Traffic Mastermind

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Internet Traffic Now

This is how to get the traffic you need fast!

Traffic is the most important part of marketing online. Traffic is what creates a successful online business. Without it, you’re going to be starving in the world of Internet marketing.
Internet marketers are always learning new tricks to build traffic. Many people have been doing this sort of thing for years now and can quickly generate interest by posting videos or other content on the web. Those are the people who are usually competing for you for eyeballs, especially if they are in your market niche. So, first you want to get a good idea of who is ranking at the top of Google using the keywords you’ve targeted, and then you want to find ways to copy them so that people searching for their content find yours instead.

This can be done with articles, videos, any type of social media. It doesn’t take a whole lot of smarts, and it can be very effective because much of the work of attracting attention is already done for you. You just have to hijack that attention back to your site instead.

The first thing you do is go to the Google search engine and insert the keyword you are targeting. Then browse the first five pages of the search results to see who has gotten top ranking. These are the people who you are competing against.

Knowing that, you can start visiting their sites to see if you can find a way to use their popularity to increase your own. The simple way to do that is to go each site and see if they have a blog you can comment on, a discussion forum you can add to, or any other way to get your name in their site, with an appropriate link back to your website, if possible.

The next thing you want to do is create copy that is very similar to what they are using to be successful. You want to use similar keywords and similar topics. You don’t want to outright plagiarize, but you do want to paraphrase and re-market the same content that worked for them.

Next, you want to find out who linked to these sites and content which made them go up in the Google ranking. Again, you use the Google search engine and type in “link:http://competitorurl.com”

This will give you an idea of who has linked to them. Here you are interested in seeing which social marketing sites are helping them to rank better. And then, you go into those sites and add your own bookmark or link there to confuse people into going to your site and also to bring up the ranking on your content too. If you happen to be looking at a YouTube video, you would find the links at the Statistics & Data section given in YouTube for each video, instead of Google. Either way, you want to know who is linking and then try to get yourself listed there too.

You will also want to know who are the people that showed such interest in these competitors. That’s your target demographic too. You can do this for the competitor and for the links they go to. All you have to do is visit Alexa.com to get a good insight into the demographics of any site online.

Alexa.com

At Alexa.com you can insert the URL of any site on the Internet and search the traffic rankings by selecting that option. It will come up with the site and a brief description of what that site is about. That already tells you something about what kind of people your competitors and their links are attracting. Maybe it is a technology site or a business site, whichever, you now have that little piece of information stored away as one of the types of people who frequent your competitors’ sites.

Under that you will see a breakdown of the traffic by country. This gives you an idea of the national demographic you may be targeting. You may think all sites are geared towards the US market, but that’s not so. Once you understood who is coming to visit your competitors’ sites, you will have a better understanding of how to build and market your own sites.

One last way to find places that can help you drive traffic to your site with Alexa.com is to use their Top 500 Sites list. It gives you a breakdown of which sites have the most traffic, separated by country of origin. This will allow you to target these sites to add comments, contribute content, and generally try to elbow your way into the limelight.

Quantacast.com

To further your understanding, you will want to visit quantacast.com for more market research on your competitors and their links. This site gives you a much better breakdown of the demographics in very minute detail. So, once you have some good candidates to research further, you add them to market research list you will do on Quantacast.com. All you have to do is type in the URL of the link you are interested in researching, and Quantacast can let you know what the gender, age, ethnicity, income, and college education is for all the people visiting that site. It will also give you the monthly traffic frequency too.

If you are looking for demographics, Quantacast.com is a goldmine of information!

Quantacast also has a very nice feature that allows you to see the other sites the audience that likes the link you are investigating also likes online. This gives you a handy-dandy way to find even more sites to research to see how they are attracting their visitors. Not only that, but you can visit these sites like you did the original site and see if there is any way you can add a comment, a link, or any other interaction that can drive traffic from those sites back to your site. And, don’t limit your contributions to these sites to small things, if the return might be high. Think about submitting videos and podcasts too if that’s allowed.

