How To Drive Traffic To Your Site Without Spending Big Bucks

The first thing that you have to consider in building a business online is sending traffic to your site. How would you be able to obtain this traffic without paying that much money then? You have to look into several ways on how to generate free traffic through the web.

Let's face it, even if you have all the money in the world, you still would like to avail of that free stuff that you can get from the web, as long as it's going to help you keep up with this fast paced industry, that are filled of challenges and competitions. It is true that it is somehow difficult to be able to generate traffic, but if you follow methods to help you out on how to go about doing it the easy way, then it wouldn't be much of a problem for you.

There are several strategies that you can use to drive traffic to your website without costing that much money. You may even combine them according to your preference, so you can get more traffic that you expect. Let's say for instance using article marketing and email marketing at the same time.

Article marketing allows you to drive traffic to your website through article submission, while having it go together with an email campaign would work out perfectly. After your online users read your article they are interested with it and will be clicking on the resource box linked to your website. From there you get traffic, and then you have them opt in to a weekly newsletter for free for more information, then you will be able to capture their email addresses.

Being able to acquire their email addresses would now allow you to contact these people. You then send them newsletters as you have promised, together with your sales pitch for the product that you are offering. Eventually you will gain their trust and they will buy your product.

But of course for you to be able to send those emails in a shorter period of time, you will need assistance for it. You may opt to use a bulk email sender software that could help you organize your mailing list, and send out those emails for you.

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How To Get Clients To Buy Your Products and Services In This Market

by: Kendall Summerhawk
Small Business Coaching
heidi@sandramartini.com

The number one question I'm asked in every interview I give is, "Kendall, HOW do I get my clients to buy my products or services in this market?"

First of all, I have both GOOD news and even BETTER news for you. The good news is that this problem IS solvable IF you know how to wisely position yourself and your services.

Even BETTER news is that by brushing up on a few simple skills right now you'll actually make your business stronger than ever, which means that as the economy begins to turn around, you'll be sitting pretty.

So what do you do when your clients seem to be clutching tight to their purse strings? Well, what you're NOT going to do is panic. In fact, I recommend taking several deep breaths because you need to be clear headed, creative and focused.

Your clients haven't stopped searching for help in solving their problems, they've just gotten a lot choosier in WHO they select. They're also expecting some extra attention and service, which, using my marketing tips, will be a snap for you to provide, without breaking your budget or requiring you to burn the midnight oil.

So let me help you out here by sharing THREE simple secrets for getting clients to choose YOU as their solution so cash and clients flow steadily into your business.

Small Business Secret #1: Focus Your Client Conversation On The "What" And The "Why" - NOT The "How"

Okay folks, I'm not going to pull any punches here. If you're talking to your prospective clients about HOW you work, you're going to lose them. This is your opportunity to brush up on your "values based" conversation skills.

What this means is a full 98 percent of your prospective client conversation is focused on WHAT the problem is they want to solve, WHAT the solution is they want to see and WHY it's important to them.

Here's a great question I love to ask (from my "7 Money Mindset and Pricing Strategy Secrets" home study course):

"So tell me, what's the problem you REALLY want to solve?" followed up with, "And how do you know that's a problem?"

Yes, these questions sound simple but I promise they'll help you uncover the rich, juicy information you need to help get your clients focused on YOU as their solution . . . and keep you from getting side tracked talking about features.

Small Business Secret #2: Add In Additional Services and Bonuses

Clients are expecting either discounts or deals right now. Sure, you won't make quite as much by pampering your clients but you WILL make more sales.

This is not the time to penny-pinch! Going to extra lengths for your ideal clients will secure their business. Look for where you can add additional services and bonuses they'll value. Even better, choose items not dependent on your time (such as gifts, books, samples, templates or even services provided by a complimentary vendor). This way, you'll be the hero without working harder.

Small Business Secret #3: Keep Your Money Flowing Too

Money is like water -- it needs to flow or else it damns up, stagnates and goes septic. Ugh!

If you want your clients to spend their money with you, YOU need to be a model for spending your money with others. Period. Now, I'm not suggesting going into debt. But what I AM recommending is you continue to invest wisely in your business.

Yes, I know that right now can seem like a scary time to let loose of some funds but truthfully, it's the people who invest in learning HOW to improve their business who will still be IN business, stronger than ever as the economy turns around.

Plus, on an energetic level there is no way you'll get prospective clients to invest with you if you're not walking your talk. The trick is to invest in products and services that add VALUE to your life or business. Once you practice this for yourself, you'll understand first hand what it feels like so you can authentically guide your prospective clients to do the same.

My Platinum clients understand this principle well and are experiencing some of their best months ever.

In upcoming articles I'll share with you how to pay attention to the clarity of your message, how to create a clear "brand personality" and how to create packages focused on solving the problems your clients WANT solved.

