5 Free Ways to Increase Your Website Traffic

By MoneyMan | July 23, 2007

I don’t know about you, but when I first entered the world of internet marketing I thought I could just submit my newly finished website to a few search engines, then sit back as the visitors flocked to my site.

I imagined that people would arrive on my website, as if by magic, purchase goods, and perhaps come back again for more.

A week or so later I came down to earth with a big bump.

I realised that it would take a bit of time and effort to see the results that I was dreaming about!

Since my reality check, I have learned all about the weird and wonderful ways of internet marketing.

In this article I will tell you about my top 5 free ways of increasing website traffic.

All these methods are completely free and if you spend some time on them you will find that they work consistently.

(1) Writing Articles

Writing an article on a subject related to your website and getting that article published has two major benefits:

For a list of directories to submit your article to, see http://www.homebiz-direct.com/articleWriting.html

(2) Forum Networking

There are many discussion forums on the internet, on every topic you could possibly imagine.

Most discussion boards allow posters to attach a “Signature” with their post containing additional information about themselves, such as their name, URL and sometimes even an advertisement.

By visiting a few forums regularly and participating in the discussions, asking and answering questions, you can build up trust with other forum members, whilst at the same time getting free exposure for your website.

Just try to make a useful contribution to the forum - be sure to read the forum rules and don’t spam!

(3) Reciprocal Linking

Reciprocal linking has two main benefits for you.

Firstly, the more links that you exchange, the more chance there is that someone will follow a link from another site and land on your website.

Secondly, your website will be perceived more importantly by search engines.

The more links you have from other sites, the greater your chance of getter ranked more highly by all the search engines.

Here are some Dos and Don’ts to help you get more out of your link exchanges.

(4) Email Signatures

This is a very simple, but often forgotten way of increasing your website visitors.

Most of us are sending lots of emails a day, but many of us just sign them with just our name, or perhaps nothing at all.

Instead, why not end your emails with a short signature containing your name, a bit about your website along with the URL?

Keep the signature short (4 lines), to the point and avoid hype or SHOUTING.

You may be surprised at the extra visitors you receive through doing this. It’s amazing how curiosity will lead the recipients of your email to click on your link!

(5) Using Traffic Exchanges

Finally, this is one easy way to guarantee instant hits to your website. You can build up credits for free by surfing or building up a downline to surf for you.

The downside of this method is that the visitors you receive from traffic exchanges are not as targeted as the visitors that you will receive via the other methods that I have described.

The reason for this is that people surf traffic exchanges for one reason - to earn as many credits as possible in as short a space of time as possible!

This gives you a challenge - how do you attract the attention of someone who is looking at your web page for 20 seconds or less?

Here are two tips -

Regularly invest some time in each of these 5 traffic generating methods and you will see your web statistics moving in the upwards direction before you know it.

Topics: Increase Traffic | No Comments »

5 Ways Al-Quaeda is Using Internet Marketing

By MoneyMan | July 22, 2007

Internet Marketing is not dead. But it may have caused the death of a few people.

Let’s take a look at how terrorist organizations are using Internet Marketing to recruit and spread the word.

1. Case #1: Dirty Kuffar

Yeah boyeeee!

MC Osama is in da hizouse - and the roof … the roof … the roof is on fire (really).

In the old days, ask any young man what he wanted to be when he grew up and he might say ‘a fireman’ or ‘a policeman.’

Now little boys want to grow up to be gangstas. And why not? They get all the hos … You know they got the bling-bling …

‘How you gonna tell me my rims ain’t clean?’

Sign me up!

And what bigger gangstas are there than terrorists?

Well, a rap MC calling himself ‘Sheik Terrah’ (apparently spelling corruptions are just another way to ’stick it to the man’ - you go boyee!) has released a new hip hop video called ‘Dirty Kuffar’ and it’s all over the web and the file sharing community.

It is a pretty simplistic hate diatribe that lists a lot of western personalities and calls them ‘Dirty Kuffar’ (Kuffar = Infidel).

‘Yeah, Ronald Reagan is a Dirty Kuffar

George Bush he a Dirty Kuffar

Michael Jackson is a Dirty Kuffar’

Yes, the creative genius is staggering.

Seriously though, the marketing effect was pretty pronounced.

For a while there, it was all over the place …

2. Case #2: F*ck’n USA

Do a search for the above phrase in Google (without the deleted letters) and you’ll find many links to a very interesting anti-American propaganda video created by the North Koreans.

It’s the animated music video for a catchy little ditty about ‘The Great Satan’ that is America.

‘Blah blah blah …

And you were the cause of our country’s division …

ba! ba! F*ck’n U S A!’

(The F*ck’n refrain is in English, the rest in Korean.)

