Boosting Search Traffic for Small Business

 By Joseph Richmond

There are potential customers searching for your current products and services online right now! Web traffic strategies utilize the skills of a team of professionals to design web sites that attract prospects to your site.

If your site does not rank high in search engine results, then prospects for your products will never find it.

Web traffic can be analyzed by viewing the traffic statistics found in the web server log file, an automatically-generated list of all the pages served. A hit is generated when any file is served. Here are tips on increasing website traffic for startups:

On-site SEO

. The most important thing is researching the correct keywords that you should be targeting. Some may be popular, but may be dominated by strong competition. Others you may be able to easily get the number 1 spot for, but they are rarely used by actual searchers. Therefore you'll need to research which keywords offer the best combination of popularity and competition, thereby allowing your site to quickly jump to the top of the list.

Off-site SEO

Off-site search engine optimization refers to everything you do to help increase your website's SEO elsewhere on the Internet. This includes:

* Social networking: Online social networking was once something mostly left to kids looking for the next hot band or a hot date. It was not an avid pursuit for Kevin Kimball, a 56-year-old who had only dabbled in a few such sites until last fall. Online anonymity (think road rage) makes it difficult sometimes to have a reasonable debate. I think that's why we need to stay away from the edges where beliefs are polarized.

* Article marketing: Article marketing is a simple process. First, you have to write an article that is of great value to the readers. Article marketing is one of the most powerful tools to promote business, products or services. Another easy & fast way to publish articles is by using article submission services.

Article marketing will bring to your blog traffic that is geared towards your blog's theme. You will also build links to your site that do not require reciprocity. These will attract those experts who would not have made it to your blog otherwise.

* Video marketing:Video marketing is all about getting your product or brand out and into the community. Provide an entertaining video and you can include your products or brand. Video marketing is the best way forward for businesses and web companies wanting to publicize their service or product profile and benefits in the fastest possible time.

There isn't anything else that comes near to the success and influence of a well-designed video marketing campaign. Video marketing enlivens the data card by presenting each mailing list's unique characteristics in a personal and creative format.

* Forums and blogs: Posting on forums and leaving comments on blogs is one way to help get your website noticed by other people and other websites within the community. If you make intelligent and thoughtful comments, then people will respect what you have to say and will visit your website or reach out to you when in need.

* PPC Campaigns: A PPC (pay-per-click) campaign is easy to set up and run on search engines and sites. But you have to know what you are doing. PPC campaign management normally stands on the total number of conversions of your website. Always remember that a visit to your website cannot be definite only with a click.

The right combination of all of the above strategies will lead to a great boost in the amount of website traffic that you see and enjoy. Not everything works for all businesses or markets, so always be sure to evaluate your strategies and campaigns for effectiveness. For more strategies, visit http://danielditzhazy.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Joseph_Richmond/2304526

Four Common Mistakes in Online Advertising

By Kenneth (LeadsLeap Admin) 

Today we are going to discuss the common mistakes that marketers make when advertising online. By understanding these mistakes and avoiding them, I hope you can improve your success rate in any form of online advertising.

Without further ado, here is the first mistake:

1. Bark Up The Wrong Tree

I once heard a story that goes like this:

Someone once asked a notorious bank robber why he only robbed banks. The robber looked a little surprised and simply answered, ‘That’s where the money is.’

This story becomes popular in the teaching of success philosophy because that’s the essence of success in doing anything. The same principle applies to online advertising. Before you start to advertise, the first question you need to ask is, ‘which online sites does my prospects frequent?’. Whatever the answer is, your challenge is to find ways to reach out to those sites and channel the traffic to your own site.

One common thing I hear from advertisers is they think their product is for everybody. If you think that your product is for everybody and you simply advertise everywhere to get traffic, chances are most of your advertising effort may be wasted.

2. Not Having A Bait

Most advertisers simply use a hook to catch fish instead of using a bait. They have a salespage that tries to sell something and they expect people to buy. This will work if the traffic has been ‘presold’. But if the traffic arrive at the salespage without learning about your product from somewhere else, the chance of making a sale is slim. If you have a mechanism to convert them into your list, you may have a second chance. Else, you will miss them forever.

A bait system is different in the sense that the objective is not in the sales. The aim is to reach out to people who can be your potential buyer by giving them part of your product free (not just giving away a freebie to build list, but to give away part of your product to let them have an experience with what you are selling). Say if you are selling a software, you can give away a ‘lite’ version of the software.

