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HOW TO CREATE A FLOOD OF STEADY TRAFFIC TO YOUR
WEBSITE
By Merle
One question I hear a lot is "how do I get more
traffic to my site?" I have two words for you
market and promote, OK here's a third Daily. Just
because you have a great site don't expect to be
found by search engines alone. There are over 60
million Web Pages on the Net and listing with
search engines alone is simply not enough. Yes, it
should be your first step, but only the first in a
well thought out marketing plan.
Now I'm not saying it's going to be easy. I have
two more words for you Patience and Persistence.
You'll need both to see a payback from all of your
efforts, but in the end when you start seeing the
counter roll, it will all have been worth the
effort. If you want traffic you have to work for
it.
Anyone who's Internet savvy knows there's not just
one magic trick to Internet Promotion. It's using
a combination of techniques that get your site
noticed. I would suggest spending a minimum of one
hour a day in promotion efforts, preferably two.
Like I said it takes times, but by using a
combination of these techniques you will generate
traffic
1) RECIPROCAL LINKS- The Internet is based on
sites linking to each other and your site should
be no exception. By contacting other sites that
have a related theme to yours or that offer a
complimentary service you can build a list of
informative links.
Start by searching for sites like yours, visit
them, and send an email asking if they would be
interested in exchanging text or banner links with
you. This is a win-win situation and gets both
site owners Free Advertising. This tactic should
be number one in your toolbox.
2) BANNER EXCHANGE PROGRAMS-
Banners, Banners, everywhere you go!!! But what
exactly are they and why do you want them on your
page? Think of them as a Co-Op advertising program
in which participants work together to advertise
each others Web Sites,products or services using
banners for advertising. Joining a few of the top
exchange programs is a good way to expose your
site to thousands of people.
Here's how they work every time you display
another members banner on your site, you get a
credit. Based on how many credits you earn the
people who run the banner management program make
sure your banner is displayed on others sites in
the network.
All of this is as easy as signing up and putting a
few lines of HTML code on your page, preferably
near the top.The banner network takes care of
rotating the banners and tracking credits. And
that my friend is why you see banners, banners
everywhere.Some of the top banner programs are:
http://www.linkexchange.com
http://www.smartclicks.com
http://www.bannerswap.com
http://www.bannerCAST.com
http://www.linktower.com
3) CLASSIFIED ADS- There are thousands upon
thousands of sites on the Net where you can post
Free Ads. Use them to your advantage. It can be
very time consuming but worth the effort. If you
just post four or five a day think of how many you
will have placed after two weeks. If you prefer
not do do this by hand, you can purchase software
that will do the dirty work for you. To get
started here are a few Free Classified sites:
http://wwww.getrealproductions.com
http://www.iloft.com
http://www.bizclassifieds.com/
http://www.profitpowerpromo.com/Classifieds.htm
4)EZINES/NEWSLETTERS- This is by far the hottest
technique on the Net. If you're not offering a
Free Newsletter on your Web Site you're missing
out on accumulating a list of email addresses of
people who willingly want to receive information
from you. This form of "opt-in" advertising is hot
because it works. You send out a monthly or weekly
newsletter with helpful information and plug your
business at the same time. This is not spamming
since subscribers have requested to be put on your
list. I suggest signing up with a few newsletters
to give you an idea of what others are doing.
The topic for your newsletter should relate to
your Web Site. For example if your site is about
marketing and promotion you would send out a
marketing and promotion tip newsletter. There are
plenty of Free Places on the Net that will manage
your mailing list Free such as
http://www.egroups.com
http://www.listbot.net
http://www.oaknetput.com
To learn more about ezines/newsletters visit the
following:
http://linz1.netlead.html
http://www.bizx.com/newsletter.html
http://www.infobot.net
5) WRITING ARTICLES FOR OTHER EZINES/
NEWSLETTERS
We all have a subject we know a lot about, so why
not use it to your advantage. Many ezine
publishers are looking for content, you supply
short articles with your byline and a link to your
site at the bottom. This is a win-win situation,
they get content you get Free Advertising for your
Web Site. By subscribing to newsletters you will
quickly accumulate a list of ezine publishers who
want you to submit articles to them. I have
written quite a few articles, (like this one for
example) and I'm telling you this technique works.
Everytime I have had an article published my hits
doubled on that day.
For a list of over 600 Ezines visit the World's
Ultimate E-Zine DataBase
http://www.site-city.com/members/e-zine-master/
FREE NEWSLETTER: "The Writers and Publishers
Connection" helps to "bring Writers and Publishers
together." It lists the content NEEDS of e-zine
Publishers as well as NEWS about New Articles
available for Publishing! Make some Connections!
Subscribe by e-mailing and saying: "W&P 4 Me"
A sample copy is free.
mailto:writers98@aol.com
6) PLACING ADS IN OTHER EZINES/
NEWSLETTERS
There are many newsletter owners who print Free or
paid ads. Once again a great technique that gets
your name out in front of thousands of people.