Hmm, kind of sticks in your head.

The video was subsequently played on Japanese and South Korean television (probably intending to capture viewer-interest because of the controversy), but that wasn’t the end of the anti-America free publicity blitz.

The video with English translations popped up on websites all over the world and on file-sharing programs. So easily the message of hate is spread …

SIDE NOTE: A clever guy translated the video into English and is advertising himself along with the translated video. (More on this tactic below.)

3. So, How Do They Do It?

How are these terrorist groups getting all this free grass roots advertising and publicity?

Let’s break it down:

** Sub Viral Marketing **

This is a tactic where a piece of media (usually video) is created that on the surface is not appearing to advertise the target brand.

Coke, for example, is reported to have created funny videos where the Coke brand appears, but it doesn’t look like an ad. People passed these videos on in purely on the merits of their humor. Little did they know, they were inadvertently adverting Coca-Cola.

The two case studies above were definite tools to gain favor for their organizations (the North Korean dictatorship and Al-Quaeda), but people were passing them along for reasons other than that.

They were passing them along because they liked hip-hop music, or they thought they were funny, or they liked the anti-America/Ronald Reagan/Michael Jackson/whatever message.

An interesting mutation of the sub-viral gene! More on these mutative factors below …

** Pop Culture Predators **

If you can associate your cause with pop culture, it’s easy to gain favor for your marketing message. Corporations are dedicating time and research into discovering what kids think is ‘cool’ and getting their brands to fit. Of course, kids are extremely insecure and at their core, they have a desperate fear that they are *not* cool. So, if you can convince them that doing something will make them cool, the influence is quite profound.

** Current Event Free Rides **

If a particular topic is popular, people are going to scour the net to learn more about it. Hitch your wagon to one of these stars and you get some free publicity.

Can you think of a few ways the above two videos did that?

SIDE NOTE: Remember the Monica Cigar? Here’s a clever example of how a marketer hitched his wagon to current events to get free publicity. I remember The Monica even getting a little blurb on Fox News as a matter of fact.

** Enigmatic Content **

Who is that sexy Sheik Terrah?!

Since no one knows who he is, it adds to the controversy and gets more people talking. This spreads the virus even more …

Further, look at how easily Bin-Laden’s messages are spread. If Osama speaks, the whole world listens now. The media runs it as it’s top headline. You stop everything and listen. You tell your friends.

Skilful manipulation.

***

So, there you go. Now you too can use terrorist tactics for fun and profit.

Obviously, I’m not supporting terrorism in any way shape or form. I only wish to describe their Internet Marketing tactics as they may, indeed, be useful to marketers.

Topics: Marketing and Advertising | No Comments »

5 Free Steps To Online Income

By MoneyMan | July 21, 2007

If you are new to the online business world and would like to get involved without risking any of your hard earned cash then this article will show you one way to get involved for free.

We are going to discuss ways to promote affiliate programs without your own site and without spending any money.

Best of all if you choose a program related to your interests then it won’t even seem like any work is involved.

The 5 steps are aimed at promoting a product while you go about your normal daily surfing activities.

Before we get on to step 1 you need to locate and join an appropriate affiliate program.

This program ideally should be 2 tier, which means you get paid for sales made through your link as well as for the sales made by affiliates that you refer through your link.

To find an affiliate program search at Google for “affiliate directory” then visit the directories and search the directory for a keyword related to your interests.

Once you have joined a program you will receive a link to promote, you may also receive a second link to promote the affiliate program itself which can be used to recruit tier 2 affiliates.

Once you have a link take the following steps to incorporate the affiliate link into your surfing activities:

1. Add a signature to your emails, this will mean that every mail you send will have a tag line at the bottom which, in this case, will promote the service that you are affiliated with. Check the help files in your email program for instructions on how to do this.

2. If you already visit forums related to the product add a signature to your profile. This means that every time you post your link will be added to the end of your post.

Locate more forums where people interested in the product might hang out. Do a search for a keyword followed by forum at Google.

Try and think of all the different related subjects that might have forums and identify as many as possible.

Once you have identified your forums visit them all and join the ones that allow posters to add a signature file to their posts. Then get involved in conversations be useful whenever possible and every time you post an item your affiliate link will be displayed. This will be a lot less like work if you are promoting in a niche that is of interest to you.

3. If you have an eBay account then create an About Me page and include details of the affiliate program there. Click help once logged in to eBay and search for About Me to find instructions on creating your page.

Whenever you list an auction include a line at the top of the description that invites viewers to visit your About Me page.

4. Locate sites that have visitors that might be interested in the product that you are affiliated with especially those that have a mailing list or an ezine. Then contact the site owner and suggest that they join the affiliate program. If they join using your link you will earn a percentage of any commissions that they earn.

5. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. With so many things success comes down to numbers. The more site owners you contact and the more forums that you post at the more commission you will earn.

Do all of the above and you will earn money for no investment, it may take time and might start slowly but it will happen.

Topics: Starting a Business | 1 Comment »

5 Top Tips For Attracting Targeted Traffic

By MoneyMan | July 20, 2007

 One of the most common needs of online business owners is traffic. Without traffic, your web site barely exists, and is unlikely to make any profit whatsoever. With traffic, you stand a much greater chance of success - but not just any traffic.

As the owner of a network of web sites receiving well over a million hits a month, in this article I give you my five top tips for increasing targeted traffic to your web site.

Newbies on the web frequently make the mistake of just wanting traffic, and join any and every program offering just that - “thousands of hits to your web site”, with the vast majority of them completely worthless. When their web sites fail to make any money, many of them give up on the web as a money-making myth.

For those that do persist, and try to learn from their experience, they realize it’s not just any traffic they need - it’s targeted traffic. That means web site visitors who actually want to visit (rather than those who are ‘forced’ to visit via some traffic exchange program), and so are actually interested in what you have to offer.

This type of traffic is far more profitable to you - your visitors are far more likely to purchase from you, simply because you have what they want.

But how can you attract targeted traffic?

Here are my five top tips:

1. An Affiliate Program

This works by giving those who promote your products a commission if they make a sale. Over time you can build up an army of people who are busy promoting your web sites for you.

My own affiliates account for well over half of all my sales, and to do that, by definition they have to be pushing a lot of traffic my way.

You can begin to see what my traffic and sales levels might look like without an affiliate program.

For beginners who are selling digital products such as ebooks or software, the easiest and cheapest way to start your own affiliate program is through ClickBank. That’s how I started and I still use them today.

2. Add Content

Providing quality content on your web site is an excellent way to permanently increase traffic to your web site.

Search engines like Google appear to favor web sites with a clear navigation structure that provide quality content within a certain genre - that means not adding anything you can think of to your web site, but focus on a particular niche, and provide content broadly in line with that.

You don’t even have to create it all yourself. For example, look in article directories on the web for free reprint articles you can use, such as http://IdeaMarketers.com.

3. Create Content

Just as you are looking for content you can quickly add to your web site, so are thousands of other publishers. By creating content yourself, you can not only put it up on your own web site, but also provide it to others for their use with a small resource box at the end of the article with a link to your web site.

In so doing, you can have literally hundreds of web sites all linking to yours. This provides a consistent stream of targeted traffic from readers of the article who want to follow through to your web site, and also from search engines like Google, where your ranking will broadly increase in line with the number of web sites linking to you.

Hundreds of ezine publishers are also on the look out for quality content that they can publish, on a wide range of topics - if a publisher with a large mailing list chooses to publish your article, this can lead to a surge in both traffic and sales on your web site when their ezine is published. Many ezines are published online too, providing another permanent link and source of high quality traffic to your web site.

There are various courses and ebooks available online that can teach you how to effectively distribute your articles and get them published - there’s also a free e-course available at http://takanomi.com/publish-articles.php that tells you nearly everything you need to know.

4. Publish An Ezine

One of the most effective ways to build a loyal base of repeat visitors for your web site is your own mailing list, whether it’s an ezine that publishes regularly, or a mailing list who you occasionally mail to.

By publishing quality information in your emails, you increase your credibility, build trust with your subscribers, and encourage repeated visits to your web site.

5. Pay Per Click Engines

When you use pay-per-click engines, you are effectively paying to have a high ranking position for certain keywords, on certain search engines. If you choose your keywords carefully, the traffic is highly targeted - the trick is to ensure you are not paying more per click than each visitor is worth.

To do this effectively requires some careful tracking of the visitors that arrive at your site from your keyword placements, but done correctly, the end result is net profit for you.

The main pay-per-click engines are Google Adwords and Overture - with Google, your ads are displayed within minutes; with Overture, it can take a few hours to a few days to have your ads approved and displayed.

I personally use all of the above methods to attract targeted traffic to my web site - of course, that’s not the end of the road in terms of web site profitability. You then need to ensure that a proportion of this targeted traffic converts into paying customers. Once you’ve mastered this too, you are well on your way to online success.

Topics: Increase Traffic | 2 Comments »

5 Exceptional Bonuses That Will Increase Your Sales!

By MoneyMan | July 19, 2007

Do bonuses really work?

At least once a week we get asked about the common approach to offering bonuses — has this technique been overused?

My answer is always the same…

Crappy, freely available, 3rd party bonuses are definitely overused and have become quite ineffective.

