The Digital Practitioner: Email List
    • Showing posts with label Email List. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label Email List. Show all posts

    Wednesday, 28 February 2018

    Time To Make A Blogging Difference To Your Business

    February 28, 2018 0
    Time To Make A Blogging Difference To Your Business

    Do blogs really matter? A website will market your products and services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. But people do business with people they know, like and trust. Blogs are usually less formal in tone than the text on business websites, giving business owners a chance to really connect with their audience.

    Blogging is a relationship-building tool. A blog, either on its own or as part of your website, can illustrate that you are a specialist in your niche who really knows what you are speaking about. It can also show that you have the skills and experience to create quality products.
    Content Is King
    Content is the main driver of effective marketing these days. And a blog provides content and helps your target audience find you. And that means content in all forms. This includes your videos, reports, eBook, infographics, image names, and more.
    Free Traffic
    In terms of getting a continuous flow of traffic, the more posts to have, the better. As soon as you have published one, you can share links to it on social media and via email. Provided that the quality of the content is good and relevant to your target audience, you should have no trouble driving traffic to your blog.

    Your Blog Posts Are Free Samples
    If you sell any types of information products, your blog posts will give a clear idea of the quality your customers can expect. Information products include items like eBooks, reports, videos, audio files etc. Your blog reader will see the quality of what you provide for free and will directly relate that with the quality of your paid products.
    Your Recognition 
    Innovative and well-researched blog posts let readers know that you're serious about your business and know what you're doing. This confidence in you will not only make your audience more likely to buy from you, it will also give them a reason to spread the word about your blog and your business.

    Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
    Due to their ease of navigation and frequency of updates, the search engines and will crawl your blog often, sending new traffic your way. In many instances, these will be people you haven't connected with yet. Studies have shown that shorter posts might rank in the top 20, but longer posts that are considered highly relevant will usually get into the top three slots.
    Are you are ready to be a better blogger? Discover 21 different one-a-day tasks and activities for getting more traffic, more prospects, more customers and more sales. Download my free checklist, 21 Days To A Better Blog, at https://jonallo.com/better-blog



    by: Jon Allo 
    Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jon_Allo/1079948
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    Thursday, 15 February 2018

    4 Useful Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

    February 15, 2018 0
    4 Useful Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

    Many entrepreneurs are looking for different ways to make extra income, especially online. Some start by providing in-demand services or create unique products. But, one of the easier areas to get started is to start promoting products or services of another business. This is referred to as affiliate marketing and a payment is received for every successful sell through your affiliate link. While it isn't different to get started with affiliate marketing, it does require consistent effort, planning and knowledge to achieve success over the long-term and earn a significant income.


    Here are a few benefits of affiliate marketing:
    It requires no inventory or product development
    The process of developing software can be quite cost prohibitive for entrepreneurs just starting out with a self-employed business. Also, buying enough stock to get up and running can carry the risk of losing a lot of money if the chosen products don't sell. Even though there may be the option of returning unsold items to the supplier, this is only likely to happen at a loss. Also, it is quite time and labor intensive to operate an online shop, especially if planning to ship items directly to customers. However, the entrepreneurs that choose to take the affiliate marketing route can eliminate inventory and product development concerns.
    Hundreds of products or services to choose from
    An affiliate has the option to choose from hundreds of different products or services to promote. This makes it easy to go with the top-selling products or work in a niche that you have a personal interest. Also, the more successful affiliate networks put together a wide range of resources and graphics to make the process of marketing the items much easier.


    It is a chance to learn about online marketing
    Affiliate marketing removes the need to invest in buying, handling, storing, or shipping items, so more time and money can be invested in driving traffic to a website and converting that traffic into real buyers. There is the option to try several marketing methods, such as email marketing, video product reviews, and experimenting with different landing pages. The fastest way to understand the different methods is by learning by doing, which significantly speeds the ability to see positive results.
    No need to deal with actual customers
    Customer service is certain to take up a lot of time for the business involved in selling merchandise. But, for those operating solely as an affiliate there is no need to have direct contact with customers and this is left to the actual product owner.
    Discover more about the benefits of learning affiliate marketing and online lead generation by visiting https://herdigitaldomain.com/


    by:Leo Eigenberg
    Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Leo_Eigenberg/1776992
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    Sunday, 17 December 2017

    Re-Engage Email Subscribers

    December 17, 2017 0
    Re-Engage Email Subscribers

    The point of an email list is to engage with the people on it, and to build a relationship with each person. Ultimately the point of the relationship is to make sales - either to the person on the list, or through them to people they know.

