Don’t Go Broke Trying to Build an Online Business

Forty Thousand Dollars Later

Are you a serial IM product buyer? Are you spending cash hand over fist in pursuit of an ideal approach to implement your business idea? Do you find yourself hitting the BUY NOW button day after day, believing that you’re about to find the missing link in your moneymaking chain?

If you’re spending a fortune on your business, you’re not the only one. Far too many Internet marketers are doing the exact same thing.

And that’s totally understandable. It’s entirely reasonable to invest in new strategies and tools to fine-tune your profitable IM enterprises. It’s sane and sensible to invest in new strategy guides to stay abreast of changes in the industry and to get your hands on innovative ideas. However, there is a problem with running on the BUY NOW treadmill if you’re not making any money.

There’s a significant difference between trying to stay on the cutting edge and gambling on every possible tool in hopes of making a business work.

You want to be the smart investor. You don’t want to be the person who’s spent $40,000 on IM products and still isn’t making regular sales.

The Right Kind of Purchase

So, how do you avoid becoming the wrong kind of serial buyer? The first step is creating a bedrock foundation for your IM business. If you strip away all of the details, tricks, options and creative new ideas from Internet marketing, it’s a simple proposition.

You need a product to sell. You must have a way to sell the product. You need a way to generate traffic to the site from which you’re making that sales pitch.

That’s really all there is to it. Everything you do needs to strengthen one or more of those three simple core needs.

As such, you need to focus on building strength in all three areas. When you buy something, it must directly address one of those three foundational needs.

You must have a foundation that let’s you make money from home before you invest in extras, details, tricks or adjustments. When you have a foundation in place, you will make money. Then you can start experimenting with new ideas and products.

Building a Smart Foundation

You don’t need to spend big money to build a profitable foundation. This is what you need to do.

  • Get a smart, big picture understanding of Internet marketing. You need to hear, straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth, how things fit together and what really works.
  • Focus a great deal of effort on traffic generation. Traffic is, as noted, one of the core elements to a successful online business. It’s probably the most important of those three elements. Without traffic, you can’t determine if your product is interesting or if you’re sales strategy is working.| Absent traffic, you can’t determine if you have the right product or a workable sales strategy. You need as much traffic as you can get–and you need it quickly.
  • Secure ongoing support. A smart ebook can be worth its weight in gold. Solid tutorial videos are a great idea. However, there’s nothing like developing an ongoing connection with a coach or mentor who has a history of success and a willingness to show you the ropes. You can become more efficient and successful when you’re on the receiving end of expert advice.
  • Manage your risk. You need to build your foundation without putting too much of your limited resources at risk. Look for opportunities to secure the right information at a reasonable price. Find a way to develop a valuable relationship with a personal business coach or mentor at a reasonable price.

How and why to build an email list

You’ve probably heard this common Internet marketing mantra a million times. The big money is in online list building. List building is one of the most effective ways to generate online home based business success. You must learn how to build a list in order to reach your potential.

Why it works

Marketing research reveals that most people don’t make a purchase after one exposure to a marketing message. Putting a message in front of an individual on multiple occasions is more likely to result in a sale. You can create opportunities for multiple exposure by adding an individual to your list.

Additionally, people are more prone to spend their money with people the trust and know. List building allows you to build a relationship with your subscribers. That increases your credibility, producing more sales.

How to do it

Internet marketing is a proven winning home based business for women or men when you implement a simple squeeze page. A squeeze page exists to do one thing and one thing only. It should persuade the reader to become part of your list. Everything else is irrelevant.

The use of a free gift is an effective way to persuade visitors to join your list. This is a proven strategy that you can use to spur the success of your business.

Having a quality inducement won’t automatically make your squeeze page a success, though. You also need to build your squeeze page the right way. There are proven ways to build an optimal squeeze page. You should adopt those winning strategies. As such, you’ll want to rely on these three strategies.

Squeeze page basics

First, your squeeze page should be free of all outgoing links with the exception of the “submit” button on your sign up form. You want your squeeze page to inspire sign ups, not to provide guests with an avenue to move on to other sites or pages.

Second, you’ll need to write a short, powerful message. You want to make your offer of an inducement attractive and you don’t want to dilute that point with extraneous verbiage. Remember that your squeeze page is there for a single reason – to build your list. Every line of that squeeze page should exist to serve that objective.

Finally, you should handle the sign up procedure as if it’s a sale – you should work to close the transaction. As such, your squeeze page’s sign up form should feature a powerful call to action. Make it crystal clear that there’s a real value in becoming a part of your list.