Bonuses that are different, relevant and of high perceived value will often double or even triple your sales - It has happened to me.

WHY BONUSES WORK

Since the beginning of time, bonuses have been used by advertisers to entice users to make a buying decision.

Bottom line is, they do work and here’s why…

We make buying decisions based on emotions, you’ve no doubt heard that statement before.

However, being rational, thinking and logical humans, we also must justify our decision to buy we do that by convincing ourselves there is enough value to justify our emotional decision.

You read a sales letter, are intrigued by the headline. Your attention is kept through the first paragraph and you decide that you want the product or service based on benefit statements you relate to.

Now, you check the price - and it’s somewhat higher than you anticipated.

Buyer’s won’t usually give up at this point.

They will actually attempt a value calculation by re-looking at what they get.

That’s where your bonuses can make a big difference - they either justify the cost and click your order button, or they are gone forever.

5 EFFECTIVE BONUSES YOU CAN USE

It used to be you could throw just about anything into your offer and it would increase your response rate.

Not today though, today’s customers look closely at the benefit they will get from their bonuses.

Select the right combination and you can still easily double or even triple your response rate.

So what can you bundle that will provide value for your customers WITHOUT taking months to create?

Here are 5 power-packed bonus ideas to increase your sales:

1. Work Sheet or Checklist.

This is one of our favorites, we’ve had terrific feedback using checklists in the past - some of which could have been sold on their own. If you have a product that explains a series of steps, processes, techniques or strategies to your customers, then pulling those into a checklist can be extremely simple and effective.

Use Microsoft Word’s ability to insert a square symbol and a check mark - you will find both under the “Webdings” symbol options.

Checklists are also wonderful bonuses to use for tele seminars, coaching sessions, consulting services, seminars and other educational opportunities.

2. Short Summary.

You’re ebook, audio or video may be 100’s of pages long. Summarize the key points into 3-5 pages and you will have created a high-value bonus without having to create additional content.

3. Audio or Video clip.

Use a related audio clip to help communicate your point, cover a case study or example that is related to your ebook.

Interviews are a great way to quickly generate high-value bonuses. A 15-20 minute telephone interview will give you a 1-2 Meg audio file that can prove very valuable to your customer base - as long as it is directly related to your content.

Assume your ebook topic is exotic travel. Find a few people who have travelled to exotic locations and request a few minutes of their time to answer some questions over the phone.

If you need more information on recording telephone interviews - you can download our complimentary special report here:

http://www.infoproductcreator.com/freereportdown.html

4. Software

You are selling an eBook on how to make it big in the stock market. Imagine if you could bundle bonus software that makes it simpler and quicker to apply your techniques.

Software has a high perceived value.

You can find tons of free or trial software at sites such as http://www.download.com (Select “Advanced Search” link in upper right hand corner and select different License options in drop down list), http://download-soft.com/, or http://www.50download.com/

Another option is to hire a developer through http://www.elance.com or http://www.freelance.com to create a simple software application you can offer as a bonus.

5. Bundled service

I’ve had great success bundling relevant services with my products. For example, if you order “Ultimate Information Entrepreneur’s Success Package” - http://www.infoproductcreator.com you will not only get an incredible package for creating your own income-generating infoproducts, but you get a complimentary 20-minute consultation with a top copywriter online.

Makes sense right?

You are creating a product to sell online, you will need to create a highly effective website.

Think beyond the specific problem/problems you are solving for your customer. What ELSE will they need solved?

Match that need up with a service professional and you have a very high-value bonus.

Most service professionals offer some form of gratis trial, that’s what you can offer to your customers.

MAKE YOUR BONUS STAND OUT!

The final point on effectively using bonuses to enhance your sales is to stand out from the crowd.

What is everyone else doing - offering some crappy, resell rights, largely useless eBook.

The perceived value of such bonuses are less than zero - meaning they can HURT your sales more than help them.

Create a high-value bonus, and you will see immediate positive results on your sales and profits.

Topics: Sales Tips | 2 Comments »

5 Compelling Reasons to Choose a Wellness Opportunity

By MoneyMan | July 18, 2007

I actually have two separate online businesses -

  1. Selling wellness products and
  2. Selling digital information products (eBooks)

Because I can look at things from both perspectives, I often tend to compare the two businesses from the point of view of the better opportunity.

But if I were asked to recommend a single business as the best way to make a living online, the Wellness Business would win hands down.

And no, I didn’t choose it because its easy. On the contrary, selling health supplements, vitamins and related products online is NOT easy.

Not only is there tremendous competition, but it simply can’t be done by working two hours a day, as is the common perception.

If you sell wellness products, you have to deal with REAL people. People with human needs and problems.