    That said, if a person on your list is not engaging with you by at least opening your emails (hopefully reading the content and clicking on the links) at least some of the time, you're wasting your effort and their time by continuing to email them. You should periodically "wash" your email list by attempting to re-engage with the individuals and, if that doesn't work, removing them from your list. A small, dedicated and engaged audience is better than a larger audience that doesn't give a damn about you.
    This describes a re-engagement sequence using MailerLite's Automation tool. I use this sequence for my own lists, as well as the lists of my clients. You can build a similar sequence in every other major Email Service Provider/list management tool.
    First, I select people who have not opened an email from the sender within a certain framework. Depending on how often your emails go out, I suggest 24 emails or 6 months. I copy those names to a new list - make the name obvious, like "No Engagement" or "No Opens," something like that. I then send them a 3-email sequence to try to get them to confirm their interest.
    I can't give you exact wording. Your list members, and their reason for initially connecting, will be different from mine. However, the "bones" of the email can be the same.
    The first email thanks them for joining, but says you've noticed they haven't read any of your recent emails. Acknowledge that interests can change. Tell them that new content is coming, but if they're truly no longer interested, they can click on the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the email. You could also give them a link to click (a page on your website is good) so they can see what's happened lately.

    Send this, and add a delay. I use a number of different days of delay, to give a "randomized" effect to my emails, but you can just pick a number of days to wait and always use that number if you like. After email #1, I like to wait 6 days. If they open it, I remove them from the list I created ("No Engagement" or whatever your name is). If they didn't open it, I send email #2.
    Email #2 again tells the reader you're cleaning up your list, and asks them to Unsubscribe if they no longer want to hear from you. Then, you attempt to engage again: ask them for their opinion on some topic, or to take a survey or poll on your website. I often ask them to say "Hi" by introducing themselves on a post on the sender's blog.
    After waiting (I wait 8 days after the second email), if ML shows they've opened and/or clicked a link, I remove them from the list. If not, they get email #3.
    I give #3 the title, "Sad to see you go." This is an obvious tell - if they don't open this one, you're assuming they no longer want to be there. The email says just that. It also asks them to recommend you to friends/relatives who might have an interest in you and your list. Since I'm about to take them off my list, I don't ask them to Unsubscribe. However, it does say that you thank them for their past attention, and will welcome them back if they'd like to re-subscribe in the future. (Yes, you're about to delete them, but now is the time to be extra attentive and polite!)
    After a certain number of days (I wait 7 here), if they've opened the email I remove them from this list. If they haven't opened the email, I have ML delete them (Unsubscribe them) from the main list.


    While some people argue that emailing people who don't open your messages "doesn't hurt anything," it actually can. The email providers of the people you send msgs to who don't open them may assume you're a spammer, and can block your future emails to all their customers. Some sites can block the IP address you send from, and MailerLite won't be happy about that, let me assure you.
    It takes about half an hour to create this sequence the first time. Every six months, you add the latest batch of non-responsives to the list and run it again.
    * * * * *
    Scott Gardner is the founder of boutique firm Agile' Marketing Services, LLC. They specialize in working with their clients to become Recognized Experts, and using that status to leverage the clients' marketing efforts. For more information, please visit http://www.AgileMarketingServices.com.


    by:     Scott A Gardner 
    Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9827982
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    Friday, 8 December 2017

    How To Create A Squeeze Page That Converts Like Crazy

    December 08, 2017 0
    How To Create A Squeeze Page That Converts Like Crazy

    Last month we covered how to create the perfect lead magnet that expertly targets your ideal audience and makes them want to join your list.
    This month we're going to cover how to create the landing page or squeeze page where you send your visitors, so they can sign up and get the lead magnet.
    After all, even if you create the hottest, greatest, most magnificent lead magnet ever, it won't mean a thing if your squeeze page scares people away.
    Next month we'll cover how to get as much traffic as you want from Facebook.
    Because once you have learned all three of these skills, you can literally go into any market and create a list building machine in just days.