Summary

If you’re following those three pieces of advice and are offering a smart “bribe”, you’ll have a successful squeeze page! You’ll be able to build trust and credibility with your subscribers. You’ll also be able to put your message in front of subscribers repeatedly.

You will take your Internet marketing efforts to the next level if you learn how to build an email list. The fact that so many successful marketers embrace list building isn’t an accident. The money really is in the list!

Get indexed, get ranked, get traffic

It’s undeniable that the one thing you need to succeed in your online business is traffic. And nothing beats free traffic. Where does free traffic come from? Google and other search engines.

How does free search engine traffic work?

This is something you’ve experienced first hand countless times. You go to Google. Enter in a word or phrase you want to research. And then you visit one or more of the sites that show up. Well, the link you clicked on just send free traffic to that website owner. We will be discussing here how to get website traffic to you for free.

You probably only visit a link or two from the first page of results. In fact, the first page of results receives almost all the free traffic. And believe it or not, the first 3 results receive over 70% of the traffic.

So, obviously your site needs to be in the first page of results to get free traffic from Google. And this means Google needs to “rank” you as a top 10 result. Which brings up..

What is search engine optimization?

Search Engine Optimization is a measure of how well Google and other search engines think your website matches the search terms people are typing into their search boxes. The intricate formula Google uses to figure this out is really only known by Google. However, we do know a few things that count.

Getting indexed

Before you can get ranked, Google has to first know your site exists. This is known as being “indexed.” What this means is that Google visits your site and records information about it in their database.

Google needs to actually find your site in order to index it. Links from other sites are the easiest way to accomplish this. Since some of these site will already be indexed, Google will follow the links on their pages and find you.

Use your Twitter and Facebook updates to get quick indexed links to your site. These sites are very popular so Google indexes them multiple times a day. And follows new links it finds immediately.

Gaining ranking

After this first hurdle, you need to start gaining ranking. Due to the massive size of the Google database – literally billions of pages – just getting indexed doesn’t do much for you.

The 3 factors in getting ranked:

  • Content
  • Links
  • Activity

Optimized content

This is also called on-page SEO. It’s critical that your page content is consistent with the keyword phrases you’re targeting. Obviously, the article you’re reading now is about search engine optimization. One reason Google knows this is because the words search engine optimization appear inside it. And another way this is determined is by the other related phrases like traffic generation that are also in the article.

The title of the page, the domain name and other pages on your site are also important. These all play a part in helping Google determine what your website is about.

Link strategy

Next, you need to pay attention to the links to and from your site. The links coming in and the links going out are included in this. It’s very important that you have more links coming in than you have going out. So the number of inbound links is important.

Article spinning is a super easy way to get a bunch of inbound links. To accomplish this you start by writing an article that targets the keywords you’re after. Then create a bunch of different versions of it. And post unique versions to lots of websites that accept articles. And quantity is the key here – so do lots and lots.

Increasing your activity

Finally, we know that Google gives you credit for the activity on your site. A page that was created 3 years ago and hasn’t been touched since won’t rank well. So you need to update your pages often. RSS feeds are an easy way to keep your content changing.

Comments from other people on your page are another fantastic way to keep your content updated. This means you need to get real live people to your site, as well. One simple method for doing this is to use forums.

What you need to do is sign up with several forums in your niche. Visit often and make posts. Always include a link back to your site. This gets you inbound links. And it gets people to visit the site you link to.

Conclusion

All of the above is important. Unfortunately, rewriting your articles again and again. Setting up tons of profiles on forums. And visiting all the sites to post up your comments and articles takes a really long time. And the bad news is that you probably won’t do it.

However, rank builder software exists. And it automates everything we’ve just talked about. So my best advice is to automate as much of this as you can. This way you’ll actually do it. By taking these steps you practically ensure you’ll get free traffic from Google.

Affiliate Marketing Revised

You’re dead wrong if you think you know anything about being an affiliate. The tactics of the past few years just don’t work anymore. If you play by the old rules, you will lose this game.

The big lie

You’ve probably heard how easy it is to start an affiliate business. This is partially true. It’s far easier that developing, selling and supporting your own product. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Here’s the ugly truth

The worst part is that the information you’ve received is all wrong. You’re told to pick one of more products to promote. Next do some keyword research. Then buy some keyword ads that send traffic to the product. And finally get a fat check for all the sales. But it doesn’t work.

