Traffic Tidal Wave Method # 6
Directory Submission
Directory submission is another SEO method that holds a promise of good traffic. It is very similar to the previously mentioned traffic exchange programs and in fact most marketers consider them to be exactly the same. But there are differences here in which marketers can submit their websites. The website links are not randomly accepted by the directories, but they have to fulfill certain qualifications, which might be following a particular niche. The websites are ranked by the directory on the basis of the value that they can provide to a potential visitor.
The rest of the concept is the same. As more and more people visit these links, the website begins ranking better. We say that the website gets better search engine optimized. Hence, this is a method that you should not avoid for generating traffic.
The task that takes the highest amount of time here is the submission itself. Though there are automatic submission services available, most marketers still use the manual submission route because that spells quality. Freelancers are employed most times for getting these submissions done so that the marketers can focus on their other more important tasks.
There are two main types of directory submission services provided. One of these is specific to the kinds of keywords that are used. Keyword optimization becomes important so that the website link gets accepted by the directory. The other method is a normal directory submission. Here back links are provided so that the websites can be visited. Both kinds of directories are very popular with Internet marketers.
The following are some directory submission services that you can use:-
Best Web Directories (http://www.best-web-directories.com/)
AboutUs.org (http://www.aboutus.org/)
Yahoo! Directory (http://dir.yahoo.com/)
The following are some special niche directories:-
For the business niche – Business.com (http://www.business.com/)
For the biography niche – Biographicon (http://www.biographicon.com/)
Traffic Tidal Wave Method # 7
Link Exchange Programs
Link exchange programs are just what their names indicate. Website owners promote each other’s links on their sites. These are similar to traffic exchange programs in that many people come together to promote each other’s businesses. But the difference lies in the way this promotion is done. In traffic exchange programs, the link promotion is done on a separate website directory. However, in link exchange programs, the promotion is done on the websites of the participants themselves.
Link exchange is done through text as well as banners. The people who want to promote their sites make their links available in the form of HTML codes or banners. These are then picked up by other webmasters and promoted on their own sites.
The main intention is, of course, to get as much visibility as possible. When more people begin clicking on the ads, the SEO of the link automatically increases and still more people come in. Like many other SEO methods, implementing a suitable link exchange program helps you to get more eyeballs on your website.
But there is a distaff side of link exchange that you have to think of. You need to promote your website link only on websites that are equal to or greater in popularity than yours. Submitting to a low ranking website will do nothing to your PageRank. Similarly, you should not accept sites that are very low in status than yours. This will adversely affect your own PageRank.
You can get free websites for link submission as well. For this you will need to contact the website owner directly. Use a service such as WhoIS to know who the owner of a particular website is and their email contact so that you can communicate with them directly. You can find details about any webmaster of any website using WhoIS which you can obtain from http://ping.eu.
Link exchange is a very good method of bringing in traffic to your website; however, if you are looking for targeted traffic – i.e. traffic that will be really interested in buying your products – you will need to look harder and use some other methods in conjunction with this.
Traffic Exchange Method # 8
Email Marketing
Email marketing is based on lead generation. Leads are people who have done some activity on your website or on an affiliate website – such as downloading an eBook or adding themselves to an opt-in list or subscribing to a newsletter, etc. – and have given their email id in the process. The email id is called as the lead. The collection of all these people is known as the list.
The actual process of email marketing involves sending informative content through email to these people on your list. The emails have to be content-rich, providing them something of value and very subtly nudging them to perform some further action, such as visit your website for an offer or a free gift. Though the eventual intention is selling the product, it is not done blatantly in email marketing.
Email marketing brings in a lesser flow of traffic than other methods generate. Despite that, marketers use this method prominently. The main reason for that lies in the fact that the low traffic brought by this method is all targeted traffic. The people who have opted in to become part of your list are people who are interested in your list. It is very easy to get them to convert. This is the method they refer to when they say – “Get the customers to come to you; don’t go to them yourself.”
But, the success of this method lies in your email. You have to take care that you provide something of immense value that these people can use. These can be:-
- Some latest news about the industry
- easier way to do An ordinary things related to the niche
- A set of tips, pointers or guidelines
- A short but effective how-to guide
- Directions for getting freebies and discounted offers within the niche
- Success stories of other people
- Motivational material
… and so on. People are looking for such information on the Internet anyway. When you send this directly to them in their inbox, your credibility increases. Not only do you get traffic, but you also get repeated traffic and conversions.
Traffic Exchange Method # 9
Social Networking Sites
Social networking has become immensely popular in today’s times. Everyone from freckle-faced teenagers to octogenarians is using these sites and, in fact, they are spending a lot of time on them. As a marketer, you just cannot avoid the potential of these websites in making your site highly-trafficked.
One reason why social networking works as a method of traffic generation is that you can find people with various interests here, and most of them make their interests known through their profiles. Many social networking websites are searchable through meta tags, which are nothing but specialized keywords. Hence, if you have a business of selling a gardening product, you could easily put ‘gardening’ in the search bar of a social networking site and very soon a list of all the people who have listed gardening as a hobby in their public profiles will show up. Then you can send a bulk email to all these people speaking about your product and can even give them your business link to visit.
Do you realize what is happening here? You are marketing directly to people who are interested in gardening, which increases your traffic conversion rate manifold.
The best thing about social networking is that you don’t have to go anywhere to build your list. You have it right there on the site. However, this also brings in competition. But, if your product does spell good quality and people are impressed by the content you provide them, you will stand out eventually.
Social marketing is a fast – almost instantaneous – method of getting traffic. People usually constantly monitor their social networking profiles. As soon as they get the email verification from you, they will want to visit the site and check out. This is your ‘make or break’ moment. You have to make sure your emails are right.
The following are three of the most popular social networking sites that Internet marketers use. Do you have profiles on them already?
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/)
MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/)
Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/)
This is not the end. There are various niches here such as video sharing sites, photo sharing sites and several others like that which belong to a special niche of services. We will speak about them later in this presentation.
Traffic Tidal Wave Method # 10
Video Sharing
Video sharing has becomes a much formidable method of traffic generation especially after the unbelievable popularity of YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/). Today, there are several other wannabes that are in the YouTube mould, but for a marketer, video sharing has become synonymous with YouTube marketing.
The concept is simple again. You make an interesting video about some interesting aspect about your product and then post it on YouTube. With its millions of viewers per month, you can be sure that your video will be watched several times. If your video is good, you can draw visitors from your video to your website directly.
YouTube is built for marketers. It has a unique feature in which you can insert a website link into the video itself and make it clickable. Since the viewer doesn’t have to undergo the hassle of seeing and typing the email address, you can be assured to getting more visitors. Also, you can improve the prospects of your video through content. YouTube allows meta tag descriptions, which means great SEO and also has content such as headlines which again you can spruce up for SEO. You must also note that YouTube is a Google subsidiary and hence it uses the amazing Google search engine.
Another thing that you must note is that YouTube is also a social networking site. You can make your account there and comment on videos and stuff. This means people get to talking about your video and the product shown therein. This leads to another awesome aspect of traffic generation, known as viral marketing.
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Free: 7 Super Simple Traffic Tactics