You must be available in person, or by phone, or at least by email, to clarify doubts, answer queries, be prompt and sensitive to your customers’ needs and generally make your customer feel good about doing business with you.

You must also provide constant support, training and leadership to a growing organisation of distributors, and help them grow their business.

This can be extremely time-consuming because few of these tasks lend themselves to complete automation.

A seller of digital products has it somewhat easier. (S)He need not even interact with customers, because everything from product delivery to answering customer queries can run on autopilot.

Digital product sellers can (and often are) literally sitting on a beach while their websites churn out profits.

Given these disadvantages, why would anyone still choose the Wellness industry?

The reason I believe is because ANYONE, regardless of their talent or creativity, can actually make a steady LIVING for a lifetime in the Wellness industry.

And of course, there are a few who even go on to become millionaires.

Here are the reasons why I think Health and Wellness should be the #1 Choice for Entrepreneurs online.

1. Health Products Fulfill a Basic Human Need

Health is a #1 concern for many people - often more important than even sex (also a top seller online) or food.

The lack of health can make you feel… well… lousy. And most people will pay their bottom dollar if they can find something that alleviates their pain or discomfort.

To put it more plainly, NOT buying an eBook will not make much difference to your state of mind or body. But not taking your prescription medication can make you feel very bad indeed.

2. Health Products are Consumable

Unlike digital products that can only be sold ONCE to a customer, vitamins, supplements and prescriptions require monthly re-orders or autoships.

Once people start using them and benefiting, more often than not, they will continue to use them.

If you treat your customers right, they will buy from you month after month, providing you with regular commissions and a more or less stable source of income.

There’s usually no need to keep selling to them again and again (barring the obligatory seasonal promotions).

If the products meet their requirements and you give them a good deal and great service, they will give you repeat business for a long time to come.

3. Your Income Grows Exponentially

When selling a digital product (as an owner or an affiliate), your potential for future income actually DECREASES with every sale you make.

Unless you are among the few top marketers who can churn out a new product every month, or can earn more on back-end commissions, your potential for income will always be limited by your creativity.

In contrast, because most wellness opportunities also involve building an organisation, every product sale actually INCREASES your potential for future income, by growing your organisation of customers and potential distributors purchasing every month.

If you help your downline earn a regular income, few will quit the business they have built so earnestly. Again YOU benefit from the RESIDUAL commissions that the organisation provides.

4. Wellness Opportunities have a High Feel-Good Factor

One of the main reasons that I suspect people stick around in the wellness industry is the feel-good factor. It can really make your day when someone calls or writes, telling you how wonderful your products made them feel. Or how it gave them their life back. :-)

Even more than making money, the feeling that you have helped another person feel better is always a strong motivator in working your business.

I’ve no doubt it feels good when someone who purchased your eBook writes to tell you how it helped them succeed. But I can bet it comes nowhere near the feeling you get when you help someone beat a life-threatening illness or conquer their pain.

5. The Need for Wellness Only Increases with Age

As we grow older, we want to work less and enjoy life more. We also want to live healthier lives and enjoy enhanced community interaction.

Wellness opportunities are ideally suited to seniors because they have the potential to fulfill all their needs, ranging from financial security to improved health and personal interaction.

Lastly, working a wellness opportunity empowers you to take steps to improve your own health and well-being.

And do I even need to reiterate the oft-repeated quote that it will be the next Trillion Dollar Industry?

Topics: Starting a Business | 2 Comments »

4 Unfortunate Myths About Online MLM

By MoneyMan | July 17, 2007

Experts and newbies are alike in misunderstanding the way online MLM works, and under-estimating the steps involved.

2 examples of common (but untrue) MLM myths are: “An Internet Marketing Expert is an Automatic MLM expert” and “Make a Ton of Sales, And You Make a Ton Of Cash”.

People fall for the same old myths about how these programs work. And these end up costing them hundreds or thousands of dollars a year in wasted time and effort.

Acquaint yourself with these 4 myths, and protect yourself from the online hype and misconceptions.

Myth #1: MLM On The Internet Can Be Wildly Profitable in One Month

The most unfortunate and damaging myth about online home business is that the income can come quickly.

It *may* be possible for a “big dog” with an established network of partners, to create a residual income of $1000 in one month. But this will never happen for the average person building from scratch.

Consider this:

The average internet MLM pays $2 - $7 per person in an organization. To earn $2000 - $7000 per month, you need 1000 people in your organization.

This is very possible to achieve. But it takes time.

Myth #2: “It’s A Ground Floor Opportunity - You Must Join Today”

When someone says: “Ground Floor Opportunity - Join Today” what are they really saying?

Is it: (1) “People who join after me have less chance of making money than I do” ? OR (2) “The company will be useless in 2 years time” ?

