After all the debate over website design, shopping cartsand credit card processors, every website owner eventuallycomes to the startling realization that they need one morething to survive - website traffic!
Without website traffic it's the same as building anexpensive billboard and, instead of placing it alongside abusy highway, hiding it in your *basement* where nobody cansee it.
Upon realizing they need traffic, most website owners runout and start blowing chunks of money and time trying toget "hits," but they fail to grasp that there are reallyonly three (3) reliable ways to get traffic to any website.
Method #1 - Buy TrafficCurrently, the fastest way to get traffic to any websiteinvolves using the little classified ads on the right sideof search giant Google's results pages.
Called Google AdWords, the system allows any advertiser toopen an account with a $5 activation fee and start seeingtheir ads appear on Google within about 15 minutes.
Advertisers only pay when visitors actually click throughfrom their ad on Google to their website or affiliate link.
Overture.com also sells traffic by the click, but they makeyou wait three to five days to go through their editorialreview process before allowing ads to appear on theirnetwork.
You can also buy advertising on dozens of other pay-per-click search engines.
They all follow the same basic model of only chargingadvertisers for targeted visitors who read an ad based on akeyword search and decide to click through for moreinformation.
A word to the wise on pay-per-click advertising: Watch yourcosts and track and measure everything. Even though you canget traffic for as little as a penny, you should track yourresults by search engine and by individual keyword if youwant maximum success.
Many a company has lost its entire advertising budgetpaying only a nickel or a dime per click, but not watchingtheir conversion rates and pouring money into keywords thatdon't convert... while neglecting the keywords that dobring sales (mainly because they don't know which iswhich!).
Method #2 - Borrow TrafficIf you need traffic to a website, then borrow it frompeople who already have it... especially people with listsof loyal subscribers or traffic from search engines,affiliates, or other steady sources.
"Endorsed Mailings" and "Reciprocal Linking" by otherpeople represent the two fastest ways to borrow someoneelse's traffic.
If they maintain a list of subscribers, convince them tosend an email out to their people telling them why theyshould check out your site.
Also, negotiate a prominent link on their web pages tosiphon off targeted visitors who find their website.
Often the best way to persuade someone to do this involvespaying them a commission, agreeing to do a similar mailing,or providing a link to them on your site (or a combinationof all three).
Imagine how much traffic you could get if someone with alist of 10,000 loyal subscribers told their people to golook at your website!
Method #3 Recycle TrafficThe most economical way to get traffic involves turningone-time visitors into regular, repeat visitors that youdirect to multiple sites over time.
You do this by pulling website visitors into your sphere ofinfluence by enticing them to sign up for your newsletter,autoresponder sequence, or "mini-course."
Then you keep in contact with regular articles, specialreports, and recommendations enticing them to visit yourown and other people's websites.
Ultimately, every website owner should orient all of theirmarketing efforts towards this end of developing a streamof recycled traffic, because it costs the least and createsthe best return on time and money invested.
It doesn't matter if you promote your own product, promoteonly as an affiliate, or some combination of the two... ifyou don't recycle traffic and get more than one hit out ofeach visitor, you're making one of the biggest mistakesanyone can make online.
About the Author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and theco-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you howto use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targetedvisitors to your website or affiliate links...
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