut your work time down on trivial things so that you can focus on more important site issues.” This provides the value of knowledge to the members of the forum and also makes a soft pitch for your product. As you build a presence in a forum community, you will have more people clicking your links because they will appreciate the knowledge you contribute. One final word: make sure to check the forum`s rules before posting too many links. Most will allow you to have a link in your profile that you can lead to your site, but make sure what the guidelines are before starting.

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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/internet-marketing-traffic-different-ways-to-get-more-841181.html

It is widely touted that you can get targeted traffic to your blog just by making useful and valuable comments on others’ blogs.   However, like everything else in life, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it.  And getting it wrong can cost you traffic that would otherwise have flowed to your site. 

So how do you get it right?  Here’s the lowdown to building your online presence and maximising your comment love!

Comment Early

Most blogs are set up to show the comments on a post in chronological order ie the first comment is directly unsderneath the post, the second comment underneath that and so forth.  It stand to reason therefore that to get most viewings of your comment therefore, you have to comment as quickly after the blog posts as possible.  This is obviously easier if the timezone works in your favour.  UK bloggers will find it virtually impossible to post early on US blogs which often “overnight”.  On the other hand, commenting first on Australian blogs should be possible. 

Add Value

Easily said than done?  No, but it does require you to think.  Easy ways for you to add value are:

1. Extend the List  – where the blog post is a list of points describing something, add another that was missed out in your opinion and explain why you would include it;
2. Add an example – Agree with the blog post and show why by giving a real life example;
3. Be contraversial – Disagree with the blog post and explain why.

Be Human

These days blog posting can be automated, especially on the larger high PR blogs, as people post comment solely with a view to getting a quality backlink to their own website.  Whilst these comments invariably get deleted when they are spotted, it will attract a much larger audience (and so more traffic following to see who is behind the post) if you fill your comment with your personality.

1. Be passionate about what you write
2. Be witty and funny
3. Ask questions
4. Be different – if all the posts are long and wordy, be concise and if they’re all two sentences long, be more descriptive.
5. Use bullet points that stand out and are different from those used by others
6. Add a helpful link – but ONLY if it IS helpful – do NOT just link back to your blog for the sake of it in your post.

Do NOT Add a Signature Link in Your Comment

Your name (or keyword phase) will be automatically lined back to your blog or website.  Adding another signature in your comment can be seen as spammy.  It will not get you comment love and may even get your comment deleted/unapproved.

A Word Of Caution:

Beware of posting too often and always early on any one blog – the blog is the property of the blogger and posting too often/early can be seen as “blog hogging” which can actually damage your online “brand” presence.

Follow these tips and you’ll get traffic from your comments and eventually be noticed by the big bloggers themselves, who may also follow your links and comment on your blog too.  And isn’t that what we all really want after all?

I have been very remiss lately.  Christmas, New Year and the sheer overload of things I have to do for the Alex Jeffreys Coaching Program have left me with bags under my eyes that could be used as long haul suitcases… and little energy to post a blog.  BUT…

…in the early hours of this morning I attended a unadvertised extra bonus webinar that Alex had sorted out SINCE the coaching program began.  This was unusual in being one of those “unannounced bonus” items that is actually unmissable!  It was a webinar on video marketing with the widely recognised Queen of Video Marketing, Maria Andros.  Wow!  Was she energetic!

Speaking at about 300 words per minute (I really felt for the non-native English speakers!), her enthusiasm was electric.  Even after an exhausting day, I couldn’t help but really feel that this was do-able.

Her messages were simple and clear:

• Old school marketing online is dead. 
• Video converts up to 600% higher than text alone.
• Growth of YouTube is massive with over 150,000 new videos every day
• YouTube is now the 3rd most sought on website
• Using video can give you the competitive advantage in an increasing savvy online market

Why?  because videos let you be YOU.  They appeal to an audience on a much wider level than text alone and allow people to connect with YOU.  And because 90% of all communication is non-verbal, videos convey you message to your audience on many levels.  Videos help build relationships.

