21 Ways to
Generate More Traffic
Foreword
Hello! Thank you for your purchase of
this guide, which will help give you some fun and creative ways to drive more
online traffic to your site.
Traffic is more than a mass of people. It’s all about healthy flow
and activity at your sites – the sort of activity that not only keeps your
business and web presence alive, but really helps your sales grow… and grow.
And if you haven’t yet built your list, you’ll need to make sure
you drive people to your sites – and keep
them coming back again – with no lag or in the flow.
Here are 21 powerful strategies, to help you generate a steady
stream of healthy traffic.
1. Never use an automated service for search
engine site submission.
You’re wasting your money, and if your SEO submission company
indulges in any shady practices, you risk your site being marked
and
exiled by Google for spamming!
The truth is, once your site makes it into the handful of top
Search Engines – which happens quickly, if you know how to use keywords and
optimize your blog or static site properly – the smaller search engines find
out about it anyway.
Paying good money is not worth the “benefit” you might reap from
an SEO
submission company submitting your sites to smaller search engines
–
proportionately, these smaller search engines stacked against the
big
guns like Google, MSN and Yahoo are roughly about the size of a
flea on
a big dog.
2. Think of your headlines as if they were
Twitter posts and your
opening paragraphs as if they were RSS feed
summaries:
On Twitter you’ve got less than 2 seconds to make people decide if
they
want to click… or pass. It’s the same with every sales page,
landing
page, blog post or article you create:
With every headline or opening paragraph – you’ve barely got 2
seconds to grab your reader’s attention and make them curious enough to
“engage” in a single line or two. To get a feel for creating this immediate
interest and impact, go look at the summaries for some of your RSS feeds. See
which ones feel punchy and make you want to read more – and which ones feel
dull and incomplete.
The ones that feel dull and incomplete will be the ones with the
slowest
starts. You’ll notice that these ones never get around to
presenting the
hook – the summary ends before the author has meandered to the
point. So never, ever waste your first paragraph with “warm-up
stuff”.
(And do put your keyword in your first line and headline, for blog
posts
and articles!)
3. Use long tailed keywords as your site’s Page
name or blog post Permalink.
Once you’ve carefully selected specific long-tailed keywords to
use,
make sure you carry this through to the post permalink name or
page
name. Search engines pay attention to titles.
4. Use Google Analytics to test your sales or
landing pages.
It’s free – and provides complete instructions so that even
beginners can
use it. And here’s a quick, easy way to calculate your conversion
rate:
“If 5 sales result from 100 clicks = .50 in your stats, then your
conversion rate is 5%”
5. Only choose one component to test on any
page.
You won’t be able to tell which change produced your new result,
if you
change several components at once. Was it the new graphic? The new
header? The new headline? Adding those 2 testimonials?
You’ll never know, unless you test one change at a time. Focus on
your headline – this is most often where the trouble lies – then when you’ve
got that thoroughly tested and the best version decided upon, move on to
another page component.
6. Larger sites with more pages or resources
command more
traffic.
It’s as simple as that. Search engine bots translate more pages as
“more
value” – and so do people who like to visit. Minisites have their
place –
but if you’re going to be using PPC on them, these Minisites need
to be
beefed up for maximum search engines placement.
7. Check your logfiles to see what keywords are
bringing in the
most visitors.
Do this when you access your cPanel through your file transfer
protocol
(FTP) program to check your web statistics.
8. Be specific when bidding on PPC keywords.
Ways to be specific include using size, color, product names,
component
names, and local area names in your keyword phrases. Using
“specialty
shoe store” is virtually guaranteed to not only drown you in that
bigger
general niche, but bring you no local customers. However, if you
choose
a keyword like “Naturalizer AAA shoes Muskoka store”, it will hook
Muskoka residents browsing the net to find out their nearest shoe
store
that sells Naturalizer brand shoes in triple A width walking
through your
door in the next 15 minutes (providing you don’t actually live in
Albuquerque, New Mexico!)
9. Always use keywords or product names as your
link names.
Never, ever resort to saying “Click here”. That’s so generic, it
lowers the
quality of your links in Google’s eyes – and you need links coming
in
from sites that are similar to yours in topic and content.