Strategies Research

The best way to do market research is to stalk your competitors and see what they’re doing. There are a number of different ways you can get that information and then use it to your advantage. It does take work and persistence. However, think how quickly your traffic can grow if you manage to find a site that is quickly building their audience and your content, along with backlinks to your site, is plastered all over their pages. You will quickly zoom up the ladder of visibility and you will see the results of your efforts.

Here is a step-by-step way to approach your market research in a methodical manner so as to use your time to the best advantage:

1. Understand your market niche and keywords you are targeting,
2. Go to Google and type in the keyword to find your competitors on the first five search result pages,
3. Visit each of these to see if you can add content and backlinks to the site to increase your traffic,
4. Take note of the most popular topics/content on these sites so you can later copy them,
5. Target a few of these for copy cat efforts,
6. Check out those few for their target market by visiting Alexa.com,
7. Use Quantacast.com to find out more about the demographics of these sites and what other sites might have an interest in that content,
8. Build content that is very similar to the sites you’ve targeted,
9. Submit it to the same people who linked to those sites, using similar keywords, titles, etc,
10. Reply to comments and build a buzz around your content.

Getting Out Of The Traffic Getting Circle

In order to learn how to simulate traffic flow online, the first thing we need to do is get an overview of all types of traffic available, so we understand how it moves. Let’s talk about some of the types of Internet customers that are available…

• Subscribers
• Freebie seekers
• SEO Traffic
• Affiliate Traffic
• Customers
• “Regulars”

One of the things you’re going see: There are 6 customers heading to your shop, that’s true – but only 3 types of traffic:

• Type A traffic is crucial to your business success because it conveys people directly to your door.  Think of Type B as a fleet of taxi drivers, each of whom recommends you to fares they think are likely to buy from you. They drop their fares off right at your doorstep, without ever coming in themselves (after a first, initial visit to check you out and make sure you’ll please their clients – who will give them big tips!)
• Type B ends up hurrying directly into your shop and purchasing. They know what they want – and that you’re likely to have it.
• Type C are window shoppers… They reach your shop, but spend all their time browsing, stepping inside only because they were lured by your “free samples” or window displays.   They hover about, and come back again and again until one day the finally buy… or they look around, decide you don’t have anything they want; and leave.

Now we’ve got a clear handle on how it all works, let’s shift our focus to effective methods of handling and expanding all that complicated traffic. Without ever losing sight of our big goal.

Namely, to explode your sales, and solidify and prosper your business!

Your Visitors

If you’ve been in business a while, how will you dramatically increase the number of visitors?  And if you’re brand new and need to grow a list, how can you get them to visit you at all?

In Section II, I’m planning to show you some truly little known SEO tips (at least, I’m judging they’re little-known, by what I haven’t see, in the countless dozens of other Traffic generation reports I’ve read). My SEO tips should help with organic traffic. We’ll deal with painlessly and quickly SEO-optimizing your static site HTML and your blogs. (Don’t worry, I’ve pared it down to just 5 easy-to-implement tips – with instructions.)

But one other absolute essential, before we deal with the “people” end of the equation, is to spruce up your site and blog content and design. Again, we’re not talking about any major overhauls here (unless your site is so ugly, it makes even the cat throw up.)

Here are vital content and design components you have to set in play…

Make sure your sites and blogs speak directly to your visitors.  A trick I’m sure you’ve heard before… when you write, imagine a particular person from your niche and “talk” to them, just as you would if you were sending a friend an email – with one major difference:  Cut the personal stuff about you down to just enough to let them see who you are.

And then talk only of what you think would interest them particularly.

Make sure your sites are visually easy to read, too – remembering, of course, that people who surf the internet don’t “read” – they “skim”, looking for the information they need to catch their eyes.  Many of them are on a mission, and if you don’t engage them straight away, or catch their attention – they’re gone.  (That’s called losing traffic by the truckload!)

