Starting your own forum is a powerful way to generate targeted, highly converting traffic.
Forums are a lot of work to moderate and maintain, but if you keep your focus on a specific, narrow area, you're less likely to pick up hundreds of general-interest followers that you don’t want. You can add a forum to your site using a free script like phpBB – or you can even just have a private subscription area on your blog.
Yes, you'll have to interact regularly – but if you know how to get the ball rolling, eventually members become their own little support group and will happily answer questions and provide information to each other before you have time to read the posts. You can then mostly monitor, and only jump in when a word from you or a sign of your presence is needed; or they haven’t yet provided themselves with an answer.
The payoffs can be high indeed when it comes to generating targeted traffic – not just on your forum, but with the powerful “buzz” it will create in the internet marketing community as a whole!
That's today's traffic generation idea. Stay tuned for tomorrow's :-)
Until tomorrow,
Terry
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Banner Ads
There's always been controversy surrounding the effectiveness of banner ads for generating traffic. However, I've used them for years and I've had good success with them so I have no qualms about suggesting them here as a means of generating traffic to your site. And besides, banner ads are now so assimilated into the framework of a site that a visitor expects to see them.
Buying banner ads on other sites provides not only generates traffic, but also increases exposure for your site. Doing so on industry-related or product-related sites further enhances the potential to generate traffic. for those that are unfamiliar with banner ads, banners work by providing a link back to the site it is promoting. A prospective customer/visitor sees the banner, finds it interesting and clicks on it. They are then taken directly to your site. Easy!
As an added bonus, banner ads help build brand recognition of the site or product being promoted. A banner is an advertisement in itself, and people usually pay attention and remember banners if they're well designed, or adversley if they're really badly designed. This then represents a wonderful opportunity to brand and present a site.
There are a number of online resources where you can design your own static or flash banners, or download pre-made banners. Do a search in your favourite search engine for 'free banner templates' or 'free banner creators' and you'll get hundreds, if not thousands, of results.
Participating In Banner Exchange Programs
This premise follows upon the same reasoning as banner ads, and is the easiest option to follow.
Banner exchange program increases exposure and visibility on the net, as well as provide branding opportunities.
Such programs work on a swap ratio of 2:1 usually. Typically, if a banner is being shown on your site, for every 50 views on your site, in return, your own banner will be posted on 25 other sites.
In order to participate in a banner exchange program, you must be able to add a short javascript code to the pages of your site or blog. This is very simple and requires no knowledge of html or coding whatsoever.
That's today's traffic generation idea. Hope you found it useful.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
Buying banner ads on other sites provides not only generates traffic, but also increases exposure for your site. Doing so on industry-related or product-related sites further enhances the potential to generate traffic. for those that are unfamiliar with banner ads, banners work by providing a link back to the site it is promoting. A prospective customer/visitor sees the banner, finds it interesting and clicks on it. They are then taken directly to your site. Easy!
As an added bonus, banner ads help build brand recognition of the site or product being promoted. A banner is an advertisement in itself, and people usually pay attention and remember banners if they're well designed, or adversley if they're really badly designed. This then represents a wonderful opportunity to brand and present a site.
There are a number of online resources where you can design your own static or flash banners, or download pre-made banners. Do a search in your favourite search engine for 'free banner templates' or 'free banner creators' and you'll get hundreds, if not thousands, of results.
Participating In Banner Exchange Programs
This premise follows upon the same reasoning as banner ads, and is the easiest option to follow.
Banner exchange program increases exposure and visibility on the net, as well as provide branding opportunities.
Such programs work on a swap ratio of 2:1 usually. Typically, if a banner is being shown on your site, for every 50 views on your site, in return, your own banner will be posted on 25 other sites.
In order to participate in a banner exchange program, you must be able to add a short javascript code to the pages of your site or blog. This is very simple and requires no knowledge of html or coding whatsoever.
That's today's traffic generation idea. Hope you found it useful.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
No Longer Secret SEO Tips To Drive Tons Of Free Traffic To Your Site
So what do you need to know to increase your share of traffic from the search engines? (And your sales along with it.)
