You Need Money to Get Web Traffic. Huh?
It takes money to make money. That statement is pretty much a universal truth Here is another truth that applies to the internet. To make money from your website you must have a steady flow of website traffic. No visitors, no income. This has been the downfall of many internet businesses.
Now you might say it takes a steady flow of traffic and I need a fat bankroll to generate that TRAFFIC.
In technical language: Uh-uh.
Ever wonder how the big boys (and girls) drive traffic to their sites? Yes some of them are spending tons of money investing in advertising campaigns and different marketing schemes etc and it works for them. Nothing wrong with that, if you have the budget for it.
But many top marketers are taking different approaches; less expensive methods that are driving traffic to their sites and making them just as much money as the heavy spenders.
Money kind of tight?
Exchange Links
Once in a blue moon, you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with so they can create more public awareness about their sites. By exchanging links, you will soon see and experience the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming to your site from other sites.
In exchanging links, your site should have the same niche or similar content as the other site. Your target audience needs to see a certain continuity in information and/or services between your website and your link partner.
Another benefit of link exchange is it increases your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. Search engines love sites with inbound and outbound theme-related links. A higher ranking means more traffic to your website without the high costs.
Traffic exchange services are the viewing of another site or page within a system. You submit your website then visit other member sites to earn credits. This increases the number of visitors to all the sites within the system. The more you view (also known as surf) the more traffic you get to your site.
Write and Submit Articles
This is my favorite. There are many newsletters, online encyclopedias and article directories on the internet which provide free space for articles to be submitted. There are also freelance writers willing to write for you for a small fee. Many are very good but save money and write the articles yourself.
Write articles that are related to the theme of your website. Write something that you have expertise on or a passion for so that when people read your article, they feel your knowledge and excitement about the subject and will be eager to visit your site..
Include a resource box at the end of your article that links to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. An interesting article packed with quality information can keep people coming back to your site for months, sometimes years after you written it
Make a Newsletter.
This may sound like a lot of work but it is not. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well.
As your newsletter gets pass around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list that can regularly visit your site.
Join Online Communities and Forums
This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche as your site.
As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people.
I will be the first to admit that having the duckies to invest will only help your business but don not let the fact that you maybe short on funds stop you. Use these very high powered resources on a consistent basis and you will not be low on traffic for long.
Daryl Campbell
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-promotion-articles/you-need-money-to-get-web-traffic-huh-121345.html
The Google Patent Reveals The Secret To Great Site Ranking
How many years did you register your domain name for? If it was
only one then Google could hold that against you.
Why?
Because the majority of Spam websites only register a domain
name for one year. A domain name registered for a longer period
implies that the owner is more likely to be legitimate and
serious about their web site.
This is just one of the unusual factors possibly considered by
Google when indexing and ranking a website. Factors you could
never even have guessed at in some cases.
How do I know this?
Google have recently made public the contents of their filing of
United States Patent
Application 20050071741 on March 31 2005.
In which many of the search giants secret ranking criteria is
revealed and it makes very interesting reading. You must read
this if you are serious about ranking well in Google. The
days of Spaming Google are drawing to a close. With this patent
they reveal just how hard they’re coming down on Spam sites. You
Do Not want to get caught out.
Here are the facts.
• Links.
It’s common knowledge that Google relies heavily on inbound
relevant links to rank a site. Now they explain exactly how it
works.
As well as the number, quality and anchor text factors of a
link. Google seems to also consider historical factors.
Apparently the Google ’sandbox’ or aging delay begins count down
the minute links to a new site are discovered.
Google records the discovery of a link, link changes over time,
the speed at which a site gains links and the link life span.
With this in mind fast link acquisition may be a strong
indicator of potential search engine Spam.
Gone are the days of pages and pages full of links. You must
grow your links slowly to stay below the radar and be careful
who you exchange links with. That means no more buying hundreds
of links at once or other underhand tactics.
PR is now very valuable.
Your link anchor text should vary but remain consistent with
your site content. No more using your main keywords on every
link exchange you gain. That’s ‘anchor Spam’. Instead vary them
around your top five to ten keywords.
Link exchanges are still very important but you must work and
utilize them ethically. If you don’t and you get caught the
recovery from a ban can be months in coming and your host and IP
may also be recorded.
Softly softly seems to be the message. The fact is fewer but
better quality links will benefit you more anyway and they will
be much more likely to be long-term which is also good.