Help them scan by using:

• Headlines and subheads that intrigue and promise
• Bullet points like this one
• Lots of “white space”, so their eyes aren’t getting tired out by a page jam-packed with text – with no “hook” they can latch onto.

But the most important 2 traffic generating items you need on every page of your sites or blogs:

• A “call to action” concluding the post or article
• A contact form or opt-in form in your blog sidebar, or on every page

There are a few vital content strategies and methods that will powerfully boost your traffic…

Article Marketing with RSS

Almost every internet marketer about the importance of article marketing in creating backlinks, exposure and boosting page rank.  But there is one added dimension many people overlook – Web 2.0 sites. Web 2.0’s interactive capabilities capabilities make it the most powerful means of creating a network of backlinks almost instantly there is – particularly when you use it with article marketing.

Don’t just submit your articles to directories: Create and test the response from sites like Hubpages, Yahoo Answers and Squidoo too. (They allow you to add keyword tags.)  Guidelines have changed on both sites over the last year, but you can still drive traffic to your blogs or promotional pages, if you are careful to follow their guidelines.

When you’re writing any article – for blogs or directories – pay particular attention to your first paragraph. Your first paragraph or its first few lines are what normally appears as your feed summary in Web 2.0 article directories like Zimbio. Create a punchy, irresistibly curiosity-rousing intro sentence or two so that people will click on your blog link to keep reading.  (You don’t have time for a “slow warm up” in your intro.)

(You probably already know your headline should contain your primary keyword and make people want “more” – be mysterious, but not obscure.)

Use short sentences with “action” verbs. Use the word “You” and talk directly to your reader.

Invest in posting articles on sites that have RSS feeds, so that you are automatically syndicating your content. What this does is create instant back links, because when the RSS feed for that sites updates, all the other sites using that RSS feed automatically update too.

Think of RSS as rocket fuel, compared to ordinary gas.

It goes without saying that you should burn an RSS feed for all your blog sites, too. In fact, until you’ve created that RSS feed and made sure there’s a button on your blog, your blog is not complete.

And Speaking of Blogs…

Here’s another powerful way to explode traffic through your blog:  Make sure you “ping” – and get the most out of those pings, when you do.

Here’s how:

1. Log into your WordPress administrator’s panel, and go down to “Settings” on the left hand side. Select “Writing” from the drop down menu.
2. Slide down the page till you see a text-area box under “Update Sites”.  Copy past the following URLS into the box, if you don’t already have a list of ping sites:

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping

That’s all there is to it!

But Wait, There’s More…

Sign up with Feedbite, a service that allow you to create public pages as well as embed feeds on your sites (or any other site), using PHP or JavaScript includes generated by Feedbite (go with PHP, if you have a choice.)

What this does is allow you the option of having private feeds, as well as public.

Zimbio  automatically pings your blog and publishes your articles to related Wikizines. You can submit either your Feedburner feed URL or your website URL.)

You can add pictures to your articles – you can even create your own Wikizine, basing it on a powerful keyword.

As with Squidoo, however, be sure to visit other Wikizines and articles on Zimbio, and comment or vote. Being Web 2.0, it’s an interactive community; and in this way is a little more labor-intensive than traditional submit-your-article-and-forget sites – but the “love” you’ll get from Web 2.0 based directories in return (compared to traditional static ones) is like article marketing on turbo thrusters!

TIP: Zimbio is particularly suited for press release-style formatting.

How Not To Let Forums and Blog Commenting Suck Your Time

Yes, forum and blog commenting are still effective – but you have to change the way you think about them.

When you’re posting on forums, you need to focus only on your ideal customer. Forget the fascinating post on shipping (something you do with your physical product site), if your target market are all bloggers who never ship anything.

You need to be where they’re all congregating – and if you’re really strapped for time, Twitter is your best bet.  You can point qualified readers directly to your posts and products (using bi.tly to shorten your links), to answer their questions. And when the maximum post size allowed is a 140 character line, you’re not going to be spending half an hour crafting a custom reply.

