Increase Your Web Traffic

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Your Ultimate “How To” Guide For Increasing Your Website Traffic!

Your website needs traffic. It lives, breathes, and thrives on it. The challenge is positioning your site so that it enjoys continuous exposure to the right people at the right time. Deploying 1 or 2 internet marketing tactics can easily drive hundreds, even thousands, of people to your site. But, what happens when that traffic stream dries up?

Most site owners seem to approach traffic generation without grasping the true potential of their marketing strategies. We’re going to change that today.

Before we get started, let’s set our expectations properly. There’s no possible way we can cover the entire range of marketing strategies that can drive traffic to your site. It can’t be done in 1 article. But, we’re going to take it one step further. Below, I’m going to give you a bird’s eye view of the most effective internet marketing strategies you can use to generate traffic. For each tactic, I’ll provide links to 1 or 2 of the best resources available to learn, master, and apply the strategies. In time, this will become your ultimate “how to” guide for increasing your website traffic.

Let’s get started.

Inbound Link-Building

Building targeted, thematically-related inbound links is the cornerstone of all search engine optimization strategies. But, there’s an art to doing it right. Submitting your site to a few directories is no longer sufficient. Here are 2 comprehensive resources for planning and deploying an inbound linking program:

• Advanced Link Building Strategies – a reasonably well-documented blueprint for taking your link-building program beyond what most site owners can imagine doing.

• Guide To One-Way Link-Building – a thorough treatment of pursuing the right kind of links and their cumulative effect on your website’s search engine rankings.

Link Bait Creation

Link bait is exactly as it sounds: you create content that baits others into linking to your site. That can mean developing an interactive credit card payment calculator, a controversial political view, or an entertaining video. The idea is simple: get people to notice and motivate them to link. Ideally, this strategy should be a part of your inbound link-building program, but it deserves its own mention. Here are 2 resources for learning the link-baiting craft:

• Link Bait Primer – this blog post provides a good overview of the topic from Matt Cutts, a high-profile Google engineer. Start here before moving to advanced link bait tactics.

• 20 Link Baiting Techniques – a great list of ideas compiled onto 1 page by savvy link baiter Darren Rowse.

Autoresponder Sequences

Getting people to visit your site is only 1 part of the traffic generation formula. You need those visitors to return to your site over and over. If you leave the matter to them, it won’t happen. But, if you can persuade your visitors to sign up for an autoresponder sequence, you can drive them back to your site on a predictable schedule. Read the following page to learn the strategy and how to apply it:

• Autoresponder Flowchart – a top-down look at the entire process of encouraging people to subscribe to your sequence and delivering compelling messages that drive them back to your site.

Social Networking And Media

Social networking has become a powerful buzzword over the past few years. It’s a maturing strategy to develop traffic to your site and is bound to change dramatically over the next 12 months. Here are 4 resources that will give you a comprehensive blueprint to leveraging the technique:

• Promoting Your Content On Social Bookmarking Sites – an overview of the method.
• Promoting Your Content On Social Networking Sites – a similar treatment focused on a related segment of the strategy.

• How To Create Digg-Friendly Content – this is a fantastic resource from notable blogger Maki.

• A Comprehensive Guide To StumbleUpon - another resource from Maki that is better than any other StumbleUpon tutorial I’ve seen. Read this page and bookmark it.

PPC Campaigns

Eventually, your search engine optimization strategies, autoresponder sequences, link bait, and other free traffic generation techniques will be sending you a growing stream of visitors. To continue building the stream, launch small, ultra-targeted PPC campaigns. Doing so requires an investment, but if you know your metrics, you’ll be able to deploy this strategy and enjoy a positive ROI. Here are 2 reliable PPC resources:

• Step By Step Guide To PPC Campaign Setup – this is a well-written overview of the entire process of creating a PPC campaign.

• Designing Effective PPC Campaign Strategies – don’t let the date (circa 2005) dissuade you from reading this article. The author discusses PPC strategy from a long-term perspective that is not only still viable today, but critical.

Product Development With An Affiliate Program

Here’s a potent internet marketing strategy that 99% of all site owners neglect. Once you’ve developed a traffic generation program using all of the tactics described above, your website (or blog) will be receiving a continuous stream of readers and fans. If you develop a product and attach an affiliate program to it that allows your visitors to make money by promoting you, it can turn your traffic stream into a river. Here’s a great resource for launching your affiliate program:

• How To Start An Affiliate Program - a tutorial by Allan Gardyne, an affiliate program authority. It was written in 2004, but contains a mountain of useful information about creating your own program.

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Traffic Generation Strategies For The Future

Things change quickly online. The techniques that we’re using today in order to drive waves of traffic to our sites will likely be different 3 years from now. However, the strategies that I’ve listed above have a proven track record of success. They may change in the future, but the foundation upon which they’re built will remain static.

Here’s what I recommend that you do: invest time at each of the resources I’ve given you. Learn the tactics that are described there and apply them. As the methods for driving traffic to your website change, you’ll find that the resources above will prepare you to adapt.