Traffic-Building

Linking Strategies – Build Quality Traffic to Your Web Site

2005-10-22T23:53:00.000-07:00

By John Thomas

There are at least two approaches to reciprocal linking. Some advise you to, “use a smart linking to gradually increase traffic and get the attention of visitors interested in your site”. The other says, “Use a mass linking campaign. Don’t worry about who links to you - it tricks the search engines and gets you higher rankings”.

The more traditional approach is to build a link directory with relevant, quality sites that agree to link back. It comes with a secret bonus - it provides your site visitors a list of resources that you have spent some time checking out and think are worthwhile. This approach follows the proven path of the Yahoo founders. They built the Yahoo directory, essentially a large link directory, one link at a time. That was the best possible way to ensure quality search results in the pre-Google days.

I have noticed that several search engine optimization consultants promote the second approach. They are speaking to internet newcomers who are eager to get to the top of the search engines. When you’re running a small business and you have launched a new site, branding is not your goal. You can’t afford to mass market in hopes of gradually being recognized. You realize that building a brand is a big businesses strategy. You are never going to be a household word.

Getting visitors is your main concern. The search engines appear to offer free traffic to anybody that gets listed. Your on the right track, they are important. But you can’t let your interest in traffic make you overreact, loose touch, and waste time pursuing gimmicks to beat the search engines. Unfortunately, going over to the dark side requires just as much time and money and the “tricks” often do not work.

My opinion - you guessed it, I like to wear a white hat – and I know that the traditional approach produces results. Attracting search engines is a great way of generating sustained, targeted traffic. However, it will drive you crazy if you try to understand how the engines work. Spend your energy developing the content that searchers are looking for. After all, the search engines are simply trying to find the most relevant site in response to a search phrase - and guess what, that could be you.

In addition to your content, most engines pay attention to your link popularity - how many inbound links you have. Google also seems to judge the quality of your site by looking at your Page Rank and your link partner’s Page Rank. But search engines are complicated beasts and very unpredictable, especially for new sites.

You have to listen to the teachings of the “SEO experts” when building your site. They have experience in building content that works for customers as well as search engines. However, once your search engine friendly site is built, forget that the search engines exist and concentrate on you customers and their experience.

Put your energy into quality content and the rest of it into building your link partners. But remember, link directories will help you more if they add value to your site. Don’t bury them. Make them visible and useful.

For small business web sites, I think Link directories are a necessary part of eCommerce.

Notice that I didn’t say nice to have; I said necessary.

You will build a better site if you spend a minute judging your link partners before making a link. Ask yourself – will my customer take an interest in what they find there? And - will this site send me traffic? Their links should be placed in a way that actually brings you an occasional customer. Likewise, your link directory should be useful to your customers so it doesn’t detract from your site.

John Thomas is an author, mentor, and business consultant who works exclusively with entrepreneurs and owners of small and mid-size businesses. He also provides advice on web site promotion at TrafficistheKey.com.

Quality Traffic With The Google Feedback Loop

2005-10-22T23:51:00.000-07:00

By Silvia Hartmann

**For this to work, you need some kind of tracking for your website/web pages that tells you which search engines send people to you for what keyword searches.

Now truly, for a website owner there is nothing more fascinating than their own stats, so if you don't have good tracking software yet, do go out and get some.

There are many versions about, still many free ones available, and please, DO get started with tracking your pages and their performance.***

Now, let's get started.

What Is The Google Feedback Loop?

The Google feedback loop works very simply and like this.

Let's say you have a website and you find out that a particular phrase turns up in those search engine referrals which sends you some people reliably, week in, week out.

It doesn't matter if it's only a few, what DOES matter is that this is ALREADY HAPPENING.

Therein lies the key!

As an example, I noted that just because there was a phrase that related to this by accident in one of my essays, I got some 14 people sent to me because they were searching for "symbols of eternal love". Down the list a bit further, there were another 9 who wanted "eternal love symbols", and then the many more single queries with random variations on that phrase.

A total of fifty visitors who would otherwise have gone elsewhere, every month, on that one key phrase.

That's nice and as it doesn't cost us anything beyond a little time and ingenuity, and ...

... and this is IMPORTANT! ...

... and as I can PROVIDE MORE INFORMATION on this key phrase because that is completely within the brief of my site and what I do ...

I can now begin to enter into the "Google feedback loop".

So now, I shall expand on this idea of "symbols of eternal love".

I'll keep the original article and reference just the way it is, but I'm going to HYPERLINK the phrase where it appears in the text, and make another page with USEFUL AND MORE IN DEPTH information on "eternal symbols of love", including images, references and natural language copy.

When I do this, the following happens.

Firstly, we don't lose what traffic we are already getting by NOT CHANGING THE ORIGINAL REFERRING PAGE.

That's important!

Secondly, we are now offering the visitors MORE AND BETTER information on what they are looking for, and this will be appreciated and can be used as a starting point for a further relationship with the visitor - they may go from there to download something, or perhaps bookmark your pages because you're on the right vibe, perhaps buy something or tell a friend or a group they're on, or a forum, to go check out your site - all sorts of things can and do happen from there.

Thirdly, and this is where the "feedback loop" happens, you now have MORE and MORE VARIED keywords relating to the topic to show, more content and this will BRING YOU UP HIGHER in the rankings for that search overall - which results in MORE people clicking on your site's link, which in turn helps with your rankings.

More Key Phrases, More Visitors ...

Well, perhaps I should have called this a feedback SPIRAL because what NOW happens is that not only do you get more than your original 50 people coming every month, but you also get that same effect again - there might well be SOME THING on your further page that brings in that first flow of visitors for ANOTHER specific keyphrase which can be treated in much the same way - hyperlinked to a new page with more in depth information and even better quality content.

Go on like this for a while with the FAVOURITES amongst your key phrases, and you really will:

1. Find whole new "markets" or groups of visitors you've never had access to before;

2. Get more people for the already existing content as your site moves up in the rankings;

3. EVOLVE your site and your web presence in a very safe and expansive way - and without risking being dropped for the original content because that doesn't change.

Specialisation Is The Key!

A last word of advice before I go.

PLEASE stay within the context of what you're doing.

No-one is served by having visitors who are the wrong crowd for your services or plans or desires.

If you are selling sun flowers, there is NO POINT in going after keywords relating to audio engineering or motorway maintenance.

Ok so you might get a bunch of visitors, but they WON'T stay, WON'T buy and WON'T do anything other than pass through like a breeze in the night and leave you wondering why you get hits but no sales!

If you *do* stay within the brief or context of what you are doing, and you go after the keywords and key phrases that MAKE SENSE in the context of your site, on the other hand, the "Google Feedback Loop" is an EXCELLENT way to improve quality traffic long term, and reliably.

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Silvia Hartmann is the author of "MindMillion" and the CEO of The StarFields Network. Find a great networking group, free ebook library and a brand new, completely FREE wealth creation course plus superb bonuses at http://www.MindMillion.com.

The Real Secret to Understanding Web Statistics

2005-10-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

By Alden Smith

Understanding what your visitors do on your site is crucial information. If your visitors proceed to purchase a product but then a large majority leaves the site when they get to a specific page in the order process, you need to know about it. It could be that this page is confusing or hard to use. Fixing it could increase your sales by 200%. This is just an example; there are many reasons why you want a detailed analysis of your site visitors.

Most website hosting services offer a stats package that you can study. If you're not sure where this is, call up your hosting service and ask them. Statistics are a vital part of tracking your marketing progress. If you don't have access to website statistics get a package that can help you in this area. Do not get a counter that simply shows how many visitors you've had. You'll be missing out on vital information that can help strengthen weaknesses in your site.

A good website hosting service offers traffic logs that provide an invaluable insight into the traffic being referred to a web site from various sources such as search engines, directories and other links.

Unfortunately traffic tracking provided by web hosting services is often in the form of raw traffic log files or other difficult to understand cryptic formats. These log files are basically text files that describe actions on the site. It is literally impossible to use the raw log files to understand what your visitors are doing. If you do not have the patience to go through these huge traffic logs, opting for a traffic-logging package would be a good idea.

Basically, two options are available to you and these are: using a log analysis package or subscribing to a remotely hosted traffic logging service. A remotely hosted traffic logging service may be easy to use and is generally the cheaper option of the two. WebTrends Live and HitsLink are two good, remotely hosted, traffic-monitoring services worth considering. However, WebTrends Live is a more complicated system and is suitable for larger ecommerce websites. "SuperStats" is another recommended traffic logging service.

These services do not use your log files. Typically a small section of code is placed on any page you want to track. When the page is viewed, information is stored on the remote server and available in real time to view in charts and tables form.

Log analysis packages are typically expensive to buy and complex to set up. Apart from commercial packages there are also some free log analysis packages available, such as Analog.

A good traffic logging service would provide statistics pertaining to the following:

- How many people visit your site?
- Where are they from?
- How are visitors finding your site?
- What traffic is coming from search engines, links from other sites, and other sources?
- What keyword search phrases are they using to find your site?
- What pages are frequented the most - what information are visitors most interested in?
- How do visitors navigate within your web site?

Knowing the answers to these and other fundamental questions is essential for making informed decisions that maximize the return on investment (ROI) of your web site investment.

The most important aspect of tracking visitors to your website is analyzing all the statistics you get from your tracking software. The three main statistics that will show your overall progress are hits, visitors and page views. Hits are tracked when any picture or page loads from your server on to a visitor's browser. Hits, however, can be very misleading. It is quite an irrelevant statistic for your website.

The statistic that is probably the most important for a website is Page Views/Visitors. This gives you a good indication of two things. First, how many people are coming to your site, and secondly how long are they staying on your site. If you have 250 visitors and 300 page views you can figure that most visitors view one page on your site and then leave. Generally, if you're not getting 2 page views per visitor then you should consider upgrading your site's content so your visitors will stay around longer.

