2. Social Bookmarking and Social Networks
Commonly known as ‘Web 2.0’ promotion, social bookmarking and social networks form a new type of promotion that has rapidly gained ground. Previously, it was mentioned that these represented a valuable source of backlinks, and that much is certainly true.
However, apart from the backlinks that come as part and parcel of marketing efforts involving these websites, there is also the additional possibility of receiving traffic through those backlinks.
After all, if there is an interesting bookmark that draws the attention of the crowds of people who flock to social websites, then there will probably be a correspondingly high amount of visitors who want to know more.
Despite this, there are two things that one should be aware of regarding social bookmarking, and social networks:
1. Not every piece of content is going to do well in social bookmarking websites. For the most part, the content that does do well when social bookmarked is those that are deemed to be ‘fresh’, ‘hip’, expertly informative, or even controversial.
2. Research has shown that traffic from social bookmarking websites tends to have a very high ‘bounce rate’. What this means is that very few visitors that come in through social bookmarks will actually end up staying around long enough to browse your website.
3. Some social bookmarking websites are very niche specific, so finding those in your niche could presumably not only increase the value of the backlinks obtained, but also allow you to do much better due to the relevancy and automatic targeting of traffic.
Being a relatively easy and painless way to gain backlinks, and also build up yet another traffic stream, social bookmarking is certainly worthwhile.
3. Article Marketing
Another easy way of gaining both backlinks and traffic, article marketing is more powerful than many first realize. In fact, some people use it solely for the backlink value, and by doing so, are ignoring a potentially incredible source of extremely targeted traffic.
On the whole, the entire process of article marketing could be summed up by describing it as writing an article, and submitting it to article directories. By including a link of your choice in the ‘resource box’, you will be gaining back links.
However, if it is to be a true source of traffic, then there is much more to the process than simply that. Firstly, the article must be keyword targeted, just like your content, in order to enable people to find it.
Apart from that, the article itself must be a ‘presell’ of your website, albeit in a non-promotional way. Good articles for submission are those that relate to the content of your website, and guide the reader to the resource box which would contain a call to action.
It is here that the article culminates its usefulness, and the call to action should be convincing, and supply the reader with a good reason to want to visit your website.
Note: To further get readers to visit your article, some basic promotion of it through social bookmarking, could help it rank higher and thus increase the traffic flow.
One argument regarding article marketing is that it is a ‘short term’ solution, which basically requires you to submit content to a third party website as opposed to building up your own. While this is very true, at the same time, it is a way that you can tap into the already-high page rank and reputation of article directories.
What you end up with is a high-up search result that basically advertises your website, which is not too shabby at all.
4. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Speaking of advertising, yet another great way to gain traffic is to advertise. Through PPC advertising, whereby you only actually pay when your advertisement is clicked, you end up essentially paying per visitor.
As far as value for money goes, this would seem to be a no-brainer.
Running a PPC campaign however, is slightly more involved than it sounds. Where there is high competition for a certain keyword, you’re going to need to pay more per click for your advertisement to appear often. Thus, it boils down to a question of keyword research again, and finding targeted, but low-competition keywords which you can then exploit.
Properly carried out, this is one of the easiest ways to gain traffic quickly, though admittedly, you do have to pay for it.
5. Forums
For almost every niche, there are forums around online where people would flock to discuss the issues that surround it. Naturally, this represents a base of potential traffic that you could tap into, but the question that should be asked is, “How?”
Obtaining traffic from a forum can sometimes be a long process. Most good forums tend to have been established, and you will have to establish yourself within the forum so that the others there view you as an important and trusted contributor.
If you can accomplish this, then your suggestions are bound to be taken more seriously, as will your links.
Before you get to this level though, you can always start off by including a link in your signature, as is the generally accepted practice with most forums. Be sure to read and abide by the forum’s rules though, the last thing you want to happen is that you end up getting banned for some offence that you did not realize was an offence.
Who knows, once you are very reputable, you could end up tapping into a huge stream of traffic from a forum.
6. Blog Commenting
Quite frankly, this has fairly similar characteristics as forum posting, but in most blogs there is no real need to build up a reputation. Just find blogs in your niche that welcome commenting, and are not opposed to having backlinks posted, and comment away.
Be sure that your comments and links are relevant though, else chances are that the moderators will act swiftly to remove them.
Keeping Traffic Flowing
After the initial traffic bases are mostly covered, you could even entertain other options to keep your traffic flowing in. List building, Joint Ventures, and setting up your very own affiliate program, are all fairly decent options, but work best after you’re already somewhat established within your niche.
As long as the basics we’ve been covering above are there though, you should be receiving a fairly steady and decent amount of traffic, even in the most competitive of niches.
All that it is left for you to do then is start converting that traffic into sales, and you’ll be well on your way to the thriving online business that is coveted by many.
Thanks for the visit.
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