Forget keywords

Keyword advertising used to work. But it’s just too competitive to use keywords now. Adapt and change…

A better way

There’s still hope. Here’s how to win at this game.

  • Do CPA marketing instead of product promotion
  • Do demographics research
  • Use image ads

Get into CPA marketing

CPA means Cost Per Action. It’s much better than promoting a product. Because it doesn’t involve payment. You earn a commission for having them perform an “action”. Like completing a survey. And getting them to do this is so much easier.

Utilize demographics data

You’re not even going to use keywords (explained below.) Invest your research time into demographics. Once you’ve picked the CPA offer to promote. Then hop over to Quantcast.com. And find your target demographic.

Use image ads

So you know what your promoting and you know who will be interested. You can advertise directly to them on display networks. And use images as your ads. And you don’t need to know or buy a single keyword. And you’ll save a fortune. Keyword ads are expensive, but image ads are still cheap.

In closing

This is a great way to make money fast. Because it’s free to get started in CPA. You can buy image ad clicks for a fraction of keyword ad clicks. You can use demographics to target your ideal prospect. And your commission is much easier to earn.

7 reasons why you MUST have your own info product

Think about this: What’s the most common reason people get online each and every day? You probably already guessed that it’s to find information. This is so ubiquitous a quest that Google handles 400 million queries a day! Why should you care? Well, this is an opportunity for your to provide what people want – information. And to earn some cash for doing it!

Info marketing 101

First of all, an info business is the least complex business possible. You take information and turn it into a digital product – like and ebook. And people pay you for the information inside it.. Pretty simple, wouldn’t you say?

How do you make it work?

We’ve established that it’s a simple concept. However, to succeed people need to want the information you’re providing. So the key is to figure out what people want. How can you find out what people want?

One easy way to figure it out is with a simple search. Visit answers.yahoo.com or similar sites and see what kinds of questions people are asking. Your goal is to find a common problem. For things that are causing people discomfort. And solve the problem for them by writing an info product on it.

An encouraging word

If you’re worried about how to write and ebook. Think about this: An ebook is just a series of articles. Don’t try to write a whole ebook. Just try to write one or two articles a day. And when you have a collection, expand and embellish them and voila! You’ve got an ebook.

OK, what’s so hot about digital products? Funny you should ask . . . How about 7 reasons why:

1. Simplicity and ease

An info product business runs on auto-pilot. There is almost no support. So it’s nearly a 100% hands-free business. It’s like having an automated cash machine.

You have no physical inventory. There’s nothing to ship. It’s all delivered online.

2. Product combos

After you’ve created a few ebooks. You can just combine them into a more expensive product. It’s a simple matter to merge a few ebooks into one. Then you can sell it for a lot more. Your customers will gladly pay more for a single bigger ebook. Versus multiple smaller ones.

3. Resale rights

Since it’s your product, you can offer other people the resale rights. This is a very popular topic right now, because most people simply don’t have the time, money and effort it takes to create their own products. And the best part is you get to charge two to three time as much for these rights.

4. Leverage

It’s your content, so you can use it in as many different ways as you want. Use part of it to make an autoresponder series. And build your list with it. A list is it’s own reward!

5. More leverage

Don’t stop there . . . break it into several smaller reports. These reports can then become lead generators for your ebook. They can be free or low prices. And it still benefits you because it in a lead-in for the main product. You can even make these viral by allowing your affiliates to give them away. Affiliate, you say? Yes!

6. Affiliates

This one is huge. Once you have your own product. Other people can become your affiliates. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bunch of other people doing your marketing for you? Well, you *need* your own product to get affiliates.

7. JVs

I’ve saved the best for last. The number one way to launch your success is through joint ventures. So, I’d say this is the most important reason to have you own products. Because if you don’t have you own product, you’ve got nothing to JV.

Summary

If you can’t see the power of info product marketing, then you’ve probably been sleeping. You’ll become the ruler of your own fate. Because you’re the boss! So just get started:

  • Head over to Yahoo! answers
  • See what people are asking about
  • Start writing

The steps on how to write an ebook are really that easy. And in short time you’ll have the foundation for your own info product.

Using Web Audio for Success

It’s undeniable that if you add audio to websites it will increase your results. If you don’t have audio in your arsenal, you’re missing out. Audio increases opt-ins. It boosts sales, too.

But why?

There’s no real mystery. Audio breaks the silence of the web. Audio adds a human quality to your site. And adds the feel of a real live person. Audio literally breathes life into your website. And people like to interact with things that are alive!

