“You Too Can Start Your Own Successful High-Income Online Business Doing What You Love Simply By Following This FREE Powerfully Effective Step-By-Step Guide”
WARNING: If You’re Looking For A GET RICH QUICK Scheme, Then This FREE SPECIAL REPORT Is NOT For You.
But If You’re Ready To Put In Some Time And Effort To Create Your Own Steady Stream Of Internet Income Doing Something You Love…
…Then What You Are About To Read Will Raise Your Eyebrows And Get You To Start Using The Web Like Your Own Private ATM Machine
From The Desk Of:
Richard Cagney
Marketing Department
All Access Unlimited
Feb 04, 2012
Step #4 – Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Website
Everything up until now has been preparation. Now, with your website up and running, the game really begins.
Your goal is to spend as little cash on advertising as possible. Sounds difficult, but it’s not.
Just use only the most effective low-cost and no-cost traffic sources available online. It’s actually very doable.
Obviously your aim is to bring as much qualified traffic to your website as possible—that means people who are interested in purchasing your products/services. And you can do this in a number of ways, but here are four basic strategies you can use:
SEO
LINK BUILDING
PPC
AFFILIATES
Now, keep in mind that we’ve already talked about the first and most important way, which is to put up a lot of very good satisfying and enjoyable content that people are searching for online. Remember our jet ski example above.
However, in order for people to get to know who you are in the first place, you need to bring some qualified traffic to your website—at least until word spreads about how great, terrific and magnificent you and your site are.
SEO, Link Building, PPC, and Affiliates are not the only methods. There are many other strategies you can use such as Viral Marketing (i.e., this is where you create a fascinating, entertaining, highly informative or otherwise shocking video, and people send it to their friends, and then those friends send it to their friends, and on and on and on).
But you need a starting point, and these four methods definitely provide that for you.
Search Engine Optimization
At AAU, we’ve helped businesses large and small, government, educational, and non-profit organizations benefit from being listed in the major search engines. We can help you too, if you so choose, by a process known as SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
SEO is the continual practice of optimizing a website by improving internal and external aspects of it in order to increase search engine traffic.
Now, there is plenty of free information online about SEO, so if you’ve never heard of it before, start doing some research.
Whether your site provides content, services, products, or information, search engines are the way to reach buyers. Search engine traffic can make or break an organization's success. Targeted visitors to a website can provide publicity, revenue, and exposure like no other. Investing in SEO can thus be extraordinarily cost-effective.
Conversely, if your site cannot be found by search engines you have some major problems—that’s a fact.
Should you do all the SEO yourself? Or leave it to the pros?
As a professional SEO myself with over seven years focused experience, my advice is go with the pros, but only if your budget allows.
An experienced SEO guru has the processes of optimization down to a science. An SEO pro already knows all the ins and outs, and he/she keeps up on new trends. It can get pretty complex if you’re a newbie.
SEO’s can interpret and understand analytical rankings data.
We can recognize certain trends and recommend strategies that should be implemented or avoided.
We can quickly identify topical communities and popular and relevant sites in them, which will help your link building.
We also have considerable experience with link acquisition and will recognize the requirements of certain sites for paid links, link requests, etc.
SEO’s can also identify and manage issues that can cause a lack of indexing, low rankings, or penalties from the search engines. This is a skill that can be very hard to develop without years of practice and experience.
However, this doesn’t mean you can’t do SEO yourself and be successful at optimizing your website. If you have the time and the baseline technical skills, then dive right in! Make it a learning process. Educate yourself and try different things. See what works and what doesn't.
If you decide to do it yourself, it’s important to remember that search engines measure the terms and phrases in a document to extract a great deal of information about the page.
The placement of the terms and phrases that your prospective clients are using to find websites like yours is thus critically important.
Content Placement
Organizing content on your web pages for the search engines can be tremendously important. The following basic rules apply to optimizing on-page text:
Print each keyword or key phrase prominently on the page so the spiders see it clearly.
Make the text on-topic and high quality. Great writing can provide benefits to rankings, as well as visitors.
Optimize the hierarchy of content, like journalists do. Start with a description of the content, then flow from broad discussion of the subject to narrow. The key to effective architecture is to follow the rules that govern human usability of a site
Use CSS rather than table layouts in order to keep the text flow of the document together and prevent the breaking up of text via coding.
Use a sitemap and have it linked to from every other page in the site, or at the least from important high-level category pages and the home page. Provide direct, HTML links to each page you want the search engines to index. If a page cannot be accessed from the home page, it probably won’t be indexed by the search engines.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is critical for the success of your SEO campaign. You need to go after the right terms and phrases for your industry, and you need to use a scientific method for finding out what they are.
Keyword research can be conducted in several ways—we already showed you WordTracker above—all of which combine to form a good all-around strategy:
Brainstorm. Try to think of what your customers/potential visitors would type in the search engines to find the information/services your site offers. Don’t forget to include alternate spellings, wordings, synonyms, etc.
