3 Simple Tricks For Quickly, Easily and Cheaply Getting Those First Visitors To Your Web Site

By Mimi AK
Posted Thursday, July 8, 2004

There are two tactics that you have probably heard a lot of these days: AFFILIATE PROGRAMS and OPT-IN EMAIL. No doubt these are two
POWERFUL tools of generating online income and sales. There is a catch though... they only work if you are ALREADY getting the necessary traffic to your web site.

So, like all other new e-business owners, you must be stressing over ways to get, not JUST traffic to your website, but TARGETTED TRAFFIC! Really, it is simpler and cheaper than you think! The key is to FOCUS your efforts. Don't try and do everything at once. Take one step at a time. This way you will get BETTER results.

METHOD 1: Advertise in Newsletters and E-Zines

Carefully choose which newsletters and e-zines you wish to purchase your ad space with. Choose ones that have subscribers that match or almost match your target market. They must be people who could potentially be your customers. Choose ones with a medium to large subscriber-base. This way you will get you investments worth. Take note of where your ad will be placed. It could be at the top, middle, bottom...anywhere in the newsletter. The best spots are at the top of the newsletter and on a page where readers are most likely to spend most of their time at. Also take note of other ads that might be surrounding yours. You don't want to place your ad next to a competitor's. This will lessen your chances of potential
clicks. The size of your ad also influences the location of your ad.

METHOD 2: Use Keywords and a Crawler Page to Secure that Top Spot in Search Engines

Your target market will NEVER find your web site if you have been using the WRONG keywords! Search engines look for them in your Title Tags, Meta Tags, and the body of your text when ranking and categorising your web site.

When choosing keywords, be sure not to choose words that are highly competitive like business, books, software. These are too generic and will make it super difficult for you to secure that top spot! In order to find TARGETED keywords that are suitable for YOUR web site, sit down and have a good and long think of what someone looking for your site might type into the search engines. Remember, no one knows your business more than YOU! Ask around; ask your family and friends what THEY might type when looking for your product or service. Be SPECIFIC yet GENERAL. For example if your site offers services to help businesses go online, you might use the following keywords: online business, online businesses, start online business, online business help, online business services etc. Use as many variations of your keywords as possible and
include your company name and region if applicable. Also, study what keywords your competitors are using on their web sites.

Most search engines like Alta Vista and Yahoo ask that you submit just one URL and that they will follow all the links and find the rest of the pages in your web site. You can make it easier for them by creating a page called a CRAWLER PAGE with links to all of the most important parts of your site and submit that instead. Thus, ensuring that the right pages will be noticed.

To create a Crawler Page in Internet Explorer:
1. Choose Favourites > Organise Favourite A dialog box appears.
2. CLICK on Create Folder and give your folder a name e.g. "Site Crawler Page"
3. CLOSE the dialog box.
4. Go to the pages on your site that you want to be sure the site engine finds.
5. Choose Favourites > Add to Favourites A dialog box appears.
6. Click on Create in<< and choose your crawler folder e.g. "Site Crawler Page".
7. Click OK.
8. When you have finished adding all the pages you want, choose File >Import and Export.
9. An Import/Export Wizard will appear. Use it to create an HTML file of your crawler page favourites folder.
10. Upload the page to your server and submit it to the search engines you want to be listed on.

You might want to register your site with a search engine that specialises in your particular topic. Yahoo has a very complete list of specific category search engines. Wordtracker is a powerful free service that can help you find out which keywords will skyrocket your traffic and boost your ranking in search engines. Visit (http://www.wordtracker.com/) for more information on Wordtracker.

METHOD 3: Place Links in Related Web Sites

Persuading other related sites in your industry to link to YOU is another effective way of directing highly targeted traffic to your web site. Many marketing gurus will agree that it is carries the same effect as a personal recommendation. A link from another highly respected source creates your credibility even BEFORE the visitor reaches your web site, hence increasing their potential to become your customer!

Make sure you do your RESEARCH and when you have found the web sites that deal directly with your target market, don't forget to record down the contact information for the web site owners. When you contact them, show them how your web site will benefit THEM and THEIR visitors. Don't talk about how you will benefit and how fantastic your web site is. Explain WHAT'S IN IT FOR THEM!

So there you go! 3 simple ways to get that targeted traffic to your web site! You already have the killer web site and the product/ service that people want AND you can get the targeted TRAFFIC to your web site and covert your visitors to paying customers!

Now you can start growing your own opt-in email list and advance to affiliate programs!

About the Author
Mimi AK is the co-editor of the WebBizToolz ezine. Get your FREE subscription now and learn about how you can use low cost online tools to build your web business.
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