Simple... You need to learn the secrets that marketers have been using for years to drive traffic to their site. Believe it or not, it’s not hard. In fact, the only thing that makes it a secret is that, like most secrets, you have to expend some time and effort to learn them! Or, have someone teach you them, which is exactly what I'm going to do here.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
There are millions of web sites out on the net. No one could even begin to know all of them, or what they contain. How, then, does anyone ever find what they’re looking for?
The answer to that is search engines.
Google, Yahoo!, MSN. Search engines with an extensive index of sites are going to be the primary tools people use when they first log onto the web. Even the newest internet user knows to head to the search engines to try to find what they're looking for.
Getting the search engines to send traffic your way should be your first stop on your quest to get traffic to your site, blog or web store.
Every time someone does a search on a search engine they’re going to get thousands, maybe even millions of results, though only the first few hundred or so will actually be made available to them. That means that simply ensuring your site is listed in a search engine index isn’t enough to guarantee that the search engine is going to help you to increase your traffic. Your prospects aren’t going to look through hundreds of pages of results until they “happen” to stumble across website. If they don’t find what they’re looking for on the first couple of pages of search results then they'll either try a different search engine or give up entirely.
That means that if you’re going to take advantage of the power of the search engines you’re going to need to make sure your site is in those first few pages. In order to do that you’re going to have to make your site as useful as possible. Why useful? Because when someone goes to a search engine looking for information on a particular topic they type what is known as a keyword into the query box (search box). The search engine then goes looking for sites that seem to have a lot in common with that keyword.
Search engines want to be as accurate as possible when directing people to websites because if they start sending people to aimless sites that have absolutely nothing related to what they’re looking for, it isn’t going to be long before that search engine is out of business. Google spends a huge amount of time, resources and money improving their search results accuracy.
Most search engines use what's known as a web crawler. The web crawler “crawls” through each site, inspecting the contents of every page before assigning it a classification. The web crawler’s determination is going to be one of the primary factors to decide a site’s positioning on a search engine's results page. What the crawler looks for and indexes are:
1) Keyword frequency. The number of times a word appears in the pages of a site is a pretty good indicator of how the site is related to it. If you're listening to someone speak with half an ear and you hear the word “manicure” every five to ten seconds you can make a pretty educated guess that they’re talking about getting (or giving) a manicure. If a word appears over and over again in a site the crawler assumes the two are related, and it will classify them accordingly. However, you can't just fill every page with a bunch of keywords. Search engines are getting increasingly smarter (well, their algorithms are anyway) and they also look at the context of the keyword.
For example: You can't just write, "this article is about keywords, and how to use keywords, and keywords are good, and using keywords will help you. Add keywords to your page and the keyword will get indexed..."
This is akin to keyword spamming and it may not get your site banned from the major search engines, but it definitely won't get it listed in the top results. You need to use the keywords naturally.
2) Titles and the first few lines of each page. Because a web spider (a.k.a. crawler) can’t read it pays special attention to the words which appear in the title and first few lines of each individual page, assuming that the title and introduction will be set up to tell the reader right off the bat what the subject matter is about. (The Internet is a great tool for leaching away your creativity, since a site built for a company selling molassas with the title, “Catching Bugs the Easy Way” probably isn’t going to be listed in the “Food Department.”
How To Capitalize On SEO
In order to drive traffic to your website you’re going to need to learn how to capitalize on the process of search engine optimization. You’re going to need to optimize your site in order to earn one of those coveted spots at the top of the search engine listings, and you’re going to need to learn how to angle the optimization process to ensure that the crawlers index your site as being relevant to information your visitors want to know.
In order to capitalize on the SEO process you’re going to need to do three things:
1. Choose the proper keywords. The keywords you choose to optimize your site around are going to be the key factor in the success or failure of your optimization efforts, so it’s important that you choose carefully. We’ll get into the process of choosing keywords in more depth in the next section.
2. Orient your site appropriately. The keywords on your home/main page are going to help determine the keywords your site is classified under, but they’re not the only factor to be considered. The webcrawler is going to crawl through all of the pages on your site, not just your homepage, so it’s important that all of the pages on your site be optimized. And ensure that all links on your site are working as well. Any bad links will reduce your chances of a top listing.
