Henry's 411

There are, as we know, dozens of different ways of getting traffic to your site(s); some of these methods yield high quality, targeted traffic whilst others deliver junk traffic and ensure that the only thing that you’ve achieved is throwing money down the pan.

With this in mind I’m going to take a look at a couple of the different methods of getting free traffic to your site(s) and then I’m going to have a look at how to get paid for getting free traffic to your site(s) – yes, you can get money for doing it.

Lets start by having a look at three traditional methods of getting some traffic:

1. Articles
2. Solo ads
3. Traffic exchange

These three methods are the preferred methods of most webmasters as they encompass a wide target audience.

Articles.

All of us at some point or another write tutorials of one form or another (this for example) or perhaps we write a review of something. Even better, when you’re at university you write lots of reports as part of your course.

These documents can all be used to bring you some much loved traffic.

This is achieved by submitting your article to a site such as ZapContent.com or GoArticles.Com.

How does this work?

Quite simply and without any effort from you.

When you enter your article into these services you also have opportunity to enter a biography section. This section tells the reader a little about you and also allows you to list a url (or two).

The article sites then provide the articles in their database to other sites – your biography always go with them.

This means that suddenly you have a LOT more sites linking to your site and it also means that you have a lot more people (who perhaps wouldn’t normally find your site) visiting via your biography. You should however ensure that the subject of the article has some relevancy to your site (if you write about dogs and your site is about tanks most people who read the article are not going to be interested in your site).

Solo Ads.

A solo ad is an advertisement that is sent out via email by a list owner. The price of this service can vary radically and so can the quality.

Anyone offering a solo ad service will never EVER promise a response rate (unless it’s a paid to read service).

If you do decide to go down this route there are a few things you should remember/ask:

a. What is the demographic of the list (who are they? Male, 23 – 34, IT professionals, etc)
b. How big is the list
c. How old is the list
d. How responsive is the list (best and worst cases)
e. Will the owner do a 2 for 1 deal (pay for one mailing, deliver two)
f. Is there a way of the list owner splitting the delivery (thus allowing you to test your sales copy)

If you do go this route you should remember that you are effectively only picking up the customers/subscribers once – so make sure your copy is good.

You should also remember one golden rule – do not make the sale, get a subscriber. What a stupid thing to say – I’m trying to sell something not make friends! Yep, that’s right – but – it is widely acknowledged that it takes a user 7 views of the same advert in order to act upon it (this is why some marketers will send you the same thing rehashed repeatedly for a couple of weeks). So with this in mind if you send a mailing and don’t get subscribers you’re effectively blowing your money.

You should also be aware that the size of list has no direct correlation as to its quality or responsiveness.

Traffic Exchanges.

As the title suggests you’re swapping traffic, this usually means that you surf a selection of other members sites and in return you get your site added to the rotation so that some of them see your site.

The quality of traffic is sometimes quite poor from this source as a number of people are not really interested in seeing your site – they just want you to see theirs.

So where does the making money from traffic exchanges come in?

Well, simply put, there are a new type of traffic exchange services starting who offer both a free and paid membership, the free service allows you to surf and acquire credits which you can use to buy visitors and then there’s the paid member option (normally referred to as ‘pro membership’). With both the free and pro membership levels you still need to surf the site daily but there are a couple of things different:

a. Both membership types display a slide show of other sites for you to surf
b. Both membership types require no intervention (no clicking – just watching)
c. The pro membership pays you money!

Yep, as promised there it is – you can get paid to surf a small selection of sites a day with no action required on your part.

So how does that work and are we talking about pennies here?

Most important question first, no we are not talking about pennies (unless that’s all you’ve paid for). These sites normally pay you a percentage of your membership fee as your daily surfing fee, so my favourite site pays me 12% per day over 12 days (this means I make a profit of 44% every 12 days).

So in real terms, I can choose my investment level, so here’s what it looks like:

Pro membership $120 $6 $500 $1000 Percent per day 12% 12% 12% 12% Cash per day $14.40 $.72 $60 $120 Membership term 12 days 12 days 12 days 12 days Total Cash back $172.80 $8.64 $720 $1440

As I said the membership level is completely at your taste. But there’s more. You not only earn your own money and surfing credits but that of affiliates – so for example if you have a couple of affiliates then potentially you’re earning 10% or everything they pay in/surf and also 2.5% of whatever their affiliates do (so a two tier affiliate system).

