By Marige O'Brien Copyright © 2006
It is universally understood among experienced marketers that traffic is the key to online success. Build enough traffic and the law of averages demands it. Traffic is GOLD online. It is the "Holy Grail" of online marketing. However, novice
and mid-level marketers often fail to see the actual mechanics of this and continue to be frustrated by the lack of results, even as they hand the traffic they work so hard to generate over to someone else. You see, like gold, many will "divert" traffic from others, especially from novice marketers. They do this so smoothly that many go for years without ever realizing this is happening.
For instance, many affiliate programs "give" a marketer "their own" page. But this isn't really the marketer's because it resides on th.company's site. So, when the affiliate markets, all their efforts are going to the program not the marketer! And this is only the mos.common example.
Ever wonder why so many blogs are free? Why so MANY services are free?... leads, forums, you-name-it, are given away for "free?" One word: TRAFFIC. in order to use the freebies, the user must visit THAT site. Even free online games are just a way to pull traffic to a site. Because the more traffic, the higher the ranking. And high enough rankings put a site on the first page of any search engine.
Understand one key element: A site can have one.completely unrelated, unconnected add-on page. If that ONE PAGE is hot, the whole site benefits from the traffic/ranking boost. This explains more than all the SEO informatio.combined, why some sites are consistently at the top of seaches while others struggle to get onto page two.
So, how can the average marketer REALLY pull in massive traffic? How can someone, on a limited budget and with little technical expertise, benefit from this? There IS a way, if you follow these steps.
STEP 1 - CREATE A PRESENCE
To begin focusing efforts, a point of origin must be established. In other words, a marketer must create some kind of website of their own to establish a PRESENCE on the internet.
If this seems daunting, because of technical and budgetary issues, understand that a blog is just as much a recognized presence on the internet as any other type of site. In fact, a blog is the ideal solution for newbies (such as blogger-dot-com) because they are free and highly user-friendly.
STEP 2 - REAL CONTENT EQUALS REAL SITE
However, to avoid being designated as a "splog" (blogs that are ONLY used for advertising and generally panned by "respectable" bloggers) a certain amount of real content must be created. It is best to set up a real blog, add to it regularly, and include a side-bar where links can be added. With real content such as reviews of various products or other articles relevant to the products this saves it from that nasty designation.
STEP 3 - FOCUS MARKETING
Choose a blog that allows template editing. Many even include instructions for adding links within the template inside of "comment" tags. Look for them. Then simply add all the links to each affiliate or other referral.
STEP 4 - FUNNEL TRAFFIC
Change all marketing/advertising efforts to point to that website/blog. No matter which link the advertisement is for, set it up to link to this site first. By doing so, the increased traffic will build ranking and that will push THE SITE up on the search engines.
STEP 5 - FREEBIES WORK
Offering a free give away of some kind will draw traffic like nothing else. Whether it's a newsletter, a contest or .combination of things, free is everyone's favorite price. While a blog is somewhat limited in this respect, there are still plenty of options.
STEP 6 - BUILD CONTENT
The site itself can also become an attraction, if the content is continuously updated (i.e., once or more a day) and kept active. The more visits and re-visits, the faster ranking will build. It also offers another way to advertise everything because the content ITSELF becomes something to advertise.
NOTE: At this pobe clear in the next step.
Ideally, find something related to the general site content, though unrelated content still pulls traffic in. But, by making it relevant, cross-links can be direct.
STEP 9 - FOCUS ON FREEBIE
Now focus all marketing on the major free offering. Take good care of it and monitor it to be sure it's running smoothly. It is your diva, your shining star and it will draw the traffic in. Never mind that your links and affiliates are different pages. The fact that they reside on the same site pushes all the pages up just as much as the rest of the site.
If all these steps are followed carefully, at this point, traffic should be translating into real dollars and cents and, probably, more dollars THAN cents! If not, revisit each step and look for oversights and errors. Add a second type of free site, something new and popular.
The best result is that the marketer is NOT dependent on the affiliate programs, and can change those as they see fit. They can also look forward to a time when actually marketing is unnecessary the site markets itself. All that's needed is to keep up the attractions. mo
About The Author
MARIGE O'BRIEN works as a writer, web designer and Internet Marketer. Visit her newly re-designed website, Tracker Mo's Den (
trackermo.com) for her latest recommendations in i-marketing tools and biz opps. Sign up for her own 100% original newsletter, Tracker Mo's Report.
