Web Traffic:  Strategies for Profit Maximization

by Gloria Instead

The internet has fundamentally changed the rules of business. The communications capability and the low cost outlay have all brought about the possibility to create new market opportunity. The rule of the making money on the internet lies in ones ability to reach potential customer with a profitable business offer even if only a small percentage of the targeted customers makes purchase. While the importance of product research analysis and target audience analysis cannot be taken for granted; the need to get customers to visit the website and make a purchase becomes imperative. Hence the techniques to increasing web traffic are discussed as follows:

Know your Market

Affiliate marketing is a very competitive program on the internet. For this reason, you must search out details of the product you intend to market, and your competition. This would mean knowing:

• The keyword that are getting the most traffic for the product or service you intend to affiliate
• The price bid for those key words

This knowledge is essential because with the right key and the right budget- you can generate traffic to your web.

Start a campaign

Based on your keyword search- you can create a compelling advertisement using Google Ad word and yahoo search marketing. You can also advertise in doubleclick.com, AOL, MSN, Adbrite. These vendors are the top advert servers in 2008 which enjoyed million of viewers. (http://www.wikipedia.org/).

Build link popularity

This is achieved by sending email to similar website like yours and requesting them to link to your website. You can check (http://www.ringsurf.com/

Write to free article sites or ezine

This way you can get a lot of back link to your website. There are many sites which will accept your written material; the catch is that you are giving it away for free. The benefit, however, is that you get to include a link to your site in the article, meaning every time someone clicks on your link, it brings free traffic to your site.

Submit to search engines

The best way to increase traffic is to register your website with the major search engines. Then, when a search engine user looks for a particular word or phrase, the search engine looks into the database and produces the results, usually sorted by relevance according to the search engine algorithms

Google_ AOL search, Click4Carbon, CompuServe Search, MySpace Search, Netscape and ripple

Yahoo_ AltaVitsa, AlltheWeb, GoodSearch, Rectifi

Live Search_ A9.com, Tafiti, Ms.Dewey

Ask.com_ Hakia, iwon and Lycos

Join Social Networking sites

Register with social networking sites such has face book which has about 140 million registered users; MySpace has about 253 million registered users; Window Live Spaces about 120 million, twitter etc. (http://www.wikipedia.org/). You will get easy traffic to your sites using these sites.

Making money has never been so easy with the coming in of the internet. However, proper planning and adequate information on the best ways to share part of the money on the web is valuable. While the techniques are inexhaustible, using the above method will help ensure success in whatever business endeavor on the internet.

By Gloria Instead

http://www.richglotepnetwork.info/

Gloria Instead is a syndicated newspaper columnist and author. Gloria’s write -ups has won editor’s choice award which comes straight off the front line of the internet. Get updates on the best money making program, tips for free by email!

I would like to thank Gloria for her tips on Generating Traffic and Maximizing Profits. Thanks Gloria.

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HERE’S BROOKE…

Web Sites Versus Blogs

This is a really good question. I feel that the answer can be really confusing. Why? Because it all depends on what or how you are using the Web Site or Blog. Also, are you using your online tools for business or personal reasons? Those reasons can change how you are using your online tools dramatically. Let’s look at business and personal reasons and see how a Web Site or Blog can be used for each.

Business

Web Sites

• General info about you and your company that you want to portray.
• Products and descriptions that are not changing.
• Services and descriptions that are not changing.
• Directions.
• Selling online.

Personal

Web Sites

• Add pictures of you, your family.
• Events that do not change.
• General information.

Business

Blogs

• Have a conversation.
• Build relationships easier.
• Tell what is going on in your industry.
• Answer common questions.

Personal

Blogs

• Have a conversation.
• Build relationships easier.
• Talk about whatever you want.
   

Confusing right?

Well it isn’t. I feel that having both a Web Site and a Blog is a great idea.

For Business: I have a Web Site for my business and about to add a Blog to it as well. I know that the Blog will bring in more traffic and hopefully it will bring more traffic to the web site as well. People who read the Blog might also become interested in what I do. The blog will help me to build relationships and hopefully bring in more sales!