The affiliate commissions vary but usually they are at least two tiers. The one I recommend is 12Daily, the url is http://www.12dailypro.com/?ref=62998 – complete with my affiliate ID (quid pro quo!).

Advanced website traffic tactics might sound daunting, but if you make it low cost then you have nothing but a win-win situation. Employ low cost advanced website traffic tactics and you’re in for a huge online success.

What are these low cost advanced website traffic tactics anyway? Surprise yourself by finding out that some of these tactics you can practice without having to spend a cent!

1. Write an article.

You write an article, mention your site, submit it to e-zines and garner traffic from curious visitors. It’s as simple as that. Don’t just stop at one website – post your site anywhere possible! Who knows how many hits this low cost advanced website traffic tactic will bring!

2. Exchange links.

Never underestimate the power of link exchange. This is a low cost advanced website traffic tactic that people tend to overlook. How to find out where to do the link exchange? Easy: type your website’s keywords in a major search engine, visit each and every of the top results and ask for the link exchange.

3. Get involved in forums.

Look for forums highly related to your website and make your presence known. Make online friends and let them know about your website. This is an advanced website traffic tactic that advertises subtly but works effectively. Good thing about this is it doesn’t cost you anything at all!

4. Advanced website traffic needs advanced tools.

The www world is rich with tools that churn out impressive results. Software to try out are those which take care of links and keywords. Once this is taken care of, the rest of this internet marketing job will be easy!

5. Power up with meta tags.

Meta tags are what search engines are looking for so it can include your site in the top results. Putting up meta tags in your HTML code is an advanced website traffic tactic that must not be missed! Low cost you ask? Oh yeah!

6. Direct to directories.

Keep submitting your site to directories like there’s no tomorrow! Just take a look at your website and see if it’s directory-worthy. Web directories don’t waste their time on poorly-done websites.

7. Conduct a survey.

Visit a site similar to yours and announce that you have a survey they can answer. The site and yours reap results so no one’s on the losing end here!

There are sites available that specialize in low cost advanced website traffic tactics. Search for them online and let your site rise to online popularity!

It’s a horrible word isn’t it….marketing? No, only joking, I mean “viral” of course. Mention viral and one tends to think infection, illness and disease – or for the geeks among us, computers messed up. But viral marketing is nothing so negative or unpleasant, viral marketing is good!

What is Viral Marketing?

As the name suggests, it’s a way of spreading your marketing message from person to person, rather like the flu virus is passed on. You give the germ to, say 5 friends/colleagues/family members, who in turn each pass on the bug to 5 more (5×5=25), who then spread it to another 5 (25×5=125) and so on until after just 8 levels, you reach the staggering figure of 1,953,125.

The classic example of viral marketing is Hotmail.com, one of the first free Web-based e-mail services. The strategy is simple:

1. Give away free e-mail addresses and services, 2. Attach a simple tag at the bottom of every users email message sent: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com” and, 3. Then stand back while people e-mail to their own network of friends and associates, 4. Who see the message, 5. Sign up for their own free e-mail service, and then 6. Propel the message still wider to their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates

What makes marketing ‘Viral’?

A viral marketing plan usually has some or all of the following basic elements:

1. Provides a product or service free
2. Makes for easy transfer of the message to others
3. Allows easy growth from small to very large
4. Exploits common motivations and behaviours
5. Uses existing communication networks
6. Utilizes the resources of others

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

1.Provides a product or service free

“Free” is the most persuasive word in marketing. Most viral marketing campaigns give away a product or service to get peoples interest. Free email service, free software, free information etc. Then, when you have their attention, when you have their trust, sell them something. Hit them with a sales pitch first, chances are they won’t be interested.

2. Makes for easy transfer of the message to others

Viral marketing works so well on the internet because quick communication has become so easy and cheap. Your marketing message must be simple so that it can be passed on without loosing its effectiveness. The simpler and shorter the better, remember the hotmail example: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com.”

3. Allows easy growth from small to very large

To grow rapidly, the necessary infrastructure must be available. The best viral marketing makes use of the resources of others. This was the only weakness in the hotmail example, the service required its own mailservers. Not a problem with the resources of Microsoft behind you, but for mere mortals like you and I, best to plan on spreading the message using others recourses, see number 6.