• Site click through rates (CTR)
CTR may now be monitored through cache, temporary files,
bookmarks and favorites via the Google toolbar or desktop tools.
Many have suspected for some time that sites are reward for good
CTR with a raise in ranking. Similar to how Adwords works.
CTR is monitored to see if fresh or stale content is preferred
for a search result.
CTR is also analyzed for increases or decreases relating to
trends or seasons.
• Web page rankings are recorded and monitored for changes.
• The traffic to a web page is recorded and monitored over time.
• Sites can be ranked seasonally. A ski site may rank higher in
the winter than in the summer.
Google can monitor and rank pages by recording CTR changes by
season.
• Bookmarks and favorites could be monitored for changes,
deletions or additions.
• User behaviour in general could be monitored.
As Google is capable of tracking traffic to your site you should
closely monitor the small amount of copy returned in search
results. Ideally you want to integrate a call to action in there
to increase your listings CTR.
Clicks away from your site back to the search results are also
monitored. Make your site as sticky as possible to keep visitors
there longer. As mentioned above it may also help if you could
get your visitors to bookmark you.
• The frequency and amount of page updates is monitored and
recorded as is the number of pages.
Mass updates of hundreds of files will see you pop up on the
radar.On the other hand few or small updates to your site could
see your rankings slide. Unless your CTR is good. A stale page
that receives good traffic may hold it’s own and not require an
update. So don’t update for the sake of it.
A further indicator that Google is really cracking down on Spam
is made clear in the following extract from the Patent. Mention
is made of changing the focus of multiple pages at once.
Here’s the quote -
“A significant change over time in the set of topics associated
with a document may indicate that the document has changed
owners and previous document indicators, such as score, anchor
text, etc., are no longer reliable.
Similarly, a spike in the number of topics could indicate Spam.
For example, if a particular document is associated with a set
of one or more topics over what may be considered a ’stable’
period of time and then a (sudden) spike occurs in the number of
topics associated with the document, this may be an indication
that the document has been taken over as a ‘doorway’ document.
Another indication may include the sudden disappearance of the
original topics associated with the document. If one or more of
these situations are detected, then [Google] may reduce the
relative score of such documents and/or the links, anchor text,
or other data associated the document.”
There’s still more to look out for:-
• Changes in on page keyword density is monitored and recorded
as are changes to anchor text.
• The domain name owner address is considered, most likely to
help in a local search result.
• The technical and admin contact details are checked for
consistency. These are often falsified for Spam domains.
• Your hosts IP address. If you are on a shared server it’s
possible somebody else on that server is using dirty tactics or
Spaming. If so your site will suffer since you share the same IP.
The impression I get here is that Google have learned from the
Spam ‘attack’ they suffered in early 2004 and they are
determined to eradicate it from their listing results.
So what do you do?
You can’t go far wrong with your SEO if you try to grow your
site as organically as possible.Carry on with link exchanges but
consider each site carefully and slow down in your gathering of
them. Vary your anchor text. Add small amounts of good quality
content to your site regularly.
Check your search engine listings and edit your site to include
a call to action in them if possible. Make your site more
’sticky’ to encourage visitors to stay a while. Encourage
visitors to Bookmark your site. Oh and register new domain names
for at least two years.
Overall keep it ethical and you can’t go far wrong. Stick to the
guidelines above and you are much more likely to outlast and out
rank your competition
Darren Yates
http://www.articlesbase.com/sem-articles/the-google-patent-reveals-the-secret-to-great-site-ranking-2424.html
Free Traffic Generator Information
Increasing the free website traffic to your website helps you to make more money through ads. And this is reason why webmasters are searching for the best tips and trick which help them to build the traffic to their websites. Is there any such web traffic generator program which helps to increase the web traffic and that too available for free? In the following paragraphs, we will see about free traffic generator programs and how they work.
Traffic generators are software programs which are designed to increase the traffic of the website. There are several companies which offer such traffic generator programs which bring about guaranteed targeted website traffic. Most companies who offer traffic generator programs charge some amount of money for their program. But there are several companies which offer these programs. One of the most popular free traffic generator software programs is the Traffic Swarm. Till now, the software has been generating lots of positive feedbacks from its users.