Maria constantly stressed the importance of building relationships online.  She encouraged us to just get going, “don’t worry about the quality – that will come as you gain experience”.  Just be YOU.  Do not apologise for passion.  “You cannot say the wrong thing to the right person!”

Apparently any video camera will do - she personally uses a HD Mino Flip camera (about $200). We could virtually hear Alex turning puce – he’s just splashed out on expensive equipment costing around $1,800!  LOL

Seriously though, Alex didn’t even know Maria when he started his coaching course.  He met her on Twitter – demonstrating the total power of Twitter and the importance of it in relationship building.  Maria herself stressed that amongst the social sites, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were places where successful online-preneurs must have a significant presence in the future.

I’m off to figure out how to use my digital camera to make a video, do some tweeting, open a YouTube account… and get the matchsticks out for Alex’s session later tonight!

So – another late night beckons then… !

We all know that Alex Jeffreys is running a competition for his coaching students to see who can generate the most traffic to their blog in the two weeks to 1 Jan 2009.  Well the much respected Jack Humphreys has posted Technorati Favorite Blogs Exchange which gives a step by step run through of how to use Technorati to get a major boost to your blog traffic. 

You probably know of Technorati as one of the sites you “ping” your site to when you post.  So it can give your site a major traffic boost because the visitors from it are already interested in your site because they’ve read about it in Technorati.  However, if you visit Technorati and “claim” your blog, rather than just “pinging” to it, Technorati gives more importance to your site in searches, bringing more traffic to your website!  

First go to Technorati and claim your blog (ie prove you are the owner of your blog by putting a bit of HTML on the front page).  Then head over the Jack Humphreys site and wait for the traffic boost!

Many thanks to Eoin O’Leary for the heads up on this.  Please head over to Octisage Technorati Profile and Fav Me!  Post that you have and I will return the favour.  Let’s keep the love flowing!

Online auctions are hot news.  There are thousands of online auctions on the internet with more popping up everyday. People love them. They offer the opportunity to bag great bargains.  But have you ever thought about how they can benefit your business? 

These are my Top 6 Tips for Benefiting From Online Auctions.

1. Eliminate Excess Inventory
   If you run a business with physical products, why not sell your excess or old inventory at discounted prices at an online auction?  After all, your unsold inventory is not doing you any good and anything you get at an online auction will be money in the coffers AND it will INCREASE your online exposure…  and that’s priceless.
    
2. Test Markets For New Products
   Online auctions are the perfect testing ground for new products.  Think about it.  Auction sites such as eBay and Amazon have millions of visitors every day, all eager to find a bargain.  With the traffic these sites pull in daily, you could easily complete a market test of new products in a fraction of the “offline” time and quickly determine which of your new products will be the “hottest”!
    
3. Test Pricing For New Products
   And testing the best price level is simple too.  Just sell your test product at three different online auctions at different prices (one per auction site). Then simply the weighted average selling bid from all three auctions and use that as your new product selling price. 
    
4. Sell Your Products
   Online auctions are fantastic at getting your product in front of a large audience.  Some of the bigger auction sites draw millions and millions of hits a year.  But to maximise your success, you need to list your product at lots of online auctions at the same time.  For example, if you sell one product a day from one particular auction site, listing your product at one hundred online auction sites could raise your sales to a hundred sales a day!  (This needs sensitivity analysis to take into account different listing fees at the different auction sites to maximise profits to YOU!)
    
5. Start Your Own Online Auction
   Online auctions are great for driving traffic to your web site.  You could capitalise on this by starting your own online auction. People will visit your web site to find bargains and to sell their own products. You will get plenty of repeat visitors from people ebidding on products and adding new products to sell.  And don’t forget the advertising revenues from other businesses you will attract!
    