4. Exploits common motivations and behaviours

What motivates people to use certain products or services on the web, and to recommend these to their friends? The practicality of a product, sure, but more than that – the desire to be popular, thought of as cool etc. Greed also motivates, hence the power of the word ‘free’!

5. Uses existing communication networks

Most people have around 5 to 12 people in their close network of friends, family and work colleagues. On the internet, nearly everyone has email addresses in their contacts list, and favourite websites stored in their web browser. Utilise this fact in your marketing campaign. For example, when you give away a free product, ask the recipient to provide the email addresses of others who may be interested.

6. Utilizes the resources of others

Get your message into other peoples emails and onto others websites, that way their recourses are being used, not yours. And once your campaign has enough momentum, sit back while your customers do the marketing for you.

Conclusion

Viral marketing costs very little, in fact if you go to the right places it can be free. Given that, and the huge potential benefits, you marketing campaign really should catch the viral marketing bug!

How can Viral Marketing work for you? Find out here: www.gosurf.ws

I get half of the world traffic for the term “dirtbagging,” on one page of my backpacking site, but that only means ten visitors a month. Without decent keyword demand you can’t ever get much traffic. Total demand is just one factor to consider, though. Here are some others.

1. Demand/supply ratio. There were 289,000 searches for “fishing” last month, but could you compete against the 35,000,000 results on a Google search? “Bass fishing tips,” with 3,700 searches, and 31,000 results is a more likely winner.

2. Total supply. For “dirtbagging,” Google shows 240 results, and there may be 20 searches monthly for the term. It was easy to get on the first page of results. On the other hand, a keyword with a demand of a million, and a million search results has a better ratio, but can you really get in the first few pages of results? Whatever the ratio, you have to be able to compete against the supply. If you are on the tenth page of results, virtually nobody will find you.

3. Type of keyword. Getting good search engine placement is one thing, but what type of visitor are you getting? Who is more likely to buy something from you or click on your affiliate links, a searcher for “fishing stories,” or “fishing poles.” If I was selling gear, I think I’d be happier with half as much traffic for the second term as the first.

4. “Odd” keywords. I optimized my site www.IncreaseBrainpower.com for “brain power,” and later found there was even more traffic for “brainpower.” Both, by the way, are in the dictionary. Look for odd search phrases, but be careful optimizing for misspellings and bad-grammar keywords, if it might hurt the reputation of your site.

5. Value of keyword ads. If you rely partly on Google Adsense for revenue, you may want to consider the ads that will be diplayed for a given keyword. Poetry pages will get you about $0.04 per click, while surveilance cameras can get you $2.00 per click.

A final consideration when doing keyword research is to consider your interest in the topic represented by the keyword. Do you want to write a page on that, and can you deliver what a searcher of that term is looking for?

New year brings new beginning and new expectation. This is the time where people get things straight and set new goals for the coming months. For most, their goal for the year is to set their finance in order. Once they have done that, they will normally try to invest their money to increase their life savings. That is good. When you have more savings, it acts as a cushion when you incur unexpected expense such as medical bills or tax increase.

For webmasters, your goal is probably to achieve certain page rank or link popularity for your site. That is good. It is even better if someone else can help you do that. To increase your link popularity there are two types of sites that can help you achieve that; web directories submission and niche article directories.

Web directories let you submit your website profile and descriptions mostly for free. They act as internet yellow pages where each website is categorized according to your website content. You can gain one link per one listing at most web directories.

Niche article directories let you submit your content. Their services are also free. At the end of the submission form, there is a resource box that lets you describe your website and businesses with a link to it. To me, this is one of the most wonderful ways of gaining back links. For one, you can get more than one links if you write more than one article. Having 100 articles to submit? Then, you can gain a 100 back links from just one site. If you submit to ten different article directories, then you can get at least 1000 back links. With web directories, you need to submit to 1000 web directories to get that much back links.

Having said that, which one is a more effective back link? One link from a web directory or one link from an article directory? The more effective back link is of course the link that comes from an article directory. This is because you submit your content to article directories, which might help viewers finding information they need. Once they read and like your article, they are most likely to click on the link and visit your website. Meanwhile, web directories merely publish information about your site which might or might not help the viewers.

Do you have to pay to publish your content at another site? Not at all. Most article directories do not charge submission fee. But as they gain in popularity, they might charge a submission fee in the future, just like web directories. Here is your chance to get 1000 back links or more if you have 100 articles to distribute.