These programs come in various types. Of the most popular type is a HTTP traffic generator for testing web based applications. These types of applications allow its users to request count and interval between two requests. The generated requests are transferred to the specified website URL. One of the major advantages of these types of applications is that they are simple and fast programs which can simulate client activity.
Another popular type of traffic generator available in the market is a packet Traffic Generator program which can be used to distinguish the performance of packet switched network communication protocols. The packet traffic generator program is designed so as to generate and receive one way packet traffic streams transmitted from the user level process between traffic source and traffic sink nodes in a network. The program allows the user to test various versions, or versions of the similar protocol, and determine the differences in performance.
Whichever type of program you are using to increase the traffic to your website, the main point one need to know is that the traffic a website generates is a cumulative effect of various crucial factors such as keyword optimization, SEO techniques, and link exchange. So together with free traffic generator software make sure that your web pages have enough contents optimized with the targeted keywords.
To conclude, the traffic a website generates is not something that happens by chance. But it is a cumulative effect of some crucial factors, whose selective and intelligent implementation could catapult any website on to the road to internet riches.
sheena
How to Make Your Ex-boyfriend Want You Back
How to Make Your Ex-Boyfriend Want You Back
When your boyfriend dumps you and all of a sudden your life turns upside down, a lot of the time all you want is just to get him back…but you can’t seem too desperate or else he won’t want to get back together! What do you do?
You get him back! You just do it in ways that don’t make you ‘out there’ and vulnerable. There are a lot of ways that simply doing things to make yourself feel better will improve your chances of getting him back. These tactics will not only help you get over your breakup pain, but they’ll also make your ex miss you like crazy.
It all starts by cutting off contact as soon as you two break up. This forces him to be on his own, and it may end up being a bit more difficult than he had thought before. This may not seem like it helps to ease your pain any, but it actually gives you some room to get yourself organized…something it’s hard to do when you’re throwing yourself in his face trying to get him back.
Without you there, even you there ‘pestering’ him or trying to get him back, he’s forced to deal with the consequences of what he did in breaking up with you. Your relationship was probably not such a soul-draining hellpit that he didn’t still love you and value you…you just got so used to each other that he lost sight of the great things in the relationship and gave in to his problems with the small, petty things. It’s an easy mistake that’s responsible for a LOT of ‘hasty’ breakups. Without you, he’ll start to feel lonelier than he thought he would, and he’ll start to realize just what a light you brought to his life.
This is why all the constructive things you do to better yourself and build back up your confidence after his breakup shattered it to pieces will make you shine out to him. He’ll start to see all your best points and miss you terribly. The first thing you should do is to go through your self-inventory and start checking off things you don’t like about yourself, then take the necessary steps to take care of them. A little extra weight, skin problems, a bad need of a new hairstyle or new clothes…whatever has you sighing in the mirror, get it fixed or at least worked on.
Addressing these things will make you look positively great. You’ll look in the mirror and see something to be proud of…I know it sounds shallow but for a woman looks are actually fairly important in how you see yourself and how others treat you. Looking great has all kinds of positive effects, from boosting your self-esteem to amping your confidence when you notice the guys around you taking interest in you. If your ex sees you and you’ve clearly been working on yourself, he’s definitely going to notice…and he’ll kick himself for letting that bombshell get away from him (even if you don’t consider yourself exactly ‘bombshell’ caliber, the guy loves you…which makes you hotter than Angelina Jolie in his eyes).
If you pile onto your physical appearance with the appearance of happily moving on with your life and enjoying yourself…it’ll make him feel even worse about letting you go. Even if you’re hurting inside, all he’ll see is you happily hanging out at the club with your friends getting the most out of your life while he feels empty and dejected. Are you beginning to see what this’ll result in?
Even if he doesn’t come crawling back to you, at the end of your one-month total hiatus from him he’ll be a lot more receptive to anything you say or do with the intent of getting him back. In addition, you should be feeling pretty good from looking good and getting attention from others around you…and of course the partying doesn’t hurt either. All in all, this is a great method for just generally getting through breakup pain, and as you can see it can even have a positive influence on whether or not you can get him back.
For more information, feel free to check out the links below for some free tips and advice on surviving a breakup and getting your ex back. Good luck!
Just break up? Get instant relief from break up pain and a proven plan to get your ex back.
Would you like to look into<a href=” http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-attract-your-ex-lover-back ” target=”_blank”>the magic of making up reviews</a>?