6. Lower Your Business Costs
   Improve your profit margins by cutting costs wherever possible.  Online auctions are great places to find lower prices on business supplies and equipment, especially if the supplier is selling off excess inventory (see my first point above!). 
    

So there you have it.  Online auctions are not just for personal and sole traders.  There are many ways they can benefit larger businesses too, even those without a traditional “online” presence.

Alex Jeffreys Coaching Program is now in full swing.  After the fourth webinar I am feeling very motivated, if a little awed by the avalanche storm that I know will break loose!  I am excited I know that!  First off, I just want to comment on the quality of people on this coaching program.  There are a LOT of people who have been online for a while, a few years etc and also some lucky ones who have found Alex’s coaching program within their first six months online.  But wherever they are, everyone is friendly and helpful and there is a real sense of community already.  This is invaluable.

Alex has set us a challenge of making a mailing list of 1500.

Every time I set up a new web-business, I focus on the end game while putting one foot in-front of the other. I don’t get distracted, I press ahead tirelessly until the mission is accomplished.

The secret of success is to find your path and never waiver, just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you reach your goal. If you treat failure negatively, you will never succeed.  However, if you treat failure as a necessary part of success, LEARN from it, adapt and move on, success WILL follow.

So far in my list building mission I have achieved 2 sign-ups.  This is new territory.  I have been online for a couple of years but in the ebooks marketing area and have a small ebooks list.  However, I have NEVER tackled the intensively competitive “internet marketing” niche head on.  And listbuilding has always been on the back burner.  Now it is centre stage. 

So, over the next two weeks I will:-

• “warm up” my list built from ebook activities;
• place and comment on the success of classified ads;
• figure out Twitter, which Alex says is a good source of relationship building;
• embed the best YouTube videos I can find relating to the topic of traffic generation
• “oil rig” hop (Alex’s term, more later)

Alex has set up a competition of who can get the most traffic (absolute not percentage increase) to their blog by 1/1/09.  Obviously those who are already achieving several hundred hits a day start with an advantage.  I don’t expect to be in even the top 50 competitors -  but the best thing about this competition is that I can visit the sites of people I know stand a good chance of winning and see what they’re doing to drive traffic.  The beauty of the Alex Jeffreys program is NOT that we are competitors of each other – we are but we’re not – for sure a lot of us will have skills in niches other than the one Alex is teaching (I know I do!) – rather it’s learning how to build RELATIONSHIPS for JVs later on….  and THAT is invaluable!

Stay tuned for the next Traffic update!

If you want to get serious traffic to your website, you’ll want to do is rank well in the search engines, like Google, MSN and Yahoo, for keyword phrases related to your site, that people are actually searching on.  Students of Alex Jeffries, like me, have the fun of trying to rank for highly competitive phrases such as “internet marketing”, “listbuilding tactics”, “making money online” etc.  Ranking for these keyword phrases takes more than just on-page SEO tactics. It takes backlinks, and lots and LOTS of them.

 ”Don’t Wish It Was Easier – Wish That You were Tougher” – Jim Rohn

A backlink is an inbound link to your website - from the owner of another website or blog linking to your site (BTW – my BLOGROLL page live backlinks to all the Alex Jeffries coaching students I know of, so if you’re not on, leave me a comment!). 

When someone links to your site, it’s like a positive vote for your site.  The more “votes” a site has, the more important the search engines think it is and the higher they rank your site … generally speaking.  Arguably, fewer high-quality backlinks can be far more significant to your page rank than anything you do ON your own website to draw traffic.

What do I mean by “quality backlink”?  Well, search engines also consider anchor text, ie the visible clickable text for the link. For example, the anchor text, Hot Niche eBooks is the anchor text for the website, octisageebooks.com (hover over the link). Search engines use anchor text as a way of determining what your site is.  Make sure your anchor text for your backlinks includes your main keywords and keyword phrases whenever possible.

Quality backlinks can also be obtained from “authority” sites, such as sites with a high Page Rank, anything by the US Government, major charities etc.  Very difficult to get… unless you know different!

