Copyright 2006 Lynn VanDyke
There are a few secrets that I'd like to share with you. You may have been privy to a few of them before. Actually you may have heard of all 4, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective. I will show you how 4 simple secrets can create a powerhouse web business. This is the second part of the 4 article series.
Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing. All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence. A web business is just like an offline business. It takes hard work and resolve to succeed. However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working. These 4 secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.
Web Success Secret #2) Without Traffic- Whats the Point?
Part 1 of this series really got down and dirty about content. Contents main focus is twofold- make your visitors happy and make search engines happy. This article is all about making you happy! Think of this as your starter guide to increasing traffic and building a profitable business.
Traffic can be summed up in 2 words- free and paid. I consider all PPC (pay-per-click), ezine advertising, offline advertising, and paid directory submissions a form of paying for your traffic. I also consider any project that takes up your time to be paid advertising. After all in the business world time is money. Paid advertising is not bad. It just means that you are paying to receive traffic.
Free traffic is harder to attract, but it costs you absolutely no money. Almost all free traffic is the result of surfers finding your site on the search engines. We talked about using content as your ultimate search engine ranking booster in the last article.
Here are several ways to increase traffic. Some are paid advertising options and others are totally free.
- Write articles and submit them to several niche websites. Manually submitting articles to many websites can take a long time. I use a submission service to do all my hard work. Contact me for more info.
- Post in forums. Many forums will not allow you to market your product or services. Thats totally understandable. What I recommend doing is finding a really great forum that you can participant in. When people have questions, provide top notch and comprehensive answers. No selling. Almost all forums allow you to post your website in your sig file. Take advantage of that.
- Submit each page of your website to all major search engines. Also submit each page to all major search engines whenever you make a change on that page. Be careful with this one. Each engine has very specific directions and rules about submission rules. Be sure you do not spam! Submit pages according to each engines guidelines. I also use a submission service that does this for me at no additional cost.
- Create joint ventures with non-competing websites. Work with a company that compliments your product or service. Also be sure the joint venture is a win-win-win for you, the other company and your customers. Joint ventures can be a pain to set up and complete, but well worth it if done correctly.
- Look into ezine advertising, web advertising and/or PPC. Each method takes an initial investment and some time to learn, but can bring back traffic. Personally I do not prefer this method to increase traffic because its iffy at best.
- Print your website name on all business correspondences. This is a simple task, but one that is simple to do. Add it to your email sig line, forum sig lines, letterhead and business cards.
- Create an atmosphere of amazing customer service. This always leads to referrals from current clients. The more referrals the more traffic!
The bottom line is without traffic your site is floating in a sea of doom. No one is seeing your content or services. Traffic is the lifeline of any business, and the rule of thumb is more traffic means more income.
This brings me to my last and final point about traffic. Once you develop a nice flow of visitors you need to know specifics. Where did those visitors come from? How did they find you? What pages are the most popular on your site? What page did they enter into your site? What page did they leave your site? What keywords did they use to find you? You must know your visitor inside and out!
As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder. Traffic analysis and search engine submissions can be very time consuming, but your hosting company should be providing most of these services to you free of charge. There are a small few that do this, but it is well worth the investigation. Contact me for further resources and information. Having a successful web business starts with effective content. Stay tuned for parts 3 and 4! If you missed Part 1 and would like a complimentary copy please contact me and I will forward it to you immediately. |