(It’s also a great source of questions from your target niche!)

When it comes to forums, you’ll find you still need to at least monitor the best forums for your niche.  Pick at least 2 forums, and get into the habit of giving one highly valuable answer to a question per day (alternating your 2 forums.)

If you do the same thing on blogs with a high “authority site” status – for example, Lynn Terry’s Clicknewz or Darren Rowse’s Problogger (as long as their content and focus is aligned with yours), you’ll create powerful connections there too. (Both these blogs allow you to post your site URL, and if readers like your answer, they’ll usually visit your site, to see what else you have to say.)

[Administrator]

“When in Doubt – Ask…”

But that’s not even the beginning.  You need to ask your market what it needs, before you ever touch the keyboard to start your product creation. Don’t make the fatal mistake of thinking that, because you think an idea is awesome, your fellow forum or niche members will, too. Yes. They may very well agree that it’s the next best thing to sliced bread…

…But will they pay for it?  (Even with a Freebie, it has to logically lead to your next product or upsell – which they will have to shell out for.)

Don’t forget to use Surveys and Polls to capture reader attention and invite that valuable feedback. (Survey Monkey is a very easy-to-use free survey building site – and there’s a great Pro option too.)  Post about your survey on your niche’s best forums (but only if you’re already a member there!) Blog about it, ask your fellow forum members to pass it on.  Tweet it. Ask others to re-tweet it.  Talk about it on Facebook. Be active in making sure you ask others to promote it.

Ezine Ads

If you’re presenting an offer and want to make sales straight away, eZine ads are usually way less expensive than other forms of paid advertising – with no surprises (unlike PPC campaigns, which can run you up huge deficits, if you get your keyword wrong.)  If you’re on a tight budget, PPC campaigns such as Google AdWords would be better left till you’re finally turning some significant profit.

Most important, have signup links for affiliates, and an email campaign set up for your autoresponders, so that you can get your list to become customers and promote you with their own lists.

It’s been a long accepted fact that using a fleet of affiliates (including JV partners) is the most powerful source of traffic generation.

PPC Ads

Pay Per Click ads are good for driving traffic to your campaigns, but you need to set daily limits, make sure you’ve chosen the right keyword (one with competition – but not too much) and watch it like a hawk, to ensure you’re not getting thousands of clicks with no conversions (if that happens, you’ve got a bad keyword!  Change it, fast – before you go broke!)

Stick to your PPC budget : After all, what use is your ad, if your PPC costs dwarf your profits?

You don’t need to worry about Search Engine Optimization with PPC – but you do need to focus on capturing your readers and getting them to click. Hit the high spots. Use your best lure.

One  PPC crucial point that is rarely talked about … Make sure you use keywords from your actual PPC ad in your Squeeze page or Sales page.  Google does use algorithms to make sure the site content matches the ad – they want to quickly weed out spurious PPC ads who talk about Healthy and Active Life Styles – and then send you to a sales pitch for Viagra.

Also, Google doesn’t like PPC ads that link to a single landing page or sales page. Its Search Bots (and the occasional human editor) are looking for legitimate, established websites – which they translate as packed with articles and pages.  (You can still do this and not have an actual link on your landing page!  Just as long as the site has those articles or pages full of relevant content physically contained in it, Google’s ability to find an actual navigation link to that content on your landing page will not hurt you.)

This seems like a lot of work, and blows sky-high the idea that you can slap up a minisite with 3 pages and make money. If you’re using PPC ads, you can’t.

What happens if you do?  You are risking a sudden huge, inexplicable increase in your click-through rate for that ad – what people call the “Google slap”.  (They’re penalizing you for having what their Search Bots interpret as a dubious site.)

Besides, if you’re going to pay for every click on your ad, you want to make sure it reaches the right people – those who would find your product perfect for their needs.

