Traffic Tips (2)
Here is some traffic tips to get more traffic to your affiliate sites:
Traffic Tips (1)
6. Your Own Affiliates
This is much easier than you might imagine. If you have a product for sale that you control - usually something you've created yourself, you can pay people to promote it for you. you are effectively getting traffic that is generated by your affiliate in the hopes that they will make
sales. You both win, you run the product and sales, they run the promotion, you split the income.
That's only a basic example. Percentages can vary widely, from 5% right up to 100% (so you get ALL the sale). Sometimes the initial sale isn't important, as you can make money from further sales along the line.
You can run your own affiliate program easily by using ClickBank. With these services you just add your product to the system and you have a ready made back-end where the payment processor will pay you and your affiliate. With others, such as PayDotCom, you must ensure you pay your affiliates what you owe, manually.
You can also use a simple script such as the "$7 Method" script or the various membership scripts that are around. It all adds up to one thing, a successful product will gather willing affiliates, and as long as you have an in demand product that converts well, they will want to
promote.
7. Joint Ventures
A Joint Venture can take many forms, but it's usually a complimentary deal between 2 or more marketers.
The affiliate program above is one such JV. You have the product, they have the traffic, so you team up.
You can also agree to cross-promote each others products - so you both benefit from each others traffic. And you can even create products together, perhaps one persons strength is marketing, anothers is programming. Or one person is good at copywriting, another at graphics.
There are lots of opportunities in this field.
In all actuality most JV's are affiliate deals, where "JV Partners" are really simple affiliates. But as long as both parties are happy, it's well worth arranging.
8. Paid E-Mail Advertising
If you don't have a big list of your own perhaps you would like to rent space on anothers. You can pay for ads to be sent out by another person, to their list.
You can actually rent an email list from list brokers, or you can purchase ads directly from other marketers. You can have your ad sent out to the list alone (a solo ad) or, as in the traditional magazine market, your ad can be included in their electronic magazine (ezine).
Results will vary widely. And it's difficult to know in advance which ezine list is a match for your product, whether the people on that list are responsive to third-party deals (noone likes receiving ads!), etc.
It's probably better to come up with a unique offer for the list owner, be it a discount or a bonus, so they can promote it not as an ad but as a recommendation. Sometimes you will rather form a JV this way instead of purchasing the ad directly.
9. RSS Feeds
An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is a simple text file that contains all the content you have published. You'll usually find them automatically generated by your blog, but you can also use them for other purposes - perhaps an up to date feed of your articles, or your offers.
The benefit to the user is they can use web services or software to "subscribe" to feeds they like, and each day be presented with the latest updates. It's like having an e-mail subscription outside of their actual email.
For the marketer the benefit is that it's yet another way to keep in contact with your visitors, subscribers and customers. With email becoming more difficult deliver, RSS feeds are one possibility. It's probably better to use both.
One service worth using is Feedburner, now part of Google. This service will count the subscribers you have, and ensure your feed is compatible with a ride range of readers. It also has features to let you add extra content to your feed - such as ads, and social bookmark features.
10. Article Marketing
Article Marketing is often suggested as one way you can drive traffic. It is still effective, though less so than it used to be.
The idea here is that you write content, specifically for distribution. You can send it to other site owners and list owners who will hopefully publish your content, and you can submit it to article directories, who will also publish your content as well as make it available for others to use.
When writing an article you should again focus on keyword based articles, in the title and content. This way it will help with search engine listings and enable interested people to find your article.
You gain actuall traffic in two ways. Firstly, you can include a short bio and link at the end of your article, so if people want to find out more they can follow that link. You will also get a pagerank boost as that link will count as another vote for your main site. Luckily, many
article directories as considered "authority sites" - so the link will have greater weight.
To encourage people to read further from the article, consider only writing about a subset of your subject, so to read more they have to click that link. A good example is to include an excerpt from a fuller article or book, or include only, say, the top 5 from 10 total tips.
One point to watch out for is that Google will penalise duplicate content across the web. This is debatable (many Google processes are) but to be safe include a rewritten version at your own site. Even if the article appears first at your site and then at another, higher ranked one it
could end up that Google would consider your home copy as the duplicate.
11. Traffic Networks
There are many traffic networks, or exchanges, around. Some are specialised, some more general, but in essence you will get visitors to your site in exchange for driving visitors to another.
This can work in many ways. For example, with a "banner exchange", you will show banner ads on your site, and for every ad you show your ad will be shown. Sometimes the ratio is different, such as 2:1, so you have to show another ad twice for every one you gain.
Other exchanges work via popups, popunders, pop-ins, etc. Some will use a widget on your site to show ads or images.
Traffic from an exchange is driven by traffic to your site. So the more traffic you have, the more you will receive. And the more you receive, the more that will generate. The sucess of an exchange depends on how many members there are, but it is worth joining them unless the design will not compliment your site or it will irritate your visitors.
As a rule you don't want anything on your site that encourages a visitor to leave, so you have to think carefully about where you place bannersor widgets.