3. Become a fountain of useful information. Provide your visitors with useful information through the use of SEO articles. This will catch and keep your visitors’ attention and cement your spot in your current niche. A major player in the success or failure of your business is the usefulness of your site. If visitors come to your site and find only the information they need (and nothing else) they’re not very likely to come back. On the other hand, if your site is a never ending source of information on all topics related to your niche people will come to your site looking for one piece of information and stay to read more. They’ll come back, they’ll refer their friends to you, and the next thing you know your traffic will have increased exponentially.
Choosing Your Keywords
The first step in properly optimizing your site is to choose the proper keywords. The keywords you choose are going to be a map to your front doorstep for all of those eager little internet browsers out there trying to find their way around the immensely vast universe of information.
Obviously, you’re going to need to choose keywords that are going to appeal to your target market, or they’re just going to keep wandering around out in cyberspace without the first clue that you have exactly what they’re looking for!
The process of choosing keywords is a simple one. Take a second to ask yourself the following questions (try to keep your answers to only one or two words -that’s harder than you might think. ;-)
1) What does my product do?
2) What is my product?
3) What do I want from my product?
4) What does my customer want from my product?
Once you’ve answered these questions, sit down and brainstorm a list of words that are related to your product. This is just like the Freudian word association test you take in a psychiatrist’s office. It's also a proven technique for stimulating creativity. So don't think, just answer. Don’t discard words you think are unrelated to your product, or that you feel your customers wouldn’t use when trying to find you -yet. Your list may appear completely off the wall, like some of the words in the list below; however, you'll be amazed by what you'll use when the time comes to put them into play.
Word Association Example:
Brainstorming Product: Fast Growing Bamboo
Faster, stronger, taller, bigger, rounder, giant, skyscraper, trees, bushes, roots, pots, pans, plants, pork, trees, huts, swings, swine, rats, rice, paddies, bamboo, leafier, greener, lucky.
Not all of the words that were brainstormed above are going to be entered into a search query box, but for now they belong. Even after you’ve gone through and selected your prime keywords, keep this list. This will be a tremendous asset when the time comes for you to pick and choose the topics of your SEO articles; after all, if you made the association chances are that someone, somewhere, is going to do the same!
Once you’ve got your master list, go through and pick and choose which ones you want to use to build your site or your page. This is a great time to stick to the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid). Not to insult your consumer market, but most of them approach a search on the net with the basic mentality of a seventh grader; what basic words or phrases will get me to where I want to be?
Try to keep your keywords obvious; in the example above the inclusion of the word “bamboo” would have been mandatory, as well as faster, stronger and taller. This is a good place to start. Bear in mind that there are no absolutes or guarantees in the marketing business. The words you choose to start off with might do absolutely nothing for your traffic generation efforts. You may need to throw them out and start all over again! If you continue to apply these basic rules to the selection of your keywords, however, you're guaranteed to find the right combination sooner or later that’s going to exponentially increase your number of website hits.
Well, that's today's traffic generation suggestion. I hope you found it helpful.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
Simple... You need to learn the secrets that marketers have been using for years to drive traffic to their site. Believe it or not, it’s not hard. In fact, the only thing that makes it a secret is that, like most secrets, you have to expend some time and effort to learn them! Or, have someone teach you them, which is exactly what I'm going to do here.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
There are millions of web sites out on the net. No one could even begin to know all of them, or what they contain. How, then, does anyone ever find what they’re looking for?
The answer to that is search engines.
Google, Yahoo!, MSN. Search engines with an extensive index of sites are going to be the primary tools people use when they first log onto the web. Even the newest internet user knows to head to the search engines to try to find what they're looking for.
Getting the search engines to send traffic your way should be your first stop on your quest to get traffic to your site, blog or web store.
Every time someone does a search on a search engine they’re going to get thousands, maybe even millions of results, though only the first few hundred or so will actually be made available to them. That means that simply ensuring your site is listed in a search engine index isn’t enough to guarantee that the search engine is going to help you to increase your traffic. Your prospects aren’t going to look through hundreds of pages of results until they “happen” to stumble across website. If they don’t find what they’re looking for on the first couple of pages of search results then they'll either try a different search engine or give up entirely.