Watch a video that shows you exactly what you must NEVER do, what you should do to get your ex back and why at http://hubpages.com/hub/howshouldiwoomyexback
You will also learn how to reverse the situation if you have already done those things that should NEVER be done.
kanetohman
http://www.articlesbase.com/dating-articles/how-to-make-your-exboyfriend-want-you-back-741420.html
What are the Key Components of Internet Marketing Services?
The question is what are the key components of Internet marketing services and how can they drive ROI?
To understand it better, we need to first identify what a successful online strategy must be like. for more detail go to:www.internet-marketing-word.com.A fundamentally strong online strategy should be able to achieve the following:
It should be able to drive targeted traffic to your website and persuade visitors to take a decision. This basically means that if a person is visiting your site for a particular product then the availability of the product on your website and the customer experience should end with a sale. You can use web metrics to analyze as well as measure the behavior of the user.
It is not an easy task to drive targeted traffic to your website especially in the age of rising competition. You need to use certain elements of Internet marketing services to drive targeted traffic. Some of the elements include search engine marketing (SEM) campaign. An SEM strategy further includes pay-per-click or PPC advertising and search engine optimization or SEO strategy.
Application of the SEO strategy is quite common but the distinguishing factor lies in the type of keyword you choose. It’s important to identify the right keywords that can be used as a part of your PPC and SEO campaigns.
Your internet marketing strategy should also include the use of tools like Word trackers, which can generate a random list of all possible keywords and phrases perfect for your business. Using a tool like this, you will be able to determine the frequency of search for each of the phrases. Based on the result, you can evaluate the options and identify the strength of competition. You can select the phrases and keywords and test them by using them for search engine optimization and PPC campaigns.
One of the key objectives of using Internet marketing services is to be able to effectively persuade a website visitor to take a desired action. You can buy a list of newsletter subscribers or offer a free download of a software demo package on your website. These are just minor elements that will draw a visitor to your website and help your to achieve the desired result.
Some of the other attributes that play an important role in making the marketing strategies effective include the total design and website architecture. for more detail go to:www.website-convertion-secrets.com.Website architecture will include elements like navigation, design, content & copy and usability. All these elements need to be in sync to help drive traffic to your website.
Let us take a closer look at some of the Internet marketing services tools that are an integral part of any website or online business promotion:
PPC or Pay per click: PPC campaigns have become extremely popular platform of driving traffic. In PPC, you won’t have to pay for advertising space or the advertisement itself but you will be charged every time a visitor clicks on your advertisement. It is also known as the cost per click (CPC) mode of advertising.
Banner Advertising: A couple of years back, this was one of the top Internet marketing services but since the advent of SEM, it is not as critical but still is considered as a key factor. In banner advertising, you have to pay for the banner space. You can also display your banner in another website through banner exchange.
abhineetavasthi
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/what-are-the-key-components-of-internet-marketing-services-746080.html
Are Traffic Exchanges Really Worth It?
You have decided to use one of the many traffic exchanges to get traffic to your site and still no sales. A traffic exchange program simply is not the most effective way to get quality traffic to your website. It’s not my intention to knock the traffic exchange business but to point out to new web entrants that there should be other areas of concentration.
The basis of a traffic exchange program is simple: your site is shown to someone else (another network member) each time you view another site or two other sites. Some exchanges work on a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio that is for every three sites you view they will show your site once on their network. All of this is free because you are participating in viewing other member’s sites as part of the program. The criteria for getting page views of your own site is that you must stay on each site you view for a specified time say 15-20 seconds in order to get your viewing credit. Each time you do this, you receive a credit. Remember though that you are viewing sites in a network and that those credits you are accumulating are being viewed by members just like you who are in just as much of a rush to get to the next site as you are.
What’s the problem with this you may ask? Simply that the page views that you are working so hard to get are not being viewed by potential buyers of your products but by other members whose sole interest, like you, is to accumulate as many credits as possible. Not an especially great use of your time unless you consider getting high traffic to your site is your only concern. It could very well be that your only consideration is to have a high ranking in the traffic ranking sites. Then utilizing a click exchange will get you there with a lot of hard effort on your part.
A traffic exchange can be helpful if your target market is other website owners in your niche as they will have to view your site for at least 20 seconds. If your product is worthwhile and you have a compelling message you may get sales from those views.