Would you want to take a year or two to build a good residual income, only to have that income disappear?

And what would happen to the suckers who join in 6 or 7 months time?

A good business opportunity should actually *improve* with time and exposure. It’ll be based on products (or services) - and delivering more in product value than the dollar amount people are paying for it.

(Yes it IS possible to find such companies on the internet, I know a few).

Myth #3: Make A Ton Of Sales and You Make A Ton Of Cash

The way MLM (truly) works best is if a large number of people each help each other to make a small numbers of sales.

Let me show you what I mean:

In an offline business we were in, a guy joined who was an awesome direct mail marketer. Soon he put together a masterly direct mail campaign to promote this opportunity. He invested a lot of money then unleashed his packages. In 5 weeks he had several hundred people in his downline, and was earning several thousand dollars per month.

But within two years he had dropped out of that company.

Why is this?

It’s because almost none of the people he brought in were able to do what he was able to. So he wasn’t able to help them grow their businesses. (He possibly didn’t have time to help 500 newbies). And since the monthly purchase requirement was $130 in this particular company they soon started dropping out.

The point you really ought to understand is this:

“In MLM, you don’t make much money from making sales - You make much money from building an organization!”

This brings us nicely to the next and final myth:

Myth # 4: You Build From The Top Downwards

Many people feel that you “come in at the top”, then bring people in “under you”. They reflect this in their attitude to the job.

If you’re smart, you’ll know better.

You build from the bottom.

At the start, there’s no one else in your business. You just have a dream, and help from your company and upline.

Imagine you’re trying to erect a building.

You find 3 bricks and place them in your foundation. But you must physically support these from below. Yes, they’re heavy at first, but you do the job. You continue to support them.

One morning you wake up and there are now 9 bricks in your structure, from the 3 you started with.

You’re supporting a 9 brick structure now, and because you do, it continues to grow. Eventually, you look up and find that you have a solid building.

Can you see it?

The bottom “bricks” are people you recruit and assist to take their first steps as marketers of your opportunity. When they help other people, your organization expands.

The point is that the engine that drives lasting MLM growth is people helping other people, in small numbers, and everybody doing their share.

At the beginning your job is to sponsor a small number of people and support them, and encourage them to make sales … encourage them to encourage other people in the same way.

Once you build a small group of people and the helping culture takes hold, you’ll start to develop a rapidly growing organization … that grows rapidly and wildly with a momentum you couldn’t stop, even if you tried to.

You’ll have an online home business you can be proud of.

Topics: Starting a Business | 1 Comment »

5 Free Ways to Increase Traffic to your Online Store

By MoneyMan | July 16, 2007

So you’ve finally created a website for your small online store! Now you think, “How do I get people to visit my site?” If you’re like most new website owners, you wonder how to bring potential customers to your site without spending lots of money on expensive advertising. In order to help you, I’ve compiled a small list of five methods that I have used to drastically increase traffic to my own site. I’ve also listed two websites under each tip that will help you get started implementing these suggestions.

1. Offer a freebie or a contest for your items: One of main reasons that people use the Internet is to find free (or cheaper) stuff. If you offer a freebie or contest for one of your items, then you are likely to attract potential customers. To get maximum exposure for your freebie or contest, you should register with as many “free stuff sites” as possible. Here are a couple of sites which would be a good starting point: http://www.thefreesitecom and http://www.realfreesite.com.

2. Link to similar websites: A popular method used by webmasters to increase web traffic is to swap links with comparable websites. However, the trick to maximizing the effectiveness of linking is to find sites with a minimum Google PageRank, which is a system which Google uses to judge the importance of each webpage, of 3 or 4. To find out more information about PageRank, click here: http://toolbar.google.com/ . To find good linking partners, check out these two link partner directories: http://www.links-pal.com/ and http://www.gotop.com/.

3. Join an internet discussion group: People also frequently use the Internet to find places where they share common interests with other individuals, which has led to the creation of Internet discussion groups. You can use discussion groups to introduce yourself and your product. Find a group that is related to your store or personal interest, and make sure any topic that you post is tied into a current discussion. Don’t SPAM any discussion group with an obvious sales pitch. Simply write comments applicable to both the group and your product; people will naturally want to know more about you! Two great listings of potential starting points for discussion groups are: http://groups.yahoo.com/ and http://topica.com/.

4. Post your product or service on a free classified ad page: Although many websites only have paid inclusion into their classified ads, many offer a free place where you are allowed to advertise your merchandise. If you spend time developing an interesting headline or ad, you can bring in a steady amount of traffic from these sites. To get started on free classifieds, you can use my own free service http://www.mizambar.com/classified.html . In addition, the following link has a directory of tons of free classified services: http://www.ecki.com/links/.