So instead of saying, “For more about joining my team, click here…”
say “You’ll find more information
on this subject by visiting my Benefits of Joining the Sally Smith Team page…”
(And speaking of Google, when it comes to websites, be sure to
have cross-navigation throughout your site’s pages.)
10. Be diligent with Adwords when using them for
PPC.
Use “phrase” and “exact match” when picking your keywords in the
Adwords Keytool. Read the new
guidelines and be cautious, if you’re
new to Adwords: Bid on words that have some competition, but not
too
much for actual advertisers. (Your indicator-at-a-glance is the
degree to
which the little bars are filled with green on the Keytool page.)
As for
number of exact Global monthly searches, between 1,000 and 9,000
is
probably going to be your best range (combined with searches on
the
same word in quotes, with results under 200,000 in Google – the
lower,
the better. The strongest keywords should show searches under
50,000.)
11. Do use social networking for traffic
generation, along with
blogging and article marketing.
Remember to adapt your headlines and strategies for each platform
– and always read the guidelines. Each platform has its own unique culture –
and rules. Approach each platform by asking yourself the question: “What’s the
best way to use this particular network to generate targeted, pre-qualified
traffic – and get me some word-of mouth popularity points?”
12. Use Twitter – even if you use no other
social networking platform.
The big reason? You can easily and instantly keep track of what
brings
the most clicks – and is best for your traffic increases! By
signing up
with Bit.ly (it’s free) you can use the Bit.ly service to shorten links for
your Twitter posts. Monitor the Bit.ly links you’ve created (which
you
can easily do by keeping the Bit.ly page open in your browser
during
your online session, and refreshing it now and then after you’ve
created
and posted your link). This is possibly the fastest, simplest and
most
helpful form of click-through tracking for brand new marketers,
and will
give you a very good idea of what you’re doing right – and wrong!
MAKE YOUR SHOP A SUPERSTAR ON ETSY!
13. Create viral videos, mp3’s, Special Reports
and eBooks.
Be sure to include content that will specifically benefit any key
top
marketers you hope to approach as a JV partner. Your content needs
to
appeal to their list (and yours), as well as enhance their status
and
reputation. Make use of your competitors in this way – piggyback
off
their success. (If your product is really perfect for their
subscribers,
they’ll be surprisingly happy to cooperate.)
Promote your viral product offline, too (links on your business
cards and flyers, and in local newspaper press releases and radio interviews
you suggest to local radio show hosts.) Ensure that your viral product is
exclusive, irresistible and can only add to your affiliates’ expert status.
This means ensuring that your viral products are your best products – not a
quickie knock-up of free PLR – which will impress no one except your mom (and
she’s just pretending).
14. Start your own forum, focused on your best
niche.
It’s a powerful way to generate targeted, highly converting traffic.
Forums are a lot of work to moderate and maintain, but if you keep
your
focus on a specific, narrow area, you are less likely to pick up
hundreds
of general-interest followers that you don’t want. You can add a
forum
to your site using a free script like phpBB – or you can even just
have a
private subscription area on your blog.
Yes, you will have to interact regularly – but if you know how to
get the ball rolling, eventually members become their own little support group
and will happily answer questions and provide information to each other before
you have time to read the posts. You can then mostly monitor, and only jump in
when a word from you or a sign of your presence is needed; or they haven’t yet provided
themselves with an answer. The payoffs can be high indeed
when it comes to generating targeted traffic – not just on your
forum,
but with the powerful “buzz” it will create in the internet
marketing
community as a whole!
15. Consider using relevant Cross Promotions.
A “cross promotion” occurs when two marketers join up to provide
greater value to their mutual, specific niche market. It allows
you to
share expertise by interviewing each other (audio, video and
“paper”)
and sending emails about each other, providing each other, in the
eyes
of your customers, with extra validation through endorsement.
You are also each creating a weighty testimonial for the other,
since you are
both in the public eye. Both your lists benefit; and with the
right
partner, it can be inspiring and fun for you as well as your
subscribers.
It also naturally creates opportunities for a much softer sell,
and those
who particularly dislike “pushing products” may find this a great
platform to adopt.
