Posts Tagged ‘internet advertising’

You Can Be a Traffic Master Part Three

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

Getting people to visit your website, and come back to it, can be a challenge. This posting on the 321 Get It Traffic Master Blog seeks to help with that, by covering the phenomenon known as blogging.

321 Get It Traffic Master

321 Get It Traffic Master

Part Three: Using Blogging to Help Drive Traffic to Your Website

Chances are you have seen at least one blog. Blogging is an ideal way to get your thoughts broadcast into cyberspace. A blog can be about anything you choose. In fact, your blog could even be all about your business.

Structuring your blog is a matter of personal preference. It is possible to organize your own private soapbox in any manner that you like. This means you can make your blog into a site where you write articles that have to do with subjects connected to your business.

You may toss in something that is involved with more general topics as well, such as business ethics, customer service techniques, and anything else that you think may drive the right people to your web site.

You can even use the main section of the blog to publish articles that spotlight features of various products and services that are sold on your web site. The possibilities for your article section are only limited by your imagination.

Along with the main article section, you can also use the blog to allow customers to ask questions or make comments on either the articles or your product line. These types of features can help to bring people back to visit your blog regularly, since a question and answer or comments section is fairly likely to include something new to read every few days, if not every day.

In fact, you may get some great ideas for new articles from these sorts of activity, which will also go a long way in keeping your blog fresh. Plus, if you base articles on reader response, that is one more reason for people to come back and see what you have done lately.

Of course, you want to be sure to include links over to your web site that is easy to find. They may be embedded in your articles or featured in handy sidebar on the main page of your blog. Making sure that your readers always have easy access to your business site is an ideal way to tempt folks to click over and make a purchase.

Don’t underestimate the impact of colors and images when it comes to your blog. Making your own little corner of the Internet visually appealing will only make visitors want to return from time to time.

However, be careful of using too much animation or large images that slow down the loading of the pages. This is especially important if your target audience is likely to be among the millions of people who still rely on dial up connections for Internet access.

The longer it takes your pages to load, the less chance that someone will wait around to see what is going on at your blog. Quick loading means people will start reading sooner, and will be more likely to find something that catches their interest.

There are a number of resources online for setting up your own blog. In some cases, you may be able to become an expert on a how to site. This is an excellent opportunity, since some of these sites will pay a monthly stipend based on the amount of traffic you generate.

In exchange, you agree to keep the content of the site fresh and informative. This usually will require no more than a few hours per week, and the opportunity for generated revenue will be worth the time and effort.

If you are not in a position to piggyback on an information site, check with the service provider who provides you with bandwidth for your web site. Chances are they can also provide you with space and resources to create your own stand along blog.

While this approach does not allow you to generate revenue from the space provider, it does allow you the opportunity to promote your own business, and also sign up with an adword service to allow ads that have some relevance to your blog to place ads there. You will at least make a little money off the ads, and still have the ability to redirect people to your own site.

Before you jump into setting up your blog, take some time and check out several blogs that are already online. Make note of the page layouts, the arrangement of the content, the types of graphics and images, and the space that is set aside for ads.

This will give you some ideas on what you can do with your space that will result in driving traffic to your business, as well as making a few pennies by hosting ads for related web sites.

Upcoming: Another way to help get website visitors, that you have all probably seen…

Be sure to Subscribe to the FREE Traffic Master eZine!

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You Can Be a Traffic Master Part Two

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

Inside this edition of the 321 Get It Traffic Master Blog we’re going to cover a subject concerning the driving of traffic to your websites called Search Engine Optimization. This is a generally free way to get website visitors, but does require some skill. I hope you find the following informative, and that you can use this information to help with getting traffic to your website.

321 Get It Traffic Master

321 Get It Traffic Master

Part Two: Search Engine Optimization

While you are running ads through one or more pay per click programs, it is important to not underestimate the effectiveness of the content of your own site. In fact, paying close attention to your own web content will help your web site to show up higher on search engines. The magic way this happens has to do with search engine optimization.

Here is how the process works, and why it is so important to make the best use of this value method of publicizing your web site.

When people think of search engine optimization, the first thing they think about is keywords scattered through the content that is found on the site. Keywords help people who are interested in what you have to offer find your site.

Generally, persons entering one of those important keywords into one of the several search engines will be directed to sites that are directly of interest. A judicious use of keywords on your part will help improve the chances that you will appear in those listings.

Along with keywords that are in the text of your web content, you also want to register your web site with each of the various search engines. As part of that registration, you can include all sorts of keywords that will add your site to a search command.

You can use terms that have a direct relationship to the content and purpose of your site, as well as keywords that have some indirect relationship to your content. For example, if your web site has to do with pet supplies, a direct keyword would be “pet.” An indirect keyword might be something like house, bed, or snacks.

Registration on all the search engines does not cost anything, if you choose to take the time to do the work yourself. However, there are services that will create a profile for you and register your web site on a huge number of sites on your behalf.

Many of these services do an excellent job, but be prepared to pay for what you get. Most of these registration services offer different size packages, with each package including a select number of search engines.

While some of the packages will include the more popular search engines, it is always a good idea to verify which of the engines are included. This will help you to determine if the price tag is worth it.

If you choose to go with a registration service for the search engine optimization, make sure you provide them with an exhaustive list of keywords. Once the task is done, you cannot go back and update the list at will.

Don’t rush into this project. Instead, take a few days and add more keywords to the list as you think of them. After several days, you will probably have a list of keywords that is broad enough to make a real impact.

One other benefit of using a registration service is that some of them will guarantee that your site will make it to the top of the search engine results. Be prepared to pay extra for this option.

