Website Traffic is Essential

Here are Five Ways to get Traffic at Low Cost

When it comes to making money from your Website there is one rule that must be obeyed. That rule is that you must be able to generate a steady stream of Visitors. It stands to reason that you will not be able to make any money if no-one arrives at your site to see what you have to offer.

This has been the demise of many a fledgling online business. They have tried but without success. It is a fact that you require money to advance an income generating Website. It is also the fact that it takes capital to make money. And this is where many have failed. They have not had the cash to invest in getting traffic to their site.

HOWEVER

Generating traffic to your website does not take a huge bundle of cash if you know how to go about it.

It is true that the ‘Big Guns’ can drive huge amounts of traffic to their online businesses by investing very large amounts of money on sophisticated advertising campaigns and the many different marketing schemes available and even by using gimmicks. For them this is definitely worth the money they spend after all this is what has got them to the point they are today - with high volumes of traffic and huge profits they have become online Mega sites.

But don’t be discouraged. You don’t have to spend mega bucks to succeed if you don’t have the necessary resources. Sadly there have been many people who have ‘lost the very shirt off their backs’ because they have depended on using high cost ways of promoting their website when they really could not afford it.

This does not need to be the case as there are several ways to generate traffic to your website without spending the fortune that you can’t afford or do not have. Here are 5 Ways to Generate Traffic at Low Cost.

These methods could vastly improve your website traffic statistics. If only a small percentage of visitors convert to becoming clients it works well especially if your traffic is way beyond your present levels.

1. Get Good Quality Links pointing to your site: Well how do you do this? - Exchanging links is still a useful method. It is very rare that you come across a site that has no link to another site. Exchanging Links enables web-masters to expose their site to the net more readily and thus ensuring that their site comes to the fore in the public eye. Perhaps a more desired linking method these days is One way Linking. This is where you encourage other good quality, high ranking websites to link to your site. One excellent way of doing this is submitting your site to as many Directory sites as you can. There are usually several Directories in most niche subjects.

Most online marketers are willing to exchange links and Directories will usually accept your submission but a VERY IMPORTANT factor is that you link to ‘relevant’ sites i.e. ones that fit with what you are promoting. It will be detrimental if you link with a company promoting ‘pig food’ if you are trying to sell high quality jewelry or if you submit your site to a Directory promoting ‘belly dance costumes’ if your niche is gardening. Your traffic will not appreciate that.

It is important that linking sites have a common purpose, a continuity in the provision of information or a service that interests their target traffic. If you ignore this factor the Search engines won’t like it either and you will fail to make any headway.

One of the key benefits of linking strategies is that the Search engines put a high significance on your linking popularity. They see all the ‘back links’ and consider you to be an important site to be reckoned with. As a result they increase your ranking and you move up their listings. As you move higher in the rankings your site will be seen by more surfers and you will get more ‘organic’ traffic that doesn’t cost you anything.

2. Write Your own Articles and Submit them to E-zines - If you search the internet you will find many online encyclopedias and e-zines which allow you to submit articles for free. If you cannot write yourself there are my freelance writers who, for a small fee, are willing to write articles for you. However if you want to save money you can write them yourself.

Once again it is important to stress that any article you write should coincide with the theme of your site. Everyone has expertise on something - write about what you know. If you do this those that read your articles will ‘feel’ your knowledge and will eagerly visit your site. It is a good idea to write articles that contain guidelines or tips on the subject matter of your website. Write an interesting, information packed, article and they will be hurrying to your site for more.

All that you need to do then, and this is very important, is to provide a resource box at the end of your article that links them back to your website. You could write a little about your site or you could simply place a link.

3. Traffic Exchange - What is ‘Traffic Exchange’? The principle of traffic exchange services is that a website set up for the purpose receives submissions from web-masters that join the network. The person who submitted the website then earns credits by browsing other member sites on the exchange program. These credits then allow the web-master to have his site viewed by other members in the system. This means that all of the sites involved have an increases in the number of visitors to their sites.

There may be a cost involved but very often these web exchange sites are free. Generally traffic exchange programs are used by small business owners who are working on a low budget and need free or low cost advertising. And they can be a good source of traffic if used correctly.

There is a note of caution however. You should choose carefully which traffic exchange site you use. It has been said that the usefulness of some of these programs is doubtful as sites are forgotten by many people once the time limit is up. Also some say it is risky to use these as it can get you banned ~from some advertising packages and some traffic exchanges use forms of advertising that are banned. However if you choose carefully there shouldn’t be any problem.