The point I am attempting to make is that traffic exchanges are not the best value for getting quality views and potential buyers to your site. Spend your time instead on developing your keywords and META tags for the search engines, as they will be your best bet in getting the appropriate traffic to your site. There are some great books and sites available to help you get better rankings on the search engine sites.
Rick Carbone
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/are-traffic-exchanges-really-worth-it-701825.html
How Google Measures Link Popularity
Link popularity is by far the most important factor for determining your search engine ranking. You need to know what link popularity is, why it is so important, and how Google measures your link popularity (over 50% of all search engine traffic comes from Google, and if you can rise to the top of Google, you will rise to the top of all the other search engines as well). But, before we talk about how Google measures linking, we need to cover some basics.
Link popularity is defined as the number of sites that are linking to your site. Some websites have thousands or even millions of sites linking to them, while others might have only a few. The search engines use the number of inbound links your site has as a measure of how important your site is, which translates into your search engine ranking.
The actual number of links to your site is not the only variable used to calculate your link popularity. The search engines also examine the relevance of the links to the subject matter of your site. For example, if a website that sells vitamins has 4,000 inbound links, but the source of most of the links are websites that have nothing to do with vitamins, then the algorithm that search engines use to determine link popularity will take that into account, and the link popularity score will not be very good.
It is possible for a website with a relatively small number of quality inbound links to be ranked higher than a site with a bunch of irrelevant or insignificant links. If I have a website that offers quotes for auto insurance, and I have 800 quality inbound links, then I might receive a much higher search engine ranking than another mortgage site that has 3,000 links that stem from link farms or Free For All (FFA) pages.
If you try to acquire inbound by using link farms or FFA pages, not only will it hurt your search engine ranking, but you might get permanently removed from the search engine listings. Links farms are sites where you can instantly exchange links with all the sites listed in that directory. FFA pages are pointless link directories. The search engines usually discount any links that come from either of these sources.
Now that we understand what link popularity is and how it works, we need to look specifically at how Google measures it. Google uses a number of variables in their algorithm to calculate your overall link score. The higher your score, the higher you will be ranked in the search listings.
One factor that Google uses in their algorithm, obviously, is the total number of sites linking to you. The more links you have, the higher your score will be. However, their algorithm is a little more complicated than that, and it is possible for a website with fewer links to be ranked higher than a website that has more links.
The reason for this is because Google also measures the quality of your links. If your website is about vitamins, and the site linking to you is a video game site, then that is not considered a quality link. The link still helps your score, but the link would help your score much more if it were from a website whose subject matter is the same as yours.
Also, Google gives a higher score to a link if it comes from a page that has actual content that relates to your keywords. For example, if your site is about jewelry, and another jewelry website has posted a link to your site on their links page, that link is not as valuable as a link to your site coming from a blog or a message board where a lot of information about jewelry is being written or discussed.
Also, Google gives an even higher score to a link if it contains anchor text that matches one of the keywords that describes your site. For example, if I have a site that sells lawnmowers, and a blog about lawnmowers has posted a link to my site, it helps my score even more if the link text (also known as anchor text) is LAWNMOWERS. To learn more about anchor text, go to a search engine and look up ANCHOR TEXT and you will be able to learn about it.
Another factor used by Google to score your link popularity is the diversity of keywords contained on sites linking to you. For example, if you have a site that sells handbags, and all the links to your site are from other sites that contain nothing but the keyword HANDBAGS, Google considers that to be abnormal. To get a higher score, you need to have links coming from sites that contain a variety of keywords related to handbags, such as BUY HANDBAGS, LEATHER HANDBAGS, etc.
It is difficult to increase your link popularity, but now that you understand how your score is calculated, you can devise a plan to improve your score. You might want to consider posting to forums and blogs that contain information that is related to your site, and when you post, include a link to your site. As long as you are persistent and tailor your strategy towards Google, you will do fine.
Jim Pretin
http://www.articlesbase.com/link-popularity-articles/how-google-measures-link-popularity-110038.html
A Dirty Secret Helps You To Get All The Free Traffic Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
Here’s a way to load your website with quality website traffic for years to come. And the traffic that you will receive by applying this tactic is absolutely free.
Using this tactic…
1. You will increase your search engine ranking on any keyword you desire.
2. Get quality presold traffic from different websites.
3. You will be known as an expert in your niche.
4. This type of quality traffic is viral. It will pour into your site for years.
Here’s how to do it…
Step 1 – Keyword Research.
