Sunday, April 01, 2007

10 Quick Traffic Building Tips For Any Web Site

10 Quick Traffic Building Tips For Any Web Site
Copyright © 2007 Terry Dean

The question most often asked on the Internet is, "How do I get more traffic to my site?"

You would think that an answer for this question would be extremely simple, but it really isn't. It isn't that it is so hard to get traffic to web sites. The problem is that there are so many different avenues of traffic generation you can choose from for any site.

In this short report, we are going to cover 10 different low or no cost ways you can get traffic to any web site. This isn't even an extensive list. I could easily name off 5 - 10 more ways you could be getting traffic to your site, but I don't want to overwhelm you with too many options.

The reason that most people don't get traffic is that they "Try" something, and then they give up. The key to any marketing is testing and then improving. If a method doesn't work for you on your first try, second try, or even your twelfth try, it doesn't matter. Keep going anyway.

Read everything you can about that subject and keep trying different things. If you have chosen to use classified ads for your products and services, try different ezines. Use AOL classifieds. Try Yahoo's classifieds. Create new headlines for your ads. Create new sales letters to follow-up.

Classified ads can work if you figure out how to work them for your product or service.

The same aspects are true of many different types of Internet advertising. They work, but only if you are willing to keep on going even if you fail a dozen times trying. You keep learning and you keep testing.

So, without further ado, here are your ten killer Internet Traffic Building Techniques:

1. Search Engine Submissions

Almost everyone starts right here. They know that search engines bring 84% of the traffic to most web sites, so they know they have to submit to them.

To achieve the top rankings in the search engines will take some serious work. You have millions of competitors, but you have an advantage. You are willing to learn and do what it takes to get to the top.

To achieve the top traffic building positions, you will need to study everything you can on search engine positioning and meta tags. Then, you will have to test. Use a tool such as Web Position to check your rankings, examine your competitors who are beating you, and then edit your pages.

If you are willing to keep going through this process and learning each step along the rise of your rankings, you too could soon be generating 100s of hits daily from top search engine positions.

2. Classifieds in Ezines

The biggest bang for your marketing buck will come from ezine advertising. For $10 - $50 per classified ad, you can reach thousands of potential customers in your targeted market.

With thousands of different ezines available, you can expand into hundreds of them once you find a classified ad and follow-up system that works for your product or service.

By testing your little classified ads and expanding into more and more ezines every week, you could quickly start reaching millions of people weekly and earning an income to match.

3. AOL Classifieds

AOL currently has over 15 million members. If I could only place one classified ad for any web site or product, it would probably be here. For $12.50, you can have your ad placed in view of people on a service where the ads are actually read.

I know several people earn a couple of hundred dollars weekly by placing little classified ads just using AOL's system. The key on AOL is to create a killer headline for your ad so it stands out above the hundreds of other ads in every category.

4. Yahoo Classifieds

There are very few free classified ad sites that actually work. Yahoo is one of the shining lights that stands out above the crowd of mediocre free ad sites. Yahoo has more traffic than any other Internet site and it definitely shows when you place your ads here.

On Yahoo, you are allowed to place 10 ads at a time, so do so. A little key to creating effective ads here is to delete your ads every few days and replace them. Then, you will be able to keep your ads towards the top of the list and receive more free readers.

5. Trade Links

If you develop a strong content oriented site you can persuade thousands of other webmasters to link to you or to trade links with you. There are even a few consultants online who have developed linking campaigns and have achieved a million hits a month or more for their customers within 90 days by linking with the right sites.

You can do this yourself. The key is to develop content people want to link to and then get out there and make the contacts by visiting people's sites, sending out personalized emails to webmasters you have visited, and networking in discussion groups.

6. Participate in Leveraged Banner Exchanges

Regular banner exchanges don't work that well. Although they can produce a few extra hits a month for your site, they never seem to give you the kind of traffic building leverage you need to grow to hundreds of thousands of hits a month.

A new wave of banner exchanges is growing though at unprecedented rates. What they do that separates them apart is that they will give you a 5% to 20% credit of banner impressions of anyone's site that you refer. If you refer a site which gets a million hits a month, you would get 200,000 free impressions a month extra.

7. Start Your Own Mailing List

If you want to make money online, start your own mailing list. It is the best way to keep contact with your prospects and your customers. It is also the best way to build the credibility you need to make sales to your targeted market.

A little less talked about advantage to having your own mailing list is that you can use it to trade ads with other ezines out there. If you trade ads with 10 other ezines out there, you could easily be saving yourself $100 - $500 in advertising expense every week!