4. Create a Newsletter - Your first thought might be that this sounds like hard work. It is true that you do need to use a lot of articles to successfully build a Newsletter. But contrary to what you may think this is not difficult.

There are many websites and copywriters who are more than eager to provide you with free articles. Their only stipulation is that you place their name at the foot of their article. Your Newsletter brings you more traffic and gives the copywriter more advertising.

Your letter gets passed around and as it does more and more people become aware of your internet presence. Producing a Newsletter is great as, when folk sign up, it builds an ‘opt-in’ emailing list of interested parties who can revisit your site time and time again.

5. Online Communities and Forum Memberships - Joining these sites does not cost you anything but your time. You share your expertise and knowledge on your website - why not with online communities and Forums. As before, choose Forums that deal with the same niche or subject as your own website.

Publish your two cents worth and amaze other members with your knowledge about your particular subject. This has the effect of building your reputation. Then as your reputation grows so does the reputation of your website. Your Website eventually becomes known for the honest and reputable business that you have known it is all along. It will then begin to be trusted and visited by many relevant visitors who, because they have come to trust you will take advantage of what you offer.

Search Engine Friendly Pages

There is no point in building a website unless there are visitors coming in. A major source of traffic for most sites on the Internet is search engines like Google,Yahoo!, MSN, Altavista and so on. Hence, by designing a search engine friendly site, you will be able to rank more easily in search engines and obtain more visitors.

Major search engines use programs called crawlers or robots to index websites to list on their search result pages. They follow links to a page, reads the content of the page and record it in their own database, pulling up the listing as people search for it.

If you want to make your site indexed easily, you should avoid using frames on your website. Frames will only confuse search engine robots and they might even abandon your site because of that. Moreover, frames make it difficult for users to bookmark a specific page on your site without using long, complicated scripts.

Do not present important information in Flash movies or in images. Search engine robots can only read text on your source code so if you present important words in Flash movies and images rather than textual form, your search engine ranking will be affected dramatically.

Use meta tags accordingly on each and every page of your site so that search engine robots know at first glance what that particular page is about and whether or not to index it. By using meta tags, you are making the search engine robot's job easier so they will crawl and index your site more frequently.

Stop using wrong HTML tags to style your page. Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) instead because they are more effective and efficient. By using CSS, you can eliminate redundant HTML tags and make your pages much lighter and faster to load.

What are ‘Private Resell Rights’and what does the term mean

It is a fact that a huge number of people use the Internet each and every day It is also a fact that large numbers of those individuals are anxious to find ways of making money online.

It is possible to use the Internet to research for ‘money making’ opportunities however the vast numbers of online ‘scams’ is the one big problem which makes doing this a more of a danger than an opportunity.

Unwittingly getting involved in one of these scams may not only dash your online money making dreams but it may also leave you absolutely broke. That is why it is so important that, before you invest any money or sign a contract, you must be fully aware what each online money making opportunity is all about and that you fully understand the implications for you.

It has already been mentioned that huge numbers of individuals search for money making opportunities and ideas. As this is the case it may be that most likely you are one of that number. And who can blame you - this is a legitimate idea after all.

Throughout your search it may be that you have sited an opportunity that claims you can make good money by reselling private label products. Now the good news is that the majority of these opportunities are legitimate and safe to embark upon. However the bad news is that it is rare for these offers to give you the detail you need to make an informative choice. This means you have no way of knowing what you may be getting into or how you are meant to go about making money with them.

Unfortunately there are many folk who, where making money online is concerned, move on to another opportunity before fully understanding the present one and how it works.

The fact is it could well be that, if you do this with private label reselling, you will be missing out on a lifetime opportunity. Don’t move quickly on to the next so called ‘money making’ opportunity before you have learned as much as it is possible to learn about private label resell rights. It is more than likely that, after you have understood this amazing phenomenon called PRIVATE LABEL RESELL RIGHTS, you will discover that it is a great way to make money online.

A wide variety of different entities are covered by the term ‘Private Label Resell Rights’ and the Products that go along with it. You will discover that, online, most of these products include e-books, articles, software programs and source codes. These types of products are in high demand and that is why they are so popular. There are several reasons for this. For example:

- E-books are increasing in popularity very rapidly. They are much cheaper to buy than printed books and more and more people are discovering this.

- Articles are used by many web masters to increase their website content

- Software programs are increasing in popularity as more businesses make the decision to be unified, computer wise. .