Survey Customers - Surveying past, present, or potential customers will expand your keyword list. Include as many terms and phrases as possible.
Keyword Research Tools – WordTracker and Overture provide information about the number of times users perform specific searches. Using these tools gives you scientific proof about trends in keyword selection.
Performance Testing & Analytics - After you conduct your research and start optimizing your site, analytics programs, like ClickTracks and Indextools, measure web traffic, activity, and conversions. They can be used to further refine keyword selection.
Keep in mind that when building a new website, it’s better to target only one or possibly two unique phrases on a single page.
You can do more, but it’s usually best to keep separate terms on separate pages, as you can provide individualized information for each in this manner.
As your site grows and gains legitimacy with the engines, targeting multiple terms per page becomes more feasible.
Links
Getting inbound links is also very important
Search engines measure not only who is linking to a site or page, but what they are saying about that page/site.
They also have a good grasp on who is affiliated with whom and who is worthy of being trusted (links from .edu and .gov pages are generally more valuable for this reason).
The theory goes that if hundreds or thousands of other websites link to you, your site must be popular, and thus, have value. If those links come from very popular and important (and thus, trustworthy) websites, their power is multiplied to even greater degrees.
For example, NYTimes.com, Yale.edu, and so on all carry weight.
The best strategy to use for the purpose of getting inbound links is to publish valuable and quality content on your website. Doing this isn’t difficult, as long as you have chosen a niche that you can write about and that others are interested in.
All you have to do is write articles based on what your niche market wants to read about and then post that content on your site. Now, it’s always good to share that content with other webmasters, but in many cases you won’t even have to do that as they will link to your site automatically if they find it of value.
It’s also a good idea to create a small paragraph after an article you post on your own site that tells webmasters they have permission to reprint your article at
their website or in their newsletter.
Many websites and webmasters out there are searching for good content to post on their websites, so why not give them what they want?
Article Submissions
Traffic you bring to your website by posting good articles is priceless. This is a great way for attracting and keeping clients/customers.
It’s a strategy that goes a long way in establishing you as the expert, leader, and top dog/cat, in your niche market.
It’s easy to try. Just write a TEN TOP TIPS list for your list in article form. Then, simply visit an article directory and submit your article. You can also try blogs that relate to your niche.
Now, make sure the article is helpful and of good quality or else you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot. This is MOST important. And don’t forget to include an About the Author paragraph at the end of your piece, with a link to your website.
Make sure you give other websites “permission” to publish your great article with the stipulation that this About the Author paragraph must remain, as well as the inbound link to your site.
There are plenty of article directories you can submit to, including:
http://www.ezinearticles.com/members/index.php
http://www.goarticles.com/ulogin.html
http://www.ryze.com/postadd.php
http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml
http://www.contentdesk.com/
http://www.webpronews.com/submit.html
http://www.site-reference.com/submit.php
http://www.articledashboard.com
http://www.articlesfactory.com/submit.html
http://www.allthewebsites.org/articles/article_editor.php
http://www.ecomallbiz.com/marketingworld/informationform12/
http://www.promotionworld.com/pop/feedback/submitarticle.html
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/termsofuse/articlesubmission.htm
http://www.im4newbies.com/forum/posting.php?mode=newtopic&f=39
http://www.valuablecontent.com/admin/index.php?ToDo=createArticle
http://www.constant-content.com/?area=authsubmitash
http://www.advertisingknowhow.com/members/articlesubmit.php
http://www.thriftyfun.com/
http://www.article-emporium.com/submit-article.cfm
http://www.storebuilder.co.uk/submitcontent.html
http://www.workoninternet.com/Submit_Article.html
http://www.ezau.com/latest/articles/0127.shtml
http://www.amazines.com/articles.cfm?ezineid=051054055051
http://www.ebooksdeal.com/cgi-bin/articles/articles.cgi?action=add
http://www.content-articles.com/Submit.aspx
http://www.articlesubmissions.com/articles/submitarticle
http://www.marketingsource.com/articles/submit
http://www.netterweb.com/artcls/articlesubmit2.htm
You can and should also submit your articles to newsletter or ezine editors in your niche. This will go a long way in expanding your reach.
If your budget allows, there are also plenty of article submission services out there on the market that will submit and market your articles for you, including:
Some of these services run promotions, so keep an eye out for specials and discounts that could save you a few bucks.
With content that generates links becoming such a valuable commodity, creating solely for the purpose of gaining links has become a popular practice for talented SEOs. But in order to capitalize on this phenomenon, it's necessary to brainstorm. Below are some initial ideas that can help you build the content you need to generate great links.
Free Tools
Automated tools get linked to a lot. Especially those that query data sources, combine information, or conduct useful calculations. Mortgage calculators are popular and so are site-checking tools. What type of automated tool would help the people who visit your website?
Web 2.0 Specials
Mashups, maps, communities, sharing, tagging, RSS, and blogs get a fantastic number of links from the web community.
