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7 Great Tips on Driving Targeted Traffic to your Website
By Jan Peterson
We all need traffic. It's the life-blood of an online business.
But what are the best ways to drive targeted traffic directly to
your website? Here are 7 great tips to help you decide.
1. Offline advertising = Online profits
Whatever you're trying to sell online will most likely link to a
relevant or appropriate media section offline. For example, if
you're selling bicycles from your website, there will
undoubtedly be a suitable offline magazine, in which you can
place an ad. The purpose of the ad is not to sell your
products, but to get prospects to visit your website. So your
ad need only consist of a few lines, which should work out to
be quite inexpensive.
Your bicycle ad could read like this: Looking for a new bicycle?
We stock a huge range at discount prices and can deliver
within 48 hours. To learn more visit our website. www.
bicycles4u.com - Your ad could be placed in cycle mags, sports
magazines or even national and local newspapers. Wherever
you think your most likely prospects will look for your products
or services offline is a means to getting them to go online.
2. Press releases for the inquiring minds
Some people just have to know what's new, what's in and
what's out. To stay ahead in this information age, online and
offline press releases can offer newsworthy titbits that could
even be picked up by the national press. If you're just starting
out in your online business, launching a new product or
creating a new service, people will want to know about it.
If this is something you haven't done before, take a look at
some existing press releases by going to Google and typing
'press releases' into the search field. Once you get the idea,
write out your press release, including your contact details
and website URL, then go back to Google and type in 'press
agencies'. Most will charge you for this service but your press
release could get maximum coverage on and off the internet.
3. Opt-in mailing lists
Opt-in mailing lists can provide one of the most effective
means of generating repeat business from your existing
customer base. If your customers have bought from you once
and that buying experience was satisfactory, there's a very
good chance they will buy from you again because they trust
you. Capture emails by encouraging your customers to sign up
for your newsletter or other promotional information.
Alternatively, you could rent an opt-in email list. A carefully
worded e-mail message to people who have expressed an
interest in receiving further information about your products or
services could lead to extra sales, but be prepared to pay a
princely sum.
4. Getting your message delivered direct to your customers
For as long as anyone can remember, direct mail has been
one of the most effective and profitable forms of marketing
ever. Many people have made millions from direct mail and it's
still as successful today as it was 50 years ago. It's also
relatively easy and inexpensive. First, create a single page
introductory sales letter or brochure, detailing you products or
services and all the benefits. For maximum effect, offer your
new customers a discount or something for free, when they
first purchase from your website.
Don't forget, you want them to visit your website, so give
them more than a good reason to do so. Next, rent a targeted
mailing list from a reputable list broker. There are lists
available, which cover every conceivable geographic and
demographic statistic, so whatever business you're in, there
will be one that's suitable for you. Send out your 'invitations'
and wait for your hit counter to melt.
5. Referral marketing
This is a simple strategy of referring your own customers to a
related but non-competitive website in return for them doing
the same for you. Let's say you are selling printers. Find some
quality sites that sell printer inks and contact the webmaster.
Ask them if they would be willing to send their traffic to you in
return for you doing the same for them. Most will agree.
Between you, you will have to decide whether to display an
ad on each other's site or go for a written recommendation.
Either way, it will increase the chances of you getting more
traffic to your site because you have been recommended. You
could seek out many related websites and have numerous
streams of traffic coming directly to you.
6. Traffic merchants
Paying a company to send traffic to your website is an easy
option, so long as the traffic is targeted. There are many
companies who specialize in selling traffic. You could say they
are traffic traffickers. They use all forms of online advertising
to get people to visit your website and usually guarantee the
numbers. At around $20 for 10,000 visitors, it certainly looks
tempting.
Although there are many merchants to choose from, beware
the scamsters operating in this market. Some will take your
money and put your ad on a Free For All (FFA) website,
leaving you to deal with hundreds or thousands of spam
emails from everyone and their dog trying to sell you their
products. A good place to start would be SafePartner.com.
They offer a variety of packages and are very affordable.
TrafficCircuit.com is another company offering this service but
charge a little more. However, they offer tracking services, so
you can see where the traffic comes from. If you're into stats,
you may find this service very useful.
7. Affiliate programs
You just can't afford to ignore affiliate programs. Getting other
people to sell your products for a commission is a tried and
tested, successful and very rewarding exercise. It doesn't
work very well if you're selling a service, but it's
overwhelmingly awesome for shifting your product range. The
best part is, once set up it works on automatic pilot. All you
have to do then is monitor its success, because affiliates do all
the work for you. They advertise your products and send the
traffic to your website to buy them.
Another thing is you don't have to pay your affiliates until
you've been paid. Plus you save on advertising costs, and the
increased activity to your website helps your search engine
ranking. There's an array of affiliate program tracking software
available to track your sales and commission payouts or if you
prefer, you can hire a company to look after all that side of the
business for you.
pepperjamManagement.com is one of the most well-known
companies around, offering a complete affiliate management
solution. If affiliates can earn hundreds of thousands of
dollars in commissions, it's got to be a very worthwhile
consideration for your business.
There are many ways in which you can get others to sell your
products, and there are many ways of finding willing affiliate
partners. Affiliate marketing is fast becoming a science.
As you can see, targeted traffic isn't that hard to do but the
rewards for your online business will show up in the bank.
About the Author
Jan Peterson founder of www.goldstarreview.com researches and reviews business opportunities including internet marketing, real estate investing, affiliate marketing, financial investing and more. Over 400 FREE reports available
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