So, if one certain way to get traffic to your website or blog is to get hundreds of backlinks coming in to your site, HOW do you do it?

One method I’ve come across recently is Jon Ledger’s 1 Way Links network.  If you set up a “donor” wordpress blog to accept general blog posts (and Alex’s students should all be able to do that!) , you are given a monthly quota of 250 blog posts (at present), each of which can contain up to three links of your choice.  That’s 750 UNIQUE Backlinks each month!  You choose the anchor text too.  The posts, once approved, are submitted into the network to give GENUINE 1 Way Links to your sites.  (1 Way Links are arguably the most revered by the GoogleBot when deciding on Page Rank and traffic!)

This is a paid option, which you may not be able to afford right now.  He also runs a 3WaysLinks programme which gets you 250 unique backlinks.  But there are lots of FREE strategies too.  However, rather than the “set and forget” options above, be prepared for these to be (REALLY) time consuming, sometimes unproductive and unltimately “long term” in traffic generation, rather than generating “immediate results” (ie traffic). 

1. Make it as easy as possible for other websites to link to you.  Set up a “Link to Us” page that contains snippets of html code (containing keywords anchor text!) that can simply be cut and pasted onto their site;
2. Write some articles and submit them to article directories with your (unobtrusive) link in the Resource Box.  A single article could bring you dozens of backlinks.  This will be the subject of future blogs
3. The Direct Approach – Try contacting a few sites within your niche and ask if they will link to you.  You could offer to write a regular column for them as a sweetener.
4. Submit your site to free directories that are related to your niche.
5. Find blogs or Forums in your niche and post comments to some of their posts. DO NOT SPAM.  Make sure your post is interesting, relevant and actually ADDS something to the discussion.  

All of these work, although they are time consuming.  There is however, one major FREE traffic driving strategy which I’ve not mentioned here.  I’ve tried it for the first time today, so let’s see how it goes.  I’ll blog about it later, and let you know how it’s gone so watch this space!

Everyone with a website needs traffic to it.  Traffic is the lifeblood of all online businesses.  And one great way to generate traffic is to offer a free ecourse. 

If you have extensive knowledge on a particular subject, why not create a free ecourse for your website visitors. Obviously, the ecourse should be related to the theme of your website! For example, if your website is selling niche ebooks, your free ecourse could be on buying and selling ebooks online for example.
    
Your ecourse could be in html, autoresponder and ebook format.

HTML
If you are comfortable using HTML, you could put your ecourse right on your website.  To do this, you will need to create a separate webpage, with a title and table of contents.  Using clickable chapter links will help your visitors navigate around easily.  One major advantage of having the ecourse on your website itself is that it will increase the length of time people spend on your website, and so increase the chance of you making sales.

Remember to allow people to give away your e-course on their websites.  Just have them link to your website from theirs… and all those lovely backlinks will do wonders to your traffic flow!

eBOOK
Create your ecourse in a downloadable ebook format, and remember to include links to your website and your business ad in the ebook.  There are lots of free ebook creators on the web.   

Always allow people to give away your free ebooks.  With your links inside them they will go viral all over the web, and drive traffic too!

AUTORESPONDER
Publish your ecourse on your autoresponder. Whilst you could sign up to a free autoresponder, if you’re serious about your business, you should use the best third party autoresponder on-line.  Simply put one chapter of your ecourse in each message and schedule them to go out at regular intervals.  Remember to put links to your website in your autoresponder email signature.

Another way to generate traffic to your sites would be to allow advertisers to advertise in your ecourse.  Ask them to advertise your free ecourse on their websites (by providing a backling to your site) and generate further visitors to your website.  

These are just some of the ways you could generate traffic using a free ecourse.  You could additionally burn it to DVD and sell it on eBay, use a fax-on-demand service, make a video of your ecourse and post it to video sites etc.  Don’t forget, using as many formats as you can to generate as much traffic as you can handle!  Go for it!