Some tips for success: Pick the right partner, and make sure you
both know how all customer service issues are going to be covered – and who’s
going to cover them. Yoke yourself with an equal, to paraphrase the Bible – you
don’t want this loosely-structured partnership to be too uneven – or else the
Celebrity is going to swoop off with the Bit Part player’s fans and profits.
But by teaming up together, two Bit Part players can make quite a splash
onstage, and come close to giving the Celebrity a run for his money – and
siphoning a heavy flow of traffic.
16. Have a highly relevant next offer already
waiting in the wings.
Book authors and actors know this one: Don’t just rest on your
laurels
after you’ve got your product out. When you’re a “hot” property
because
you’ve just launched a successful product or Freebie that’s the
very time
to have your next offering ready to go – as well as an
Autoresponder
loaded up with a carefully-planned series of emails designed to
keep you
in your subscribers focus.
17. Buy expired domains that have evidence of
traffic flow.
Very often, these are sites that people set up, but lost interest
in – or
they’ve bought a domain name but never did anything with it. How
can
a domain name with nothing on it draw traffic? That domain name is
most likely a powerful keyword. If it relates to your market, and
it’s one
of these phantom domains – snatch it up! (If it does that well
with no
content, what’s going to happen when you pack it and optimize it?)
These expired domains often already have a directory listing in
Google
or Yahoo. A good place to start your search is at:
Expired Domain Services In The Yahoo Directory
18. Use Google Web Alerts.
This system allows you to monitor Google for specific word or URL
mentions. You can have the alerts monitor either your keyword, or
a
competitor’s URL. The information arrives via email summary to
your
feed or gmail account. You can choose to receive it weekly, daily
or as it’s happening.
(You can also subscribe to Google News Alerts too, if you need to
keep on top of the latest events.) If you’re monitoring your own URL via Google
Alerts, you can see when an affiliate adds it to an online site. The more you
track and keep your ear to the wire, the more accurate calls you’ll make when
deciding on your next traffic-increasing campaign.
19. Give a free Teleseminar.
If you can get up the nerve to do it, giving a free Teleseminar is
a great
way to make an incredibly strong connection with your target
market.
Be sure to publicize it regularly in advance. Ask people to send
you their
questions in advance, too (and keep asking in your Twitter Tweets,
emails and forum posts till the very last second. People need to
hear
things several times, before it sinks in). Have a couple of
friends
“planted” on the call, to ask you a question or two at the end, if
you can
handle un-muting for a Q & A session. It doesn’t matter if
it’s not a
sold-out event: The other people on the call will never know they
were
one of a comparative handful. And at the very least, you can offer
the
teleseminar recording and transcript as an opt-in freebie or
bonus. Even
if you are nervous, the big reason you should seriously consider
it lies in
the fact that hearing your voice speaking directly into the
earpiece of the
phone will make an incredibly strong personal connection. They
won’t
forget you, and they’ll trust you, if you’ve delivered the goods.
20. Become an instant author, and have a hard
copy book to your
credit.
You may think this idea is startling, but nothing lends you
credibility in
the eyes of the world like being the published author of a hard-copy
book. The fact that product fulfillment companies like Lulu or Cafepress
can print these on demand and ship them (with the ISBN number
included) makes this a seriously viable option for the single or
new
marketer. Consider offering it for sale through Amazon.com.
21. Explode the power of eZine ads.
This advertising market is often overlooked, which can be a
mistake. Not
only are eZine ads usually much less expensive than any other type
of
paid advertising: If you put your ad in a highly relevant, targeted
eZine
and use it as a viral lead generation tool, rather than a product
seller, it
can pull in powerful traffic.
Give something away through your ad: A Special Report, eBook,
script, Graphics package – whatever would have the most impact on your market.
Do your best to make it your most appealing freebie (but of course, keep it
highly relevant to your niche!).
Allow other people to pass it around, and make sure your product
is
laced with links back to you, and a further opt-in offer inside.
That way,
not only will you increase traffic directly through your eZine ad,
but
you’ll get even more when your Freebie goes viral!
Disclaimer: The information contained in this guide is for reference only.
The person who gave you this guide, and/or author, and/or publisher are not
liable for any losses, actions or liabilities that arise from reading or using
any of the information contained in this guide.
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