8. Banner Ads on Individual Sites

When people think of banner ads they almost always think of the major search engines or major sites online. Well, I have been advertising lately with banners, and I can tell you something.

Making money using banner ads on these high traffic high cost sites is extremely difficult and risky.

These sites will charge you $20 per 1,000 impressions to general audiences and $50 per 1,000 impressions to targeted markets.

By seeking out individual sites who get high traffic (50,000 hits to 1,000,000 hits a month), you can actually get rates of $1 - $10 per 1,000 impressions of your banner ads. By finding 10 - 20 of these sites, you can quickly build yourself an overwhelming river of traffic to your site for a much lower cost than the major search engines.

9. Advertise on Goto.com

Goto has come up with a great advertising plan for businesses. You can actually go to http://www.goto.com/ and bid on traffic for your site. You pick keywords for your site and then place a bid of whatever price you are willing to pay for traffic from that keyword...generally you would bid .01 to .10 per keyword.

Then, Goto will only charge you for the actual hits you receive from them. If you bid one penny for the keyword and you receive 10 hits from it today, you only owe 10 cents for the day. This low cost traffic building method cannot be beat anywhere.

The key to making it work for you is to come up with hundreds of possible keywords for your site and then bid low amounts such as a few cents on each. Then, check your stats continually and find out what kind of traffic you are getting.

10. Free Stuff

The KING of traffic is free stuff. If you want to get real traffic to your site, provide the kind of free content and services that your market is hunting desperately for.

Provide free articles to other web sites. Provide free downloads. Give away free CGI programs. Provide hundreds of links to needed tools. Provide links to downloadable software. Give your visitors what they want and they will keep coming back and referring their friends.

------------------------

Terry Dean, a 5 year veteran of Internet marketing, will Take You By The Hand and Show You Exact Results of All the Internet Marketing Techniques he tests and Uses Every Single Month" Click here to Find Out More:
http://www.netbreakthroughs.com

Friday, March 30, 2007

Who Wants to Be An Internet Millionaire?

Who Wants to Be An Internet Millionaire?
Copyright © 2007 Terry Dean

Welcome to our show...

Today we are going to be playing who wants to be an Internet millionaire, except we are not playing for cash. We are playing to see if you have the knowledge you need to be a successful entrepreneur on the web.

Here are your five questions...Let's see how good you do.

Question #1: Which of the following characteristics is a requirement for success online?

a. High IQ
b. College Degree
c. Persistence
d. Money

Question #2: Which of the following products would be considered a niche market product suitable for a small business entrepreneur?

a. Toothbrush
b. eBook on Cooking
c. Big Screen TV
d. eBook on Fly Fishing in Arkansas

Question #3: Which of the below programs is the most popular download of the week?

a. Napster
b. ICQ
c. Internet Explorer
d. RealNetworks Real Player

Question #4: Which one of these problems is the most common reason people don't order online?

a. Web Sites were too confusing
b. Pages took too long to load.
c. The prices were too high.
d. They couldn't find what they wanted.

Question #5: How many sales does the "average" Internet company have to make to a customer before they break even on that customer?

a. One
b. Two
c. Three
d. Four

Some of those questions were pretty difficult. Weren't they?

Let's see how you did...


"C" is the answer to question one.

Persistence is the most important key to succeeding on the web. Despite what you might hear, there aren't any real "gurus" online. The web just isn't that old. Everyone is still learning.

The number one key to succeeding online is testing everything you can possibly imagine. This takes persistence.

High IQ's and college degrees may help in the process (if you have the right information), but they are not the key to success. Money may help as well, but for many large companies this just means wasting tons of money on two million dollar Superbowl ads. Then being nowhere to be seen 6 months later.

Persistence is the key.


"D" is the answer to question two.

An eBook covering fly fishing in Arkansas would be considered a niche market product suitable for a small entrepreneur.

What's the problem with the other products?

The problem with the big screen TV and the toothbrush is that they are available from anywhere. Your prospect would be much more likely to run down to the local Wal-mart and electronics stores than to purchase from you. They don't know who you are.

For the Cooking eBook, it is too broad of a subject. No one wants just a cooking eBook when there are so many nicebeautiful books at the local store. This may be a potential project though if you can come up with a more specific topic such as cooking in France or cooking with red wine from the French.

The key to being noticed as a small business is to come out with something a little more unique and highly specific.


If You Chose "B" for number three, you are correct.

ICQ is the most downloaded program this week as reported by download.com

All three of the other programs are top downloads, but ICQ is downloaded 10 times more than the closest competitor. It has been the most popular download for years.