The very first step is to research few high demand low competition keywords in your niche. You can research high demand keywords by visiting inventory.overture.com
To check out competition of your keywords visit www.google.com and search for your niche keyword. The number of websites that gets displayed for the keyword is your competition.
Step 2 – Write Niche Articles.
Once you have a list of few keywords you want to target, pick up the first keyword and get started.
Write articles using this keyword. Make sure you include the keyword in the title of the article and spread it in the body of the article. Donot repeat the keywords several times as you can get banned by search engines for keyword spamming. Just spread it lightly all over your article.
Step 3 – Keyword Placement.
Include your keyword in the anchor link in the article resource box that takes your visitor to your website when clicked.
Step 4 – Distribute Your Article.
Submit this article to all the article directories out there. This is a time consuming work. You can use an article distribution service like ‘Article Markter’ to help you distribute your articles automatically.
Step 5 – Website and Blog.
Include your article on your website and blog.
Apply the 5 steps I have detailed above for your first keyword and write few articles. You will notice traffic from article directories every day. Plus you will notice that your ranking for that particular keyword has increased on top search engines and you are receiving traffic from them.
Once you land up on the first page of the search engines for that keyword, start applying the above 5 steps for the next keyword in your list.
Keep doing this for few months and write few hundred articles using this tactic. If you do this on a consistent basis your website traffic will boost up in a few short months all for FREE.
How do I know whether this tactic works? I have personally used it to increase popularity of my site and get thousands of visitors to my site without paying a dime.
I encourage you to get started today and boost up your traffic counter through the ROOF! Wish you all the very best.
Murtuza Abbas
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-promotion-articles/a-dirty-secret-helps-you-to-get-all-the-free-traffic-beyond-your-wildest-dreams-112573.html
5 Free Ways to Jumpstart your Web Traffic
So you have your own website. Congratulations. Now, what exactly are you doing to get people to visit your site? Just like a brick and mortar storefront or an office suite in the commerce park, your website isn’t just going to become a popular hangout spot for clients and prospective customers. You’ve got to tell everyone about it!
When you open a restaurant, you put up signs, you take out a newspaper ad, you buy space in the yellow pages, you turn on the lights, you open the door, you tell everyone you meet about your new business. Your website deserves the same treatment. If you fail to promote your site, you’ve basically just spent a thousand dollars or more on a standard lot in cyberspace with no roads in and no roads out. You need to get the word out on your new company website, and here’s the best part… it doesn’t have to cost anything at all, if you’re willing to take the time and make the effort to do it yourself.
So…how does a small business owner jumpstart his or her website? You may consider hiring a professional to do it for you. Your web design and development firm built your site for visitors, but probably did not include promotion along with it. A good ad agency will raise the topic when quoting on your site. An experienced marketer knows it’s always best to group your promotions and cross-sell at every opportunity and should have suggested handling your web traffic. But in case they missed the boat, you can still contact a full-service ad agency to help. Of course, that’s not the FREE methods mentioned in the title of this piece, so for those who’d like to take a shot at handling it themselves, this article tells you 5 FREE steps to jumpstarting your web traffic:
1. Connect the Cables
2. Start the Engine
3. Get it Running
4. Give it Some Gas
5. Put it in Drive
Everyone who’s ever owned a car long enough to pay off the loan knows that an indispensable part of the trunk contents is a set of jumper cables (the other is a gallon of water). You never know when you’ll be stuck somewhere with a car that just won’t get going. Same with your website. It’s there, but it’s going nowhere unless you first get it connected to something that’s already running or capable of running. Whether you already have established business or not, you’ve got to connect your website to every promotional piece you create. This means adding your web address to:
- company stationery (business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, quote sheets, receipts)
- business signage (windows, counter displays, and company vehicles)
- ads (yellow pages, newspapers, and local magazines)
- everything else (boxes, bags, cartons, promotional pieces and more)
Everything that gets your name and phone number, gets your URL (web address). This shouldn’t cost you anything if you wait until it’s time to reprint. But, if you want to get started today, you’ll need to redesign and reprint new promotional pieces to add your site. Since jumpstarting requires the cables be connected, it’s a great way to get your site visited sooner rather than later.