- It is essential for the development of websites to have html codes and Source codes.

Now, it is a fact that, while software programs, content articles and e-books are needed for the reasons stated above, there are many many ‘would be’ online entrepreneurs that do not have the skills necessary to develop their own content or programs. As a result they are forced to hiring a professional to do the work for them. However the problem with hiring a professional is that it usually is very very expensive.

A professional software developer or writer can and do charge as much as they was for their services and many of them charge very large amounts indeed. This renders the proposed project impossible to get off the ground, especially if the ‘would be’ marketer is on a tight budget.

It is necessary for many businesses and individuals alike to search for much cheaper alternatives.

NOW....

This is the whole crux of the matter One of those alternatives may involve purchasing a product from you. How can this be?

Well very many experience Professionals develop large amounts of Software programs, e-books and content articles. However most often these Developers to not have the experience nor the time to market their products on the Internet. Therefore it is most likely their products will never sell and will die a natural death.

So this is what these Creators of private label products do. They sell the rights to their Products. You have the opportunity to Buy these ‘Rights’ However, it is when you are granted the ‘Resale Rights’ or even the 'Public Label Rights' that the big opportunity for making money is achieved.

When Products you have bought come with Resale (or Resell) Rights this means you can sell them on and usually this also means you can sell them for any price you want. If they come with Public Label Rights (PLR) the advantages are even greater. In this instance you have the right to alter them in any way you like and claim them as your own. The beauty of either of these options is that you get to keep 100% of the profits!! So what exactly does all this mean for you?

What it means is that for a modest price you will not only be able to buy an e-book, content articles, or a software program but that you will also be buying the rights to offer these products for sale to others and if they come with Public Label rights you will also have the opportunity to alter them in any way that you wish and claim authorship.

The fact of the matter is that you will actually be making money without having had to do any (or at least with PLR the minimum) of the work. This may sound Impossible but let me tell you Honestly IT IS NOT! All that it is necessary for you to do is to find a supplier of Good Quality products that come with resale rights.

That Supplier may be the creator of the product themselves or a trustworthy online business that offers such products for sale at very reasonable prices.

Either way you will be entering into a legitimate, worthwhile, profitable business opportunity If you are still searching for the perfect opportunity to make money online and do not want to become embroiled in one of the many scams that are out there. And if marketing online products with resell rights sound like something you would be interested in then GET SEARCHING

Key to Better Websites - Navigation

One of the primary implications of a well-organized - good website, is to keep your visitors in the website. A website is definitely created for a purpose, unless intended for personal use, which is the minority.

For example, a portfolio website would want to be visited and it’s content viewed. For companies and internet businesses, your website certainly aims to provide product information, to make sales, or somewhat similar.

However, most individuals undoubtly prefer visually captivating designs, so on and so forth. It is undeniable that this causes no harm, but one must put himself(herself) in other people’s shoes,so as to understand how a visitor to the website might think, do and react.

Let us think for a moment about 'Navigation' - or in other words consider the implications of how easy or otherwise it is for your visitors to find his or her way around your website.

As I said, a web designer has to learn how to think the way your visitors think.

Consider the the following two examples:

Situation A : Website with good navigation (2-3 hyperlinks to target page), well planned in terms of placement, and design.

Situation B : Website with poor navigation (takes forever for the visitor to reach his or her target page),hard-to-read navigation fonts and poor placement of the navigation button bar.

In Situation A, a visitor will always want to be able to access his(her) target page. For example, the individual comes across your website, and is interested in the product sold, but wants to find more information. He(she) finds the navigation with no trouble, and enters the particular product information page.

As for Situation B, a visitor stumbles into the website, and would also like to find out more information about the product. Unfortunately, due to bad placement and fanciful font-types, the visitor takes forever,or even fails to find the navigation bar. Even when he(she) does so, links to the product information are nowhere to be found, (example : home - about - products - product image - etc…a few more clicks..- product information).

Analysis : In both situations, wouldn’t a website with characteristics similar to the Situation 'A' be more rewarding and be far more likely to keep your visitors on your site and therefore much more likely to purchase.

In situation'B' Your visitor is likely to become frustrated and quickly lose patience and leave your site without even bothering to look around to see what you have to offer far less purchase from you.

So start thinking the way your visitors think and provide them with an enjoyable experience that will keep them looking around your site.

The Importance of Good Web design

You may be still considering how you intend conducting your online business. It is possible to make money online without having your own website. An example of this would be to purchase and promote mini "sales page" sites.