One other kind of exchange focuses on subscribers. This works in a similar way, except for every subscriber you can add, you can mail one more. Email exchanges often use a matrix or multi-level based system, so you refer new members. This way you will gain new subscribers for every one you add, but you also gain a percentage of the subscribers that any of these that you refer go on to add.
12. Paid Hits
It is possible to purchase traffic directly. This will usually be in the form of popunders or pageviews from other websites.
For example, a traffic network might have deals with a large number of participatiing sites that they pay to run ads. These ad impressions are then sold off to other people who want to purchase that traffic.
Another way this paid traffic is generated is from expired domains. The network will own a large number of domains that have fallen into disuse and been de-registered, yet still get traffic. Anyone who arrives at that site is then forwarded to purchasers sites.
Whatever the method used, it's worth noting that bought, bulk, traffic is rarely a high quality. Many traffic providers will allow you to target your traffic, so you can ensure the hits will only come from, say, casino sites, merchant sites, or health sites. But the fact remains people do
not specifically aim to visit your site and may see it as an intrusion.
One use for bulk traffic like this is the fact that it still counts as a "hit". So if you run traffic
exchanges there, it will still add a credit to that exchange. It can also increase your rankings in services such as Alexa.
13. Offline Advertising
While most people with websites focus entirely on internet-based methods to drive traffic, there's still a lot of use to be had from traditional methods.
That is, direct mail marketing, billboard ads, magazine ads, newspaper ads, etc.
Traditional businesses whose website is just an offshoot of their main business are more used to these methods, so they include their web address in their literature, business cards, etc. But there is still scope to be had for companies that are entirely online.
The most important thing is a short, easy to spell URL. This ensures the address is entered correctly. It may also be worth including an incentive, for example a 10% discount or a competition if the website is used.
There is far less competition in the offline world for websites so this can be a good tactic to drive traffic. Even buying a mailing list and sending postcards can work well, and many marketers have driven a lot sales this way. There is a novelty factor in receiving a website address
through the post, and URLs in ads can also help with your brand awareness.
Don't forget your local freeads and classifieds.
14. Forum Marketing
This takes you directly to your customers. If you look for and use forums that cover your niche, for example a Fishing forum for the fishing example we have used throughout this report, then you can participate in conversations there - with a link to your site in your "signature file". This is a small block of text that appears at the end of each of your posts.
You can also be more proactive in promoting your site, by answering queries (or even posting your own) where a potential answer can be found at your own site.
It's important to read the forum first to get a feel for the style used there, and to use the
correct etiquette when responding. If you rub the forum regulars up the wrong way your promotions are doomed to failure.
Traffic Tips (1)
6. Your Own Affiliates
This is much easier than you might imagine. If you have a product for sale that you control - usually something you've created yourself, you can pay people to promote it for you. you are effectively getting traffic that is generated by your affiliate in the hopes that they will make
sales. You both win, you run the product and sales, they run the promotion, you split the income.
That's only a basic example. Percentages can vary widely, from 5% right up to 100% (so you get ALL the sale). Sometimes the initial sale isn't important, as you can make money from further sales along the line.
You can run your own affiliate program easily by using ClickBank. With these services you just add your product to the system and you have a ready made back-end where the payment processor will pay you and your affiliate. With others, such as PayDotCom, you must ensure you pay your affiliates what you owe, manually.
You can also use a simple script such as the "$7 Method" script or the various membership scripts that are around. It all adds up to one thing, a successful product will gather willing affiliates, and as long as you have an in demand product that converts well, they will want to
promote.
7. Joint Ventures
A Joint Venture can take many forms, but it's usually a complimentary deal between 2 or more marketers.
The affiliate program above is one such JV. You have the product, they have the traffic, so you team up.
You can also agree to cross-promote each others products - so you both benefit from each others traffic. And you can even create products together, perhaps one persons strength is marketing, anothers is programming. Or one person is good at copywriting, another at graphics.
There are lots of opportunities in this field.
In all actuality most JV's are affiliate deals, where "JV Partners" are really simple affiliates. But as long as both parties are happy, it's well worth arranging.
8. Paid E-Mail Advertising
If you don't have a big list of your own perhaps you would like to rent space on anothers. You can pay for ads to be sent out by another person, to their list.
You can actually rent an email list from list brokers, or you can purchase ads directly from other marketers. You can have your ad sent out to the list alone (a solo ad) or, as in the traditional magazine market, your ad can be included in their electronic magazine (ezine).
Results will vary widely. And it's difficult to know in advance which ezine list is a match for your product, whether the people on that list are responsive to third-party deals (noone likes receiving ads!), etc.
It's probably better to come up with a unique offer for the list owner, be it a discount or a bonus, so they can promote it not as an ad but as a recommendation. Sometimes you will rather form a JV this way instead of purchasing the ad directly.
9. RSS Feeds
An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is a simple text file that contains all the content you have published. You'll usually find them automatically generated by your blog, but you can also use them for other purposes - perhaps an up to date feed of your articles, or your offers.