    Better still, you can take it one step further and build a complete product funnel behind your lead magnet, offering a tripwire (low ticket) offer, followed by your main offer, followed by a big ticket item.
    In fact we are going to cover all of that in month 4 of this series.
    So let's start at the beginning...
    What is a Landing or Squeeze Page?
    You know how when you click on a link to get a free book, and you end up on a page that tells you how great the book is, and it gives you a form to enter your email address to get the book?
    That's an example of a landing page, and more specifically, a squeeze page. The reason it's called a "squeeze" page is because it "squeezes" the visitor into opting in to your list, since there is no other option on the page.
    Sales letters and video sales letters can also be used as landing pages. The visitor clicks a link to check out the product and lands on a sales page.
    Today for the purpose of creating a list building machine, we're going to spend our time on making a squeeze page.
    And not just any old squeeze page, either, but one that converts like crazy.

    Think about this: You build a squeeze page and send 200 visitors to it per day, every day, like clockwork.
    Now, you were in a hurry when you built the squeeze page. You cut a couple of corners, didn't spend much time on your copy and basically just threw the thing together.
    And it's converting at a respectable 30%. So in the course of 30 days, you get 1800 new subscribers. Not bad!
    But what if you'd invested a little more time and effort, and got that conversion rate up to 40%? Now you're getting 2400 new subscribers a month for the exact same effort.
    And if you get that page converting at 50%? Now we're talking 3,000 new subscribers per month.
    Do you see why it's important to get your squeeze page just right? The more subscribers you get, the more money you can make.
    Plus, once you get an offer in place to monetize your list building efforts, you'll be able to make more sales on a squeeze page that converts higher.
    This means you can spend more money to get new subscribers, which means you can build your list even FASTER.
    I see marketers throw up squeeze pages like there's nothing to it. And they're right, it's easy to put a squeeze page up. But it takes talent, skill and testing to create a squeeze page that converts really well.
    One thing - don't get hung up on how well your page 'should' convert. Every niche is different. Every offer is different. There are many variables that affect how well your page converts, not the least of which is quality.
    For example, what would you rather have - 10,000 random people on your list? Or 1,000 highly targeted people who want exactly what you offer? You get the idea.
    Let's get started on building that squeeze page:
    Golden Rule of Squeeze Pages - Don't distract your visitor. Ever. For any reason. If your squeeze page is going to convert, then you've got to make it laser focused on that one single conversion behavior.
    One page. One offer. No distractions. No exit links, no sidebars, no headers, no footers...
    Your goal is to create a compelling landing page with great copy and an irresistible offer. Appearance is important, but your offer is crucial. It's better to have an ugly page with great copy and a great offer, than a super slick page with lousy copy and a boring offer.


    You'll need...
    · A Headline - what is it that you're giving away?
    · A Sub-headline - what does your lead magnet DO?
    · 3-4 bullets - build curiosity
    · An Image of the Lead Magnet - make it GOOD
    · The "Download Now" button
    Want a super-fast shortcut? Use a template in Lead Pages or Optimize Press.
    We're not going to get into the mechanics of building the page itself, but rather, we're going to focus on your copy.
    If you feel completely overwhelmed by the mechanics of page building, then don't do it. Seriously. Hire someone to put up your page for you. It won't cost much, and you won't have to worry about learning how to do it.
    Or if you want to learn, then go to YouTube and search for videos that tell you step by step how to build your squeeze page.
    The important things is DO NOT GET HUNG UP ON TECHNICAL STUFF.
    Ever. Either learn it or outsource it, but don't let the technical details slow you down or deter you for a second.
    Example Squeeze Page Copy
    Let's look at example copy from a Digital Marketer Lab squeeze page:
    ULTIMATE FACEBOOK AD TEMPLATE LIBRARY