5. Write an article related to your website and submit it to ezines: By writing an article about your service or a topic related to your website, you instantly become an authority on your issue. Although you might have some apprehension about writing, if you have a website, then you probably have something to talk about. Two great directories on ezines are: http://freezineweb.com/ and http://www.ezinelocater.com .

By following these steps, you should see a dramatic increase in your web traffic. The key is to always think about website promotion–if you spend a little time each day following one of these steps, you will be rewarded with more visitors and hopefully more customers. Good luck, and happy advertising!

P.S. Stay tuned for more free ways to increase traffic to your website!

Topics: Increase Traffic | 1 Comment »

5 Explosive Tactics To Multiply Your Traffic For Free

By MoneyMan | July 16, 2007

How would you like to exponentially increase your traffic without investing an extra cent on advertising?

Yes it is true and you can do this through a powerful principle known as LEVERAGE.

Using leverage is really about creating momentum. Your ultimate aim should be to create self-sustaining *traffic systems* which pay you over and over again for a one-time effort.

Whether the traffic source is completely free or not doesn’t matter. You can invest time and money and still multiply your results - or you can start with a zero budget and build a steady stream of traffic that outperforms any pay-per-click campaign.

“What then is the secret to leverage?”

The secret to leverage is in the setting up of efficient, self-perpetuating systems. In other words, the foundation is viral marketing.

You invest your time to create a traffic generation tool, set it loose on the world and then let OTHERS do the work for you. You work only once but the system continues to grow and multiply your results.

So, what qualifies as leverage?

Essentially, any system you set up which allows your links and your sales message to propagate online in “word of mouth” fashion. This can be a free report or e-book, an article with your byline and links, a “refer a friend” feature on your web site and even your affiliate program.

However, for these tools to work their magic, you must include one important feature: incentive.

What is the incentive to downloa.d your e-book or become your affiliate? It will come down to either PROFIT or VALUE. You’re either paying someone in commissions for their effort or you’re offering them valuable information for free.

Understand this one principle and you’ll succeed: give first in order to receive later.

With this in mind, here are five no-cost explosive viral leveraging tactics you can put into action immediately:

1. Viral Report Traffic

If you sell information products, it’s almost a requirement to have at least one freebie report to give away from your web site. Free reports are common these days, but many are actually doing it wrongly. So you will need to pay extra attention to your incentive to stand out from the crowd.

Allowing others to re-brand your report with their affiliate links is the basic incentive. The advanced incentive comes through increasing the report’s inherent value. Your potential customers may find “free” to be incentive enough. However, your real army of traffic multiplication is made up of other webmasters.

Meaning, the more value you put into your report, the more likely they are to earn commissions by giving it away. It’s a simple matter of impressing the potential customer enough to give you the sale.

Here’s a powerful resource to have if you want to create explosive viral reports fast: http://www.miniebook.com

To rebrand your reports, the best tool I’ve used to date is “Viral PDF”. You can find more information about this powerful software here:
http://snipurl.com/8vfr

2. Viral Article Traffic

You’ve likely heard of this a dozen times alrea.dy, and I’m a VERY big fan of this tactic simply because it works. There are actually TWO potential traffic sources built into reprint articles.

Obviously, the first source comes from re-distribution of your articles and clicks on the link in your byline. The other source comes from the search engines themselves.

Think about it for a moment. Every article you write has a theme which is naturally optimized on certain keywords. Yet, rather than wait for your site to rank on these keywords, your article can rank higher than your entire web site on those keywords.

Why? Because the distribution sites you send your article to already have high ranking in the engines! They get more traffic, period, simply because they’re larger - but, and this is important, they serve articles similar to yours with similar keywords, creating a greater overall keyword density which the engines reward with a higher ranking.

I’ve recently created a 17 page report “Lifetime Traffic” that walks you through the entire process of article marketing quickly and easily. Get it from the below link if you haven’t yet:
http://instantmarketingsecrets.com/lifetime.htm

3. Viral Subscriber Traffic

How’s this for a clever use of resources: leverage the traffic and leads you already have. You’ve done the work to build your email list to the level it’s at now, so why not put it to work for you?

Again, all you need to do is offer an incentive. For example, you could set up a “pseudo-affiliate” program or some form of tracking system and announce to your list that one lucky member can receive a high ticket item from you for free if they can refer X number of new subscribers to your list. All they have to do is sign up and promote a special link you provide to them.

4. Viral Referral Traffic

Consider implementing a “refer a friend” feature on your home page. All you need is a referral script to accomplish this. You’ll need to provide incentive to those visitors, however. You might do this by offering a special bonus (separate from what you distribute to newsletter signups) in exchange for the referral.

