Image via WikipediaI believe if you asked any webmaster or online marketer whattheir most important aspect of running a site would be, you
would get an answer that's some way related to traffic. Mainly
because traffic is your site's lifeblood, actually without
traffic you really don't have a site at all.
Traffic is King
Traffic brings in the leads and the sales. Quality traffic is
what produces your online revenue, whether from advertising or
from sales on your site. Now, I have sites which get less than
50 visitors a day, I have a few sites which get around 200
visitors and I have one site which gets around 2,000 visitors a
day.
Don't jump to any conclusions, some days the site getting 50
visitors can make just as much as the site getting 2,000
visitors. It all has to do with the quality of the traffic and
how well it converts into a sale. And of course, it all depends
on what you're selling... an LCD cleaning kit for $20 bucks or a
gaming laptop which sell for $2000+.
Regardless, you have to get that traffic in the first place if
you want to earn an online income. The more traffÃc you have,
usually, the more you will make; at least this has been my
experience. Since traffic is very important to me, I keep a lot
of records and stats on where my traffic is coming from on the
web. I have to know what produces the quality traffic and how to
get it.
So below I have listed down my 5 most important traffic sources
and/or the marketing techniques I use to get that traffic. This
list might also help you with your traffic and how you can
grow it. Here are my 5 main traffic sources...
1. SEO and the Search Engines
The majority of the traffic to my sites comes from the search
engines, mainly Google. It is my high rankings for my targeted
keyword phrases which brings in the most and the best quality
traffic to my sites. Get the SEO right and build a lot of
quality one-way links from related sites and you will get the
traffic. Another tactic, don't just create a website with only
10 or 20 pages - create one with 1000 to 5000 pages. I know this
takes time but consider your site like a long-term business
which you will keep building for years. Produce plenty of
quality content and you will get plenty of quality visitors in
return. Works for me.
2. Article Marketing
Another very effective way to bring in quality traffic to your
site or sites is article marketing. Just write short articles
related to your site's keywords and place your keyworded links
in the resource box. Distribute these articles all over the web.
Right now, what is working for me, is writing unique articles
which I only place on one important site. I am using this
technique with sites like SiteProNews, Buzzle and many more.
Article marketing is still one of the most effective ways to get
quality traffic, just try it.
3. PPC - Pay Per ClÃck Advertising
I know, I know, this can be very expensive, but PPC can be the
quickest way to get quality traffic to your sites. Just be
careful and approach it with kid's gloves until you find
campaigns which work for you - then scale them up. Microsoft
Adcenter and Yahoo Marketing have now joined forces and I find
this is producing good traffic for me. Google Adwords is
probably better, but they are a real pain to work with and have
become too expensive, at least for my keywords. But if you have
the resources, don't rule out Adwords or any of the PPC programs.
4. Social Media Sites
From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn, social media sites can
provide a lot of traffic and word of mouth advertising for your
site. For me, even though I haven't worked these sites to their
fullest potential, I still get traffic from them. Getting your
pages bookmarked in some of these sites can bring in a flood of
traffic overnight, while most of this traffic will be temporary,
you can get a lot of sign-ups to your newsletter and different
follow-up lists. While not exactly in the same group, I have had
some success with YouTube videos which also bring in targeted
traffic. Don't ignore these social media and video sites in your
traffic strategies.
5. EmaÃl Marketing and Follow-up Lists
This is another one of my major sources of "repeat visitors" to
my sites. You must be constantly building up your different
contact lists for further follow-up. This will bring in more
visitors than you would expect, especially if you put some
simple viral messages in your emails. If you supply valuable
information, people will recommend your content to friends and
co-workers; again word of mouth can bring in a lot of traffic
especially in this age of Facebook and Twitter.
Of course, there are other traffic sources such as Press
Releases, Banner Ads, RSS Feeds, Off-line Advertising... and if
you have your products to promote, affiliates and joint
ventures will be your most valuable source of traffic. Over the
years I have picked up a lot of information on traffic and
traffic tips... some of the best places/people for this has been:
freetraffictip.com - run by Tinu Abayomi-Paul, one of my best
sources for free traffic tips. Excellent.
trafficology.com - this site and newsletter gives you off-beat
ways to build traffic to your site. Highly Recommended.
trafficsecrets.com - if this one is still open, John Reese has a
few very good products on traffic. Recommended if you can afford
it.
About The Author
The author is a full time online affiliate marketer who operates
numerous niche sites, as well as two sites on Internet
Marketing: internet
marketing tools or try here free
marketing courses Titus Hoskins Copyright 2010. This article
may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