    COPY & PASTE THESE 7 PROVEN FACEBOOK AD CAMPAIGNS TO CREATE LOW-COST, HIGH-CONVERTING ADS ON-DEMAND...
    The 11 Word Ad That Netted $208,485 in Sales Using One Simple Principle of Buyer Persuasion (This Formula Works In Any Market)
    The "You Forgot" Reminder Trick That Brings In Tons Of New Customers and Leads, Even After They've Already Said No to Your Offer (We Use This One Over And Over, and You Should, Too)
    The "Use ___?" Question Formula That Drive Down Click Costs and Sharply Increases Conversions. (Just Fill In The Blank And Watch Your Clicks Soar And Costs Plummet)
    Plus... We'll Reveal Out Top 3 Facebook Ads That Generated a Combined 110,422 Leads For Just $1.76 A Piece (And How We Made Our Money Back Quickly)
    Notice the headline tells you what it is. The sub-headline lets you know what you can do with it. And the bullets add fuel to the fire, building curiosity and desire in the reader.
    Squeeze Page Tips and Secrets
    Let's cover some techniques that can move your own squeeze page from mediocrity to email lead gathering MACHINE:
    Social Proof:For those who need a slightly bigger push to grab your lead magnet, consider adding social proof below the fold. This could be testimonials from readers or customers, or even a quote from a well-known person in your niche that praises your lead magnet.
    Frankly, most people will never see the social proof because the headline, sub-headline and bullets will be enough. But for those who need a little added incentive, nothing beats social proof for getting them off the fence and joining your list.
    Two Step Opt-in versus One Step: Most squeeze pages use a one-step opt-in, where you see the form right there on the squeeze page.
    But testing shows that two-step usually out-performs one-step. A two-step has a button on the squeeze page that says something like, "I want it!" or "Send me the report!" or "Download Now!"
    Once the visitor clicks the button, the form appears for them to fill out.Hence the name"two step," since it takes two steps to complete.
    In a two-step, at the top of the form you can place a progress bar - one of those half-filled in bars that says you're 50% done. The wording is usually something like, "Yes, I want the [fill in name of lead magnet!]. There is a space for their email address, and a button that says something like, "Get Instant Access."
    All of this is remarkably easy to do if you use a system such as Lead Pages or Optimize Press.
    So why does a two-step convert better than a one-step?
    Because you are initially asking for a smaller commitment, in that you're only asking that they click a button.
    But once they click the button, they have made a commitment to get the report, and thus they follow through.
    It's weird, I know, but human psychology is often strange and bizarre - hence the need to test things to see what works better.
    Cover Images for cheap:If you want to save money when creating the image for your lead magnet, you can either use a program such as Canva, or you can head over to Fiverr and hire someone.

    Cover Image just the way you want it: Go to Amazon and peruse the books. These could be books in your niche or any niche, for that matter. You're looking for overall style and concept. When you find 2 or 3 that you like, show them to your graphic artist and explain what you like about them.
    On Bullets: Spend time on these because one well-crafted bullet can make the difference between a person joining or not joining your list.
    To make great bullets:
    Be specific. Don't tell them your lead magnet will make them money. Instead, tell then you're going to show them the exact 12 word ad that netted you $$23,965.
    Spark curiosity. You're walking a fine line between being specific and making them curious. For example, The "You forgot" reminder trick that brings in an extra 344 subscribers to my list each week.People want to know what the 'you forgot' trick is.
    Convey ease of use, or speed to results. Use your bullets to communicate how easy it will be to do [fill in blank] or how fast it's going to happen once they know how.
    Tell Them Why:Have a good reason why you need their email address to send them a report they could easily download without subscribing.
    This one is controversial among online marketers. Many will tell you that your lead magnet must be something that can be immediately consumed, and I agree this is a good thing. If your new subscriber does watch your video or read your pdf, they now have a better sense of who you are and why they should continue to read your emails in the future.
    However, when you ask for an email address in order to send them a pdf or video link, it becomes quite clear that you are harvesting their email address. After all, you could just as easily provide the download link without asking for their email.
    This raises a red flag to many people, and actually makes it harder to convince them to give you their email.
    But... if you offer an email course, then of course (no pun intended) you need their email address.
    Personally, I like to do both. I like to give them an immediate gift - perhaps telling them my favorite method of getting traffic - while also giving them an email course that they receive once per day for the next week or two.
    This way they get an immediate benefit AND you have a very good reason for harvesting their email address.
    Plus, people consume information best in small chunks. An email course gives you the perfect reason to appear in their email account each day, and it gets the reader used to opening and reading your emails as well.
    In the example above where the immediate benefit was finding out my favorite method of driving traffic, the email course would be step-by-step HOW to implement that method.
    See how they naturally tie together? It's the best of both worlds.
    Emphasize small investment of time, huge payoff:Your prospect is crazy BUSY. S/he isn't looking for a 200 page pdf or a series of 12 videos. What they would love to have is a 2 page cheat sheet that tells them exactly how to fix the problem that is currently driving them crazy.
    Less is more when it comes to lead magnets, and you need to emphasize on your squeeze page just how fast they can consume the info to get the payoff they seek.
    Think of it this way - you want to let your prospect know they are getting something they will use, and not something they should use.
    Fewer Fields = More Subscribers:Whenever possible, reduce form fields. The fewer fields there are on your form, the more likely people will fill it out.
    Don't believe me? Imagine a form that asks you for your first name, last name, phone number, email address and mailing address.
    Now imagine a form that asks just for your email address.
    Which one are you more likely to fill out?
    Use Payoff Button Copy: Have you seen those buttons that say things like, "Sign up," "Subscribe" and "Submit?" Ouch. Who wants to submit? No me and not your prospects, either.
    Use your button copy to remind them of what they are getting and not that they have to do something.
    Good examples are:
    · Send me my course now!
    · Send my free tips!
    · Get instant access!
    · Give me access now!
    Test: Don't take my word for anything above. While these are all proven, effective techniques, the fact is that different things can work in different niches. Once you've built your squeeze page, make it your control and test it against other pages.
    Try changing the headline - even a small headline tweak can sometimes result in a significant change in conversions.
    Test your sub-headlines and bullets.
    Test your button copy.
    Test two-step versus one-step.
    And even test the lead magnet image, too.
    One last thing, and I know I've said this before but it bears repeating - do not let the mechanics and technical aspect of setting up a squeeze page deter you for even a second.
    You can either learn it, use a program such as Lead Pages, or simply hire someone to handle it for you.
    There are multi-million dollar earners in the "how to market online" field who literally couldn't build a squeeze page if they had to.