That means that if you’re going to take advantage of the power of the search engines you’re going to need to make sure your site is in those first few pages. In order to do that you’re going to have to make your site as useful as possible. Why useful? Because when someone goes to a search engine looking for information on a particular topic they type what is known as a keyword into the query box (search box). The search engine then goes looking for sites that seem to have a lot in common with that keyword.
Search engines want to be as accurate as possible when directing people to websites because if they start sending people to aimless sites that have absolutely nothing related to what they’re looking for, it isn’t going to be long before that search engine is out of business. Google spends a huge amount of time, resources and money improving their search results accuracy.
Most search engines use what's known as a web crawler. The web crawler “crawls” through each site, inspecting the contents of every page before assigning it a classification. The web crawler’s determination is going to be one of the primary factors to decide a site’s positioning on a search engine's results page. What the crawler looks for and indexes are:
1) Keyword frequency. The number of times a word appears in the pages of a site is a pretty good indicator of how the site is related to it. If you're listening to someone speak with half an ear and you hear the word “manicure” every five to ten seconds you can make a pretty educated guess that they’re talking about getting (or giving) a manicure. If a word appears over and over again in a site the crawler assumes the two are related, and it will classify them accordingly. However, you can't just fill every page with a bunch of keywords. Search engines are getting increasingly smarter (well, their algorithms are anyway) and they also look at the context of the keyword.
For example: You can't just write, "this article is about keywords, and how to use keywords, and keywords are good, and using keywords will help you. Add keywords to your page and the keyword will get indexed..."
This is akin to keyword spamming and it may not get your site banned from the major search engines, but it definitely won't get it listed in the top results. You need to use the keywords naturally.
2) Titles and the first few lines of each page. Because a web spider (a.k.a. crawler) can’t read it pays special attention to the words which appear in the title and first few lines of each individual page, assuming that the title and introduction will be set up to tell the reader right off the bat what the subject matter is about. (The Internet is a great tool for leaching away your creativity, since a site built for a company selling molassas with the title, “Catching Bugs the Easy Way” probably isn’t going to be listed in the “Food Department.”
How To Capitalize On SEO
In order to drive traffic to your website you’re going to need to learn how to capitalize on the process of search engine optimization. You’re going to need to optimize your site in order to earn one of those coveted spots at the top of the search engine listings, and you’re going to need to learn how to angle the optimization process to ensure that the crawlers index your site as being relevant to information your visitors want to know.
In order to capitalize on the SEO process you’re going to need to do three things:
1. Choose the proper keywords. The keywords you choose to optimize your site around are going to be the key factor in the success or failure of your optimization efforts, so it’s important that you choose carefully. We’ll get into the process of choosing keywords in more depth in the next section.
2. Orient your site appropriately. The keywords on your home/main page are going to help determine the keywords your site is classified under, but they’re not the only factor to be considered. The webcrawler is going to crawl through all of the pages on your site, not just your homepage, so it’s important that all of the pages on your site be optimized. And ensure that all links on your site are working as well. Any bad links will reduce your chances of a top listing.
3. Become a fountain of useful information. Provide your visitors with useful information through the use of SEO articles. This will catch and keep your visitors’ attention and cement your spot in your current niche. A major player in the success or failure of your business is the usefulness of your site. If visitors come to your site and find only the information they need (and nothing else) they’re not very likely to come back. On the other hand, if your site is a never ending source of information on all topics related to your niche people will come to your site looking for one piece of information and stay to read more. They’ll come back, they’ll refer their friends to you, and the next thing you know your traffic will have increased exponentially.
Choosing Your Keywords
The first step in properly optimizing your site is to choose the proper keywords. The keywords you choose are going to be a map to your front doorstep for all of those eager little internet browsers out there trying to find their way around the immensely vast universe of information.
Obviously, you’re going to need to choose keywords that are going to appeal to your target market, or they’re just going to keep wandering around out in cyberspace without the first clue that you have exactly what they’re looking for!
The process of choosing keywords is a simple one. Take a second to ask yourself the following questions (try to keep your answers to only one or two words -that’s harder than you might think. ;-)
1) What does my product do?
2) What is my product?
3) What do I want from my product?
4) What does my customer want from my product?