If you see the number of visitors you have increasing as well as the number of page views per visitor increasing then keep up the good work! Always look for this stat as an overall barometer of how your site design is going and if your marketing campaigns are taking hold. Also, a good stat to look for is unique visitors. Once a person visits your site they will not be added to the unique visitors' category if they visit again. This is a good way to track new visitors to your website.

Page views are a good indication of how "sticky" your website is. A good statistic to keep is Page Views divided by the number of Visitors you have. This statistic will give you a good idea if your content is interesting and if your visitors are staying on your site for a long time and surfing.

Some people are intimidated by web traffic statistics (mostly because of the sheer volume of data available), but they shouldn't be. While there are many highly specialized statistics that can be used for more in-depth web traffic analysis, the above areas alone can provide invaluable information on your visitors and your website performance. Remember- this data is available for a reason. It's up to you to use it.

Alden Smith is an award winning author who has been marketing on the internet for over 7 years. His site,http://www.for-the-record.biz, is loaded with articles and information for the beginning blogger and internet marketer.

How I Got Hundreds Of Links To My Website

2005-10-22T23:47:00.000-07:00

By Gerardas Norkus

I finally got my web site to the top of MSN for a very competitive keyword - "free paid surveys".

I knew that if you want your website to rank high with the major search engines you must get other web sites link to yours.

I was also aware that there are several free ways to get links to your web site:

You can write and distribute articles.
You can write testimonials.
You can do reciprocal linking.

I had been using all of the above linking strategies, but my site just couldn't make it to the top page of the search engines.

Things improved dramatically after I started posting informative blog comments related to the subject of my web sites.

Let me explain how to do that...

Simply, go to Google, or any other search engine, and type - "yourkeyword blog". Visit any of the blog sites found by Google and look for "Comments" or "Feedback" links.

Click on the comment links and you will see other people posting their comments to the blogs.

Here's how you too can benefit from it...

You can include your website's link in the blog comments! Don't forget to include your targeted keyword in the title of the comment.

Visit as many blogs related to your web site as possible and keep posting comments. Try to post informative comments, otherwise the blog owner may delete them.

Note that search engines love the content from blogs. If you keep posting comments to blogs, you will soon notice how quickly your website's search engine ranking increases.

One of the best ways to check how many blogs with your site's links have already been indexed by search engines is by going to MSN and typing - "link:yourdomain.com"

So, improve search engine rankings of your web site today by posting informative comments to blogs related to the subject of your site.

Learn all about one-way links to your website with free report "Easy Website Links By Writing Blog Comments" by Gerardas Norkus: http://www.webmastertools4u.com/blog-links Publishers can reproduce this article and change the URL to point to their own rebranded version.

Don't Read This Unless You Want More Website Traffic

2005-10-22T23:45:00.000-07:00

By Robert Roy

You should skip this article if you have more Website traffic than you need. But if you are like many of us and need more that read on.

Content is still the gold standard that Web sites are graded on by the search engine robots. The content needs to be honest and reliable. When it is, you will begin to get a following of visitors.

These visitors will purchase from you time and time again. But first they need to get content from you so they will build that special trust.

How do you build more Web site traffic?

The easiest way is to begin a distribution of your articles to directories, ezine publishers, and article announcement services. As you do this you will notice more Website traffic. If your experience is anything like mine it will be noticeable in the first or second week after circulating your article(s).

Article Directories

These are sites that devour content and have it available to others, including yourself. Article directories can have many categories for various articles they accept or they may be specialized and only take articles which deal within a small spectrum.

There are hundreds of these sites and you should rely only on the ones that are considered top tier. Usually these have been around the longest and have the widest base of readers looking for "your" article.

Web masters and others look to these "dealers of content" for actual articles or for ideas for their own articles. Unless you copyright an article it is usually there for the taking and using. As a ethical component for the free use of an article it is expected that the article

- will not be changed
- will have the resource box in tact
- and will reference the author and web site

Article Announcement Services

Another service which will bring you more Website traffic are announcement services. There are a few companies which do this and do it well. They have a list of members to which they announce via email the newest articles.

The biggest ones are Yahoo Groups (http://groups.yahoo.com/) and web-source.net (www.web-source.net/article-announce.htm ) You can get good exposure to ultimately get more Website traffic.

Ezine Publishers

Here there are literally hundreds if not thousands of the publishers. Most of them have a dual business both allowing you to add content articles and to get your articles to them so they may be used for ezines.

When you look into ezine publishers you will find that they are usually have niches for themselves. That is they usually look for a few categories of subjects. For expample, there are only about 5-10 who deal with articles on gardening.

As you submit your articles for use to these services you will need to know which niche or niches that your article fits best. By using these various avenues to get your articles out there you definitely will see more Website traffic. It is amazing how fast a growth you will see. It is not uncommon to see your site double or triple its traffic stats.

What does it take to submit to these?

I've got to admit it does take considerable time to submit your article, one at a time, to all of these potential services. Just to submit to about 40 directories it takes me about 6 hours. Save Yourself 4-5 hours

I have found a way to cut this time down to about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. This is a tremendous savings of time for me and it is done correctly.

If you'd like to see how I do this, I invite you to go to http://www.start-internet-business-from-college.com/web-site-marketing-strategy.html

Do you need to save 4 -5 hours to work on other important parts of your business? If so you need to look at this. You will be happy you did

How to Increase Traffic to Your Artist Blog

2005-09-30T00:26:00.000-07:00

By Kristin Royce

Welcome to part 2 of "Why Every Artist Needs a Blog", a series showing how a successful blog can help you sell more art.

Now that you have successfully published your artist blog and have tested your dedication to frequent blog posting, it's time to get your blog exposure on the web. Using blog-specific online marketing techniques, you can promote your blog to a target audience and build quality traffic to it - for free.

7 Steps to Build Traffic to your Artist Blog

1. Submit to Blog Directories

A list of the top 35 blog directories with direct links to submission pages and inclusion requirements is available at The ARTrepreneur. Keep in mind that the process of submitting to directories is always long and tedious, but will absolutely prove its return on the time investment, especially considering that it's free online promotion for your blog.

Create a record of submission document for your blog to keep track of submission dates, member registration information, etc. Many of the better blog directory sites require a reciprocal link or tracking script to get listed, so work with your technical support person to place a reciprocal link on the page.

Make sure that the information you submit to the directories is consistent. Meaning, always submit the same title and description for your blog. The title you submit should be the title tag and meta description for your blog - both written using optimized copy rich with your blog's keywords.
(See Part 1 of this series for tips on writing optimized copy for your blog)

2. Ping Blog Services "Pinging" is a way of letting blog directories and search engines know that you have updated your blog. By sending a ping to each service, you let them know that a new post has been published so they can come check you out.

Bookmark Ping-O-Matic - a site that lets you ping many blog sites with one click: http://pingomatic.com/

3. Optimize each blog post for search engines Getting visibility in natural search for a blog post is no different than getting visibility for a web page. The same rules of "writing for search" apply - meaning keyword rich titles, content length, optimized hyperlinks, alt tags, etc. Here are quick tips for optimizing each of your blog posts for higher rankings in natural search results:

Identify your keyword phrase. Is it something people actually search for? If not - phrase it differently. For example instead of using "The Dorm Diet" for a title, you might consider "Lose the Freshman 15" since freshman 15 is a very popular searched phrase. (source: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/)

Blog Entries should be at least 300 words long.

Your targeted keyword phrase should appear 3-5 times in the entry (once in the title, in the summary and throughout the blog)

Use the keyword phrase in any hyperlinks you have in the blog as well as in any bulleted list.

Use ALT tags for your images

4. Build Links to Your BlogA link building campaign is the best way to get quality and relevant traffic to your blog. These methods, although time consuming, are the best ways to get links pointing to your blog.

Link to your blog from the main page of your site.

Use your blog as often as possible in the "related links" area of articles published on your site.

Post legitimate comments on other blogs with related topics and include a link back to your blog with your signature.

Offer to exchange links with other similarly themed blogs and websites.

5. Promote Bloglet Bloglet is a free service for people to sign up for an email alert each time their favorite blog publishes a new post. It's perfect for people who have not jumped on the RSS bandwagon just yet, or for those that never will (sorry mom!).

Set up a Bloglet subscription form on your blog and invite everyone to subscribe: http://www.bloglet.com

6. RSS Feeds Set your blog to display RSS feeds and submit your blog's RSS feed to the major RSS feed directories online. Go here for a list of the top RSS directories: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm

Make sure you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to. Test your feed here: http://feedvalidator.org/

Use the same submission guidelines listed in step 1 above (Blog Directory Submissions) to have consistent results.

7. Email Signature

Use your mail program to create an email signature file that will be included in every email you send. Keep it short with your name, email address, blog title and URL. This little trick will work wonders!

Become an active member of a relevant online community forum and add your blog title and URL to your signature line at the bottom of each message you post.

Building traffic to your artist blog is not a scientific process. It takes time, hard work, and persistence to build a loyal audience and create your niche interactive community on the web. Tracking your success is a key motivational tool that will help get you through some guaranteed trying times that come with building a successful blog. Be sure to benchmark the current state of your traffic, your rankings on the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) and the visitor commenting activity on your blog before implementing these free online marketing techniques.

Kristin Royce is a search engine optimization and online marketing professional contributing online marketing and promotional content for artists to The ARTrepreneur E-Zine and newsletter.

The ARTrepreneur offers articles helping artists focus on proven techniques to accomplish any goal. Read More: http://www.theartrepreneur.com

10 Highly Effective Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website

2005-09-30T00:22:00.000-07:00

By Chileshe Mwape

There are many ways to promote your website for free online. Here are 10 highly effective strategies you can use right now.