ICQ is a program that allows you to chat and instant message your online contacts. One of the most popular activities of online users is that of chat and message boards.

People want to feel like they belong. They are looking for online communities which they can belong to.

What does this mean to your online business? It means that you need to find a way to create a community at your site using discussion boards, chat, and other types of interaction with your visitors.

Question Four is a close race, but the answer is "B"

According to a survey taken by Boston Consulting Group, the most likely reason people didn't purchase from a site is because the pages took too long to load.

Forty-eight percent of people asked cited slow loading pages as the culprit in their shopping experience.

A close second is that of the sites being too confusing which rang in at forty-five percent.

Both of these show that a major key to sales on the Internet is keeping it simple and easy for your users. They are impatient and they are quickly confused by any extra technology you decide to use.

You need to create an easy to use, quick loading buying experience for your visitor. For now, cut out any fancy technology and "cool" stuff that may hinder those two items.


If you chose "C" for number five, you are correct.

This was a very difficult question. The correct answer as provided by Yahoo news is that the average Internet retailer must make three sales to a customer before they break even on the cost of obtaining that customer.

I don't recommend you spend as much to obtain a new customer as large online retailers do. You can't afford to. You don't have their large advertising budgets to burn through.

You can concentrate on your current customers. You have to "Wow" them and keep them buying from you instead of your competitors.

Every single market will be competitive in the future of the
Internet. The companies that are going to be the most successful are those who learn how to retain their customers through better customer service, frequent buyers programs, and finding them the best deals possible.

You must develop a loyal customer base and sell to it over and over again.

One shot sales aren't going to make it in the future of the Internet.

And that's my final answer...

------------------------
written by: Terry Dean, online marketing consultant.
http://netbreakthroughs.com

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

There is One Secret to Internet Marketing

There is One Secret to Internet Marketing
Copyright © 2007 Terry Dean

Too many people are constantly searching for the "Holy Grail" of Internet advertising. Instead of just getting out there and doing something every single day, they sit back and wait till they find the "Secret" to Internet marketing.

Sure, there are great techniques you could be using. I am sure there are products out there which will teach you how to market better online. You should always be learning. The moment you stop learning, you start stagnating.

You will find that many of the techniques that the top experts teach you may actually disagree with one another. This is because there is only one true judge of what works in the online marketplace...testing and results.

Without testing everything you put to use, you will never know what is or can work for you.

There is one "Secret" of Internet marketing every single successful Internet marketer will agree upon.

If you sit back and do nothing, you will get nothing!

Successful Internet entrepreneurs are doing something. If you sit back on the sidelines and just watch what's going on, you will never win the game.

Start doing something...even if it doesn't work!

You have to "practice" Internet marketing.

Set up a mirror page on your site or some other tracking mechanism and place a classified ad in an ezine. If it doesn't work out the way you wanted, place a different ad in another ezine. If it does work, then keep running and add on more ezines to your advertising campaign.

Use one of the traffic techniques in my free e-book "Unlimited Traffic." If it doesn't create the traffic you want, add another technique. This ebook has 55 techniques Internet marketers are currently using to get traffic. Keep adding on new techniques until you get the traffic you want.

If you want to write better ads for your products, then find some of the best sales letters and start copying them by hand. Then, practice your own letters.

Something that almost no one ever seems to mention in regards to business is that some of the most successful companies expect that only one out of every seven products they create will be a success worth continuing.

Claude Hopkins, considered by many to be one of the greatest marketing minds ever, recorded this in "Scientific Advertising:"

"There are many surprises in advertising. A project you
will laugh at may make a great success. A project you are
sure of may fall down. All because tastes differ so. None
of us know enough peoples desires to get an average viewpoint."

The first site you create might not be that profitable. If you are smart and stay in contact with the right people, you will learn something from it. Your next web site may be the success you are looking for.

The reason you may not be making money right now could be that you have the wrong product or are targeting the wrong market. If you can't explain to me in one paragraph exactly who your targeted market is, then
you aren't ready for success on your site.

Test some different products. Test some different advertising methods. Test some different ads. Only testing can tell you what will or will not work online or offline.

The key is to keep your testing small so that it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg. Test one or two ezine ads. Purchase a 10,000 banner ad campaign.

Set up a small budget of say $50 - $100 every month just for testing (more experienced marketers have a much higher budget for testing).

Never spend any money on advertising where it will put you out of business. It should be as small and risk-free as possible at all times.

If you can't afford to spend or lose any money in advertising, then start trying free traffic techinques.