However, it may be worth the extra cost if there is a lot of competition in your line of work. You can gauge the effectiveness of the venture by the number of hits you receive, plus the resulting value of the sales you make.

Of course, you can also handle the registration site on your own. This will involve going to each search engine individually and setting up the search engine criteria. A good rule of thumb is to come up with your list of keywords and key phrases before you jump into the task.

Have the list in an electronic format, so you can cut and paste them into the registration form. This will save you a lot of time with the data entry, and allow you to move much more quickly in completing each registration.

Another tip is to begin with the well known search engines first. Generally, it takes somewhere between twenty-four to forty-eight hours to deploy information about a web site into the search engine files.

By taking care of major search engines first, such as Yahoo, Google, AOL, and MSN, you will have an Internet presence very quickly. Once these are taken care of, you can move on to some of the smaller search engines.

Don’t dismiss the smaller search engines as part of your search engine project. While the major engines will cover just about all the Internet, you never know when one of the minor engines will yield some results. Since it costs nothing to register with the engine–all which is required is a bit of your time. And after all, one sale is more than a make up for your investment.

Most search engines provide information about registration that will provide you with some tips on how to create the registration profile. In some cases, the process is very quick, provided you have all the details and keywords handy.

Try one or two of the search engines first, just to get a feel for how much time and effort is involved. Then, you will be able to decide if registration is something that you want to do on your own, or farm out to a service.

Upcoming: Using blogs to help with getting website visitors…

Be sure to Subscribe to the FREE Traffic Master eZine!

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You Can Be a Traffic Master Part One

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

Let’s begin your education in driving traffic to your website…

Setting up your online business presence is a major accomplishment. However, it is only the beginning. Contrary to popular opinion, people will not come just because you built it. Part of the reason for that set of circumstances is that no one is likely to visit a web site that they do not know exists.

So, after you have put together the most spectacular, intuitive, and fun to browse web site, the time has come to get busy and find ways to generate the traffic to your little corner of the Internet.

The good news is that there are many options when it comes to the task of driving traffic to your site. While many of the strategies involve online methods, there are also some offline effective procedures that will also lead to more hits and thus increase the chances of making a sale.

Here are some tips on creating a comprehensive battle plan to publicize your site and generate interest that will result in making your online presence a successful venture.

321 Get It Traffic Master

321 Get It Traffic Master

Part One: Pay per Click Advertising

One of the easiest methods to employ in your plan to drive traffic to your site is pay per click advertising. This particular advertising model has been around since the late 1990’s and has been a means of generating hits for many different businesses with an online presence.

Pay per click advertising is an excellent way to get the word about your company to a wide audience. The process involves spotting an ad on various web sites that will forward an interested party back to your web site.

Part of the attraction of pay per click advertising is that the ad owner only pays when someone clicks on the ad and actually follows through to the web site.

When it comes to PPC advertising, never forget the importance of keywords. Essentially, keywords are words and phrases that are considered to be common modes of searching the Internet to find desired content.

As an advertiser, your job is to come up with keywords that you believe are likely to take you to web sites that are relevant to the type of business site you currently operate. The rationale is that persons who visit those sites would most likely be interested in the content of your site.

If you manage to find the right web sites for your ads, then the chances of generating clicks to your site are much greater.

While the keyword mode of pay per click advertising is very common, there is also a second method. Known as content match PPC, the principle is still the same.

The main difference is that rather than basing the search on keywords, the results are based on the content of the site. As an example, if you run a site that is dedicated to gardening supplies, then it would be a natural for you to want to place ads on sites dedicated to gardening.

Content matching can be used right along with keywords to create a well rounded pay per click component in your overall publicity campaign.

Finding online resources to help you with the process of placing pay per click ads is relatively easy. One of the most popular approaches is to make use of the Google Adwords program. You can get started by identifying a list of relevant keywords. You can also get help in designing the appearance of your ad, using online tools.

Adwords also includes a number of online tools, so you can keep track of how many hits get to your web site through those hits. This allows you to stay on top of how much pay per click is advertising is costing you each month. By comparing the sales that result from the hits with the cost of your pay per click campaign, you can determine if the program is making money for you.

Another target for your pay per click campaign is online comparison shopping engines. These types of engines often are willing to provide feeds through the placement of ads on their searches.

Just as with the ads on informational web sites, persons can click through to your web site and see what you have to offer. Some of these sites provide you with the ability to see the number of hits, while others do not. Payment for placing the ad on the shopping comparison site may be in the form of a fixed monthly amount or based on a fixed rate per click.

Keep in mind that there is no such thing as exclusionary pay per click arrangement. This means you can sign up with as many keyword and shopping ad services as you like. In fact, you may do very well to try out several different services, to see which ones seem to provide you with the best matches and coverage.

If funds for advertising are limited, go with a well known service, and then add more services as your revenue stream builds to the point you can afford to do so. Remember that your goal is to build a solid foundation for your web site, so it may take some time before you begin to see results.

Disregard stories about overnight success. Chances are you will go about six months to a year before you see significant traffic that results in sales.

Pay per click advertising is often an affordable way to launch your advertising campaign. The cost per click is often a fraction of a cent, so it certainly will not cost a great deal, unless you happen to get a huge number of visitors clicking through to your site.

The law of averages would dictate that of that huge number, enough sales would result to make your investment in the pay per click program well worth your time and the expense.

In a couple of days, “You Can Be a Traffic Master Part Two”.

Meanwhile, check out the interesting stuff over at ECS Dave’s blog.

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