1. Write articles or free reports for other webmasters to publish and put your website address in the by-line. If you write good content, your articles will be published and many readers who like your article will go on to visit your website.

2. Arrange a Joint Venture partnership with List owners and Webmasters.

3. Add your ad or website address to your email signature. This way, every time you send an email, you'll be promoting your website.

4. Exchange Links with Other Webmasters. This is another effective strategy for generating targeted traffic to your website for free. It involves contacting other webmasters for a possible link exchange partnership.

5. Add a blog to your site and Ping weblogs.com and other search engines. Pinging your blogs to the search engines is the fastest way to get the search engine robots to visit your blog and attract new visitors to your web site.

6. Submit your blog address to blog search sites and directories. You can submit your blog's URL to websites such as Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex and Popdex. For a complete list of websites where you can submit your URL, go to http://www.guidetorss.com

7. Create RSS feeds for your site and submit the feed URLs to the major RSS feed directories online. A good place to start is http://www.guidetorss.com/ which provides a list of the top RSS directories.

8. Be an active commenter. Try to leave comments on the blogs that you regularly visit. Most comment systems also provide a way for you to leave a link back to your blog or website which begs a visit at the very least.

9. If you plan to have anything printed up, put your web address on it. You can print your URL on business cards, stickers, leaflets, etc.

10. Add your web address to your forum profile signature. Every time you post or respond to questions your ad will be displayed. If you post good content in forums, people who read your threads will also check out your website.

© Copyright 2005 Chileshe Mwape. Submit articles for free at http://www.going-platinum.co.uk/ All articles are published instantly. You can submit reports, news, press releases, stories, product reviews, opinions, editorials about your website and services and much more.

(This article may be republished as long as the above link is active and clickable and this author box (byline) is not edited.)

7 Sure-Fire Ways to Attract More Targeted Visitors to Your Web Site!

2005-09-30T00:18:00.000-07:00

By Samuel Indrajaya

Don’t be fooled by the term traffic = sales, because not all traffic can generates sales, a bad traffic can hurt you search engine’s ranking and surely not getting you any sales at all.

Traffic, traffic, traffic, what can you do without traffic? In term of Web business, then getting as much traffic as possible will be your Primary concern because it will determine the life of your web business.

No traffic means no sales, it’s that simple and you can find literally hundreds Ways to generate traffic to your web site BUT I must warn you only to look for a “targeted traffic”

Why? Because there is not point on getting 1000 visitors per day but leave you with zero sales, it costs you bandwidth and time. You can attract 100 targeted visitors and still made 5 to 6 sales per day.

Now I will give you 7 practical ways to attract more targeted visitors to your web site!

1. Links exchange with other related web sites.

Find other websites that related to you web site theme, we use to called this “Reciprocal link” Strategy. You can implement this strategy by creating a partners section on your web site. You can also Trade banner ads, classified Ads, pop ups, etc.

2. Start an e-zine publication for your web site.

Tell people that you will publish new articles once or twice a month, this way Your visitors will be reminded to revisit your website to read you new articles. You can put your ads in e-zine’s resource box so people will see your add more often, this will definitely increase your sales.

3. Submit you e-zine list to e-zines directories.

After creating your own e-zine publication you can start “announcing” you e-zine by submit it to all free e-zine directories on the Internet (If it is a free e-zine), just type in “e-zine directories” phrase on search engine to Find these e-zine directories that accept submission.

4. Create an online community.

Build an online community that will help people to solve their problems, get a quick help, this on community can be a message board, forums, e-mail discussion list or even a chat room. When people find it useful and get involved then most likely they will regularly visit your online community to communicate with each others.

5. Be an active participant on message board or forums.

Give tips or answers to other people problems, include your signature file at the end of all your postings. Because many of us encounter a lots of classical problems then it’s a big possibility that we’ll still even read past issues on forums or message boards. People will see your signature file and know where to find you.

6. Write articles and submit them to all e-zines or magazines that accept articles submission.

Write articles and submit them to e-zine directories will give you a good credibility and this is essential to make people trust you, and that’s not the only benefit because when you put your name and web link on your articles and give People permission to reprint your articles on their websites then in just a few days you will have many links back to you from many different sources which is good to boost you search engine’s ranking and generates more targeted traffic To your web site.

7. Give away a freebie (e-book or software) with your ad on it.

You can find a re-brand-able e-book/software so people could put their name and website link on it. When people give the freebie away then this will increase your ad exposure and attract more traffic to your website simultaneously.

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About the Author
========================================================
Samuel Indrajaya is the leading expert on building
a successful online home based business from scratch.
He is also the author of the best selling ebooks
"A Step by Step Home Based Business Roadmap to
MASSIVE PROFITS!".

Start earning MASSIVE PROFITS from your home today!
Just visit his website at:
http://www.home-based-business-roadmap.com

========================================================

How to Increase Your Website Traffic by 1000% or More

2005-09-30T00:16:00.000-07:00

By Joseph Pattison

Every day, more and more people start surfing the Web. If you're not sure what to do to capitalize on the explosive growth of the Internet, then thousands of potential website visitors are slipping through your fingers. Here is an ingenious way to start generating thousands and thousands of visitors to your website in as little as a few weeks.

What is the best way to drive traffic to your website (or blog)? By exploiting the the greatest form of advertising (word of mouth).

On the Internet, this can be from several different sources, such as link exchanges and affiliate marketing.

For our situation, let's use link exchanges. How can they be used in a creative way to generate boatloads of targeted traffic?

The answer is simple: Use the power of viral/network marketing and link exchanges to skyrocket your traffic exponentially! It is important to be careful not to link to websites with different themes, as it could damage your Google page ranking. For example, if you own a gardening site, it is ill-advised to link to an Internet marketing site.

The key is to link to quality websites. If you are turned off by a certain website, then you are certainly not required to link to them. The last thing you want to do is damage your credibility. Also, I prohibit anyone with a hateful, offensive, or obscene website from participating in this backward link exchange program.

Consider the following diagram:

2A 2B

3A 3B 3C 3D

Say you add your website URL to position 3D below, and each time this article is passed on by someone else, more and more websites link to you. Each time this article is passed on, your URL moves one position to the left (if it is in position 3A, it would move up to position 2B, and if it was in position 1A, it would be removed).

If 100 people visit your website and decide to participate in this "backward" link exchange program, and each person shares it with 100 people who choose to do the same, by the time your URL is in position 3C you will already have 10,100 websites linking to you. I'm not even going to try to calculate how many incoming links you will have by the time your website URL is in position 1A.

I can't guarantee how much success you will have using this incoming link technique; how well you do is dependent upon how many people read this article on your website.

If you choose to utilize this link exchange opportunity, a few simple steps are required.

1. Add your website link below in place of the website in position 3D. Then move the website that was in position 3D to position 3C, 3C to 3B, and so on. Move the website URL in position 3A up to position 2B, and 2A up to position 1A. Remove the website URL that was in position 1A.

2. Link to each website that was in the diagram before you made any changes to it. If you haven't already, create a "links" page that is easily accessible from your website home page. Place the website URL in position 1A at the top of your links page, the URL in position 2A below it, followed by 2B, and so on.

3. Place this article prominently on your website to maximize your results. To increase your incoming links, make it easily accessible from your home page as well. The more people who see it, the better!

If you don't have a website, then simply create a free blog at blogger.com, add this article, and link to it from the left or right margin on the side of the page. You don't have to spend a dime for all of this free traffic!

Also, if you would rather not add this article to a pre-existing website (if, for instance, your site consists only of a sales page) you can create a blog as well, or simply another website. You can get a one-page site with domain name registration super-cheap through Yahoo! Domains if you so choose.

If any of the positions below (1A, 2A, 3B, etc.) haven't been filled in yet, then add redcross.org in their place. While you're at it, if you feel inclined, create a link to redcross.org on your website home page. This is optional, but it's a great way to help out the Red Cross while simultaneously exploding your website traffic!

So, without further ado, here is the actual diagram that you will be using to begin exploding your website traffic as early as today. Have fun!

2A 2B

3A 3B 3C 3D

**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners** Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed below. You may enter your website link in the appropriate position above.

Wanna learn how to generate thousands of highly targeted visitors, absolutely free? => http://www.iwantchoices.com

The 3 Best Website Traffic Sources

2005-09-30T00:12:00.000-07:00

By Jim Edwards

Not a day goes by that any serious website owner doesn't wonder how to get more traffic to their site.

This intense desire to generate more clicks makes virtually any online entrepreneur easy prey to many of the traffic schemes and scams that pervade the Internet like conmen on a carnival midway.

Promises of fast traffic and big bucks often separate even the most savvy business person from their money because they want to believe the promises made by these traffic hucksters.

However, rather than thinking "complicated equals better" in the traffic game, the best website traffic sources rate extremely easy to separate from the useless garbage traffic.

Fact: "Good Traffic" equals "Targeted Traffic!"

That means the visitors come as a result of desire to find out more on a specific, niche topic, not as a result of "exit" traffic or membership in a "safe" list where members simply pitch each other in an incestuous spam fest.

Good traffic comes from people clicking links on topics targeted to their interests and getting directed to a website containing information they want and expect as a result of clicking the link.

Bottom line, when you get right down to it, the best, most dependable sources of targeted traffic come from links that people click.

So, next time you're considering spending money on a traffic source, understand that unless it involves a targeted link that a targeted visitor can click to get to your website, think twice before opening up your wallet.

To my knowledge, only three ways exist to get a link to your site: buy it, "voodoo" it, or grow it.

** Buy Links**

Buying links actually rates the fastest way to get traffic to your website.

You simply sign up for Google AdWords at Google.com or you open an account with Overture.com.