It’s important not to lose track of one key point, there are 2 sets of clamps on a set of jumper cables. You must make sure your website is sending the right message back to visitors. It must look and feel like your existing promotional pieces. Your brand identity is dependent upon it. And your website must clearly identify who you are, where you are and what you do. Your contact information is as critical online as it is on your business cards. Make sure the electrical current is flowing freely between both vehicles if you’re ever going to get rolling!
Okay. So your cables are connected, and now it’s time to start the other engine. The most important engine on the internet is the search engine. You want to become very friendly with Mr. Search Engine – because he knows lots and lots of people. You want his friends to be your friends. Search engines, and their brothers, Directories are the traffic cops of the internet. They basically tell people where to find the files and pages they’re looking for out of billions of documents on the world wide web. So…you can’t have them over for dinner, but…you can get them to know about you by sending them an invitation to visit your site.
Search engines use robots and spiders to crawl all over the web and take inventory of the files and their content, it’s a computerized process. You can wait weeks to be crawled, or you can help the process along by submitting your URL to the search engines directly. Well over 80% of internet users take their first step via a search engine like Google, AltaVista, or HotBot.
Directories like Yahoo, employ humans to compile lists of websites and web pages from the millions available online at any given time. You can also help the directories find you by submitting your site to the proper subdirectory inside these engines. Directories will “consider” your site on a free submission. If you want a guarantee, you’ll have to pay for it.
So, as soon as your website is complete and live, SUBMIT. List your site on as many FREE (there it is again) engines as you can find. Check out www.directoryguide.com for a list. You should resubmit your site every few months especially if you have had content changes, page additions or other major changes to your website. Make sure you submit to the “local” yellow pages and white pages online too. Most offer free listings for businesses.
If you haven’t already done so, confirm that your web developer added page titles and keywords to your website. If you aren’t using metadata like this, you need to. Search engines utilize the keywords and compare them to your content. They return your title and page descriptions in search results. Don’t expect the best ranking without metadata, so call on a pro to get your pages optimized. Consider your keywords carefully. They will be ones that are basic to your business or industry. Put the most important words and phrases first in the list.
Search engines like the popular sites. So, another way to make your site attractive to the search engines is to have lots of friends. The way to gain popularity is to have lots of good websites linking to your website. When a search engine returns results, they rank the pages based on relevancy and popularity. Your goal is to always be in the top five or ten listings returned on a search. Popularity pays off in ranking your site higher than other less noticeable sites (thousands of them!).
Getting popular doesn’t have to mean spending money. Sure you could spend thousands and thousands on ads to get onto the first page of search results (basically buying your friends), but why? If you can get your site linked up, you’ll get the engines fired up about you. You’ll find more info in steps 4 and 5 below.
Step 3 – Get it Running. Once the engine starts up, you need to let it run for a while to get the power flowing to your site. While it’s idling out in cyberspace, run off with promote your site via email. There are two email tactics you need to think about. The first is your email signature, the second is email marketing.
Your signature is unique, and your unique web address is as important as your name and phone number in the closing of every email you send out (business and personal). You and your employees must include your company’s digital signature. It should include a clickable link to your URL. This form of viral marketing is both FREE, and easy. Your email software will have a place to format your digital signature. Find it and use it.
Email marketing is one of the most effective tools to market your website and to showcase products and services. Permission-based email can be extremely targeted by including only those people who’ve expressed an interest in your business, product or industry. By building and maintaining your own house list, you ensure you’re compliance with anti-spam laws. There are also reputable list brokers who can help you choose a list of email addresses to prospect to with an offer, coupon, or other introductory special. Of course, list rental isn’t free, but you can certainly start building a list of your own with friends, family and current customers. You can ask for email addresses and permission to send on every inquiry your company receives both online and off. Build your list, keep it clean and offer an easy way for people to unsubscribe or opt out. Most important, send relevant and targeted content, a clear call to action, and pay close attention to your subject line. You want your mail to be opened, read, and acted upon. Armed with this info, you can easily create simple text emails for FREE!
Done correctly, email marketing will become an extremely powerful tool for sales and customer service. When you’re ready to make your email campaigns even more diverse, in-depth and creative, call on a professional marketer. But whether you keep it simple by doing it yourself, or hire someone for the task, don’t let this one get by you.