    But that's just it - they don't have to. They hire someone to do it for them, so they can focus on the important aspects of running their business.
    Outsourcing and delegating anything that's not in your realm of expertise will do more to accelerate your business growth than almost anything else.
    Set a deadline to have your squeeze page in place that's no more than 7 days out. And then just get it done.
    Next month we'll cover how to get traffic on demand from Facebook, at which point you'll be able to use the skills you're learning to go into any market and create a list building machine in just days.
    Stay tuned!
    Discover how to engage and excite new customers into taking action and spending money with you by using these simple free marketing tips from Nick James, The Internet Business Coach http://www.Nick-James.com




    by:    Nick James 
    Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9748611
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    Thursday, 30 November 2017

    How To Get Traffic To Your Websites

    November 30, 2017 0
    How To Get Traffic To Your Websites

    It's probably the most sought-after topic in Internet marketing - how to get more traffic to your websites.

    It doesn't matter whether you're selling your own products, promoting affiliate offers or looking for AdSense clicks, you're not going to earn a single cent if there's no traffic coming to your site.
    There's more to the process than just getting more traffic, however. You not only want traffic, you want targeted traffic - people who are going to be interested in what you have to offer.
    In this article we're going to look at a number of ways - both paid and free - to get more visitors to your website. Some of these methods can generate almost instant traffic while others will take longer to gain momentum.
    By diversifying your traffic generation over several methods, you can get fast traffic while gradually ramping it up over a longer period of time.
    Let's jump right in...
    Getting The Right Kind Of Traffic
    Before we look at any specific methods for generating traffic to your website, we should really discuss what kind of traffic you should be targeting.
    Because there is a right and a wrong kind of traffic.
    The right kind of traffic is visitors who are not only interested in what you have to offer them, they're willing and able to take the action that you want them to take. The wrong kind is simply the opposite - visitors who aren't likely to take your "most wanted action."

