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Archive for March, 2010

5 Ways To Get Tons Of Low Cost Website Traffic

This article which you are about to read has been written because I know from personal experience how crucial it is to your success that you generate a constant flow of traffic to your site and that you do so without having to pay out too much in advertising costs.
There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your website. A steady flow of website traffic. If no one goes to your site it hardly bares a chance of generating an income. Many sites have tried and failed in doing so and this results in the sites demise. It takes money to maintain an income generating site it also takes money to make money.

BUT it does not take a whole caboodle of cash to generate website traffic for your site.

Ever wonder how does big hit sites drive traffic to their site? Most of them are spending tons of money to drive the traffic to their sites investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmickries. This is all worthwhile because well they are what they are now high earning big hitting websites.

You dont have to do this if you dont really have their resources. There are many ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you dont have or cant afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.
Here I present to you the Top five ways to generate low cost website traffic that could help your site a whole lot. Even if you only get a small percentage of successful visitors in to client ratio it still works especially if you get a high number of website traffic.
Exchange Links

This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more public awareness about their sites. You will soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.

A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or content as the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.

Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines rank high sites that have inbound and outbound theme related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines you will generate more traffic to your website without the high costs.
Traffic Exchange

This is like exchanging links but on a different higher level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging or trading links but could be made cheaper because you get to earn credits. You can use those credits when viewing others traffic while you earn credits when someone views yours.

Traffic exchange services are the viewing of anothers site or page. This is done vice versa where a site can use your sites content and so can you use his or her site. You both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your sites existence is boosted.

Now just before we consider the next three ways to generate traffic let me just say that at the end of this article I will be pointing you to where you can go in order to obtain more ideas and suggestions but for now let us continue.

Write and Submit Articles

There are many ezines and online encyclopedias in the internet which provide free space for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs you can do the articles yourself. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write for you for a small fee but to save money it is wise to do those articles yourself.

Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise on so that when they read it they can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be eager to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines to the subject or niche your site has.

Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link them to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light information laden and interesting article they will go to your site for more.

Make a Newsletter.

This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but on the contrary this is not so. 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 passed 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 as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.

Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are with the subject. 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.

Let me finish by saying that there is a lot of information available on this subject just waiting for you to dig out. Pay a visit to your local bookstore or visit your local library and see what is available on traffic generation. Search through the internet and look out for helpful blogs which can provide tips and advice.

About the writer:  Dorothy Thompson is the editor of The Writer’s Life www.thewriterslife.net one of Writer’s Digest Top 101 Websites for Writers and the author of the selfpromoting eBook “A Complete Guide to Promoting Selling Your SelfPublished eBook” available at http://www.thewriterslife.net/promoteebook.html.

Shorts Cuts: What Gaps Failures Teach The World About Business

I was watching an old TV show from last year gosh my TiVo has so much stored it could have been from two years ago and found myself gawking at a supercolorful Sarah J Parker dancing and carousing to “I Just Love Being a Girl” in a really horrible ad for “The Gap” and its new line of pink khakis! It occurred to me this company has had more trouble in the last decade and that all businesses need to pay attention to the veteran retailer….so they don’t end up a joke like The Gap has become. Let’s go to the tape:

