10 Easy Ways to Generate Website Traffic

This article will show you 10 easy ways to get more targeted traffic to your website. Use as many of these techniques as possible to improve your website traffic. And be sure to track all of your different traffic campaigns so you’ll know which ones are working the best. Then you can concentrate most of your efforts on the ones that make you the most money. So let’s get started.


1) ‘Pay Per Click Search Engines’

This is one of the fastest ways to get targeted traffic. Just set up an account with some of the top PPC search engines and start bidding on keywords related to your product. Use the keyword suggestion tools that the search engines provide to make it easy to build your keyword list. Make a long list of targeted keywords so you can take advantage of the least expensive ones. Then write a killer ad with an attention grabbing headline and start driving traffic to your website.


2) ‘Search Engines’

To get the free traffic from the search engines you will want to get ranked as high as possible. So here are a few tips that should be helpful: Have lots of links to other sites, use the best keywords for your targeted market on your website/sales page and choose your domain name wisely.


3) ‘Write Articles’

Do you want to get a ton of free traffic to your website? Just start writing articles and submit them to related ezines. Always make sure your articles are filled with quality content. And you can include your bylines at the bottom of all articles. Then whenever someone reads your article they will be exposed to a link to your website.


4) ‘Solo Ads in Ezines’

Solo ads should also be a good way to send traffic to your site. Find ezines that are related to your market and place ads with them. A solo ad is someone sending your ad to their list without any other ads. And the people reading your ad will feel it comes recommended from the ezine owner. To search for ezines in your related market just use your favorite search engine and enter: “ezines ________”. Fill in the blank with your related market. Plus you can do a search for the top rated websites in your related market and then contact them to see if they accept solo ads in their ezines.


5) ‘Classified Ads in Ezines’

Now this will be very similar to solo ads but should be a lot cheaper because of the smaller ad space. And classified ads will be sent out with other ads and other content. But use the same strategies as described in solo ads to generate traffic. The secret here is to have a good ad with a great headline to make readers click on your link. The better your ad is then the more money you’ll make. Another thing to mention is if your ads are making you money then keep running them. But you will also want to run split test to try to improve your ads.


6) ‘Ads to AOL Customers’

You could send ads to the 20 million people using AOL to collect even more traffic. Just use the same techniques as in ‘Classified Ads in Ezines’. Again for best results try to create irresistible ads.


7) ‘Banner Ads’

You may want to invest in some banner ads for even more traffic. If you use a word banner ad, then it can be written similar to a classified ad. Some banner ads are cost per impression and others are cost per click. With the cost per click banner ad you only pay when someone visits your site, which may be better. 500 impressions doesn’t really mean anything if no one visits your website. But 500 clicks on your banner ad mean 500 people to your site.


8) ‘Linking to Websites’

Another way to get targeted traffic to your website is by linking to other sites. Only link to reputable sites that you would want to recommend to your good customers. Search for high traffic websites that are related to yours and then try to get them to link to your site. Collect information about these sites so you can send them an email later. In your email compliment them on their site and explain how linking to your site will benefit them. Tell them their customers will be interested in the information on your website. If they don’t agree to link to your site then try exchanging links with them. Also start an affiliate program it’s the ultimate linking system.


9) ‘Viral Marketing’

You can also create lots of website traffic using viral marketing. Create or buy a product that is valuable and has permanent links back to your websites. Then sell or give this product away and then let your customers sell it or give it away. You will have a viral product that can spread all over the internet like a virus and all those links will keep sending prospects back to your websites.


10) ‘Joint Ventures’

Joint ventures are a great way to get target traffic fast. When you do a JV with someone you can promote each other’s product to your lists. Both JVs will make sales and increase their customer lists almost overnight. Once you start developing JVs you can use the results from the first one to promote the next one. And the more JVs you have the more sales you’ll make.

Remember don’t forget to test everything you do to find out what works the best for your products.


Written by Duane Marx
Courtesy http://www.teawithedge.com

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Top 10 Directories To Submit Your Website To

Adding your new site to the major directories is a key task if you want to build traffic and page ranking. While the list below is not exhaustive, it will get you well underway in your directory listings.