There are dozens of them that you can use as well. In this area, never spend more time on any advertising technique than you can afford to lose.

Time is money and as you become more and more successful in this business, it is the time that you run out of first.

The Secret to Internet marketing is to "Do Something."

Even if it doesn't work out quite as well as you plan,keep doing it or add in other elements and aspects to your business.

The second Internet marketing secret is much like the first one. It is "Don't give up!"

------------------------

Terry Dean, a 5 year veteran of Internet marketing, will Take You By The Hand and Show You Exact Results of All the Internet Marketing Techniques he tests and Uses Every Single Month.
http://netbreakthroughs.com

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Applying Psychology to Internet Marketing

Applying Psychology to Internet Marketing
Copyright © 2007 Terry Dean

The best advertising writers are those who have some knowledge of psychology. We are not dealing with "new" people online. We are dealing with the same people who have the same desires they have always had. The same approaches that worked one hundred years ago will also work today. Don't forget that. Advertising mediums change. Effective advertising does not, because effective advertising is based on a knowledge of human nature.

Remember the first principle of advertising. Your prospects are inherently selfish. They will ask one question of everything your web site does, "What's In it for Me?"

That is the first question you have to answer with your web site. It has to tell and show your visitors what's in it for them. What would they get out of ordering from your site that isn't available anywhere else?

Below are four aspects to the human make-up which you can and should use throughout your Internet advertising.

1. Curiosity is a powerful motivation.

Just about every information product you see advertised has the word "Secrets" in the ad somewhere. People are afraid to miss out on something. They are curious to find out just what those secrets may be.

Use this to your advantage. With information products, I love to write the sales letters so that they hit on the curiosity hot button. You can take advantage of this factor of human nature by providing some of the
results which were achieved through your information system, but not actually revealing what the system specifically is. You will notice that I do this a lot in the bullets that I create to go in the sales letter. They will tell you that there are 3 insider secrets to ______, but they won't tell you what the 3 secrets are.

The purpose of this is the pull on the curiosity of the reader...and cause them to order.

2. Extravagance at a bargain price.

People want to keep up with the Jones'. They want the absolute best, but they want to feel like they got it at a bargain price. No one wants to feel that they paid too much for anything. So, you need to give them an impressive value at a bargain price.

In many products and cases, this simply boils down to explaining the exact process it took to create the product. For example, with an information product, it may have taken you 5 years of research and $20,000 in testing to come up with the information in this product. If so, tell them about it.

When your company builds a widget, it might search the country for the best wood available. Half of the wood in the factory is rejected. You have over 60 people who actually work on the wood to create the product you sell (in the ad itself you would tell people what many of them do), and you say have 5 people who put it through a strict 13 step test to assure it's quality.

Even if all of your competitor's go through the exact process you do to create the product, it will still be effective for you to tell the story to your customers. This is called preemptive advertising. The person who first tells the story is the one who garners the trade. Anyone else who seeks to follow them ends up looking only as a copycat, not the originator of the system.

Once the customer understood the value involved in the product, they were glad to be able to purchase it at such a bargain price.

What process does your product go through that will add a value to it in your customer's eyes?

3. Fear of Failure and of Making the Wrong Decision

This is the biggest barrier that we have to overcome throughout the selling process. People are afraid they are going to make a bad decision
in buying your product. They are afraid you are going to rip them off and not provide them with the product they are expecting.

Everything that you say as an advertiser is immediately looked at with a grain of salt. People have been lied to before when it comes to advertising, so they look at your ads wondering if you are any different. Unless you find a way to overcome this fear of "being taken" in
your prospect's eyes, you are not going to close a majority of sales.

There are basically two aspects to overcoming this resistance. The first way is by presenting and adding credibility to your ads. Credibility is
produced through your "proof" and through the testimonials which you provide. It is often said that salespeople without testimonials have skinny
children. It is next to impossible to build the credibility you need in the eyes of your prospects without testimonials.

The second way to overcome this resistance is by giving a risk free guarantee or a better than risk free guarantee. Let your prospects know that they can return the package for any reason. Plus, give them several bonuses in the package which they can keep even if they return the package for a full refund.

An even better method of overcoming this buyer's resistance is by allowing them to try out the package for free, and having them pay for it at the end of the trial period. Which one you rather buy from? Would you rather buy from the person who gives you the horse to try out for a week and allows you to pay later...or the person who requires up-front payment?

Think about ways where you can overcome the buyer's resistance by offering a more risk free proposition than all of our competitors.

4. Exclusivity

People like to get a "special" deal which is made just for them. They like to be told that they are special. They like to have their names mentioned. They like to have their names engraved on the objects that they purchase.

