I get on average around 10,000 to 12,000 unique visitors
to my main site each month. Actually, when you're speaking
about the Internet, that's not too much to brag about, but
it's better than getting say 1000 or 2000 visitors; that
was my usual rate until I aggressively went after targeted
traffic for my site.
I thought I would briefly and in very simple terms explain
how I increased the targeted traffic to my main site from
around 1,000 to 10,000 unique visitors each month. That's
a ten-fold increase -- I am aiming for a hundred-fold increase
but would gladly settle for thirty or forty times the traffic.
How did I increase my site's traffic? The answer might just
help you get more traffic to your own site. Most of these
techniques are very simple to implement and if you're
serious about building an online business, lets face it,
the first thing you're going to need is targeted visitors to
your site.
I hope you have noticed I have mentioned the words 'targeted
visitors' several times already. I did this to bring home
the fact that you're not just after traffic but targeted
traffic or visitors to your site. You want visitors to
your site who are already interested in your site's topic
and who are more likely to benefit from your site's content
or products.
It's the first ingredient for a successful web site.
Below are my 5 main sources of targeted traffic to
my site. Along with a short explanation of how you
can create or put the same practices to work for your
own site.
1. RSS EMPOWERED One of most effective sources of traffic
to my site would have to be my blogs and RSS feeds. Notice
I said blogs and feeds; I have created simple blogs and feeds
for the major topics of my site: on rss resources, web
hosting solutions, notebook computers, etc. These blogs
and feeds bring in a great number of targeted visitors
to my site.
With the introduction of Google Blog Search, my blog traffic
is increasing even more. Within minutes of posting to my
blog - I am getting targeted traffic from Google. You
are instantly indexed by Google Blog Search; it's reason
enough for every webmaster to put at least one blog
on their site.
Try to imagine the traffic you'll get when the next
RSS empowered Windows browser arrives from Microsoft.
Get your own site ready and prepared for RSS to take
advantage of all this traffic. Just use Google owned
blogger.com to create your blog -- it has that all
important blog search bar at the top!
2. SEO EMPOWERED Seo optimization should be your
goal! Still the main source of traffic to my site are
the search engines. Mainly from Google, followed by
MSN and Yahoo. You must optimize your site for the search
engines. This includes off/site links and on/site tactics.
I have been online since '98 so I thought I knew how to
optimize a website. Boy, was I ever wrong! I didn't notice
a big jump in my traffic until I stumbled across a SEO
expert, actually stumble is the wrong word, I actually sought out
the best SEO expert I could find. His name is Brad Callen.
He offers a free email course on how to optimize your
sites for the search engines. His main product is SEO Elite.
Just the free course and his helpful newsletter have
really fine-tuned my site, which resulted in a major
increase of traffic especially from Google. You should
try the same for your site or sites and see the results
for yourself.
3. ARTICLE EMPOWERED This one works. Article marketing for
me has been the major reason for the turn around in the
amount of traffic my sites were receiving. It's one of the
most effective ways to get targeted visitors to your site.
Getting your articles published in ezines and on sites
such as addme.com or sitepronews.com will generate an
enormous amount of traffic to your site. As a bonus, you
even get 100's of subscribers to your own ezine in one day!
The trick is to write helpful how-to articles on current
topics that other webmasters want on their sites, this will
boost your link popularity with the search engines and
increase your rankings. You must also very carefully
choose the right keywords to target in your articles,
matching the content on your site. One way to do this
is with a site like http://www.nichebot.com -- it will show
how to pick the right 'competitive' keywords for your
site. You must target keywords that have high traffic,
yet little competition from competing web sites.
My main sources of traffic from article sites include
http://www.ezinearticles.com and http://www.buzzle.com.
4. EZINE EMPOWERED Building a large opt-in list or subscribers
to my ezine is another method that brings in a lot of traffic
to my site. You can use an ezine to offer helpful tips to your
subscribers. It is a very easy way to get repeat visitors
to your site and build up a relationship with your visitors.
Your ezine should relate to your site's theme and offer
more information on the same. Whether you believe it not,
if you operate a site on a particular subject for a couple of
years, you will fast become an expert on that subject.
People will regard you as such and this will also bring
in visitors to your site.
5. VIRAL MARKETING EMPOWERED Another way to attract targeted
visitors is to offer a free product or service. I use free
brandable reports that visitors can download and use. These
reports and ebooks have links back to my sites. One of my most
popular ones is a timely report and guide on how to use and
benefit from RSS on all your sites. It brings in a lot of traffic.
Similar to the one above, I use other free viral techniques to
build targeted traffic to my site. These are products that can
be branded with your links and passed around. Helpful software
programs that match the theme of your site are good choices to
make.
Another popular one that I have on my site is the DATEwise
eCalendar and personal planner that visitors can download and
place on their desktops. It has hotlinks to my site that brings
in traffic. It can be customized with your site's products so
you get targeted visitors or customers.
OTHER SOURCES There are other sources of traffic for my site that
I find effective but they bring in lesser traffic than the methods
listed above. But they are still worth mentioning, one of these is
regular posting on major online forums. This brings in very good
targeted traffic, so too, is posting comments in online blogs.
Another good source is a traffic exchange called 'Traffic Swarm' - most
sites where members exchange traffic don't work. You get worthless
hits to your site. However, Traffic Swarm is one exception that
your should try. You just set your start page to this exchange, and
click on sites you want to visit.
Increasing targeted traffic to your site is an ongoing struggle
for every webmaster. I hope you can try some of the techniques
that have worked for me. I am sure they will also work for you.
Empower your site with targeted traffic!