[Administrator]

Your List

Follow Up for your Content Placement

So you’ve generated your Freebies or Special Offer, and you have your first list. Don’t just leave it sitting in limbo – you should have that series of emails carefully timed and set up to go. Subscriber follow up and regular contact are crucial.
You should also have a Buyer’s List created for your autoresponder, so you can migrate your subscribers over immediately, once they become buyers. If you are diligent about this, you won’t make them feel de-valued and annoyed by seeing a sales push for the product they’ve already bought. The last thing you want to do is break that one-on-one, personal connection feeling by sending out the same emails they’ve already received and responded to with a purchase.

Don’t forget to work your list!  A list that is just sitting there is a sad waste of valuable resources.  Some of your list members may become affiliates, if you give them enough incentive and make it easy for them to sign up and promote you. A small number could prove to be invaluable JV partners, not too far down the line.

And yet more list members could end up as that jewel in the crown of internet marketing: Repeating or recurring customers.

Do your best to stay “friends” with them.  Don’t bombard them with emails – but don’t let weeks go by without a friendly word, helpful tip – or another juicy and well-timed offer.

How do you strike the perfect balance? Before you ever start your campaign, factor in your list (even if you don’t have one yet!)  Decide how you are going to present yourself. Will you email them with a daily tip, occasionally interspersed with your product offers or an affiliate product?  Will you send an email once a week?  Every two weeks?  Every month?

Plan now to create a balanced set of emails for your autoresponder, and give as much though as you can to how you are going to stay connected and incite them to progress through your sales funnel without a glitch.

And although in that sense you are focusing on sales, make sure you get into the habit of thinking: “What can I do for my list?” (Not: “How can I wring more money out of them?”)

You want to be that friendly guy who pops up with a valuable tip – or a cool offer – right when they need it.  And not before.

If you put all your focus into getting to know and pleasing your list, as well as staying in friendly but not overwhelming e-mail contact, the rewards of their long term loyalty will be word of mouth buzz resulting in heavy traffic.

Creating Buyers

How do you increase the number of conversions, and turn more subscribers, tire-kickers and freebie seekers into buyers?

The tire kickers will definitely need those “7-12 visits” that offline retail shoppers traditionally indulge in before they finally make a purchase.  In spite of our cute analogy of a back-alley shop, you don’t have a physical store – and chances are, they won’t “pass by” your website again or remember where they found it, unless you give them some strong incentive and a reminder.

You need to create “windows” where you are highly visible – think of it as leaning over the sill, calling “hello” to them as they walk by in such an appealing way, they just have to stop and chat.

Your social media presence, blog posts, autoresponder emails, newsletter and forum presence provide the online equivalent of doing this.

The more places they see you, the better.  Let’s consider the advantages of various “windows”.

Social Media: You Tweet a good balance of lightly personal and helpfully business Tweets on Twitter. You don’t Tweet twelve at once and “hog” peoples’ screens – but you DO stay in touch at least once or twice a day.

You create a Facebook page or a Google Plus account..  You follow people. As with all your social media, you try to be friendly without being annoying, and helpful – with valuable tips and links.

Blog Posts:  We’ve already discussed the importance of leaving helpful or relevant comments on blogs your readers would read

One other tip:  Tweet your fellow bloggers’ posts.

Article Marketing:  We’ve already discussed this too – but the social component to it, rather than the content component, lies in making sure you interact through your article marketing.  Use Web 2.0 sites and comment on other peoples’ articles.  Vote for them, favorite them – stay active!

Autoresponder Emails:  We’ve already touched on the purpose of autoresponder email series’, above: Your sole purpose with these emails is to stay connected and build the relationship you started – just as you would, if you were emailing someone fun you had met at a social event, class or party. You want to “stay in touch”.

It’s such an important subject, however, we’re going to go into it in a little more depth.  The next page has a handy “checklist” you can use, to keep working your emailings to your advantage?

Think of them as simple protocols and standards…

 

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