    Let's look at a couple of examples...
    First, let's say you have an affiliate review website. You post reviews and other content on your site, with affiliate links for those products. Whenever someone buys one of the offers, you get paid a commission.
    If you generate a ton of traffic, but not very many of those people are either willing or able to spend money, you're not going to generate much profit from them. A good example would be a market where your visitors are mostly teenagers. While they might be very interested in the subject, and willing to buy what you're promoting, a large percentage of them won't be able to buy because they don't have credit cards and their parents may not let them use theirs.
    A market like that might be better suited for a site that displays AdSense ads, which brings us to our second example. Let's say you have a site that is monetized purely with AdSense. In this case, it doesn't matter so much if your visitors are able to buy, since you get paid when they click an ad, regardless of what they do once they leave your site.
    If the market has a lot of "clickers" who don't turn into buyers, the ads aren't going to pay very well, but we'll set that aside for the moment.
    From a pure conversion point of view, you're going to want visitors who are looking for a solution to their problem - and hopefully the ads displayed on your site offer that solution. Again, you want to target the right people to get the maximum number of clicks on those ads.
    If you're generating a lot of traffic looking for free solutions, or just looking for information, you may not get many clicks. So more traffic isn't necessarily going to be more profitable.
    Before you start doing any kind of traffic generation, make sure you're targeting the right people for your offer. Otherwise you're going to be spending a lot of time, money or both with little or no return for the efforts.
    Free Traffic Methods
    Free traffic is certainly the more popular of the two choices (the other being paid traffic). Many Internet marketers just don't have the capital to start paying for traffic, so free traffic is a better way to go.
    Some marketers don't really understand the economics of paying for traffic either, which is an entirely different problem. If you can make a profit, or just break even on what you pay to get traffic to your website, it's really not costing you anything. It's common for marketers to see the cost side of the equation without considering the profit side, but we'll get into this in a little more detail when we discuss paid traffic sources shortly.
    When it comes to getting free traffic, there are two types - short-term and long-term traffic. Some methods can generate visitors to your site in a very short time, almost instantly in some cases. Other methods will take longer to gain momentum, but these tend to keep driving traffic to your site for a longer period of time once they get going.
    Short-Term Traffic Generation
    We're going to look at three sources of short-term traffic that can work very well if you implement them properly:
    1. Forum marketing 

    2. Guest blogging 
    3. Article submissions

    Forum Marketing
    Forum marketing is one of the easiest ways to get short-term traffic, particularly if you're already active in any popular forums in your market.

    Note: In this report, many of the examples will relate to the Internet marketing niche, since most people reading it will be somewhat familiar with it. All the strategies work equally well in other markets, so don't let yourself get caught thinking "this only works for Internet marketing websites" - that's just not true.
    Most forums will let you add a "signature" to your profile, which gets added to the end of every post you make. You can include a link to your website in your signature, along with a short call to action to get people to click through to it.
    If you're active on the forum, and provide good value in your posts, people will click on your signature link. Particularly if you offer them something of value that's related to the market, like a free report, webinar recording or some other type of incentive.
    The key here is to be an active part of the community and provide value first. If you just sign up for a forum, add your signature link and starting posting randomly with stuff like "Hey, great post!" then don't expect much in the way of traffic.
    Give value first, and people will respond by checking 

    out what else you have to offer them.

    Guest Blogging
    Guest blogging is another great way to "siphon" traffic from a community of people interested in your market. A blog is a little less interactive than a forum, but it has many similarities.


    Find some of the most popular blogs in your market and see if they accept guest bloggers. Some sites are up-front about this, with a page that explains exactly how to become a guest blogger for them. Other sites don't advertise it, but if you spend a bit of time reading through existing posts, you'll be able to see if the same person writes them all or if the site has used guest posts in the past.
    Generally guest posts will have a resource box or author byline that gives more information about the author, as well as a link back to their website. If you see any of these, it's a good indication that the site accepts guest posts.
    The key to getting your post accepted is to offer a high-quality article that the blog owner would be crazy not to accept. Spend even longer than you usually would researching, outlining and writing these posts. While it means an extra investment in time, you can get a lot of traffic clicking through to your site if your guest post goes live on a high-traffic blog.
    And while this click through traffic will slow down once the post has been live for a while, it can continue indefinitely as that post gains traction in the search engines. Plus that resource link pointing back to your site will also help you with SEO in the long term, so this is a powerful strategy.
    Article Submissions
    Article submissions, or article marketing, can be another powerful traffic strategy that will provide you will both short-term and long-term benefits. Much like guest blogging, the short-term traffic will come from people clicking through on your resource box links to visit your website.
    By submitting your articles to high-authority websites, you can leverage their power with the search engines to get your articles ranked quickly and generating traffic. This direct traffic can actually continue for the long term if your article gets some traction with Google and the other search engines, but it also helps your own site rank better so it starts generating search engine traffic of its own.
    Which brings us to longer-term traffic strategies...
    Long-Term Traffic Generation
    We're going to look at three longer-term strategies for getting traffic to your websites:
    1. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization 

    2. Social Media 
    3. Relationship Building

    Search Engine Optimization
    SEO is probably the most common free traffic strategy. There are dozens of techniques for improving your rankings in the search engines, and just as many products that teach you how to implement them. Some of these methods work year after year while others are more short-lived.