You then run ads with a link on those sites and any time someone clicks the link, you pay for the click through a relatively straightforward bidding process based on the popularity of the keyword.

You can also buy links in ezines, newsletters, and on other people's website either on a per-click basis, for a period of time (a week or month), or in exchange for paying them a commission if a sale gets made as a result of a click on the link.

** Linking "VoodDoo" **

Linking "voodoo" refers to attempting to manipulate the search engines into displaying links to your website.

You can find a large number of automated software programs online at any given time that will claim to help you get more search engine traffic.

Depending on the intensity of competition in a specific market and the fact that search engines change their rules frequently, pursuing search engine links this way can quickly turn into the online equivalent of Alice chasing the rabbit down the hole.

** Grow Links **

I personally prefer this method to get links to my websites: growing them.

The best type of link to get involves one person telling another person, either explicitly or implicitly, they should click the link and visit the site at the other end.

One way to do this is simply to exchange links with another site which targets the same audience as your site.

You can manage this process manually or use one of the many software packages that will mange the process for you.

A search on Google.com for "reciprocal link manager software" yields a good start.

The easiest way to grow a link is through using articles other people post on their websites which link back to your website.

The reason articles work so well for "growing" links involves the numerous ways in which articles get distributed online, each of which can create dozens, hundreds, even thousands of different links back to your website by publishing a single article.

In fact, the following represent only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all the places you can grow links by publishing articles online.

~ Blogs - Your articles can not only appear on your own blog, but get posted by others on their blogs with surprising ease.

The links in these articles can point directly back to your website.

~ Article Directories - Article directories such as IdeaMarketers.com abound online.

They not only provide an easy way to display your articles to allow others to pick them up for posting on their websites, but also in and of themselves attract readers searching for content.

~ OPS (Other People's Sites) - Popular websites like WebProNews.com attract repeat visitors by offering targeted content to their readers.

Since they can't produce all the content themselves, they publish articles created by others. Links from these sites can bring a steady stream of targeted visitors by giving you targeted exposure.

~ Ezines - By getting your articles published in other people's ezines, you can get a link on the most valuable real estate online, a targeted prospect's email "inbox."

Many ezine publishers run articles written by others to their targeted readers, and your link in the resource box can bring you a veritable avalanche of targeted site visitors when hundreds, even thousands of people receive your article at the same time.

Whether you choose to buy them, "voodoo" them, or grow them, getting targeted links to your site posted on the Internet represents the absolute best way to get steady traffic to your site.

Though not as fast as buying them or as exciting as trying to manipulate the search engines, growing links with articles gives you a long-term, dependable presence online.

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and co-author of an amazing program that teaches you how to use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs... without spending a dime on advertising! Click Here> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

How Do I Get Traffic To My Website?

2005-09-30T00:10:00.000-07:00

By Vickie Scanlon

Internet Marketing requires you to sale other people’s products or services, or if you have decided to create your own product, sale your own. But whether you are selling your own or others, we all have one thing in common – getting traffic to our websites. But what is most important is not just getting traffic, but targeted traffic. Thus, How Do you or I get traffic to our sites?

In my early beginnings on the Internet, I tried many methods of getting traffic to my website. I was definitely a newbie in training – some of the software or services that I bought did me no good. I found, at times, that it was truly difficult to decipher which was a good deal and which was not – who was honest, and who was not – but I guess it goes with the Internet territory – and you must always do your due diligence.

However, I have found three methods of getting traffic to my site or affiliate product or service – Buying it – PPC, such as Google, Mamma, Overture, linking or the hard one Search Engine Optimization.

Pay-Per-Click

If you have the money to invest in Google or some of the other search engines pay-per-click programs you can make some money. Here you create an ad or ads relevant to your affiliate program, and place a bid on the keywords you select. This takes time, energy, persistence and money – and research. Also, I would advise that you read your affiliate programs rules, as well as, the rules of Google Adwords before jumping into the pay-per-click arena. You usually have to put “aff” after your ad or something similar to that – it’s dependent upon the affiliate program you are in. The idea with pay-per-click is that you pay only when the individual clicks on your ad.

Linking

Linking can be by either paid or unpaid methods. The paid methods are paying for your link to be shown in Ezines, newsletters or on other peoples’ sites. It can be costly, so the best suggestion that I can give you is to research the Ezines, newsletters and or other people sites that you want to link with before buying. In most cases, if ezines are accepting advertising, you know they must have at least 500+ subscribers, or I should say, be sure that they have at least 500+ subscribers before advertising in their ezine. Know what you are getting before you put your money down – and as they always say, be sure to read the fine print.

The unpaid method is through article creation. This requires hard work on your part, but the return will be seen in the long term. Keep in mind, your articles should be relevant and address the subject matter of your site and products. Content reigns king on the Internet – and if it is relevant to their needs – they will eventually come to read.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is basically the optimization of your web pages so that you can get a decent ranking by the search engines, and thus, to pull people to your website by it relevance. This is a difficult chore and needs to continually be worked at – and within the ethics of the Search Engines.

To conclude, getting targeted people to your site is really part of growing your business. And Internet marketing – well, it’s not for the faint-hearted, but for the determined, persistent individual who wants to really make a living on-line. Thus, if you really want to make a living on-line – don’t give up and promote.

Vickie J Scanlon has a BBA degree in Administrative Management and Marketing. Visit her site at: http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz for free/and need to buy promotional tools, articles, ebooks, how to info, affiliate opportunities, services and products – to meet your budget and needs.

How to Boost Your Web Traffic and PR for Free

2005-09-30T00:08:00.000-07:00

By George Hubka

Scouring the web you are sure to find thousands of web sites and products that claim to be able to make you web site into a miracle success. Build it once, walk away, and reap the benefits for years. They are selling services such as redirected traffic, free banners, auto surfers, and site submitters. While they may help, obviously they are no panacea.

The true winners are the people that are able to get their web site listed in the top spots on the main search engines. Submitting is a simple process but does not guarantee that Google or anyone else will list you. You can increase your chances by building what is commonly called inbound links. I am not talking about those stupid pages full of thousands of links (a.k.a. link farms). Search engines are smarter then they used to be and may actually penalize you for being a part of a link farm.

What search engines like to see is your link on another site that contains highly relevant content. Some people are able to achieve this be paying for links and advertising, but why pay when you can build these links for free. By writing articles and submitting them to free article sites, you are creating those inbound links that become gateways for search engines to find your site and build up your page rank.

When choosing those sites to submit to there are a couple things to consider.

- Does the site have a high PR?
- Does the site have high traffic?
- Will the site accept my article?

High PR may help you get listed in search engines. It may also help your own PR.

High traffic obviously may help get people to your site quicker and directly from another site. Not all high PR sites have high traffic.

Even though a site is new I would not write them off. New sites often are more likely to accept your articles in an effort to build up their own site. Today's PR0 site could become tomorrow's PR9.

George Hubka has a masters degree in software engineering has been building and running web sites for more than a decade.

http://www.AtTheBoard.com

8 Ways to Get Free Targeted Traffic

2005-09-30T00:06:00.000-07:00

By Steve S.

What good is your website if no one knows about it? The reason most webmasters fail within their first year is because they overlook advertising and promotion. Just because you have a perfectly designed website does not mean that people will find it. It is not hard to produce a steady stream of targeted traffic, and it can be absolutely free if you do it right. Below are eight free ways to produce quality targeted traffic for your website.

1. Search Engines

Search Engines are one of the best sources for targeted traffic and potential customers, so search engines should be one of the biggest factors for advertising and promotion. Did you know that most people never click past the first page of search engines? You need to be on the first page of search engines for your targeted keywords to generate targeted traffic. Getting your website to the top of search engines such as Google and Yahoo for free takes special methods called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search Engines Optimization envolves many factors, such as Meta Tags, Inbound Links, title tags, keywords, content, and PageRank. Since SEO is such an advanced field, HitsBam has written a completely seperate article entitled A Complete Guide to Search Engine Optimization to get you to the top of search engines for free.

2. Message Boards

Message Boards, or commonly known as forums, are great places to make partnerships with other webmasters and gain targeted traffic. First, create a signature post file with your name and URL so everytime you post a message, people will be interested in your website. Then introduce yourself slowly by posting useful information and answering questions. The more active you become in the forum, the better, because you will be known as an "expert", which gives you and your website a good reputation. Always remember to obide by the forum's rules and NEVER spam them with your website. A good signature for a forum would look something like this:

---------------------------------------------

Your Name

http://www.yourwebsite.com

"A funny or catchy quote"

---------------------------------------------

3. Email Signatures

Imagine that every email you send out is advertising for your website. This can be a reality if you utilize email signatures. Almost every email program or website has this feature. You can use it when sending personal emails, business emails, when you email your clients, in your autoresponder, or any other email that is sent. Email Signatures are perfect to keep people coming back to your website because the signature reminds them that your website exists. Remember to never spam, it just is not worth it. A good email signature would look something like this:

---------------------------------------------

Your Name

Your Website Title

http://www.yourwebsite.com

"Your Slogan" or a Short Description

---------------------------------------------

4. Content

Content, Content, Content! Search engines are so sophisticated these days that the only real way to get on the top of search engines is to have good keyword-rich content. Not only will you recieve top rankings on search engines, people will actually want to visit your site, especially if the content is for free. You could also post your articles at ezines and websites and leave your link at the bottom. This lets people know that you are knowledgable and that they should visit your website, and it works suprisingly well to generate targeted traffic for free. You can make some real money selling links on your website if you have good content. Some websites with a PageRank of 7 or more sell links for $250+ a month! Don't forget to place your keywords all over your website and in your articles. The more keywords you incorporate into your content, the better, just make sure it is still an understandable article and not just an article full of keywords.