Pushing down the pedal helps boost the power. Step 4 of our FREE Steps to Jumpstarting your Web Traffic involves content. Quality content makes the difference between visited and forgotten. Hopefully, when you created your website, you included the kind of useful information web surfers are looking for. Your content is what makes your website important, it’s what keeps people coming back, and it’s what helps you rank in the search engines. Keep your content relevant, current, and easy to navigate. Some examples of content that you should include on your site, and keep updated, include:
- instructions for assembling and using your products
- technical specifications
- maintenance schedules
- warranty and upgrade information
- frequently asked questions (FAQs)
- articles/information bits on your industry, products, or services
You’re already an expert in your field, so show it off online! Write hints and tips, articles (like this one!) and more. Post this information on your website, but also, submit it to article and press release websites. These types of directories house hundreds of articles on all different topics. If you can’t write, then visit an article site and download some relevant content to use on your website. Here’s the bonus: if you write and submit, your bio and website link go with your article. Anyone who wishes to use your content must keep your bio and links intact. BAM! You just added links throughout the world wide web, back to YOUR site! Watch those FREE rankings go up in the search results! Giving your website some gas by filling it up with quality content is step number four in our 5 FREE Steps to Jumpstarting Your Website.
When steps 1-4 are complete, you’re ready to turn the key and shift into drive. You’re marketing your website on all your promotional material (for free), your site is ranking with the search engines (for free), you’re sending regular email messages to customers and growing your list (also for free), and you’re keeping your content relevant to both customers and potential customers (again…for free!). So now it’s time to take off! Once your site is doing things to help grow your business, it’s time to turnover it over with step 5 — new ideas. If you’ve started your website for Ecommerce, it’s time to enhance customer service. If you’ve begun as info only, it’s time to sell or take orders online. If your restaurant started a site just to add its menu, then it’s time to take customers in the kitchen, show them what their meal takes, what it’s made of, what you’re made of. Whatever you do, don’t just jumpstart your traffic, then sit back and watch everyone drive past you.
The final step to jumpstarting traffic is really not the end of the road. The internet is different daily. Search engines change their algorithms, new technology is available almost by the minute, consumer tastes and preferences are in a constant state of flux. In this environment, you need to keep your website and marketing tools up to date if you want to stay competitive. Subscribe to free E-zines, newsletters and other information sources that will keep you current on what’s new and what’s hot. Keep your marketing efforts tuned up and it will always be rush hour on your website.
Linda Lullie
http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/5-free-ways-to-jumpstart-your-web-traffic-112658.html
Tips for Promotion your Website
Do you have your own home based business? Do you have a website for it? If so, then you need to promote the website for your home business to bring in even more business. There are a few tips for promoting your home business website that will bring you more customers.
One way to promote your home business website is to list it with the search engines. A search engine is an internet directory that is designed to make your website easier to locate and easier for a potential customer to access it. Each search engine listing will include a link to your website. If your website does not get listed within the top twenty of the major search engines, then chances are that your website will rarely be seen. Since a recent survey showed that between 84% to 92% of internet users the world over use search engines to find what they need, you will definitely want to take advantage of this tool. The top three search engines to be listed in are MSN, Yahoo, and Google.
Another way to promote your business website is via RSS feeds and blogs. A blog is just a short way of say Web Log. Blogging is just basically uploading text onto the same place on the internet daily, weekly, monthly, or at least on a regular basis. The best people to blog are people who write because it is their passion. You can hire someone to do this for you or you can do it yourself. There are many websites on the internet that are dedicated to web logs.
Have you ever went to a website and see a banner at the top of the page advertising another website? This is another form of promoting your business website. You can create a banner with a simple paint program, like Photoshop. If you want to animate it, there are animation programs out there, too. There are many banner exchange websites online that will allow you to place your banner on their website. banner exchanges are pretty easy to participate in; however, these types of exchanges most likely will not let you pick and choose who you want to trade with.
Another way to advertise your home business website is by opt-in mailing. Bulk emailing is the practice of sending mass quantities of email to lists of “unqualified” email address. This is considered spam and is considered to be in bad taste. If you send unsolicited email to people that do not want commercial email, you will run the risk of ruining the reputation of your business and getting into trouble with your ISP. It is best for you to use targeted direct email. This means that you will be sending your email to people that have approved or opted in to receive this type of email. There are many websites on the internet that provide this type of service for you and are definitely worth checking out.
Diep Tran
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/tips-for-promotion-your-website-87679.html