For Personal: I have a web site and blog for my personal site. It’s nice to have static pages that never change. That way I can add pictures as time goes by and people can see the recent pictures or access or latter ones.

The blog is nice because I can talk about what is happening with my family on a monthly, weekly, or even hourly basis. I think that it’s a good way for relatives who don’t live close to us to get an idea of what is going on with all of us.

So you can see that web sites and blogs can and should be used for very different reasons. But as whole I believe that if both are used together and are used well and in the correct way – then they can be very successful!

It’s not too late to enter the Blog vs Website Contest. Submissions will be accepted until July 14, 2008. But time is growing short, so write and send in your post today!

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But the great stuff? That happens in concert: with other people, with other people’s ideas, with other people’s help.

I came to SOBCon without a computer. “Just Joe” came with a computer, and some brain freeze.

Together, we made a blog post.

It’s a start. And starting? That’s the hard part.

Everything else is all downhill…

xxx
c

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So, here is Barry’s story in his own words.

Radio Silence: Bounce! At Home

When people ask where I live, I tell them 5F on an American Airlines Super 80 plane. I did 100 flights last year speaking and consulting. (My wife says I only hang my clothes in Chicago). So after 100,000 miles traveling last year, how do I write another book? Where do I write it?

I have not worked in “real office” environment since 1999 when I sold my last business. At that time, my wife forbid me to start another one for 10 years since I had dragged her through so much mud. As a result, for the last 9 years, I have worked out of my home. Well, I really work wherever my cell phone, laptop, wi-fi and iPod are. When I do heavy writing however, it is always in my home office on the lower level of my house in Chicago. We do not call these basements in this town. Since every lot a house is build on (I think since the Chicago fire) is 25 feet wide by 125 feet long, all the vertical real estate is valuable. My “basement” has carpeting, a fireplace, bathroom, show, and wet bar …this is not your parents’ basement!

In the 3 years it took to write the new book, Bounce! I mostly did it on Fridays. I would lock myself in my office for 4 hours at a time. I would turn off the cell phone and turn off email. It is the Internet equivalent of ‘radio silence” I would turn up Ali Farke Toure- he is a Mali musician. For the last two books, he is the only one I can write to. I do not know why since I do not understand a thing he says ( I think he sings in French), but his brand of African music always put me in the creative state of mind I needed to write the books. Ali Farke Toure provided me the trance like focus to block everything else out. My clients also knew that Friday was writing day. Schedule the time in your calendar- I write on Fridays! Don’t call me or look for me. My editor kept me on schedule and we had review dates I had to meet.

Many people say they could never write a book. I never thought I would write one, now two (and I have started the third already on customer service) So how do you write a book? ..One word at a time they say. I am of the mind that you just keep writing after the outline is down on paper. Don’t edit yourself out- there is plenty of time for you and others to do that. My best friend was always the MS Word function called “RECOUNT” so I could see how many words I had written that day. (BTW, when I finished writing my first book, the total words was 66,666- not a good sign. I had to add or delete some work). Progress? 2,000 words was a good day (we needed 75,000 for a rough draft)… 500 was, well, a not so good day. Just write.

I practiced what I preached in my book. Not worrying about if I had success or failure in writing in a particular day- I just wrote as part of the overall cycle and kept “bouncing” to the next chapter. I also tried to “strived for minimal achievement” and I did not get caught up in the enormity of the task. I would focus on one section at a time and not worry about an entire chapter or getting it right perfectly the first time. Focusing is becoming an increasingly difficult skill since there are so many distractions, but it also can become relaxing when you relieve yourself of these things by shutting them off and telling people to stay out. We all need to let go a bit more.

The most fun about writing is the research. I used a combination of my travels, experiences and people I met as sources for the book. Many times people come to you because they are attracted to a subject. Many times you go to them because you start to view everything in the lens of the book.