Collaborate
Try to collaborate with some gurus or high-profile “insiders” in your industry and your chances for developing "link-bait" will greatly increase. Working in tandem this way with others will create more content more quickly and of higher quality.
Expose Dirty Deeds
An effective way to generate leads and traffic is to expose the misdeeds of others via a journalistic-style investigation or exposé. You can talk about organizations, individuals, companies or websites. Try to keep it clean and professional and not personal, if you want to minimize the backlash.
Top 10 Tips
Numbered lists (of tips, tricks, strategies, links, resources, etc.) always receive lots of links. They are easy to follow, concise, informative, and always make for very link-worth material.
Humor
We all can use a bit more humor in our lives. Be careful not to offend. With that said, get topical laughs and the links will be yours.
Review Events
Any type of gathering—a speech, conference, rally, protest, seminar, etc.—can garner great links with a well-done review. Write like a journalist, and be sure to use as many full-names as possible so you can link out to all the folks you mention. They’ll see the links in their referral logs and read what you wrote.
Interview Well-Known Gurus
Interview all the “insider” industry gurus you can think of, even if it's a few short email questions. A revealing interview will land you plenty of links. Esteemed professionals are used to answering requests from smaller sources. Usually no matter how big they are they always know they can benefit from the attention.
Surveys or Data Collection
A very link-worthy resource is large amounts of information such as industry data culled from polling individuals or an online survey.
Film or Animation
A quality, entertaining, humorous or informative video or flash animation can get people interested in your web page, especially in niches where video clips or animations are rare.
High Profile Criticism
Well-researched and well-written critiques of popular products, companies, sites, or individuals in a niche will pull inbound links from people who agree and disagree with you.
Contests, Giveaways, Competitions
Giving prizes away, even if it’s just a free E-book or something non-physical, can get lots of folks talking and linking.
Expert Advice
If your article offers advice, get expert opinions and links will flow your way. Even the experts themselves may very well be inclined to link.
This is just a handful of the endless number of ways to get bloggers, writers, and website editors to link to your site.
PPC
In addition to attracting traffic from the search engines “naturally” you can also purchase ads on the search engines. This method is known as PPC or Pay Per Click.
It’s simple. You bid on keywords that describe your business, your products, or your target audience. Then, every time someone clicks on your ad, which is displayed when a visitor types in the keyword you have bid for into the search box at a search engine, you are charged your bid price.
Some benefits of using PPC are:
If you have a brand new site with little or no visibility and no link popularity, the pay engines are certainly a way to get started fast while you wait for your standard search engine marketing efforts to kick in and take effect.
With the pay engines, you have instant visibility in whichever search engines display those results. Your site will get listed in the 1st page under the 'Sponsored Links' column.
Pay-per-click tactics work well for special sales, holiday promotions, or to jump start slow engine traffic.
You choose your rankings, depending on how deep your pocket is.
If some of your keywords are not performing, you can choose others.
You only pay for clicks to your site, so you can target your traffic by the keywords you choose. You do not have to pay for just an impression of your site to audiences.
With regular optimization efforts, it's sometimes difficult to achieve top rankings if you're in a highly competitive field. With the pay engines, you pay for your rankings, and you’re there instantly.
Purchasing keywords is faster and easier than optimizing website pages.
With regular engines, when algorithms (or ranking criteria) change, you can find yourself booted out of your top spot. With the pay engines, as long as you pay money, you'll be on top.
You can target your audience based on the keywords you choose. Most websites have multiple target audiences, so pay-per-click keywords are a way to reach each of those target audiences.
Pay-per-click is often less expensive than traditional advertising media, and it can be much more cost-effective.
Remember, top search engine rankings alone won’t necessarily make or break you. People and companies are often shocked and disappointed when their top ranking does nothing to improve their leads, sales, and revenue.
The moral of the story? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Affiliates
If you decide to sell your own stuff, or if you’ve purchased the resale rights to someone else’s stuff, then one of the most powerful strategies you can utilize is your affiliates.
Depending on the popularity and perceived value of what you’re selling, your army of affiliates will send thousands even tens of thousands of visitors a day to your website, which could possibly generate thousands of dollars in sales for you per month, and even per week.
Imagine hiring thousands of sales people and paying them not out of your own pocket, but with some of the money from each sale they make you. Now what’s better than that? That’s all an affiliate program really is. There are some costs in involved with starting an affiliate program, but they’re worth it.
Some affiliate programs work better than others. For example, if you decide to be cheap and pay your affiliates only a small percentage from each sale, then you can pretty much count on no one signing up for your program. Paying decent
commission rates (20% - 40%) is imperative for the health and well-being of your affiliate program.
Another good practice is paying out the money you owe your affiliates on time every month. Start making late payments and you can be sure you won’t have affiliates for long.
It’s also a smart idea to provide tools, tips, and resources for your affiliates. Also, to try to partner with a few super-affiliates.
We’ll speak more about affiliates in a few moments, but for now it’s important to keep in mind that after your website is up and running, you should sooner or later start an affiliate campaign.