Once you’ve answered these questions, sit down and brainstorm a list of words that are related to your product. This is just like the Freudian word association test you take in a psychiatrist’s office. It's also a proven technique for stimulating creativity. So don't think, just answer. Don’t discard words you think are unrelated to your product, or that you feel your customers wouldn’t use when trying to find you -yet. Your list may appear completely off the wall, like some of the words in the list below; however, you'll be amazed by what you'll use when the time comes to put them into play.
Word Association Example:
Brainstorming Product: Fast Growing Bamboo
Faster, stronger, taller, bigger, rounder, giant, skyscraper, trees, bushes, roots, pots, pans, plants, pork, trees, huts, swings, swine, rats, rice, paddies, bamboo, leafier, greener, lucky.
Not all of the words that were brainstormed above are going to be entered into a search query box, but for now they belong. Even after you’ve gone through and selected your prime keywords, keep this list. This will be a tremendous asset when the time comes for you to pick and choose the topics of your SEO articles; after all, if you made the association chances are that someone, somewhere, is going to do the same!
Once you’ve got your master list, go through and pick and choose which ones you want to use to build your site or your page. This is a great time to stick to the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid). Not to insult your consumer market, but most of them approach a search on the net with the basic mentality of a seventh grader; what basic words or phrases will get me to where I want to be?
Try to keep your keywords obvious; in the example above the inclusion of the word “bamboo” would have been mandatory, as well as faster, stronger and taller. This is a good place to start. Bear in mind that there are no absolutes or guarantees in the marketing business. The words you choose to start off with might do absolutely nothing for your traffic generation efforts. You may need to throw them out and start all over again! If you continue to apply these basic rules to the selection of your keywords, however, you're guaranteed to find the right combination sooner or later that’s going to exponentially increase your number of website hits.
Well, that's today's traffic generation suggestion. I hope you found it helpful.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
Monday, April 25, 2011
Headlines As Traffic Generators
Think of your headlines as if they were Twitter posts and your opening paragraphs as if they were RSS feed summaries:
On Twitter you’ve got less than 2 seconds to make people decide if they want to click… or pass. It’s the same with every sales page, landing page, blog post or article you create.
With every headline or opening paragraph – you’ve barely got 2 seconds to grab your reader’s attention and make them curious enough to “engage” in a single line or two. To get a feel for creating this immediate interest and impact, go look at the summaries for some of your RSS feeds. See which ones feel punchy and make you want to read more – and which ones feel dull and incomplete.
The ones that feel dull and incomplete will be the ones with the slowest starts. You’ll notice that these ones never get around to presenting the hook – the summary ends before the author has meandered to the point. So never, ever waste your first paragraph with “warm-up stuff”. (And do put your keyword in your first line and headline, for blog posts and articles!)
Okay, that's today's idea. Hope it spurs some inspiration... and traffic.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
On Twitter you’ve got less than 2 seconds to make people decide if they want to click… or pass. It’s the same with every sales page, landing page, blog post or article you create.
With every headline or opening paragraph – you’ve barely got 2 seconds to grab your reader’s attention and make them curious enough to “engage” in a single line or two. To get a feel for creating this immediate interest and impact, go look at the summaries for some of your RSS feeds. See which ones feel punchy and make you want to read more – and which ones feel dull and incomplete.
The ones that feel dull and incomplete will be the ones with the slowest starts. You’ll notice that these ones never get around to presenting the hook – the summary ends before the author has meandered to the point. So never, ever waste your first paragraph with “warm-up stuff”. (And do put your keyword in your first line and headline, for blog posts and articles!)
Okay, that's today's idea. Hope it spurs some inspiration... and traffic.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Run A Contest
People love to win things, and they love to be recognized for winning. Be creative in deciding what the prize should be, but consider how much your customers will think it is worth. While prize doesn’t have to be something of great value, it does have to be something that is useful or of some value to the winner. Make sure that it is something they want, not just a blatant advertisement for your business. A bumper sticker marketing your web address is not going to generate a great deal of interest. Your advertisement or web address should be plainly visible, but it should not be the focal point of the item you are giving away.