Think of writing a book at home? Just start. Just write. Read it over and write some more. If you have passion for a subject you will be surprised how easily 75,000 words comes to you. This article was 752 words.

I would like to thank Barry for sharing some insight into the world of professional writing and what it really takes to get a project like the book Bounce! off the ground. Although I am only midway through my copy of Bounce!, I have found some great stuff that may just help me in my endeavours to get ahead in my home business. You might find something for yourself in the pages of this great resource for entrepreneurs too.

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Here’s Tom Haskins…

Learning from your customers by blogging

For a home based business to succeed, it has to learn from its customers and the changing marketplace. You cannot assume the customers are satisfied just because they are buying what you’re selling. You’re in trouble if you assume the market has stayed the same since you jumped into it. Your small business may have to learn faster than it’s rivals if it’s in a market with a lot of competition. A bigger business can say “you win some and you lose some”. A home based business has more at stake and more reasons to learn as much as possible to avoid losing a customer.

Small businesses with no blog have a difficult time getting this learning accomplished. The business may rely on complaints and returns if it delivers goods. It may use a feedback form if it provides services. In either case, the customer’s thinking is being captured for a brief moment in time. Usually they are upset with what they bought or relieved that their project is completed. That snapshot does not represent the broad spectrum of their thinking over time. The business then comes across as a “slow learner” for having so little idea what the customers are really thinking. The delivery of quality products and services appears to customers as unresponsive, out of touch and difficult to make more useful. The business is doing the best it can and making a bad impression at the same time.

When a business updates its own blog regularly and subscribes to other blogs, learning from customers and changing marketplaces occurs easily. Free advice, tips and recommendations may be offered on your blog to develop a readership. Announcements of new products and services can be added occasionally. A few of the readers will leave comments. Other’s who are bloggers may link back to a posting on your business blog in something they write. If you search the blogosphere through Technoraiti or Bloglines, you can then subscribe to your search and get notified anytime mention is made of the words in your search. I recommend subscribing to searches for your name, your business’s name and the name of your products. You may also think up other searches that deal with the particulars of what you’re offering, changing and designing for future sales. You can also subscribe to searches of your rivals to see how they are getting talked about.

By subscribing to other blogs, you’ll find other bloggers discussing an area of your expertise. You can add comments to their blog and gain visibility among their subscribers. This may increase comments you get on your blog and give you a better idea of what your customers are thinking. Once you have a established readership, you may even be able to use your blog like a focus group. You can write up a change you’re considering (in strategy, product/service, pricing, policy, etc) and ask for input. The comments you get can be read by others. That makes it easier for commenters to add to what has been said or disagree, without repeating what has already been said.

By blogging, your repeat customers who subscribe will learn more about how you think, what you care about and how your business is changing. The blog will give your “fan base” more ways to chat up your business to others. They can even email your blog posting to others they think might be interested. More of your customers will act like “citizen marketers” that spread the word about your enterprise for free. Your blog will give your customers more to talk about with their friends or colleagues than simply recommending that they “check you out”. Anytime someone mentions your business on their blog, your subscription searches will find it. You can then learn from how you’re talked about, what stands out about everything you’re doing and what the customers wish was different.

By subscribing to other blogs, you’ll find you’ll personally be learning like crazy. Lots of us are blogging with good ideas and perspectives about forthcoming changes. There are days where it feels to me like “drinking from a fire hose” there are so many inspired blog postings to digest. Anytime you need to get your thinking out of a rut, reading blogs in your line of work can re-invigorate your passion for what you’re doing in business for yourself.

Tom Haskins is a Mentor to Freelancers who writes about growth, changing learning and creating. In his own words… “After 14 years of management consulting and living in 11 different states, in 1991 I started 12 years of teaching college – 12 different courses where I experimented with different approaches each semester.”

Tom Blogs at:

growing changing learning creating and Clues to the College Blues

[tags]Tom Haskins,growing changing learning creating,Blogging,Work at Home/Blogging Project[/tags]

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