The benefits of audio

Adding audio increases your profits in two ways. First, you’ll make more sales. Secondly, you will not have to spend as much to make the sales. You see, you’ll be able to skip the expensive copywriter. You can just add your own audio. Your visitors will respond better to a heart-felt message from you than some fancy copywriting.

You’ll get more subscribers, too. People need to be told exactly what to do. So you just add a simple audio that says: Put your email and name into the form and submit. That alone can increase opt-in rates up to 310%!

Some ways to use audio

A welcome message on your homepage. A warm welcome can be the deciding factor. Grabbing their attention like this helps you keep them on your site.

Step-by-step instructions. Just like in the opt-in example. You can use audio to tell your visitors exactly what to do. Use this to lead them through the ordering process, as well.

Get testimonials for your services and products. It’s good to get written testimonials. But what’s even better are audio testimonials. It’s much hard to fake an audio testimonial. So audio adds real believability. Which boosts your sales for sure.

Sneaky tick

Did you ever think of making a product just by recording some audio? This is by far the easiest content to produce. Plus people love audio products. Podcasts are still popular, so this is a great format. And once you record the audio, you can pay someone to transcribe it for you. This is the easiest way to “write” an eBook!

Is adding audio hard?

It’s actually really easy. There’s software that will show you how to add audio to a website. There’s no knowledge required on your part. The program records and then converts the recording and generates an audio button. You just copy and paste into your website. There’s nothing to worry about.

In closing

Let’s take another look at the benefits. Using website audio will increase your conversion rates. No doubt your sales will go up. You’ll get more subscribers. And don’t forget that you can easily create sales pages and products in a flash. You’ll be one of the few you use these strategies. But audio is a really big time and money saver. Start using it today and you’ll be glad you did.

Sneaky Affiliate Tricks

Affiliate marketing can be very difficult to break into. The reason is because there is a lot of competition. In order to survive you have to beat your competition. And the sea of information about this doesn’t make it any easier. Well, here’s on simple thing you can do that will put you ahead of the game.

Marketing with video

You can’t deny that video is powerful. The reason it’s so pervasive is because everyone loves it. It’s so much easier to keep people’s attention with video. So you can put this to great advantage in your affiliate marketing.

Examples of how to use video for affiliate marketing:

  • Do a testimonial video
  • Walk-throughs
  • Do an ordering video
  • Record a preview of the members area

Testimonials

It doesn’t get any easier than this. Just turn on your web cam and talk. Don’t worry about quality. Just seeing another real person endorsing a product helps your viewers decide to buy. And honestly, if you mess up it just makes it seem more authentic. So serious, just turn on the camera and talk. If you don’t want to be in front of the camera use one of the other methods.

Record a walk-through

This is a great way to promote something without selling it. Basically you’re doing a tutorial on how to use the product. And in the process you’re actually selling the product. If it’s useful, then what you’re teaching just makes people want it. So, obviously, pick a good product to demo.

Do an ordering video

This one is killer! Record a video of yourself actually buying the product. There is nothing more motivating than watching someone buy something live. First, it’s social proof. Once they see you doing it, they feel more secure. It also build your viewers trust. Your advice is easier to trust if they can see you’re doing what you tell them to do. And let’s not forget about good old fashioned envy. People want what they see you getting. To really cap this one off, end your video with: In order to get to see the inside, you gotta buy the product.

Sneak peak

Here’s an easy way to show the value of the product. In this case you record a screen share of the inside of the product. You show them the entire contents of what they get. This one also helps to remove the skepticism. It’s much easier to trust they’re getting something if they actually seen it.

It’s easy!

No special skills are required. Some very easy to use programs make the videos for you. Really, the software does all the work. So there’s no need to even think about the technical side. Just focus on the benefits:

  • Make more money You’ll earn more affiliate commissions when you add video. People love video, so please use them.
  • Reduce refunds You’ll also have less of your commissions taken back. Your customers will know what they’re getting into ahead of time. So, very few of them will cancel their order.
  • Rise above the competition! This is a really easy thing to do. But only a very small percentage do it. That puts you ahead of the pack.

Take your affiliate promotions to a higher level and getting started with this now. It’s your profit that’s affected by not taking action.

Email List Building Strategies

You need a list. That’s a given. It’s the one thing above all else that matters most. After it’s built, it’s yours to use any time you want. It’s like a renewable resource that allows you to make money on demand.