    You'll also see a lot of methods that would be considered gray hat or ***** hat meaning they might go against the terms of service of one or more search engines, or even cross legal lines.
    You'll need to decide for yourself exactly what lines you're willing to cross in the interest of getting traffic to your website, but keep in mind that the stuff that crosses those lines tends to be the techniques that are more short-lived. They may require less work up-front, but in the long run you can wind up spending more time or money to maintain your traffic because things keep changing.
    SEO is a huge topic that goes way beyond the scope of this report, but let's just look at a few of the most important principles.
    There are two main factors to SEO - on site and off site optimization. On site optimization is things like using your keywords in strategic places on your pages:
    -The TITLE tag 

    -In the page content itself 
    -Image ALT tags 
    -etc.

    At one time, repeating your keywords over and over throughout the page (known as keyword stuffing) would improve your results but the search engines have evolved well beyond that. Don't do this, just use your keywords and other related terms naturally in the content.
    Off site optimization really comes down to links pointing to your website. The more links you get, from related sites that also have some power of their own with the search engines, the better your site is going to rank (and the more traffic you'll get as a result).
    This is where the short- and long-term strategies start to overlap a bit. If you're using any of the short-term traffic strategies we just discussed to get quick traffic to your sites, they will also help you with SEO in the long term.
    The links in your forum signatures, guest blog posts and submitted articles will all help push your site up the search engine rankings so while you might get a short-term jump in traffic when they first go live, they will keep working for you for a long time.
    This is why it's a good idea to keep doing those things, even when your site starts to get traction in the search engines. It will continue to drive both instant and longer-term traffic.
    Social Media
    Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are a relatively new way to get traffic, and as a result they tend to be misunderstood. A lot of marketers use them as a kind of "announcement" service, posting links to new offers, affiliate promotions, new blog posts and anything else they want people to visit.


    But that's all they ever post, and then they think social media doesn't work because nobody ever clicks through on their links.
    The fact is, social media is a longer-term traffic strategy. You need to build relationships with the people you follow before you can expect them to click on any of the links you post.
    Example: Think of it in "real world" terms. If you went to a party or some kind of meeting, would you just make a sales pitch to everyone you talk to? Or would you have a conversation first, so you could get to know one another and what you could offer?
    Treat social media like you would a "real life" meeting - offer value first and build up some trust with your followers before you start hitting them with a bunch of offers.
    Relationship Building
    Building relationships isn't really a traffic generation method in and of itself, but it applies to virtually every other strategy to some degree. If you build relationships with the visitors to your website, or to the other places you post your content, you're going to be a lot more successful in the long run. 

    When you have strong relationships with your visitors, they're a lot more likely to return. And return traffic is one of the keys to a really successful website.

    Look at it this way. If you get 100 visitors per day and you have no way of getting them to come back to your site after they click an ad or an affiliate link, you have to find 100 new visitors every day to maintain your results.
    But if you get 100 visitors every day and get 10 of them into your "relationship funnel" so they return to the site, you've increased your future traffic without having to find "new" visitors. It's over-simplified, but let's assume that they come back the next day. Now you've got 110 visitors, of which 10 will again become return traffic.
    Every day that goes by, you're getting more traffic while you're still only having to generate 100 new visitors. Over time, your traffic will continue to grow even if you don't do any more work to find new people than you already are.
    One of the best ways to build these relationships and generate return visitors is with our next traffic strategy - list building.
    Generating Traffic Through An Email List
    One of the biggest advantages of building an email list is that it lets you control your own traffic. If you have a list of people interested in your market, it doesn't matter if Google, Facebook and every other traffic source shuts off tomorrow - you can still generate traffic just by sending out an email to your list.

    And if you have a brand new page or website that you want to direct traffic to, you can do that as well.
    You could set up a website in the next half hour, send an email 

    to your list and see traffic to your site within a few minutes.