If you are running a business to business website, free advertising on your site for the winner is something that wouldn’t cost you anything, but if your site doesn’t attract very much traffic the prize may not be seen as being very valuable.
The great thing for you is that running contests is a great way to drive large amounts of traffic to your site. Other than the cost of the prize, there is not very much cost involved in this technique. There are websites and blogs that are in the business of telling others about contests that other people are running. They will do your marketing for you. All you have to do is contact these sites and let them know about your contest. If it’s worth mentioning they will tell their subscribers. If the contest is good enough or creative enough, it may catch the attention of a blogger who will spread the word to others. The better the prize package, the faster and farther it will spread.
A good way to take advantage of this technique is to have a repeating contest, or a series of contests. This method will keep customers returning to your site. Not only will they return to sign up for the new contest, but they will also check back periodically to see what the next contest is, and when it begins.
Well, that's today's traffic generation idea. Stay tuned for tomorrow's.
Terry
If you are running a business to business website, free advertising on your site for the winner is something that wouldn’t cost you anything, but if your site doesn’t attract very much traffic the prize may not be seen as being very valuable.
The great thing for you is that running contests is a great way to drive large amounts of traffic to your site. Other than the cost of the prize, there is not very much cost involved in this technique. There are websites and blogs that are in the business of telling others about contests that other people are running. They will do your marketing for you. All you have to do is contact these sites and let them know about your contest. If it’s worth mentioning they will tell their subscribers. If the contest is good enough or creative enough, it may catch the attention of a blogger who will spread the word to others. The better the prize package, the faster and farther it will spread.
A good way to take advantage of this technique is to have a repeating contest, or a series of contests. This method will keep customers returning to your site. Not only will they return to sign up for the new contest, but they will also check back periodically to see what the next contest is, and when it begins.
Well, that's today's traffic generation idea. Stay tuned for tomorrow's.
Terry
Friday, April 22, 2011
Build A Community
One of the reasons for the ever increasing popularity of the internet is that it allows like minded people to get together from anywhere in the world. From sports to politics to gum wrapper collectors; if it is something you are interested in, chances are very good that you can find someone who shares your interests.
Take a look at Yahoo Groups. They host hundreds of thousands of different groups from around the world. A search for “viral marketing” groups brought a list of 360 different groups.
While I’m not suggesting you try to become the next Yahoo Groups, it does demonstrate the desire for internet users to get together with people who share the same interests. One method you could consider to take advantage of this is to host a forum on your website. Find an area of interest that is related to your business, and set up a forum on that topic.
Allow your users a way to leave messages in the forum, or contact each other using email or an instant messaging program, and maybe even set up chat rooms where they can engage in active discussions. As the host of the forum you could help answer any questions, which will help to further establish you as an expert in your field. You would also help moderate discussions, and share new and interesting information.
Encourage your users to participate. Give them the ability to share ideas and to establish themselves as experts. Make it a safe, friendly environment where they can share their opinions (within reason). If your community stays active, it will continue to grow, and some of the community members will become customers.
You can find some very good forum programs that are available for free. Download the program and upload it to your web host and you are up and running. Many of the web host companies have software as part of their hosting packages geared toward building communities on your site. They make it very easy to set up forums, chat rooms, guest books and more.
Building a community in this way will bring people that are interested in your line of business to your website. Once they are there, it is easy for them to look around at what you have to offer them. Because they are already interested, it is much more likely that they will take advantage of what your business offers.
I hope you found this idea interesting and helpful.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
Take a look at Yahoo Groups. They host hundreds of thousands of different groups from around the world. A search for “viral marketing” groups brought a list of 360 different groups.
While I’m not suggesting you try to become the next Yahoo Groups, it does demonstrate the desire for internet users to get together with people who share the same interests. One method you could consider to take advantage of this is to host a forum on your website. Find an area of interest that is related to your business, and set up a forum on that topic.
Allow your users a way to leave messages in the forum, or contact each other using email or an instant messaging program, and maybe even set up chat rooms where they can engage in active discussions. As the host of the forum you could help answer any questions, which will help to further establish you as an expert in your field. You would also help moderate discussions, and share new and interesting information.