Make sure you advertise in publications with a
large subscriber base for the best results. The
more people who subscribe the more that will see
your ad.
A lot of ezine publishers are willing to exchange
Free ads with other ezine owners or give new
subscribers a free ad (I do both of these).If you
would like to subscribe to my newsletter so you
can place an ad send email to
subscribe@merlesworld.com then send
me your ad to
msmerle@stratos.net.
For a directory of ezines who accept advertising
visit http://www.lifestylepub.com or Poor
Richard's Web Site at
http://www.poorrichard.com/freeinfo/ezine.htm
7)FFA LINKS (FREE FOR ALL LINKS)
What's known as free for all links pages can be
another tedious chore. Most sites have a page like
this where other site owners can add their URL
into a specific category. This is important
because some of the search engines give you a
higher rating if there are a lot of sites linking
to you, sort of like a popularity contest.
For software that will do this for you and submit
your site up to 150 FFA link pages go to
http://www.merlesworld.com/software.htm
and
download them. One is called FFA Blaster and the
other is Hyper Hits. Before doing this you may
want to set up a free email account with Hotmail
http://www.hotmail.com or the like since you
will
be blasted with Spam (advertisements) from the
people who host these pages. For a list of
hundreds of FFA links visit
http://www.ktpbs.com/classifiedlinks/
Or
http://www.tri-polar.com/atkisson/index.html
http://www.webfulyours.com/links2.html
8) META AND TITLE TAGS-
For your pages to be properly indexed by the
search engines these two tags are of the utmost
importance. Make sure you include them on all of
your pages before submitting them.
The tags look like this and are located between
the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags at the top of your
Web page.
<META NAME ="KEYWORDS" CONTENT=
"YOUR KEYWORDS">
<META NAME ="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT=
"YOUR DESCRIPTION HERE">
The limit for the number of characters is 200 for
keywords and 100 for the description. Some search
engines penalize you or ignore characters if you
use more than this. Do not repeat a keyword more
than 3 or 4 times as some search engines will
penalize you for this too. Make sure to separate
the keywords with spaces or commas not both. Each
counts as a character so you're wasting characters
that could be used to enter more keywords
Not all search engines support Meta Tags, but you
still need to include them for those that do. To
learn more about search engines visit these sites:
http://www.searchenginewatch.com
http://www.stars.com/Search/Meta/Tag.html
http://www.northernwebs.com/set
9) AWARDS
This techniques involves giving out awards to
other worthy sites. This is a debatable one some
use it, some don't. It works like this you place a
form on your site where others can apply for your
award. When they win they place a graphic (that
you supplied, which is the award)on their site
with a link back to your site. For more
information and to apply for awards visit:
Awards Cave
http://members.tripod.com/~AwardsCave?
Award Sites
http://www.focusa.com/awardsites/introduction.htm
Award Links http://www.freelinks.com/awards.html
10) WEBRINGS
This can be described as an online club of people
all linked to each other. In each of its tens of
thousands of rings,member web sites have banded
together to form their sites into linked circles.
This allows more visitors to find them easily.
For example if your Web Site was made with Front
Page there's a ring you can join just for that.
When you join you will be given an HTML code to
insert in your page and wala you're done! The code
you inserted puts like a banner on your page with
the name of the ring and clickable links to the
next site, or a random site in the ring. Now when
someone clicks on the ring banner there's a
possibility they will end up on your site. For more
information or a list of rings to join see
http://www.webring.org
11) OFFLINE PROMOTION
Often overlooked and oh, so easy. Your URL should
be on your stationary, business cards, envelopes,
brochures, and letterhead. You'd be amazed at how
many site owners have no mention of their URL on
any of the company's advertising materials. Make
sure that everything you use promotes your Web
Address.
If you print it, include your Web address. People
won't know you have a site if you don't tell them.
Another simple and overlooked tip is to include
your web address and slogan in your signature line
that goes out on all of your email. For example my
standard signature looks like this
Merle
Free Webmaster Resources
http://www.merlesworld.com/
Easy, and it packs a promotional punch. If you
have a newsletter that goes along with your site
you should include the subscriber information as
well for example
For the Best in Internet Marketing subscribe to
Merle's Mission
http://www.merlesworld.com/newsletter.htm
All of these techniques are very simple and take
nothing but time. You need to get yourself in the
mind set of constant promotion. Like brushing your
teeth or taking a shower, it needs to be done
daily. For more places to promote your site visit
http://www.merlesworld.com/marketing.htm
So it looks like you have a lot of work to do,
time to get busy. Remember a little bit every day
is all it takes to bring a flood of traffic to
your site. It's up to you to get the word out, so
get cracking.
Visit Merle's World
Freebies for Webmasters
http://www.merlesworld.com/
Sign up for Merle's Mission
mailto:subscribe@merlesworld.com
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