5. Start A Newsletter

Newsletters can be a great way to keep visitors comming back to your website. It is suggested that you send out a unique issue every week to keep reminding the customers that you are still here, but make sure each issue is different and has something to offer the reader, usually free information. Once you reach about 100 subscribers, the newsletter can become an income generator, as you can sell ad space on it. You can find some great free scripts for your newsletter at www.ACJavascripts.com.

6. Awards Submitting your site to be chosen for awards is a great way to get people to find your website. If you happen to win a big award that fits the color scheme of your website, you could display it proudly on your front page showing your visitors that the website is reliable and has won awards. You can find out more about how to apply for awards with free software from http://www.market-tek.com/awardsite.html.

7. Free Stuff

Free stuff to offer your visitors is a great way to keep them comming back or to persuade them to buy your products. There are many things you can offer, such as email addresses, games, information, tips and hints, software, ebooks, and the list goes on. You could give away something that would compliment a sale for your product. An example would be to give away free information on how dirty air can cause health problems if you are selling air purifiers.

8. Traffic Swarm

We usually do not support traffic exchange programs and click for traffic programs, but we have found an exception. A program called Traffic Swarm has been one of our biggest targeted traffic producers. Its unique way of letting the surfer choose what site they want to visit has proven successful and has reflected its success to its members. They do offer a pro memebership that gives you bonus credits, 2000 credits per month, a featured site link, and much more. HitsBam highly suggests joining this free program.

This article was written by http://www.hitsbam.com

How to Get Traffic to Your Website!

2005-09-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

By Matt Bacak

Today, the biggest problem that new website owners have is: “How they can get traffic to their website?” Significant amount of time and energy is spent today on this single task. You or your webmaster needs to commonly focus on:

- Get ranked well on the most important search engines (Google, Yahoo, Msn, Ask.com, etc.)

- Pay Per Click (PPC) programs

- Cost Per Click (CPC) programs

- Link Exchanges

- Directory Submissions

- And more…

All of these methods are valuable for getting traffic to your website. If you are not competent enough to rank well your keywords, you can obviously hire a SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) for this work. From search engines you can get a very large portion of traffic to your website.

Today, everyone wants to know the big secret to driving traffic to their website. Every day I see an article or an ad talking about driving people to your website; driving traffic to a website has become the “holy grail” on the Internet. People are realizing that if you build it, they won't come... unless you give them a reason. Website traffic just doesn't happen by itself. Your website is just one of many millions on the web and people rarely just stumble upon your site by accident.

There are many ways to drive traffic to your website. You can buy traffic from vendors that will pummel your website with hits from automated programs. This will increase your hits but will it increase your bottom line? Probably not. You can set up blogs that spider (connect to) your website increasing your traffic count. Does this drive users to your website? Only if your blog is so interesting that people are reading it. There are thousands of blogs posted on the internet and your blog is just a needle in the internet haystack.

Another trick is to create RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for your website and subscribe to other RSS feeds. This again will increase your hit count but will do very little to drive potential customers to your website unless you're providing valuable information. Tricks will increase your hit count but do very little todrive potential customers to your website. People often turn to traffic exchanges. Quite simply, a traffic exchange is a program where you sign up and agree to surf sites in exchange for some credits. These credits are then used when other members of the exchange surf to your site. This traffic is not highly targeted traffic. In fact, if this were your only method of advertising your website, you'd probably fail. BUT it is a great method of getting traffic to your site in addition to the other methods listed above.

So, why do people use traffic exchanges? Here are a few of the benefits:

- Increase your Alexa rating! Did you know that some search engines factor your Alexa rating into their algorithms? More traffic means higher search engine placement!

- Increase your branding awareness. Any marketing expert worth his salt will tell you that branding is extremely important to stand out amongst the billions of websites out there. More traffic equals more sales. A percentage of people surfing will be enticed by your ads and click on them to find out more information. Another source of revenue. Many traffic exchanges will actually pay you money to surf. More importantly, as you refer other people to the network, you'll earn a percentage of the money that they earn! It may be small amounts but if you work the system it could amount to a lot of money.

Now, before you head over to Google and search for Traffic Exchange, I'd recommend knowing a few facts:

- Some traffic exchanges are simply out to get money from you and will refer very little traffic to you.

- Some traffic exchanges have poor systems in place to stop cheaters from running programs to increase their credits faster.

Finally, some traffic exchanges will allow popup, active x controls, site rotators, etc. in their network. Any of these can stop your auto surfing from working, or even worse, allow your computer to be infected with a virus.

The best part about Traffic Exchanges is that you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The worst thing that could happen to you is you get a little bit of traffic which increases your Alexa rankings and you don't get any money.

Of course, for the system to work, you've got to make sure that you do some surfing yourself. The makers of the exchange programs realize this and some of them even have an auto surf feature where you get a reduced number of credits while your browser happily loads page after page every 10 seconds or so.

Matt Bacak became "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours. Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host is turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts into Overnight Success Stories. Discover The Secrets To Unleash The Powerful Promoter In You! Sign up for Matt Bacak's Promoting Tips Ezine ($100 value) just visit his website at http://www.powerfulpromoter.com or http://promotingtips.com

Web Coach Tip: 3 Proven Steps to Increase Traffic to Your Website

2005-09-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

By Donna Payne

#1 Make sure your business card includes a persuasive “FREE Offer” inviting the recipient to visit your website. I used to think this idea was too “salesy.” That is, until I tried it myself. I exchanged a handful of cards at a networking function; in the next few days I noticed a significant increase of subscribers all from this event!

WOW!

People actually visited my site because of this one tiny tip? Yes, they did…because I gave them a REASON to visit.

Are you curious to know what my business card looks like?

The left half is bright yellow with a red-dashed border resembling a coupon so people are instantly drawn in and read it immediately.

It simply states: “What everybody should know before hiring a web designer—download my FREE time-saving ‘Quick-Start Web’ Workbook with 9 Proven Techniques to help you get started”

#2 Write articles and become the “resident guru” by posting regularly in your target market’s newsgroups.

This isn’t about selling your product, but establishing yourself as an industry expert with a vast wealth of information to share.

This means you should be on the lookout for opportunities to respond to questions/postings to gain the respect of the community. Simply put, sit back, relax, be a fly on the wall and listen… wait for just the right opportunity to share your expertise.

Another trick with newsgroups is to offer to do “leg work” when someone asks a question and no one seems to know the answer. Post your own message stating that you would like to know the answer as well and that you’ll do your own research and get back to them soon.

When posting a message like this, you MUST follow through. Doing this will show everyone in a very public way that you are a resourceful “go to” person and thus increase traffic to your website when folks want to learn more from the expert!

#3 Each time you send an email or post to a news group or forums, use your signature to ask an intriguing question or offer something of value for free. How many times have we heard this? You would be surprised how many people still forget to use this opportunity to give folks a reason to visit their site. You will definitly find my f.r.e.e. offer in my signature file.

Now it’s your turn…what else can you do to increase traffic? Offline? Online?

Donna Payne is the Chief Web Goddess of The Web Coach.net, and is known as the gal to call when you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed by the internet. To spend more time with Donna and experience Web technology, Development and Marketing in the most SIMPLIFED way possible go to http://thewebcoach.net

3 Ways To Swarm Your Website With Highly Targeted Traffic For FREE!

2005-09-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

By Andy Murray

Targeted website traffic is the lifeblood of any website looking to generate revenue. While FREE traffic from the search engines seems the most logical way to go, actually staying ahead of the game can be tough. Here are my top 3 ways to send your traffic counter spinning without the headaches.

1. Trading Links With Other Webmasters:

By mutually agreeing with another webmaster to trade link exposure on each others site, you're expanding your market reach significantly. Not only does this generate instant traffic from the link partner, but you'll also BOOST your Google PR and link ranking with other search engines as a bonus.

This helps you rank better in the listings, generating even more FREE traffic, without doing any complicated SEO.

There are some great tools to help you get started trading links. Some of them are even free. I don't recommend them personally because annoying banners or other types of ads compete for the same space, doesn't look very professional.

Alternatives to FREE software worth checking out are...

The ALMIGHTY Zeus - The one I use. Tough to get used to, but an excellent piece of kit. The darn thing learns and just keeps getting smarter the more you use it. (And a FREE trial so you can become a master before you buy) http://www.cyber-robotics.com

Reciprocal Link Manager - Not as sophisticated as Zeus but much easier to learn if you're pressed for time. http://reciprocal-manager.com/

Axandra's Arelis - Lots of great reviews for this one and more in the Zeus mould. http://www.axandra-link-popularity-tool.com/index.htm

2. Writing Articles to Publish Online:

This technique is a very close second to my favourite one which I'll share in just a moment. The amount of exposure you can get from writing a simple article is astounding.

After you've written it up, you submit to the major article directories, then just sit back and watch the traffic stream in.

As an added bonus you start to gain more respect within your industry. Articles have this uncanny knack to create an aura of expertise around the writer.

You also benefit yet again with search engine ranking, as other webmasters with mailing lists publish your article on their site. Creating yet another link back to you.

Articles are a VERY effective pre-selling technique too.

How much more targeted would a prospect be arriving at your website after reading one of your articles in an email or on another site?

Not only did you get the recommendation from the publisher, but if they enjoy reading your article and get some value from it, you've already broken down one of the main barriers of selling...

TRUST!

Here are some cool resources to get stuck into:

Editorial guidelines:
http://ezinearticles.com/editorial-guidelines.html

Some great "How To" advice:
http://www.promotewitharticles.com/howto.html

And a nice BIG list of directories and announcement lists: http://www.marketingchick.com/howto/article-marketing.shtml

3. Viral Marketing:

Viral Marketing is defined as “Any advertising that propagates itself the way viruses do”; E.g. When Hotmail users send e-mails, they “infect” the recipients with the tagline at the bottom of their messages.