You could also approach this from an entertainment angle, and offer electronic greeting cards or games. It will depend on the theme of your site.

An easy to customize refer-a-friend script can be found at
http://www.allthescripts.com/page-457105.htm

5. Viral Affiliate Traffic

Affiliate programs are tried and true traffic generators. The profit incentive is built in and you pay nothing for the publicity until an actual sale is made. However, to super charge your affiliate program, you should provide extra incentive to your affiliates. If you can afford to offer a higher per sale commission, then do it.

Allow your affiliates to get the inside scoop on your products before anyone else. Offer them the support and education they require to better market your product and boost their own bottom lines.

Here’s another tip, you should consider implementing a multi-tier affiliate program with an attractive incentive plan. This will build your affiliate base like crazy and generate traffic on steroids for your site. This model typically works best for residual programs like http://instantmarketingsecrets.com/pbp.htm

Another ingenious example of viral affiliate traffic is Stone Evans’ Plug-In Profit Site. His is one of the first and probably most successful replicable traffic model that rewards people just to give away free money-making sites. You can find Stone’s site at http://turnkeymoney.com/plug.htm

The five tactics covered here are relatively simple to set up and implement, but then most marketers do not use them.

Remember to place value and incentive at the center of your campaigns, and watch your traffic multiply on autopilot like an unstoppable explosion!

Topics: Increase Traffic | 2 Comments »

3 Super-tips To Build, Promote And Profit More From Your Website!

By MoneyMan | July 16, 2007

Are you happy with your website? (Does your business even have one?)

Does it ‘perform’ as well as you’d like?

I’m a professional web designer and I always try to influence the design of a client site with the following three so-called super-tips. If I apply these tips to a new (or existing) site, I always feel that the site will ‘deliver’ much more.

So here are three super-tips, to help anyone get the most from their website:

  1. Make sure your website has a Most Wanted Response
  2. Use these six strategies to promote your website…
  3. Build trust in you and your website

Tip (1) Make sure your website has a Most Wanted Response

“What do you mean by most wanted response?”

Well, do you know what the main purpose of your website is?

What is the ‘point’ of your website?

Dr Ken Evoy introduced the concept of Most Wanted Response (MWR) in his ebook called: Make Your Site Sell. In his words, “MWR is what you most want your visitor to do after reviewing your content. It should always:

Tip (2) Use these six strategies to promote your website…

I think you should employ some (or all) of the following six strategies if you want to successfully promote your website:

I’ll explain a little bit more about a few of the strategies below.

* Strategy 1: SUBMIT to search engines and directories

As you may know, you do not need to submit your site to 10,000 search engines. Simply make sure you get your site listed on major search engines like Google. This link contains ‘add your site’ links to major search engines like Google. Use it.

http://www.howipromotemywebsite.com/site-submit

* Strategy 2: BID at pay per click search engines

You must have heard about pay-per-click search engines like Overture, Espotting and Google AdWords.

Pay per click search engines can deliver guaranteed traffic to your site at pennies per click. To learn more about using pay-per-click search engines (which ones are worth bothering with, etc.) read my article called ‘Pay Per Click To Guarantee Targeted Traffic!’

http://www.howipromotemywebsite.com/pay-per-click

* Strategy 6: CONTINUE to learn more…!

No groaning, please - it’s vital that you keep on learning about new ways to promote your website. Quite simply, you must always continue to learn.

These resources can help your ‘quest to keep abreast’:

Tip (3) Build trust in you and your website

So you want to sell online?

Well it isn’t that easy, I’m afraid.

One of the first things you must do online is to get people to trust you and your online business. And there are a variety of methods of doing this. I’ll cover one method here:

Or in other words, offer a free ebook, e-mail course or article (a bit like the one you’re reading right now ;-) ).

Here’s an example

http://www.best-digital-cameras.co.uk/buying-guide

This is one of my affiliate mini-sites. Usually visitors take a quick look at the site and then head off to the main merchant site (in this case Amazon).

So I offer a brief guide to buying a DVD player online, in the hope that I can build a little bit of trust in my site, and collect my site visitors’ e-mail addresses (that I may be able to use in the future, when they have long since forgotten my mini-site).

When done properly, offering valuable freebies can be powerful stuff.

(Just ask Harvey Segal of Supertips.com, who bases much of his online business on providing invaluable freebies like this - http://www.anyonecansellonline.com/supertips.shtml.)

–

I’ve talked enough.

Hopefully, you can use the three super-tips in this article(*) to boost the performance of your site. Or I may have given you some extra ideas for your next (or first) site!

Either way, thanks for reading and good luck.

Topics: Starting a Business | 1 Comment »

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