Encourage your users to participate. Give them the ability to share ideas and to establish themselves as experts. Make it a safe, friendly environment where they can share their opinions (within reason). If your community stays active, it will continue to grow, and some of the community members will become customers.
You can find some very good forum programs that are available for free. Download the program and upload it to your web host and you are up and running. Many of the web host companies have software as part of their hosting packages geared toward building communities on your site. They make it very easy to set up forums, chat rooms, guest books and more.
Building a community in this way will bring people that are interested in your line of business to your website. Once they are there, it is easy for them to look around at what you have to offer them. Because they are already interested, it is much more likely that they will take advantage of what your business offers.
I hope you found this idea interesting and helpful.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Create A Viral Video Clip
Have you heard of YouTube? If you spend any time online, it is hard not to have heard of it. Millions of people every day view video clips that are stored in the YouTube library. YouTube and Google Videos take advantage of the fact that people are now spending more time in recreational internet surfing than in watching television. It is another example of not only how people want to be entertained, but also that people want choices. The public has gotten used to being able to choose the entertainment they want, and not be forced to take what is pushed at them.
If you are creative enough, or cutting edge, or wacky enough, you could quickly be the next hot video. The videos that have the most chance of going viral are ones that deal with current events, especially if you can beat the major news outlets, videos dealing with business issues, and humorous videos.
Steven Colbert was a great example of this when clips of his Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report, were released on YouTube. Despite the objections of the Comedy Central network, when the show was still new, Colbert allowed clips from his show to be posted on YouTube. Within a short period of time his clips went viral, and viewership of The Colbert Report soared.
If you decide this is a method you want to use, make sure you have a fresh idea, and not a rehash of something that has already made the rounds. You don’t need network quality equipment to produce a decent video. While you do want decent quality production, the biggest key is great content.
Make your video, and at the end of the clip place a 3 – 5 second promotional slide with the URL for your website so viewers can look for more useful information. Make sure the landing page you send them to matches the tone of the video. If the video you use is quirky and humorous, and the landing page is serious and all business, your visitors will only stay for a few seconds before leaving for more entertaining sites.
Once your video is produced, and looks the way you want it to, upload your video onto YouTube and Google Videos. These sites offer services that allow website owners and users of social network sites like MySpace to place video viewers on their site. If your video goes viral, not only will potential customers be able to see your video on the host site, but also on all of the personal sites that pick it up. The amount of traffic that could flood to your site is huge.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
If you are creative enough, or cutting edge, or wacky enough, you could quickly be the next hot video. The videos that have the most chance of going viral are ones that deal with current events, especially if you can beat the major news outlets, videos dealing with business issues, and humorous videos.
Steven Colbert was a great example of this when clips of his Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report, were released on YouTube. Despite the objections of the Comedy Central network, when the show was still new, Colbert allowed clips from his show to be posted on YouTube. Within a short period of time his clips went viral, and viewership of The Colbert Report soared.
If you decide this is a method you want to use, make sure you have a fresh idea, and not a rehash of something that has already made the rounds. You don’t need network quality equipment to produce a decent video. While you do want decent quality production, the biggest key is great content.
Make your video, and at the end of the clip place a 3 – 5 second promotional slide with the URL for your website so viewers can look for more useful information. Make sure the landing page you send them to matches the tone of the video. If the video you use is quirky and humorous, and the landing page is serious and all business, your visitors will only stay for a few seconds before leaving for more entertaining sites.
Once your video is produced, and looks the way you want it to, upload your video onto YouTube and Google Videos. These sites offer services that allow website owners and users of social network sites like MySpace to place video viewers on their site. If your video goes viral, not only will potential customers be able to see your video on the host site, but also on all of the personal sites that pick it up. The amount of traffic that could flood to your site is huge.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Welcome to 1,000 Traffic Generation Ideas
Welcome to my newest blog.
1,000 Traffic Generation Ideas will be "LIVE" on April 21, 2011. So pop back then to read the first post and get your first traffic generation idea.
I look forward to sharing with you,
Yours Most Sincerely,
Terry
1,000 Traffic Generation Ideas will be "LIVE" on April 21, 2011. So pop back then to read the first post and get your first traffic generation idea.
I look forward to sharing with you,
Yours Most Sincerely,
Terry
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