A few points to keep in mind as you add your site to these directories:

• Directories are not search engines. Directories are edited and managed by human beings, whereas search engines are programs that troll the web looking for pages. Your site might be recommended to a directory by one of the site editors, or a very enthusiastic fan of your site, but most likely you will have to introduce yourself if you want to make a directory’s list.


• Be sure the directory is indexed in the major search engines. A quick search at Google, Yahoo & MSN will do.

• Be sure the directory is not banned by Google. You probably won’t get flagged by Google if you are listed there, but the risk is too great – there are hundreds of other places for your link.

• Page Rank isn’t everything. Don’t skip sites just because they have a low page rank. While Page Rank is extremely helpful, it changes over time. A directory with a PR of 3 this month could jump to 6 next month. Also, take note of the Page Rank of the specific page of the directory your site will be listed on. Just like it says, Page Rank is for pages, not for sites. A directory could have a PR of 7, but the page your link appears on might be a humble 1.

• Directories are not overnight traffic. Look around the submission guidelines and to see how long the editors will take to review your site. Free sites can take up to four months to get approved.

• Go after the older directories first. Google values a site’s age, and you should to.

• Review the directory’s guidelines and don’t abuse them. Don’t submit your site every week. Don’t add an unrelated site to a niche directory. Don’t try to trick the editors into adding your site to more than one category if that goes against the guidelines.

Now that you know the basics of evaluating and submitting to directories, here’s a short list of the top sites:

General directories:


1) Yahoo http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request

The world’s best-known directory. This free listing form may take months to result in a link back to your site, but it is well worth a try.


2) DMOZ www.DMOZ.org

This is the granddaddy of all directories, and is greatly respected by Google and the other major search engines. Listings are free, but the wait can be long. According to the DMOZ site, expect your site to appear in the listings at Google, AOL and other major engines about 2 weeks after you’re listed in DMOZ.


3) Zeal. www.zeal.com

A free listing after you register. Zeal is owed by Looksmart.


4) Best of the Web www.botw.org

Requires a $49.95 yearly fee, or a $149.95 one-time fee. Online since 1994. Listing pages usually have a page rank of 4.


5) Directory World www.directoryworld.net

Requires a reciprocal link, but is otherwise free. Good page ranks for listing pages.


6) Clickey www.clickey.com

A free link. Also sorts companies by country.


7) Seoma www.seoma.net

Requires registration and a $15 paypal fee for a link, but the high page ranks make it a bargain (compared to buying a text link).


8) ExactSeek www.exactseek.com

A free link at an established site. You can also upgrade to a “top ten ranking” for $12.


9) What You Seek www.whatyouseek.com

Standard submissions cost $24.99 and will be posted in eight weeks. Velocity submit takes two days and costs $49.99.


10) Really First www.reallyfirst.com

One of the largest directories with over 40,000 links. Poor navigation, but a free link if you add their link to your site.

This not an exhaustive list, but a great start. Also, remember, if you have a new site, getting listed here will help your website get indexed by search engines.


Written by Anik Singal
Courtesy http://www.teawithedge.com

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Classic Marketing Mistakes That May Never Go Away

It has been over fifty years since organizations began to understand the real importance of marketing strategy and planning. Prior to the 1950s most companies did not have marketing departments, but instead marketing activities were scattered among many departments such as advertising and sales. Things began to change as scholars and consultants pushed for companies to adopt strategies designed to unify a variety of marketing activities carried out in different parts of the company. By the 1960s most major college and university business programs were preaching the importance of marketing and an avalanche of books and magazines supported this cause.With so much time and energy directed to improving marketing decision making, one might think that past mistakes attributed to lack of marketing knowledge would now be all but eliminated. In reality, there are many mistakes that are bound to be repeated no matter how much attention is direct to understanding marketing. Here are a few:


1. The Research Tells Us So

Relying on the results of market research as the deciding factor when making marketing decisions is a risky proposition. Why? Because research is inherently fraught with many potential problems. These problems are often the result of how the research is designed or how it is executed. It is particularly a problem if the researcher does not have access to all information. For instance, errors often occur with customer surveys including questions not being asked correctly and non-customers completing the survey. The bottom line is companies must perform market research to gain information needed to make informed marketing decisions. However, marketers must understand its limitations. In the end the marketer must weigh all available information to make their decision and not focus solely on what the research says.