I have learned how to apply this factor to my own sales. I run a subscriber only special to my 30,000 ezine subscribers now once a month...People love it. They are getting something for a special price or with a special bonus that isn't available to the general public. They are getting it just because they are one of my newsletter subscribers.

All successful Joint Ventures are also based on this element of exclusivity. A special deal was created with the list owners partner
ONLY for their customers. No outsider can participate. The list owner cares so much about their list members that they negotiated to get
them this special price or special deal. These endorsed types of mailings have been known to produce sales rates as high as 10% - 20%...which
is completely unheard of in any other venture.

"FREE" without an understanding of the value is actually dangerous.

Along the same lines, the word "FREE" is actually being overdone online. To some people it appears that everything is free online. Using the word "Free" without explaining the actual value involved does not profit you according to final sales figures.

When you are giving away a freebie from your site, it isn't your goal to just attract visitors I hope. You are not after freebie seekers. Your final goal should be to sell more of your products and services to your
visitors. This is not accomplished through just handing out the most freebies.

This is accomplished through explaining the value of your products and services...then offering the freebie. Claude Hopkins recorded that even back in his time you should never offer a sample to anyone unless
you have had the chance to tell them your product story. Unless you have actually had a chance to show them the value of your
offering, it could possibly diminish the value of your actual product.

Tell your prospects the actual value of the freebie. Then, tell them "why" you are offering it free. If you just listed the value at $97, but never told them why it was worth $97 or why you are giving it to them free, then your statement is worthless. You must both explain why the free product is worth $97 and why you are giving it to them for free. Tell them that you know letting them use it for free will get them hooked and
that they will keep coming back for more. Tell them why it is free...or don't offer it at all.

This is why there is so much confusion online concerning giving freebies away at web sites. Some experts recommend giving away freebies. Some recommend that you don't give anything away. It is all a matter of understanding and showing the "VALUE" that you are giving away for free...and if it brings your visitor back to order from you. The ordering process is what you are after.

Remember the marketing statement, "Tell me why, and then I'll buy."

------------------------

Terry Dean, a 5 year veteran of Internet marketing, will Take
You By The Hand and Show You Exact Results of All the Internet
Marketing Techniques he tests and Uses Every Single Month.
http://netbreakthroughs.com

Thursday, April 06, 2006

The Floor is Now Open to Your Questions & Discussion Ideas

Since I've just created this blog I wanted to open the floor right away and allow you to post questions and discussion ideas concerning Internet marketing & closely related topics. This blog is here to help and inform so its up to you to get it started. So ask away. I hope I can be of assistance and will get back with you as soon as I have the chance.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

Kyle Buttinger
Blog Master

P.S. If you're looking for great Internet marketing tools or just some income opportunity ideas then please click on the following link: Income Opportunity | Internet Marketing Tools

Also, if you're just plain curious on how to really make money online or if you're struggling to make some decent money with your business, I've created a fabulous package specifically designed for your needs. Please click on the following link: Make Money Online | Internet Home Based Business

The Great Debate: Short Sales Copy vs. Long Copy

I presume the debate of short copy vs. long copy has been going on for decades (to be modest). And if you're like me and the other thousands of Internet marketing nuts and enthusiasts then I'm sure you've noticed this topic coming back into discussion on some big name blogs. Although, I read it not too long ago this topic was posted on Mr. John Reese's blog at the end of February '05.

Mr. Reese states he sees "long format sales copy" on websites as becoming less and less effective in the coming years. Well, I agree 100% with this. I wrote in his blog I've had better response with a 15 page sales letter than I've had with a 22 page letter. But, I think the length of your copy entirely depends on the product you are selling and who you are marketing it to. For example, a short list of features can be a big enough description to sell a PC headset, but we all know it will be near impossible to sell an ebook this way.

As Jeff Paul states in "Killer Copywriting" you've got to tell the entire story. You can't write 30 pages for the sake of making your letter 30 pages and expect it to have major pull. If your story can be told in 15 pages then you're probably better off leaving it at 15 becuase you're sure to turn off some of your readers with what maybe boring dribble and repetition. A little tip: As Michel Fortin said in an interview I was listening to recently web surfers are "click happy". Meaning their attention spans are very short. So, you're going to want to take this into consideration in writing your sales copy.

To get a little more a recent, a week or so ago I received an email from Michel Fortin notifying his subscribers of his new blog post on this subject. The floor is now open for discussion. I'd love to hear from you on what you think about this topic. If you have had better response with long or short copy or anything at all pertaining to this subject.