If you are considering, however, having your own website there are certain elements you should consider, especially 'good design'

Your website is the hub of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not.

When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like how they could if they were dealing with an offline company. Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a well designed web-site comes in.

Imagine if you are running an offline company. Would you allow your salespersons to be dressed in shabby or casual clothes when they are dealing with your customers?

By making your staff dress professionally, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter. Similarly, the same case is with your web-site.

If your web-site is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute "quick fix", you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care for quality.

On the other hand if you have a totally professional looking web-site layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organised, focused and you really mean business.

You should also make sure anything related to your company is well designed. From business cards to letterheads to promotional brochures - every little bit matters.

This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business. Once again, think of the "salesperson dressed shabbily" anology, and you will get my point.

So remember - Good Web design is essential if you want to make a good 'first impression' and it is first impressions that keep people on your site for longer and eventually lead to sales

The site you can view here is a good example of a bright well designed sales page that is intended to draw people in, keep them there and eventually leading to the sale. Take a bit of time consider the design for your site and you will have the same success.

Successful Forum Viral Marketing

In order to be successful using forums to do viral marketing there are some things that are required.

Do Your Homework: Prior to joining any forum, you must do some research.

1. Join relevant forums that are in some way related to the promotion’s primary sales market. For example, someone involved with a health related product, many types of forums could apply….everything from holistic medicine to stay-at-home moms.

2. Choose popular forums. There is no point in wasting your time and energy on forums that few members and few posts. Page raking and the amount of active members are two good ways to check for this.

3. Choose forums that allow sig tags. If it’s possible read the rules before joining and pay attention to them. Your time is important, too. It is better to find out that a forum doesn’t allow posts with sig tags before you go to the time and trouble of joining.

After You Have Joined: OK…you have chosen two or three forums that meet your requirements…now what?

1. Keep your sig tag short and update it regularly. The ideal thing is to limit yourself to one link, preferably to your main website.

2. Never create posts that are nothing more than an advertisement. This all but a universal rule and only displays the marketers lack of experience if he does so. At best this kind of post will be deleted by the monitors….at worst, it is grounds for being banned.

3. Work the room. Be an active member on the forum. Plan to spend at least an hour each day there and take the time to get to know the users. Take the time to introduce yourself with intelligent questions depending upon the forum’s topic.

As a marketer becomes a regular member, they will hopefully develop a good reputation and without saying a word about their promotion, those who are interested in their product will approach them.

How and Why E-mail Viral Marketing Works

You might well ask whatever does marketing have to do with a virus?

Put very simply viral marketing can be described in this way-- It is any marketing strategy that encourages the recipient of any message to pass it on to other individuals. This increases exponentially the message’s influence and exposure and, as with viruses, there is an explosion of the message to first thousands and then millions as these strategies take advantage of the rapid multiplication,

An example of how it works can be seen within the health sector during the ‘flu season’ as public health nurses give the sound advice to ‘avoid being in the company of people who have a cough, don’t touch your nose, mouth or eyes and be diligent in washing your hands often. They give this advice because it is only when viruses are easy to transmit that they spread.

It is the same with viral e-mail marketing. Internet communication is so easy these days and has become so inexpensive that viral marketing via e-mail has tremendous potential and works extremely well especially as copying is so simple in digital format.

It is important, from a marketing viewpoint, to design that your marketing message is simple. This ensures that your message is not degraded and that transmission is easy. Do you remember K.I.S.S (Keep it Simples Stupid) That standard relays the idea that ‘short is better’. The shorter the message the easier it is to remember and that is far more effective than a long and complicated message which no-one can understand or remember.

It is a sad but true fact that human motivations are driven by the ‘desire to be cool’ and ‘greed’. Other factors include the desire to be loved and understood and the hunger to be popular. Astute viral marketing strategies embrace these common human motivations which themselves induce an urge to communicate. The result is millions of web-sites and billions of e-mail messages. It is an unwise marketer who ignores this potential

We know that most people are social beings. According to the Social scientists each of us have 8 to 12 people in our network of family, friends and associates. The Internet has grown to be no different. Individuals build networks of relation-ships on the Internet by gathering favorite web-site URLS and collecting e-mail addresses.

Opt-in e-mail lists and Affiliate programs have learned to exploit such networks. You can learn this strategy too. Discover how to get your message placed into existing communications that people have between each other and you multiply its dispersion extremely rapidly.

Design a marketing strategy that builds its transmission on common human behavior and motivation and you have a Winner.