1. Consistency is everything. I’ve got to say Gap was the best place to go for undergarments while I was in my 20′s. Instead of doing laundry on Monday nights my pals all went to theGap for Ts and shorts; it was all good because we didn’t have to find quarters for the machines. The quasifashionable Gap of the prior 10 years is a purely fabricated hybrid of pseudo cool and ridiculously cheap clothing you would buy then regret. If only Gap and most businesses would return to basics and stay put Gap slogans are fanciful while the quality is hardly that we might be loyal. I mean there’s a Gap near every Starbucks for Chrissake!
2. Panderingbad! The way Gap tries to be like every other clothing store is tawdry and transparent. Sometimes pretending to be sister B. Republic during those periods when she’s severely upscaleawful. It’s their way of asking us if they’re doing the right thing and it’s mildly schizophrenic. To be all things to all people has never worked for any one thing; to reiterate what was wrong with Gap telling US we needed them and displaying why? Consumers appreciate when you are resolute and like 30 years ago we would gladly Fall into the Gap if they were forthcomingand honestabout who they are!
3. Communicating change and changing only when necessary is followed by people believing in you. Here’s my story… In Connecticut where I spend many weekends I noticed a Gap on the main drag in a town with cash; now since the awning didn’t say “Baby Gap” or “Womens Gap” I walked in and noticed something was nowhere: namely menswear. After a confusing stroll around baby I mumbled to a clerk “Is something missing?” and she said “Oh yeah we don’t have men’s any longer since it wasn’t selling.” “Well” I said with no joy in my voice “how come you don’t announce that on the front?” She shrugged. It will be a long time before I make a fool out of myself on purpose.
4. Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean it’s good. I see Gap trying everything under the sun I swear they had Dockers! just because it’s “in” somewhere else. In the advertising industry there’s this fabulous acronym GMOOT or Get Me One of Those when folks obviously do something because someone else has done it well! To go in a direction that’s not right for you because you HAVE to do it even though your heart is not invested has never worked and will be what kills Gap with a stab in the heartless!
5. Form over function is not a successful formula for an evolving concern. The stores are trying to be minidiscosyeah yeah there’s national competition from that really cool Hamp;M. But tough. I believe and that coffee chain has proven this that what made a venue successful on day one will be what saves it from doom: Be gutsy and go with the basic nottooshabby look of a place that proffers Just The Essentials Mr. Gap.
6. Too Much Information TMI is wrongheaded. Stores and businesses of every ilk forget that mystery is what sucks people in! Why must everyone say everything? Gap has this yucky habit of advertising every charity every new sock every fashion “attitude” they put forth. Dull. Let the customers discover the newest concepts for themselves. Stop shouting your changes to the masses! And while I’m at it every time the financial situation climbs up or falls down Gap screams about it in the media. Quarterly results are finelegally requiredbut when you tell the biz press you’ve failed miserably with multitudes of excuses and promises and changes plastered in news we all see it and think “I’m not going there dude.”
   Like uh keep it in your pants.
7. Going back to what once worked is where businesses run after all the New fails. However it better come with a “mea culpa” or the clientele will laugh and point. I love it when a business throws their hands up with a We’re Wrong and does something bold in a way that makes us secretly go Great. That works. That has never happened at Gap. Every single time this company says they are headed in a new direction they loudly blame it on the economy on “slowing new store sales”. How about we f**ked up. In the postLewinsky post Martha postEnron postWorldCom era I find it utterly refreshing when a company explains their woes asks for forgiveness and like Ford Motor with their hands out shrieks “What’s it going to take to get you to drive this car off the lot today?”

For Gap and companies that can learn a lot from this “crew” all it takes is one deep breath and remembering what made you tremendous to begin with. I know what! They can start a national Don’t Do Laundry Day by Gap! You know I’ll be there.

I’ll use my quarters for the parking.

Laermer is author of “2011: Trendspotting” just out from McGrawHill which has 77 essays like the above; read more at laermer.com.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Richard Laermer is an authority on marketing and media a former reporter who is coauthor of Punk Marketing and writer of the new book 2011: Trendspotting. He’s CEO of New York’s RLM pr representing among others IncrediMail ThisNext Smith Nephew AirPlay Anystream Sky Films Dealighted.com and TutorVista. He was host of TLC’s cult program Taking Care of Business and speaks on trends and marketing for corporate groups. You can read Laermer on huffingtonpost.com/richardlaermer and on the mischievous but all too necessary Bad Pitch Blogbadpitch.blogspot.com
You may also find articles by Richard at TalentZoo.com.

Article Marketing List Building: How To Promote Your Ezine Build Your Own Hyper-responsive List

Your online financial power comes from having your own information products services and programs that you can market to your targeted ideal prospects. Its nearly impossible to make really big money online without a targeted list of prospects.