The concept of a bait system is very simple. Basically there are only 2 groups of people, let’s call them group A and group B. Group A are those who are not interested in what you are offering. Group B are those who are interested. In Group B, there are 2 more sub-groups, Group B1 and B2. Group B1 are those who are ready to pay and Group B2 are those who are not ready to pay. Most advertisers only target Group B1. In a bait system, your target is Group B. Once you have people in Group B in your net, sales is almost guaranteed, provided you deliver true value.

3. Too technical

Everyone knows it is important to prepare a good ad, but most people are too obsessed with the technical details. One typical example is they focus too much on the ‘features’ rather than the ‘benefits’.

You may ask, what’s the difference?

Features are the language for techies whereas benefits are the language for layman. For example, if you are selling a download manager, one of the features of your product may be ‘to be able to split files into parts and download them at the same time’. If you just leave it as it is, it may not make much impact. But if you translate that feature into its benefit, that may mean that your software can ‘download files 4 times faster’. ‘Downloading files 4 times faster’ is a benefit that will appeal to normal users, as compared to telling them about the technical aspect of it.

Another example is if you are selling a course on how to create a WordPress blog, instead of advertising it as ‘how to create a WordPress blog in 1 week’, you should say ‘how to create a money-making blog in 1 week’, or if you have a testimonial to back you up, you can even say ‘how to create a blog that makes $1,337 in its first week, starting from scratch!’.

Just remember, it’s the benefits that will appeal to people, not the technical details or the process of how to do it.

4. Lack Of Following Up

Last but not least, many marketers focus on generating traffic but fail to follow up with the traffic generated. When I say ‘follow up’, I don’t just mean converting the traffic into sales. That part of following up is important, but it’s not the only follow up you need to do. Another follow up that is equally important is encouragng the traffic to promote you.

As I always said, advertising is like a fire starter. You need it to start a fire, but if you want the fire to sustain and grow big, you’ll need to tactfully position lots of charcoal around it. That ‘charcoal’ is your follow-up system that encourages your existing traffic to bring in referrals.


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Home Is Where The Online Money Is

Blog for Money  How many of you have the desire to work at home in your PJs? Well, it is something that doesn't escape many people. Getting in your car early in the morning, downing some coffee, and desperately trying to motivate yourself to complete work you hate doing is something that you're probably desperate to eliminate in your life as soon as possible.

This may well be a cliche by now, but the good news is that you can make money at home online to supplement or even replace your income. It's all made possible through blogging!

Don't we all who are Internet savvy read blogs all the time? There are literally millions of blogs out there on every conceivable topic.

However, you might not have considered yourself a blogger before! It's important to get rid of the thoughts that you are not a blogger right now, because this could be the way you are able to change your life for the better.

Instead of sneaking a peek at some blogs at your 9-to-5 job, you can be the one sitting at home and writing these blogs that other people read! That sounds really good, isn't it? Now you are thinking you are your own boss!

You'll not only be providing great content for people, you'll also be pulling in some great money that can literally change your life.

Getting rid of the doubt that you can do this is going to be an important first step. As long as you are able to compose and send an e-mail, you can be a blogger!

All you need is a tutorial that will show you step-by-step how to do this. Of course, none of this will come about  unless you also have the motivation and encouragement to move forward. The absolute best place to get this online is The Niche Blogger. If you have not heard about this membership site, then it's about time you do by paying it a visit.

This membership site is good for the newbie and intermedia marketer. In fact, many of the people who join the membership site are brand-new.

The good thing is that there is a whole mix of experience levels so you are sure to be able to find help among the community whenever you need it.

The startup cost is incredibly low as well -- making sure that those who want to join to escape their jobs are able to do so. Even if you're happy with your job, it never hurts to get some added money coming in. Blogging is fun!

You are probably aware that companies spend millions and millions of dollars in order to attract customers. Part of their advertising costs online go to affiliates.

These affiliates place ads on their websites and blogs and their readers often make purchases. When readers make purchases, the blog owner makes money! It really is as easy as that.

All you need to do is be on the other end of things and become the one whose links customers buy through.

The main difference between being able to make money at home online and going to a 9-to-5 job is that you are now in business for yourself.

There is no reason to limit yourself into thinking that you have to stay at a job you don't like forever. Become your own boss and work at home in your PJs so you can do what you want to do, when you want to do it.