6 Easy Ways to Drive Paying Customers to Your Site
By Derek Gehl
Quality traffic -- it's the "Holy Grail" of online marketing.
After all, there's not much point in having a website if your potential customers aren't able to find it!
This week, we're going to focus on some of the different ways you can drive quality traffic to your site. (And by "quality," I mean visitors that are likely to BUY what you sell on your site!)
In this article, I'll talk about 6 of my favorite ways to attract more customers to your site. (And all of them are cheap or even freeee!)
And in the article below, two very special "guest contributors" are going to give you ANOTHER hot tip -- and talk about how you can use one of the 'Net's hottest communication tools to drive even MORE qualified traffic to your site!
So let's get started with my top 6 tips -- if you're not using any of these strategies, the time to get started is today!
Traffic Tip #1: Give away content
This is one of the best traffic strategies out there... Simply write a series of short articles that are packed with useful information and tips, then submit them to online article directories and other free content sites.
Not only will you get some great inbound links pointing to your site, which will help you with the search engines -- other people can republish your articles on their own sites, which will help spread the word about your business and build your credibility as an industry expert!
Here are some article directories you should check out:
www.ezinearticles.com
www.freesticky.com
www.ideamarketers.com
www.goarticles.com
Traffic Tip #2: Register your site with the ‘Net’s top directories
Not only will you get more visitors from these sites — you’ll also get great inbound links that will boost your ranking with the search engines.
And that’ll send even MORE visitors your way!
Here are some directories you can start with:
The Yahoo Directory (http://directory.yahoo.com)
The Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org)
Best of the Web: http://botw.org
Jayde: www.jayde.com
Iozoo: www.iozoo.com
The Virtual Library: www.vlib.org
Traffic Tip #3: Get links from as many relevant websites as possible
By "relevant," I mean sites that have content that appeals to your customers and relates to your business or product in some way.
… For example, if you sell vintage hot rod accessories, you’d want to get links from sites that appeal to antique car and hot rod fanatics.
Not only will these links help you with the search engine, they’ll also put your site in front of a greater number of targeted visitors.
Traffic Tip #4: Issue press releases about your business
Online press releases are a great way to announce a new product or report on exciting developments in your industry. And, like the strategies listed above, they will help you get quality inbound links as well as new streams of direct traffic to your site.
Some good press release sites to check out are:
www.prweb.com
www.eworldwire.com
www.sbwire.com
www.webwire.com
www.ereleases.com
www.24-7pressrelease.com
www.prleap.com
Traffic Tip #5: Advertise your services on free online classified sites
These sites are great because they’ll bring visitors who are already in the "buying mood." Plus, they’ll give you even MORE of those all-important inbound links!
Here are a few good classified ad sites to start with:
www.craigslist.org
www.kijiji.com
www.classifiedsforfree.com
www.gumtree.com
Traffic Tip #6: Get active on social sites that focus on your market
Discover the blogs, forums, and social network sites that are popular with your customers — and then get active on them!
By becoming a vocal participant on social sites, you can establish yourself as an industry expert and build your credibility as you spread the word about your business. It’s a great way to build strong relationships and turn potential customers into people who will buy from you again and again.
To find blogs that appeal to your target market, try running a search on your top keywords (one at a time) at Google Blog Search (http://blogsearch.google.com) or Technorati.com (www.technorati.com).
To find a forum that appeals to your target market, do a search for your top keywords and add the word "forum." You can also check out the following forum directories:
www.big-boards.com
www.worldforumdirectory.com
www.forumvirus.com
Just remember, driving traffic to your site is an ongoing process. You’ll need to constantly test the effectiveness of the strategies you use, in order to figure out which one works best for you.
Happy "trafficking!"
For more great tips, visit the Internet Marketing Center
