Wednesday, July 16, 2008

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.