Every successful marketer both the direct marketer and the Internet Marketer will tell you that the gold is in your list! Build your list. Build your list they say. But if you cant get that list the gold stays put at the end of the Internet rainbow youre chasing.

Heres How You Can Promote Your Ezine So You Can Start Building Your List of Prospects Who Want to Hear From You Right Now:

1. Find the best sites directories and ezines that accept article submissions.

You need to find websites that are highly visited and ezines that are the most read. But more important you want to focus on websites and ezine publishers within your specific niche that have strong emotional connections with your targeted audience. Through our research for bestselling author Mark Hyman MD we found information for a popular About.com editor. About.com is among the top 50 sites on the net today. With just one submission to About.com Dr. Hyman built his optin subscriber list and helped push his book UltraMetabolism to the top of the New York Times Best Sellers List.

2. Write a 500750 word article that increases credibility establishes you as the expert improves your Search Engine Optimization SEO rankings and builds a targeted list of ezine subscribers youve been dreaming of all at the same time.

Writing and marketing articles online is the most effective most costeffective way to publicize your website and promote your products services and ezines online. The Web is a printing press with an insatiable appetite for articles written by experts. There are literally millions of websites and ezines that are begging for good articles.

The articles that get the best results are the ones that provide unique high quality content that solve at least one piece of a problem puzzle. However to convert readers to buyers you must not give the reader all of the answers to the “HOW” to solve a particular problem. If you gave them all the answers they would have no reason to click on the link in your bio box and you lose the perfect opportunity of converting readers into actual sales leads.

3. Turn Readers Into Prospects With A Strong Call For Action

When I submit articles I notice a significant increase in traffic. But having people visit my site is not enough. I need to get them to create a relationship with me so they will buy my services products and ebooks.

To create this special relationship and build your list of targeted prospects hungry for your products and services you need to promote your free ezine within your 50 word resource box also referred to as a bio box or linkback.

When most people promote their ezines at the end of they articles they tell readers to subscribe for their free ezines. This is a mistake. They must tell people why they should subscribe.

If you are like most people your inboxes filled with a barrage of email newsletters that never get read. If you want to get my attention you must tell me how I am going to benefit from giving you my name email address and becoming part of your database to receive your ezine and other special offers. If you fail to do that no one will join your list. Think of the unique reason people will want to read your material and tell them!

4. Submit your article and start building your list of hyperresponsive prospects.

Now is the time to perform the tiring boring and tedious task of submitting your articles. But as youre completing this process know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. By using these article marketing strategies you can build your list of warm readytobuy visitors that can lead to substantial increases in book product or service sales.

5. Maximize your list building and article marketing efforts by following up with key online publishers.

If youre a smart article marketer you dont consider your list building and article marketing project complete until you have thanked key online editors and invited them to discuss other marketing opportunities.

After submitting the article Winterizing Tips for Homeowners: 14 Easy Winterizing Tips That Will Save You Time Frustration Money and Your Life the American Homeowners Association received this email from the publisher of Stretcher.com:

Richard
Thanks for the submission. I’d like to use it in our weekly Dollar Stretcher ezine circ 120k and website . We would include the link back to AHA website.
Also wondering if we should get to know each other a little better. Perhaps we could provide
each other content on a more regular basis or work on other cross promotions.

As a result of the article marketing campaign The American Homeowners Association was also able to develop an invaluable marketing partnership with the publishers of HomeRenovationGuide.com and HousekeepingChannel.com

Remember the Money Is in Your List.

The better your list building strategy is the more money you will make! By writing and submitting articles you will have the ability to create targeted email marketing campaigns like the pros that will instantly reach responsive and convert responsive subscribers into huge sales.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;While helping 65 plus clients with their article marketing and list building strategies Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber has accumulated over 1 million page views within the last year. For more free tips and information that will help you promote your ezine snag more leads than you ever thought possible guaranteed go to
http://www.articlemarketingexpert.com/articlenewsletter