If you UNLEASH a 'Viral Marketing' campaign, it will just keep on multiplying, spreading your message around the web like wildfire. I absolutely LOVE this method of sending quality traffic to my website for FREE.

Generating free traffic with 'Viral Marketing' is easily the most rewarding use of your time. Taking good steps to craft the right offer and layout of your 'Viral Marketing' message is essential. But get it right, and not only will a truck-load of qualified visitors come to your website, but an air of respect and expertise is generated around you and your business.

Andy Murray is a marketer and publisher writing informative reports to help grow your online business. Get his latest offering "Unleash Your Viral Marketing Potential" for FREE by simply following this link: http://www.zerohourmarketing.com/Viral-Marketing-Report.htm

Keyword Articles: Use Magical Keywords in Your Articles and Get Lots of Traffic

2005-09-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

By Fred Farah

You get a flash of inspiration and an interesting topic for an article comes into your head. Here we go then!

You write the article, and even come up with a 'catchy' title. You post the article on your web site, and even add a link to a product you might sell as an affiliate.

Then you wait for the search engines to bring people to that page... and you wait, and wait. So what's wrong with this scenario?

Your jazzy title has no popular keyword built in. It is too long and will never be searched on in it's entirety, as most key phrases are no longer that 2 or 3 words.

The body of your article probably has no good keywords either, because no one is reaching you from the Search engines.

And if you post your new article to the submission sites to bring you more new traffic, what happens? The same thing.. absolutely nothing! Why.. No popular keywords built into your article.

In other words, your article doesn't get read unless found by browsers who just happen to run into it on your site, or in the article directory where you posted the article. You miss out on all the free traffic provided by search engines.

So what can we do to get that missing traffic back?

The only solution is to write your article with appropriate keywords that get searched on. Let's review where the keywords should be placed in your article.

You need to select the main keyword that matches the theme of your article and placed in these areas:

The Title.
It's really best if your the keyword is part of the title, even if not the complete title. Keywords or key phrases should not be more than 2 or 3 words, and a maximum of 4 words. Your title should be up to 10 words, or even more, if it's to be creative and attract readers.

The Page Name where your article is located on your site.

The Description.
This should start with the same text as the title. Then you can add additional sentences describing the theme of your article. The description is what appears in the search results, so use it to promote your article.

The Header, or Headline. Again, this can be the same as the title.

In the Keyword box
first enter your main keyword followed by a comma. Then add more keywords you plan to use in the article, each followed by a comma.

In the body of the article.
Try to use the keyword in the first 90 characters of your article. Then repeat it 2 to 5 times throughout but not more. Too much is frowned upon by the SE's. It also will not fool intelligent readers, who will reject your work as too obviously sounding like a scam.

Now here is the toughest part, yet the most essential for search engine success. Weave other related keywords into your article as you write it, or when you edit it. This is the Key to more SE hits to your article.. having good keywords placed throughout the article. It's actually better to write your article in your own fashion first. Then go over it and work on the keywords.

It is more important here, than in the keyword box, as the SE's will index your article with the popular keywords you used in the body of your article. I believe they now pay less attention to the keyword box.

Now your next challenge to success is to know how to find the keywords. As I said at the beginning, many, if not most of the titles are written to catch your eye, but have not used good keywords.

Why? Simply because the author did not take the time to check on the popularity of his keywords. If you don't use some that are regularly searched upon, then you will have no visitors finding your article, and your web site.

Your logical course of action is to use a Keyword Research Tool. You simply enter your main keyword you are thinking of using, and you quickly see whether your choice is good or not. Keep trying different choices until you click on the best prospect. Related keywords will also be shown if using the right tool. These are the ones to choose from, and sprinkle 4 or 5 best choices into your article.

Here are just a few Keyword Research Tools available.

The Dowser is the most recent to hit the market. There's a version you can use at NO COST, or you can opt for the Pro version. Download from: http://www.thedowser.com/

SBI Brainstormer. If your web host and Site Management software is Site Build It! then you have probably the best keyword research tool available. The most recent version to be issued is spectacular. You can read about SBI on my web site at: http://www.bestaffiliateproducts.com/sbi.html Yahoo Search (formerly Overture) Keyword Selector Tool gives you the popularity of the keyword you enter.
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

There are others, but I think you have enough to get the idea. Remember that the purpose of all this is to check the validity of your main keyword, and from that you will get a bonus list of related key phrases to use in your article.

DO take the time to do your research, because it is that important, and the benefits to you will make you a believer. Especially when you start seeing that extra traffic!

Fred Farah is a long time business man who is now an affilia lte marketer. Check out the best affiliate products at: Best Affiliate Products

It's all about affiliate marketing to niche markets. Lots to learn from the Niche Madness 7-day eCourse, as well as the Niche Market Strategies newsletter.

How to Draw Traffic to Your Website - More Steps

2005-09-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

By Faraj Balousha

Web site traffic refers to the number of times your site is viewed by the users. It is the most important point to be made for the success of your online business.

Steps to increase the site traffic:

Step 1: Submit Your Site to Search Engines:

Major Search Engines:
Yahoo, Google, AOL Search, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, Direct Hit, Excite, FAST Search, HotBot, Inktomi, LookSmart, Lycos, MSN Search, Netscape Search

• Manually Submission:
If you want to submit by hand, be aware that each Search Engine has it’s own set of rules for determining relevancy and ranking.

• Paid Submission:
Where you have to pay to be listed.

Good Submission Sites:

http://submitfire.coffeecup.com/
http://www.actnowdomains.com/
http://www.submitnet.net//default
www.submitexpress.com
www.submit-it.com
www.submitshop.com
www.addme.com/submission.htm

Step 2: Update Information:
Put fresh content and update the existing content of your website.

Step 3: Pay for clicks:
Receive targeted pay per click traffic from all major search engines. People will see your site in the sponsored links section of the search results when they search for keyword phrases related to your products or services.

Major pay- per- click search engines:

• Overture- from yahoo:
http://www.content.overture.com/d/

• AdWords- from google:
https://adwords.google.com/select/

• Search 123:
http://www.search123.com

• FindWhat:
http://findwhat.com

• Enhance Interactive: (formerly ah-ha.com)
http://www.enhance.com

• Kanoodle:
http://kanoodle.com/

Step 4: Get published:

Write articles for publication on other websites. The author profile will link to your site.

http://www.site-reference.com
http://www.articlecity.com/
http://ezinearticles.com

Step 5: Publish yourself:
Write articles for your own site regularly.

Step 6: Get links to your site: (link exchange)
Get people with other sites to link to yours. Links lead to clicks onto your website and help to improve your search engine rankings.

Step 7: Classified Ads:
These are generally simple text line ads, advertising a product or service. All your classified ad needs to do is to get a visitor to your web site. Your web site becomes your sales letter!

The Grandfather Of All Links FREE Advertising Directory which has over 10,000 + places to advertise for free. Contact them at: http://www.ecki.com/links

Step 8: More steps:

• Buy links to your site: Buy text links on other websites.

• Buy banner ads: Buy banner ads on other websites.

• Participate in a banner exchange program: It won't cost you anything, and will lead to a few extra visitors.

• Set up an affiliate marketing program: With affiliate marketing, you can either pay per click or pay per customer acquired.

• Use off-line marketing: Do anything and everything to spread the word about your website around your city.

• Give away free stuff: Offer free information or/and free downloads and update them regularly.

• Auctions: Sell your product online using one or more of these auctions: http://www.ebay.com http://www.ubid.com

Enjoy!

Faraj Balousha
Civil Engineer, Architect, Webmaster
Sketch-Plus Inc.,
http://www.sketch-plus.com/
http://www.creating-website-stores.com/

Reciprocal Links: Look Before You Link

2005-09-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

By Robert Raught

A reciprocal link is when a web site links to you and you link back to them.

If you own a website, I'm sure you've received emails asking for link exchanges. This article's purpose is to help you decide who you should be linking to and why.

Look before you link!

Indiscriminate linking can be harmful to your search engine rankings and your reputation. When considering another website for a link exchange, always check out the potential link partner's web site and the page that your link is going to be placed on.

Five essential rules to follow when choosing a link partner.

1. Make sure that the website is related to yours. For example, if you're a real estate agent, don't exchange links with pages about diet pills or casinos. Link to other real estate related web sites, like mortgages or real estate agents in other areas.

2. Don't link to link farms. You can tell a page is a link farm by the fact that there's usually no company logo, hundreds of links and no real content.

3. Think of your outbound link as a recommendation for that site. If the web site or link page is of poor quality, don't link to it. Ask yourself, "Would I recommend this page to my visitors?"

4. Ensure your link will be found by search engines. Just paste the URL of the web page you'll be linked on into Google, Yahoo, or MSN. If the page comes up in the results, it's indexed.

5. Examine the links on the potential link exchange partner's web page. Make sure the links point straight to other sites and are not redirected or use JavaScript linking code. Look at the HTML source code and check the the links for the following text: "rel=nofollow". This code tells major search engines not to count this link in ranking algorithms.

If done correctly, reciprocal linking can be a great way to increase your online traffic. So, don't forget! Always look before you link!

About the Author

Robert Raught is the lead SEO expert at Technet, a search engine optimization firm based in Washington state. He also publishes daily SEO news and articles in an online RSS enabled blog titled "The Optimizer".

Alexa: Why You Should be Using the Toolbar

2005-09-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

By Mark J Thompson

Why on earth would anyone want to install a piece of spyware onto their Web browser? No sensible right minded person would …unless you are a webmaster and you want to improve your SERPS ranking that is.