2. All We Need to do is Pump More into Promotion

Wouldn’t it be great if marketing was this easy? Just spend more on advertising and other promotions and we will quickly see our sales increase. More likely what you’ll see is your profits decrease! The argument for more promotion as the medicine needed to fix lackluster sales is heard in nearly all organizations. But to view marketing problems in terms of promotional deficiencies is extremely shortsighted. Marketing is much more than advertising. Sales problems could be the result of numerous other marketing problems. Before deciding to spend more on promotion it probably makes more sense to spend time reviewing all marketing decisions to make sure problems do not lay elsewhere.


3. We Have the Best Product on the Market

Says who? The marketer might think it’s the best product, but remember the marketer is not buying the product. The marketer’s target market is supposed to buy it. If a marketer can’t understand why customers are buying a competitor’s product when the marketer thinks the competitor’s product is inferior then the marketer does not know the market well enough. More than likely how the product is positioned in customers’ minds is different than how the marketer sees things. This situation calls for extensive customer research to find out why the product is not performing as expected.


4. The Boss Knows What’s Best

A classic problem in many small businesses is when the person who built the business believes they know what works. The entrepreneur justifies this by telling everyone that the business is successful because he/she knows what the market wants. The boss often discounts market studies as a waste of funds, and worse yet, brushes aside marketing suggestions from others in the organization. While it is very likely the boss knows a lot about the market, it is unlikely the boss knows everything about the market. Making marketing decisions based on executive intuition works sometimes, but eventually lack of information, whether from refusing to undertake research or giving a cold shoulder to employees’ ideas, will lead to poor decisions.


5. Our Customers Only Care About Getting the Lowest Price

No they don’t. They care about the best value for their money. Customers first and foremost want to feel comfortable with their purchase and know they got their money’s worth from their decision. It is a miscalculation for marketers to believe customers reduce purchase decisions to selecting the product with the lowest price. Yet if a marketer undertakes a little research they will invariable find many other issues affect the purchase. Companies that feel they are losing out to lower priced competitors are really losing out to higher value competitors. Clearly to fight this requires marketing efforts that increase the value of the firm’s products in the minds of its target market.


6. We Know Who Our Competitors Are

Most marketers when asked to name their competitors can easily rattle off a list. While the length of this list shows strong knowledge of the market, what is more important is who is not on the list. Companies not viewed as competitors are potentially the biggest threat to a company, especially for companies operating in a rapidly evolving market. At the very least the marketer should have two lists – current competitors and potential competitors. The list for potential competitors should be heavily weighted with companies that are outside the current industry. In this way the marketer broadens the universe of potential influencers in their market. Having this knowledge not only makes the marketer aware of potential competitors but investigating firms in outside industries may also provide insight and ideas for product innovation, new markets and new channels for communication.


7. The Only Thing That Matters Is ROI

For many companies investing in a marketing decision must have only one payoff – profit on the investment. Yet if this approach drives all marketing decisions the company is at best an underachiever and at worst vulnerable to competitors. Why? Because not all marketing decisions should be tied to a positive return on investment. Sometimes a firm must make strategic decisions that sacrifice profits in order strengthen other parts of the company. For example, a company may spend significant funds to develop a new product that research suggests has little chance of being profitable. But the product may serve as a major annoyance to your competitor’s top product. Because of this the competitor may need to expend more resources to insure their product retains its market position. Being forced to direct more funds to support their top product may slow down their efforts to develop new products that could compete against your products.


8. Who Needs to Plan

Marketing executives within fast moving industies often feel planning beyond the short-term is useless since the market changes so rapidly. Yet failing to lay out a plan may lead to some big surprises, like running out of money! In a business environment where decisions are made quickly it is easy to lose track of where the money is going. A marketing plan can help the company insert controls on marketing expenditures. It also has the added benefit of having marketers take a step back to see where the company has been and may uncover important information that was not apparent earlier. Additionally, a marketing plan may help insure that everyone within the company is on the same page with regard to the basic direction of the firm’s marketing efforts. This may prevent finger pointing down the road. Even if a plan is limited to only covering the next six months of operations it is an exercise that should not be avoided.

Courtesy www.knowthis.com

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