The benefit to the user is they can use web services or software to "subscribe" to feeds they like, and each day be presented with the latest updates. It's like having an e-mail subscription outside of their actual email.
For the marketer the benefit is that it's yet another way to keep in contact with your visitors, subscribers and customers. With email becoming more difficult deliver, RSS feeds are one possibility. It's probably better to use both.
One service worth using is Feedburner, now part of Google. This service will count the subscribers you have, and ensure your feed is compatible with a ride range of readers. It also has features to let you add extra content to your feed - such as ads, and social bookmark features.
10. Article Marketing
Article Marketing is often suggested as one way you can drive traffic. It is still effective, though less so than it used to be.
The idea here is that you write content, specifically for distribution. You can send it to other site owners and list owners who will hopefully publish your content, and you can submit it to article directories, who will also publish your content as well as make it available for others to use.
When writing an article you should again focus on keyword based articles, in the title and content. This way it will help with search engine listings and enable interested people to find your article.
You gain actuall traffic in two ways. Firstly, you can include a short bio and link at the end of your article, so if people want to find out more they can follow that link. You will also get a pagerank boost as that link will count as another vote for your main site. Luckily, many
article directories as considered "authority sites" - so the link will have greater weight.
To encourage people to read further from the article, consider only writing about a subset of your subject, so to read more they have to click that link. A good example is to include an excerpt from a fuller article or book, or include only, say, the top 5 from 10 total tips.
One point to watch out for is that Google will penalise duplicate content across the web. This is debatable (many Google processes are) but to be safe include a rewritten version at your own site. Even if the article appears first at your site and then at another, higher ranked one it
could end up that Google would consider your home copy as the duplicate.
11. Traffic Networks
There are many traffic networks, or exchanges, around. Some are specialised, some more general, but in essence you will get visitors to your site in exchange for driving visitors to another.
This can work in many ways. For example, with a "banner exchange", you will show banner ads on your site, and for every ad you show your ad will be shown. Sometimes the ratio is different, such as 2:1, so you have to show another ad twice for every one you gain.
Other exchanges work via popups, popunders, pop-ins, etc. Some will use a widget on your site to show ads or images.
Traffic from an exchange is driven by traffic to your site. So the more traffic you have, the more you will receive. And the more you receive, the more that will generate. The sucess of an exchange depends on how many members there are, but it is worth joining them unless the design will not compliment your site or it will irritate your visitors.
As a rule you don't want anything on your site that encourages a visitor to leave, so you have to think carefully about where you place bannersor widgets.
One other kind of exchange focuses on subscribers. This works in a similar way, except for every subscriber you can add, you can mail one more. Email exchanges often use a matrix or multi-level based system, so you refer new members. This way you will gain new subscribers for every one you add, but you also gain a percentage of the subscribers that any of these that you refer go on to add.
12. Paid Hits
It is possible to purchase traffic directly. This will usually be in the form of popunders or pageviews from other websites.
For example, a traffic network might have deals with a large number of participatiing sites that they pay to run ads. These ad impressions are then sold off to other people who want to purchase that traffic.
Another way this paid traffic is generated is from expired domains. The network will own a large number of domains that have fallen into disuse and been de-registered, yet still get traffic. Anyone who arrives at that site is then forwarded to purchasers sites.
Whatever the method used, it's worth noting that bought, bulk, traffic is rarely a high quality. Many traffic providers will allow you to target your traffic, so you can ensure the hits will only come from, say, casino sites, merchant sites, or health sites. But the fact remains people do
not specifically aim to visit your site and may see it as an intrusion.
One use for bulk traffic like this is the fact that it still counts as a "hit". So if you run traffic
exchanges there, it will still add a credit to that exchange. It can also increase your rankings in services such as Alexa.
13. Offline Advertising
While most people with websites focus entirely on internet-based methods to drive traffic, there's still a lot of use to be had from traditional methods.
That is, direct mail marketing, billboard ads, magazine ads, newspaper ads, etc.
Traditional businesses whose website is just an offshoot of their main business are more used to these methods, so they include their web address in their literature, business cards, etc. But there is still scope to be had for companies that are entirely online.
The most important thing is a short, easy to spell URL. This ensures the address is entered correctly. It may also be worth including an incentive, for example a 10% discount or a competition if the website is used.
There is far less competition in the offline world for websites so this can be a good tactic to drive traffic. Even buying a mailing list and sending postcards can work well, and many marketers have driven a lot sales this way. There is a novelty factor in receiving a website address
through the post, and URLs in ads can also help with your brand awareness.
Don't forget your local freeads and classifieds.
14. Forum Marketing
This takes you directly to your customers. If you look for and use forums that cover your niche, for example a Fishing forum for the fishing example we have used throughout this report, then you can participate in conversations there - with a link to your site in your "signature file". This is a small block of text that appears at the end of each of your posts.
You can also be more proactive in promoting your site, by answering queries (or even posting your own) where a potential answer can be found at your own site.
It's important to read the forum first to get a feel for the style used there, and to use the
correct etiquette when responding. If you rub the forum regulars up the wrong way your promotions are doomed to failure.
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