The Alexa toolbar is not “technically” spyware as it doesn’t retrieve any private or personal information. It does however log all the sites you visit and as webmasters we can use this to our advantage. It uses this information to compile traffic ranking statistics and a relational list. The relational list is very useful as it shows what other sites people who have looked the current website have also visited. Alexa is owned by Amazon and it is possible to make your own Alexa toolbar with your Amazon affiliate code included. You can then place this on your site and get credited when anyone buys through Amazon using the Amazon button on the toolbar you’ve distributed, it is also possible to include a link to your site in the toolbar.

Alexa ranks sites from 1 to 5,000,000 and sometimes higher. Ranking 1 has the most traffic and so on, anything below 250,000 and you should be getting some decent traffic levels. This information can be used to determine how well your advertising campaigns are going and how traffic levels are growing over a period of time. This information can also be used to determine how you rivals are doing and keep you one step ahead of them. The Alexa information is also picked up by other search engines so you benefit from an increase in you SERPS as your site progresses up the rankings .

One drawback of the Alexa toolbar is that it only works on Internet Explorer and not the tool of choice for most webmasters Firefox. However I personally feel this is a small price to pay for the benefits I get when using the tool bar for research and to check my sites daily. Checking the stats of your own site has a positive impact on your Alexa ranking as the toolbar is not generally used by the general public so every extra hit from a browser with the tool bar installed is valuable. I have 1 site that is almost exclusively used by webmasters , As webmasters are the people who use Alexa more than any other group 500 page views a day are enough to get this site into the top 500,000 Another site that has 3 times the traffic but the visitors are mostly the general public so this site is languishing in the 2,000,000 ‘s.

Why not try an experiment for a month, Download the toolbar and monitor one of your sites, once you see the data you get and the way it can be used you won’t know how you survived without it.

Mark Thompson ran an IT consultancy in London for many years . He now live in Spain and runs an number of websites including The Links Factory.

How to Get Great Organic Search Engine Listings

2005-06-25T03:46:00.000-07:00

By Judith Kallos All too often I find site owners are confused (or in denial) about how to achieve the search engine rankings they desire on the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). So, I am pleased to offer you my version of "Organic Listings 101." Several times each day I get approached by site owners wanting to be in the top 5, 10, top page for organic (free) listings. The organic results are those that display to the left and below "Sponsored Sites" or "Sponsored Results at Google, MSN and Yahoo!. These "Sponsored" advertisement boxes are part of Pay Per Click programs where site owners bid for positioning. What we're going to discuss today are the free listings that are gained by how your site is ranked based on a combination of unique variables (algorithm) of each search site. Which, to muddy things up further, evolve without notice. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad." ~Aldous Huxley Let's first set the stage so that we have realistic expectations here. When I started my consulting practice back in the early 90s, it was relatively easy to get found. The volume of sites and the level of competition were not one iota of what they are today. Fast forward to 2005 and you have close to 12,000,000,000 (yes, that's billion) pages with a good 10,000,000 being added daily. So how do you get visibility in the SERPs? Shuffling or adding keywords in your Meta tags won't do it. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn't the end-all-be-all either. You have to have a well rounded, smart long term marketing plan for your site that includes certain basics for you to rise in the organic rankings. Issues for consideration to gain improved organic listings: => Look at your Web marketing plan as a long term effort. New sites are in Google's sandbox for 6 months or more, and it will take time and effort to be viewed as more relevant than the sites that are already online in the free positions you seek. => Part of putting your plan together is to do a search with your top keyword phrases on the various search engines so that you are aware of the competition and the volume of sites already successfully ranking for the terms you are targeting. This gives you a real-world understanding of the level of competition you will be up against. => Understand that how your Web site ranks has nothing to do with how good you are at what you do. It has to do with how good your site is and how good others including the search engines think your site is. That requires a long term realistic marketing plan to grow your site to be the best most comprehensive resource on your product or service for your site visitors. It doesn't happen overnight or just because you say you want it to. => Forget about trying to rank for one-word keywords-much too difficult and in some cases downright impossible. Concentrate and target 2-3 word phrases instead of one-word keywords and you'll get more targeted visitors as well. There are several tools to assist you in investigating what keyword phrases your target market is actually using. Use these tools to your advantage! => Make sure each page within your site targets and is optimized for only one or two, 2-3 word keyword phrases each. Niche is what works for organic listings! The more you are about; the less you are about any one thing. Search results are based on numerous factors; one being relevancy for the terms the searcher is using. If you are targeting 10, 20, 30 terms per page, that page is not strongly about any given topic vs. another site that has a page or pages concentrating on just one or two phrases each. Keep in mind that less is more when it comes to targeting keyword phrases on a page by page basis. => To "top" the sites already out there, you have to do just that! Top them! What makes your site better and more valuable to your site visitors? If you don't have anything unique and of quality or value to offer, you'll never push those who already hold these positions out of your way. => Plan on adding new information to your site on an aggressive basis. Daily, weekly, minimally monthly! Resources, white papers, "how tos" not only add value but will naturally work wonders as keyword targeted pages. Offer the type of information those seeking your product or service will find useful and search for and that other sites will want to link to. Don't even think of cheating and using content generating software…You'll get nowhere with that approach. You need to have well written content of value; not keyword stuffed ramblings. => Plan on having lots of patience. Rome wasn't built in a day and attaining great organic listings no longer happens in a day, a month, or even a year. Any business that hopes to succeed needs to take a consistent and informed long-term approach. This applies to organic listings ten-fold. Yes, without a doubt all of the above recommendations require your time, effort and a realistic understanding of how organic listings are accomplished. But this is the reality of how great listings, over time, are attained. It is really quite simple-strive to make your site the best it can be; THE site for your product or service and your rankings will improve! There are no short cuts or trickery for fast top 5, 10, top page organic results. If someone tells you otherwise, they are trying to use what you don't know to get into your pocket book. Make a commitment to continually build your site to be the best it can be to your site visitors and your organic rankings will happen. Web sites and rankings are a work in progress after all! Without implementing the above, you are left with only one choice in order to get visibility to those searching for your product or service. You will need to invest in a well planned Pay Per Click program and the corresponding budget necessary to reach your goals. About the Author: Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse who has played @ http://www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade. Check out her popular Software, Programming and Web Design Cheat Sheets @ http://www.LearnAndThrive.com

Strategic Networking: Take the Shortest Path to Success

2005-06-25T03:44:00.000-07:00

By Dina Giolitto Do you use Ryze or LinkedIn to promote your web based business? If so, you may have noticed that everything is linked to everything else. Here's how to take the shortest path to networking success: use keywords and a targeted linking strategy. On Ryze and other major networks, connections are happening everywhere. It's like real life, but far more obvious because it's in print before your eyes. But what you may not have noticed, is that keywords are the very thing that drives your online business connections. Online networks such as Ryze have live links built into them for a reason. They're your opportunity to directly connect with people who can help you achieve your business goals. Such links enable you to "trace a path" from connection to connection. If you think about this long enough, it may occur to you that you can shorten that path to the best connections if you incorporate a linking strategy into your networking plan. How to go about this? Use keywords and "key people" who can help you get to the place in life where you want to be. Include Keywords In Your Personal Profile As you build your personal Ryze page, you'll notice that you get to add descriptive words to your profile to define who you are. You're free to use any words you want, but the idea, again, is to take the most direct route to success. So choose words, or keywords if you will, that will help you "find and be found." Let's use your location as an example. If you click right on the state where you live, you can "pivot" on the word to see a list of every Ryze member who lives in that state, too. The same goes for every other live link you get on Ryze. You are in control of these links. Now suppose you want to link up to people who share your personal hobbies and interests. Type in the words to describe your interests as they're most commonly known. Let's say you're a golfer. You can attract other golf enthusiasts with the simple keyword "golf." You can of course type in something like "putting around" but what other golfer is going to choose those exact words for his interest list? Maybe one other guy, and if you can find him then you're soulmates and should probably marry each other. Just kidding! Remember, the point of online network links is not to be original, but to make connections. If you feeling like getting creative, you can always do that on your homepage. Write fabulous copy. Include breathtaking photos. Just make sure that your links are beefed up with common keywords for prime networking opportunities. Adding Key People: Target Your Links! In much the same way that a smart advertiser pulls in his audience using keywords and highly targeted copy in every ad he writes, you should be pointing all your Ryze links to the people, groups, and opportunities that will point your business in a highly focused and profitable direction. Some Ryze members try to really work the Friends List angle. Every once in a while an aggressive Ryzer sends me a message like, "Hi Dina, I noticed you didn't say hello when you stopped by my page." And then they want to add me to their Friends list right away. First of all, I know for a fact that I never Ryzed by Joe Bagadonuts's Ryze page, and he's not going to trick me into thinking I did. So tone it down, Joe, you're coming on too strong. Second of all, I have my own theory about Ryze, and it's that adding everyone to my Friends List is going to defeat the purpose of me being there in the first place. Think about this: What if you could add every Ryze member to your Friend's List? Pretty cool, huh? You'd be royally hooked up with awesome connections! Right? No. You'd be right back where you started on Ryze. A massive pool of connections to pore through to do some decent business, and you don't know where to start. Kinda paradoxical, isn't it. The answer, of course, is to be more selective in who you link to. Hook up with those who offer services, information, support and advice that you need to grow your business. How to do this? Join networks. Joining the Right Networks Will Bring Hits to Your Page When you first join Ryze, join networks. Not necessarily a ton of networks, but the ones that will help forward your business objective along. This is how you get "hits" to your page. Why? Because online networks are simply a miniature model of the World Wide Web! You must get out there in order for people to see you, and you must communicate who you are and what you stand for... or no one will know you exist. Suppose you sell all-natural coffee, and you want to do some writing for the coffee industry as well as put out a newsletter to your email subscriber list of coffee drinkers, which you don't have yet because you only just started your business. Also, somewhere down the line maybe you'd like to revamp your website, but that's not in the budget right now. Your networking strategy whould be as follows: join a network of coffee fans, another network of natural foodies, a writing group, an email and/or ezine publishing group, and a web design group. Participate in each of those groups. Jump right into the conversation. You'll find that networks which coincide with your Big Plan, are appealing because members are often interested in achieving the same goals as you are. In talking with them over time, you'll develop mutually beneficial relationships that lead to new opportunities. Another perk of joining the right networks: new Ryzers and Floating Ryzers who "Ryze on by" the networks will scan the list of members, see your name, and maybe reach out to make a connection with you. That's how to be "found" by the right people. "Target" your networking, and carve a path to success and prosperity for your home-based web business. Your Friends List is Your Circle of Trust So now you're probably wondering what the heck that Friends List is for. Your Friends can be anybody you wish, but ideally they should be people you know and trust. My Friends list orginates from the first dot-com group that I worked for, whose members all belonged to Ryze and urged me to join. It also includes people I "pulled in" from the outside world. In my opinion, and if you don't agree with this, that's perfectly okay... your Ryze Friends List should be a cluster of "set connections" - your Circle of Trust. It should consist of the people with whom you've had positive prior experiences, are making current plans with, and have established solid, long-term relationships. Why should this matter? Well, I don't know about you but I'd much rather deal with people who I KNOW AND TRUST than random others who merely added me to their friend list to build a huge following. Me, I want strong links in my people chain. But that's just me. Example: suppose I'm looking to hire a tech guy. Will I contact a tech guy that's connected to a person I barely know? Of course not! I'll choose someone who comes with a recommendation from a trusted friend: someone on my Friends List. All the more reason to keep your Ryze Friends List "pure." I can't explain it any better than this. Of course, not every network you join will be related to your business. You can join for the social aspect alone, and that's perfectly okay. Because another cool thing about online networking is that you can keep your groups separate if you want! The best online networks, like Ryze, are ingeniously designed to make the most of your connections in every facet of your business and your life. In much the same way we make real-time connections, online networks afford opportunities to build profitable and trusting relationships. Why not use that to your advantage? Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved. Find out how crisp, targeted copywriting can make a world of difference for your business. Dina Giolitto is a Copywriting Consultant with ten years of experience. Visit http://Wordfeeder.com for free tips on branding, copywriting, article marketing, and more.