How’s how to build a list:

Here’s what you need to build your list:

  • The Squeeze Page
  • The Bribe
  • Your Confirmation Page

Your Landing Page – Your opt-in page is the page you send visitors to to build your list. It’s the page where you ask them for their email address. This page needs to look professional. It’s also got to be free from distractions. And your call to action must be clear!

If you fail to make a strong close, you’re wasting your efforts. This is a definitive message that tells your visitor what to do. And if you don’t include it, they won’t opt in. Oddly, if you don’t make it clear, people will be confused and end up doing nothing.

You can take your opt-in page to the next level if you add a compelling video to the page. Adding video will help keep your visitors attention. Plus it give you a chance to tell them to opt in multiple times. Then at the end of the video you can print “sign up now” on the video.

It’s OK, if you’ve never made a video before. You can hire freelancers to do this for you for a few hundred dollars. Or you can get email list tools that give you squeeze page templates.

The Bribe – The next thing you need is an incentive to subscribe to your list. You have to give people a compelling reason to give your their email. Nobody likes spam, so most people guard their email closely. So you have to give them a good reason to do it.

The key to a good bribe is that is has value. That means you make it something people would actually want to receive. And can benefit from. It could be:

  • A report
  • A piece of software
  • Training videos
  • An email series

Basically, you just need some content. And make it both helpful and informative. It goes without saying it must be free. But to get the email, it’s got to be a good offer.

Once again, don’t worry if you don’t know how to create the freebie. Here again, you can hire freelancers to create this for you. Just give them a topic and they will write the content. For example, you could have them write a 5-part email course. You can have ghost writers create emails for under $25 an email. And whole thing will only cost a hundred and fifty buck.

You can also get email list building tools that include the premium. Two critical aspects of using a follow up series. The first thing is that it delivers value to your subscribers. It also has to generate revenue for you! The easiest way to do this is to market affiliate products in the emails. This is such a simple solution because you don’t have to create the product. And it enables you to generate cash right away from your new list.

Your Confirmation Page – The “thank you” page is the final piece of the puzzle. This is the page your subscriber sees after they opt in. It’s nice to give them some great content right away. Then they feel good about giving you their email address. It also helps to build the relationship. Then they’re more receptive when you email them.

This is another case where you can get a complete marketing package. Or you can go the DIY route. And write it all yourself. Or hire ghost writers to write them for you.

Summary

Whether you decide to build your email funnel yourself. Or hire someone else to do it for you. Or if you get a ready-done package. The key is to start building your list. Because as soon as you’ve got your own list . . . You’re free to make money at the push of a button.

Affiliate Business Tips

If you’re not preselling, you’re losing money

The most important thing you can do to increase your affiliate commissions is to presell properly.

Before we start, let’s talk about what preselling actually is. Well, it is an art. And it’s also a science. It’s a process of taking your reader and getting them ready to buy. Then when they’re ready, refer them to the product website so they can buy it. And if it’s done properly, the process is completely sub-conscious.

The gist is that you give your reader some useful information. Then send them to the sales page. In a second we’ll talk about how to do actually it. Before we get into that, you should understand what’s in it for you. Some major benefits of this process:

  • It builds trust – And gaining the trust of your readers helps them want to click your links. And the more traffic you can send to the sale page, the more commissions you’ll earn.
  • Preselling is disarming – When you’re not hyping or pitching a product, your reader lets their guard down. And in turn they read to understand what you’re saying. And your intention is conveyed more easily.
  • It puts them in a buying mood – Now they’re open to hearing what you’re telling them. And in turn, they’re open to other messages, as well. For example, the sales message on the page you’re linking to. Sending them to the sales page in this state makes them more receptive to the actual pitch.
  • Your commissions go up – Now your reader arrives at the sales page in a buying mood. With the guard down and trusting your recommendation. This dramatically boosts your sales rate!
  • It boosts customer loyalty – Plus, they feel they’ve made the buying decision on their own. Instead of being manipulated into buying. And this makes them feel better about the product they purchased.
  • It boosts your profits – Happy customers ask for refunds much less often. And that translates to more commission staying in your affiliate business.

Clearly preselling makes sense. You earn more commissions. And produce happier customers. Everybody wins!

OK, so how do you do it?

OK, now you understand why it’s so important. And hopefully you’re convinced you need to start doing it. So, it’s time to break down how it works. Like we talked about before, it’s an art. And it’s a science.

Becoming an artist

The first step is in getting your readers to trust you and open up. Honestly, the only way to do this is to provide real value in you content. The art of this is to provide enough information to be of value, but not enough to satiate the hunger. That is, they have to be wanting more when you refer them to the product sales page for the product you’re trying to sell. Plus they’re not guarded, so they’re more open and likely to purchase the product.