    Even when you're paying for traffic, it's pretty tough to get visitors within minutes of finishing a new site.
    List building as a traffic strategy is a bit of a Catch-22, however. You won't be able to generate that "on demand" traffic until you've built a list, and to build a list you need to get some traffic from other sources first.
    That's why it's important to use all the strategies we're discussing, but get those visitors to subscribe to your email list so you can contact them over and over again in the future.
    Paid Traffic Methods
    A lot of Internet marketers are intimidated by paid traffic. They might have been burned in the past, or they might be afraid of losing a lot of money. This is definitely a concern, so you need to approach paid traffic with a certain amount of caution.
    But the fact is, if you do it right, paid traffic doesn't have to cost you a lot of money to test, and once you figure out how to make it profitable (or just breaking even) it isn't actually costing you anything- you put X dollars in and get Y dollars in return.
    There are lots of different paid traffic sources so we can't discuss them all in this report, but let's look at a few of the most popular (and effective).
    Pay Per Click
    Pay per click, or PPC, advertising includes sources like Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter. You pay a certain amount for every person who clicks on your ad and visits your website. That amount can range from a few cents to several dollars, depending on the market and the keywords that you're targeting.
    If you're not careful, PPC advertising can chew through a lot of money in a pretty short time so it's important that you approach it correctly.
    Make sure you're not targeting really broad keywords that are going to get a ton of clicks but poorly targeted visitors.
    Example: You probably wouldn't want to target the keyword "lose weight" because it would cost you a fortune and those visitors could be looking for any number of things when they arrive at your site. 

    You would be better off targeting the keyword phrase "how to lose 10 pounds in a month" (assuming your website can help solve that problem) because while the amount of traffic wouldn't be nearly as high, those people are looking for a very specific thing.

    You should also set your daily budget to something you're comfortable with. That way, if your ads just don't convert for some reason, there's a limit to how much you can lose.
    Once you find a keyword/ad combination that is profitable, you can start to expand on it. Being successful with PPC advertising requires a lot of testing and tracking.
    Banner Ads
    People have been saying banner ads are dead for over 10 years, but the fact is they still work if you use them properly. If you just blast a bunch of banners with "punch the monkey" kind of stuff to as many websites as possible, chances are it's not going to be very profitable.
    But if you pick the sites where you want to advertise based on how relevant they are to your target market and design your banners effectively, they can still product a lot of traffic for relatively little cost.
    Like PPC advertising, start small and track your results. Once you find a banner and/or website that's working for you, start to expand those successful campaigns to other places.
    Paid Ezine Ads
    Paid ezine ads are another "old school" traffic generation strategy that can still work very well. Basically, you're paying for an ad to another marketer's email list. This could be a small ad placed in a longer newsletter or it could be a "solo" ad that is nothing but your offer.
    This is a great way to leverage someone else's list to get traffic to your own site (and hopefully onto your email list in the process).
    The key here is to target your offer to the audience. Make sure you subscribe to that marketer's list yourself and read several of their emails to see what kind of tone they use, and what sort of offers they promote.
    You want to tailor your ad to appeal to the people who receive that person's emails, so make sure you offer something of value and that what you're offering is going to be appealing to the people who get the email.
    Facebook

    Facebook is a fairly new source of paid traffic, and is constantly changing as more and more people start to use it. But with hundreds of millions of users, and the ability to target very specific interests and demographics, you should definitely include it in your paid traffic strategy.
    The key to using Facebook effectively is to remember that most people aren't there to be sold to - they're there to be social. Most Facebook users aren't doing business there, even though it might seem that way to us internet marketers, so if you hit them with a high-pressure pitch (paid or not) it's probably not going to go over so well.
    Once again, it comes down to building relationships with people first so they know and trust you. Once you establish that trust, you can start to ease them over to your websites and other offers.
    Conclusion
    Hopefully this article has given you a bit better idea of some of the ways that you can generate traffic to your website, but also what you should be doing with that traffic once it gets there.
    New traffic sources constantly come and go, but most of the strategies we've discussed here have stood the test of time. While it never hurts to test new strategies and add them to the mix of what you're doing, don't let yourself get caught up in the latest "shiny object" that promises unlimited traffic with little or no work.
    Those kinds of promises are generally too good to be true, and even if they do work as advertised it's usually going to be short lived. Once all the people looking for a magic button start abusing the technique, it won't take long for it to stop working.
    If you build your traffic generation strategy on a solid foundation, you'll be seeing more and more visitors coming to your website for years to come.
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    by:     Dan Martin Noble
    Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9778128
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