How to Develop Back Links

2005-06-24T04:02:00.000-07:00

By Ron Swerdfiger There are no hidden secrets on how to rank high with the major search engines. All that is needed is a basic understanding of how search engines work and a bit of know hown Perhaps the biggest contributing factor to a successful web site is incoming links. Without links, your website will more than likely go unnoticed. So how should you accumulate these links? Below are a few basic methods to accumulate quality back links Before you get started You MUST understand how search engines work. Over 90% of your business will likely come directly from search engine results. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to optimize your site for search engines. You could have the greatest deals in the entire world, but if no one knows about them then your efforts are wasted. Do a search on google for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You will find tons of great information on how to create a website that is both user friendly and search engine friendly. There are also countless numbers of companies and freelancers out there who offer SEO services. Just be cautious of their offers and do your research first. Remember, NO ONE can guarantee top placement in major search engines, no matter what they say. Where should back links come from? 1. Articles are a fantastic source of links and additional traffic to your site. There are countless sites online that want your articles. It’s a win win situation for everyone. When you write articles and submit them online, you are able to leave a link to your own site and sometimes even anchor text. I know what you’re saying, “I can’t write about anything.” I use to feel the same way. But the truth of the matter is, anyone can write. You just have to find a topic that interests you. You can write about anything from dogs, to computers, to personal training, to web hosting, heck you can even write about writing. The bottom line is, articles are a valuable source of “relevant” back links to your site. 2. Submit to directories. There are literally hundreds of “free” and “paid” directories online. With 3 hours of painless work, you can have your site submitted to hundreds of great directories. There are many quality lists of directories that are regularly updated. One of my favorites is http://www.best-web-directories.com/ which is always updated and maintained. 3. Develop link exchanges with relevant sites. The major search engines such as google see incoming links from relevant sites, and give them more rank compared a link from an unrelated site. For example, if you have a website about pet care products, your link strategy should target pet related sites. Again with a bit of hard work and determination, you can develop a great deal of “relevant” back links. 4. Forums are a great source for additional traffic and links. Many forums allow their users to display signatures in their posts. These signatures can consist of both text and links. When you post a new message on that forum, your websites link will be displayed for everyone to see. This not only helps build valuable back links, but will bring additional traffic to your website. 5. Join a link co-op. Co-ops such as the one found at http://www.digitalpoint.com/ are an amazing source of valuable back links and free advertisement. What is a co op network? A Co op network is a network of site owners/webmasters that offer ad space to the network. In return, the ads they define are displayed across the entire network. The best part of ad networks such as the one found at digital point, is, they are free. Having your site in a co-op can literally mean thousands of back links for your site. If you want to have a successful site, whether-it-be a hobby or for business, you have to understand how search engines work. Part of that understanding is knowing about link development. Maybe in the early 90’s the idea of “if you build it they will come” might have been true. But in the year 2005 the internet is a far more competitive and complex place. To be successful today, you have to work at it. Without a quality source of back links the search engines will all buy ignore your site. Ron is the CTO for Dice Ventures Inc an internet holdings and development company. Some current projects include a hosting forum and a Linux forum

How to Get More Traffic Than You Can Use

2005-06-20T00:10:00.001-07:00

By Jeremy Hoover Traffic-generation is a hot topic for marketers. In particular, “free traffic” seems to be the desire of most. But many sources of “free” traffic are not really free—they take your time, which can often be more valuable than spending a few dollars on your marketing. The best idea is to combine the better sources of free traffic with some paid advertising. I propose three methods that will boost your traffic. If you remain dedicated to these three methods of advertising, you will get all the traffic you need. These sources are: 1) Writing and distributing articles; 2) Contributing to forums; and 3) Writing and buying ezine ads. 1. Writing and distributing articles This is my favourite way of driving traffic to my sites. Articles have the ability to become viral, and that can be a huge plus for you, and a great reason to write articles. Focus on creating a 300 word article related to the theme of your site or business. Include a resource box at the end of your article that features a link back to your site. Then, distribute your article to article distribution sites (like EzineArticles.com) and email groups (like http://groups.yahoo.com/group/business_articles). You will see traffic from this method. 2. Contributing to forums The key word here is “contributing.” Recently, too many good forums have been besieged by “marketers” posting ads. This is considered to be forum spam, and is not in good taste. Instead, visit forums, read posts, and when you have a good, well-thought-out question or reply, post it to the forum. This type of question or reply allows you to build credibility in that forum, and will earn interest in your business from other readers. Most forums allow you to post a link at the end of your post, or in a signature file, and you can promote your business there. As you build credibility, you will build traffic. 3. Buying ezine ads This is a paid method of advertising, but it works, because it is the most targeted of these approaches. Write a concise ad for your business, and link to either a lead-capture page or directly to your autoresponder. Then, begin contacting ezines to place your ad. (Do a search for “ezine directories,” and you will find enough lists to keep you busy.) When you contact an ezine, look for rates for both classified ads and solo ads. The advantage to a solo ad is that your ad goes out by itself in a separate email, but they can be more expensive. Because these ads are targeted (you should NOT advertise in an unrelated ezine), you will definitely see traffic, but you will need to track your results to see which ezines bring you the most and best traffic. These three sources of traffic will keep you busy and will bring you all the traffic you need. Jeremy M. Hoover is a proofreader, copywriter, and online content writer. Email him to see how he can help your business, or visit his website -- http://hoovermarketing.info -- for affiliate marketing information.

Website Traffic Generation…7 Great Ways to Increase Your Web Site Traffic

2005-06-20T00:10:00.000-07:00

By Terry Till We all know that the secret to success on the Internet is getting your website noticed and producing massive amounts of unique traffic. Even better still is producing this traffic on a consistent basis and for free. So how do we go about this task and what is the magic formula that will do this for us on a constant and ongoing basis. Here are my 7 tips that will certainly in crease your website traffic flow and also increase your websites revenue potential. 1) If you think logically about the internet there are millions of websites and pages available and so you have very little chance of getting significant amounts of traffic if you only have one web page online, so in order to take the first step to gaining more traffic you must produce more websites and more web pages on subjects that are of interest to the general internet viewing public. 2) Having decided to produce more websites and web pages it is of the utmost importance that you research your subjects and look for the niche areas of interest that give you a better than fighting chance of getting your websites listed in the top few listings of the major search engines, These listing are the key to where your free traffic will come from. 3) “Content is king” and so always aim to provide fresh content that is of interest to your visitors and of even more importance ensure that the contents you provide is regularly updated, certainly on a weekly basis or better still on a daily basis. 4) Make sure that your web pages are keyword rich regarding the subject matter that you are aiming to attract your potential visitors. Analyse your web pages and ensure that your pages have a keyword density of around the 5 to 10 percent mark. 5) Do not populate your web pages with too many advertising or affiliate banners links etc as this will destroy the image of your web page as a truly informative page and give the impression of just an advertising billboard, which will certainly turn off a lot of your visitors. 6) If you are trying to monetize your web pages with adsense or some similar program experiment with the placing of such adverts. Top centre just below the header and before your body text is usually the optimum position. 7) If you produce different websites and web pages track the activity each one produces and then try to produce further sites that mirror to some degree the most successful sites, certainly this will lead to your optimum success online. I hope that these tips will be of help to you and your online success. Terry Till Learn more about increasing your website traffic generation. http://www.trafficgt.com/7tips.html