How to get traffic to your websiteHow to Start with ZERO Visitors, Test Your Web Site to Maximize Sales, and Then Roll Out a Traffic Campaign That Attracts 1,000s of Qualified Buyers...part 2 continued from part 1.......
Link requests require minimal effort from you, but they can absolutely explode your traffic numbers overnight. How? If your site is a featured link on a major site in your industry -- one that receives a ton of attention -- your site immediately benefits from all the exposure their site receives!
Getting started with this strategy is simple, but you should follow a standard process every time you request a link. Let's break it down into a few easy steps: 1. Do a Google search for your standard keywords -- the ones that people generally use to find your site. 2. Make detailed notes about the sites that appear regularly in the top ten listings for your major keywords. 3. Use the Alexa Toolbar at http://www.alexa.com LinkPopularity at http://www.linkpopularity.com or Technorati at http://www.technorati.com to find out who these sites are linking to, who is linking to them, and how much traffic they are receiving, then look up their contact information. 4. Make sure you know the correct URL for the site, the URL of the sub-page on which you want your link to appear, the name of the site owner or webmaster, the date you last visited their site, and a brief description of the contents of the site. When you're ready to contact these web site owners and request a link, write a personal e-mail -- don't use form letters. Be sure to include some positive comments about their site, information about you and your site (along with your URL), an explanation of why a link to you would benefit them, and instructions for contacting you to get started! You want your request to be thorough and professional. If you can present a persuasive argument for why the link request benefits both of you, you stand a better chance of forging a connection. If you are really eager to get your link on their site, be prepared to up the ante by offering them a commission or a link on your site in return. The investment could be well worth the extra exposure your marketing message receives. But be stingy when other businesses request links on your site -- just as links on other sites serve as a personal recommendation of your site, links on your site are recommendations for their businesses. Only recommend the best! Okay, now let's talk about the ultimate linking strategy...
Imagine hundreds, even thousands, of web sites promoting your product or service... and all this great exposure doesn't cost you a DIME unless someone refers a paying customer. You can do this with what's called an affiliate program. Affiliate programs (also referred to as "reseller" or "associate" programs) are a great way to get other people called "affiliates" to promote your product or service for you. For every paying customer your affiliates refer to your web site, you pay them a commission. And since you only pay when you make money -- it's extremely low risk! Your affiliates send visitors to your web site using banner ads, text links, letters of referral, and so on, while you track these referrals using special software. It's an extremely powerful way to grow your business because it automates your traffic generation. To get started with your own affiliate program, you need to... - Set your commissions. (To keep your affiliates motivated, you should pay them 40% to 50% of your profits per sale.) - Get software to track the traffic and sales of your affiliates so you know what to pay them -- check out: IMC Assoctrac - Provide your affiliates with tools they can use to promote your products (like e-mails, banners, etc.). - Recruit your affiliates! (Look for sites that target your market, and invite them to become affiliates.) Affiliate programs are an ideal way to automate your trafficgeneration because other people market your web site for you-- and you don't lift a finger. Your sales increase on a daily basis -- but they do all the selling for you, and it doesn't cost you a dime until they send you paying customers. Now, for the final step, let's talk about what you need to do to keep your traffic coming back to your site again and again.
If visitors leave your site without buying your product, there's a good chance they won't ever be back -- and you'll have absolutely no way of following up with them! Remember: It can take up to seven points of contact to make a single sale, so you'll want to begin collecting visitors' contact information from day one using an opt-in form on your homepage! Here are some ideas for e-mails you could send in case you need an excuse to follow up with your opt-in subscribers: - Monthly or bi weekly newsletters with tons of tips and info - Free reports on a variety of topics that your market would appreciate - Answers to common questions people ask about your product - Offers for products similar or complementary to ones you may have already offered them - Free product trials that give potential customers a taste of what you have to offer - A "downgrade" offer for a product that is less expensive or robust than your featured offer Following up with the addresses you gather is quick, easy, and simple with e-mail management and automation software. You can create e-mails called "autoresponders" that potential customers receive automatically, as soon as they opt in on your site -- within seconds -- no matter what time of day it is, or whether you're even at your desk! That's right -- as soon as your visitors opt in, they start hearing from you on a regular basis without the stress of writing a ton of e-mails to individual addresses. This is a process you can put on autopilot from the very beginning! For a solid e-mail management solution with everything you need to get your e-mail marketing campaign started, check out: Mailloop
--------------- In this article, I've shown you how to get past the biggest hurdle faced by new web site owners -- finding traffic to test your sales process and maximize your visitor-to-sale conversion rate before launching your web site. I've also provided you with a 10,000-foot overview of the steps involved in rolling out a traffic campaign that will quickly ramp up visitors to your new or growing web site. First, I recommended that you start with a PPC campaign, because it generates instant traffic and sales for your web site at a low cost, provided you follow the bidding tips I shared here. Next, I recommended that you submit your web site to the "organic" search engines and directories like Google and Yahoo, which can be a great source of unlimited FREE traffic, provided your listing appears on the first page of search results for your top keywords. From there, the three traffic strategies you'll probably want to tackle are... 1. Giving away free content to get free links (and traffic)from other web sites that target your market. 2. Using "recommend this to a friend" links in your newsletters and on your web site to get free "word-of- mouth" publicity (viral marketing) 3. Request links from high-traffic web sites, so you can piggy-back their top search engine rankings! Finally, we briefly discussed how you can start an affiliateprogram to exponentially grow your business by recruiting anarmy of affiliates who will promote your business on every corner of the Web, with absolutely no risk to you -- becauseyou don't pay them a DIME unless they send you a paying customer! Obviously, we've covered a LOT of ground in this article... So I think it's only fair I point out that, before you dive into ANY of these strategies, you'll need to do a bit more reading and research on each of these topics. For example, there's NO WAY I could cover everything you need to know about PPC campaigns and search engine submission in this short article given that we've spent over 70 pages on these subjects alone in our "Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet" course. And another 60 pages is devoted entirely to "How to Start Your Own Affiliate Program"... Like I mentioned earlier, I wanted to give you the 10,000- foot view, so you have a clear roadmap of exactly what you need to do first, second, and third to test your web site to maximize conversion rates and then roll out an effective traffic campaign that attracts swarms of potential buyers -- automatically -- for years to come. If you want to know more about any of the topics covered here in this article, I highly recommend that you check out our "Insider Secrets" course at: Insider Secrets Course And before I wrap up this article, I'd like to make one last point... Over the years, I've noticed a common thread that links all of our most successful clients who have Internet businesses that make $250,000... $500,000... or over $1,000,000 per year: They have all focused on doing one or two marketing strategies really well. So don't feel like you need to become an expert in ALL of the strategies we've covered here. Focus on becoming really proficient at one or two -- because this may be all you need to dramatically increase your traffic... and sales! Copyright 1996-2005 by The Internet Marketing Center. All rights reserved GO BACK TO Part 1 of How to get Traffic to Your Website |