It’s also a science

There are also several key elements that need to be included.

First of all, it’s important HOW you present your information. You need to know where you’re going before you begin. Your end goal is to make a sale of the product you’re preselling. There are two ways to accomplish this with great content. The first method is to provide enough info to get them started, but not enough to finish. Or you can give them so much information that it feels overwhelming to do what you’re talking about. Either way, the product sales page solves the problem.

Next, you have to use “convert linking” methods. You have directly to the home page of the product. That’s because nobody likes to click on affiliate links. But how are you going to get credit for the sale, if you don’t include your affiliate link? This is all part of the science of preselling. You use an image tag to cookie your reader before they leave your site.

Next, you want to make sure you’re linking on related words and phrases. People are used to clicking on hyperlinked words to get information they’re looking for. And if the words you hyperlink relate, your reader will naturally click them for more information.

Using this system, you’re virtually guaranteed to increase your affiliate business success.

Now for the bad news…

It’s extremely difficult to do this correctly. Let’s talk about everything required to put this plan into action: Good content. First and foremost, you have to be able to write a great article that provides valuable information. This means you have to be able to write well, and have enough knowledge to be useful. Preselling skills. First, you have to give good information. But, you also need to know how to present the information in a way that give value to the reader. While at the same time making them want more. Or make the information so overwhelming they realize they can’t do it on their own.

Picking products. After that you have to figure out which products you want to promote. Even if you get the article written. You’ve wasted all your effort if the product doesn’t sell well.

Techy stuff. One of the keys to this system is using “covert cookies” for the tracking. This is actually pretty simple – just embed a 1 pixel X 1 pixel image and set your affiliate link as the “source” of the image. (But if you do it wrong, you won’t get paid for the traffic you send.)

In closing:

Now you’re armed with the information needed to effectively presell. And doing this increases your affiliate commissions by over 500%! The important thing is to use these techniques for everything you promote as an affiliate. Take action now. Put in the effort to reap the greater rewards.

Traffic Generation Tips

If you’ve got traffic coming to your site, you’re 99% there. Of course you also need to have a valuable offer for your visitors – a reason for them to transact with you. What you do with the traffic when it gets to your site could be any number of things. The most crucial aspect of this process is getting the visitors to your site.

Here are some tips for generating website visitors:

Here are a few of the most popular way to get traffic to your site – for free:

  • Web 2.0 Sites
  • Article Websites
  • Video Sites

OK, so how do they work?

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 simply means the new family of websites that have user-generated content. These are great sites to work with because they allow you to participate in this content creation. Because these sites get so much traffic, Google and the other search engines treat these sites with greater importance in their algorithms. The benefit of this to you is that your content is now considered as part of these sites. By placing links to your websites in this content you’ve created, you get traffic from the site and search engine ranking for the keywords you choose. The direct traffic from the Web 2.0 sites themselves is only part of the benefit. There are many more web 2.0 traffic tactics we don’t have time to get into here, but this will get you started.

Article Marketing

Article marketing really builds on the Web 2.0 concept. This is because article websites are really web 2.0 site. Article directories are sites where users (including you) can upload articles they have written. And just like other web 2.0 sites, you get all the SEO benefits from having your content on them. And the hidden benefit here is that your reach grows as other people take your articles and put them on their blogs and sites. And along with your article, they have to include your author information and a link back to you – so you get more free traffic and SEO benefits. If you want to generate traffic from articles follow these steps:

  • Figure out what keywords you want to go after
  • Write specifically to target these keywords
  • Hyperlink these keywords to your website – both in the content of the article and in your author’s info section.

Video

Our discussion would not be complete without talking about video. Here to we’re really looking at a web 2.0 sub-category. And just as article directories give you great SEO benefits and allow others to redistribute your content on their sites. video sharing sites give you all these same benefits. And if all that wasn’t enough, you also stand a much stronger chance of getting a high search engine ranking for the keywords you want with video than you do with text-based content.

Here’s how to get free traffic using video

  • Set up your YouTube account
  • When people view your videos, you want them to visit your site, so turn all the other modules in your profile off
  • Put relevant “tags” in your profile
  • Make sure to include in your profile a link to your site
  • Add at least one video to your profile
  • For each video use your keywords in the tags, the descriptions and the title

Putting it all together.

This is a great overview to get your started generating massive traffic to your site.