In the meantime, focus every client conversation, marketing article or presentation you have this week on WHAT problem your prospective clients want solved and why it's important to them. By doing so you'll be creating a values-based conversation with them that's much more likely to turn into a new client for you!

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Plan Your Marketing Today and Earn Forever

Kenth Nasstrom
Affiliate Marketing info@kndata.com

Most people starting with online marketing work hard to decide what to do next. Each day is filled with problems, decisions and obstacles that must be overcome to reach a level of success where sales and extra money begin to flow.

Lack of knowledge, money and resources most often results in things being done in a last minute fashion.

As a result, the marketer will never benefit from the synergy effect a planned marketing can bring him.

Stop Crisis Marketing

Marketing based on solving problems as they arise will not lead to success very fast. Problems will, of course, be in your way every now and then, but they can be reduced by planning. The faster you begin planning your efforts, the faster you will profit from it.

Plan and Document Your Way to Profit

An old saying from chess is, "better to have a bad plan than no plan at all." This goes for marketing as well. A plan, however simple, will let you do a number of things, one after the other with a clear purpose. Once you have a purpose with what you do, you can make logical connections with other plans you have.

Here's an example.

You create a mailing list with a number of emails talking about dog training (because you saw a nice dog-training product you want to promote). You also work on a new site about golf (as you have heard people saying how much money can be made from golf as a niche). Finally, you write several articles about internet marketing to get your name out there.

Let us break it down a bit. There are three niches targeted. Dog training, golf and internet marketing. None of the three niches are directly connected and none of the work done can be used outside its own niche. As you evolve and create more sites, more mailing lists and a more diversified portfolio, you will find more ways to re-use work. However, when starting up this will not help you get anywhere.

Instead, set up a site in a niche, write articles related to the niche and create a newsletter/auto responder series also related to the niche. All of it works together towards the same goal. This way you can profit from the synergy effect from having three parts of a complete marketing plan working together.

Know What You Already Have

Equally important is to know what you have up and running. If all your marketing efforts have been documented, you will find connecting them together for increased profit will become much easier. Inventory and Planning.

If you already have marketing campaigns running, products online and newsletters or auto-responder setup, now is the time to make a complete inventory of everything you have going on.

Once you know what you have, your next step is to decide how to best use it as well as what the next step will be. This can be new investments, new domains and sites or simply re-doing parts of what you already have up and running.

Study methods like these and you have a much better position in the online marketing war.

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Learn How To Boost Your Credibility and Visibility Through TwitterFeed

by: Nancy Marmolejo
www.VivaVisibility.com

Twitter can be both an amazing marketing tool and an exhausting pursuit of keeping up with the constant stream of new "Tweets". Not everyone has the ability nor the desire to stay plugged in 24-7. If that sounds like you, then you'll love this great tool that allows you to maintain online visibility and stay relevant with fresh content.

TwitterFeed is a site that allows you to import any RSS feed into your Twitter stream. Through a simple set up, you can automate the process to bring high quality content to your Twitter stream. I suggest you start off with your own blog to let people know what you're publishing. Then you can find other blogs, podcasts, or anything on an RSS feed that offers complementary content. Because Twitter can be connected to so many other social networking sites like Facebook or FriendFeed, it doubles as updates to all those sites too.

Save yourself time and boost your credibility with these simple steps:

1. Go to http://www.TwitterFeed.com and open an account. You will need to create something called an OpenID which is a secure way of logging in to TwitterFeed. Follow the directions on the site to get that part set up.
2. Once you've gotten a TwitterFeed account, click "Go to My Twitter Feeds or Create a New One". When you click on Create new feed, select Twitter from the drop-down menu.
   
3. Enter your Twitter username and password. For example, my Twitter name is NancyMarmolejo, so that is what I enter. It's the name that shows up next to your picture on your Twitter stream.
   
4. Enter your blog's RSS feed. (If you don't have one, go to http://www.Feedburner.com and follow the instructions to get one).
   
5. Select how frequently you want it to search for new posts and whether you want it to have a short statement before each post, for example "New blog post:"
6. After you get yourself set up, start importing the RSS feeds of other blogs you love. Pick content that supports your credibility as an expert. For instance, let's say you like my blog and want to share those posts with others. You'd put my RSS feed http://feeds.feedburner.com/VivaVisibilityBlog into your TwitterFeed. Create a prefix that says "Retweet @NancyMarmolejo" to credit the source. (Do this with any feed you bring in from the outside. It's good Web 2.0 karma!)
   
7. Look at ways you can use TwitterFeed to create community, support clients, and continue as a top name in your field. I like to import feeds that have to do with social media, good business advice, trends, and time management. Find the right balance for you!

Twitter is a great PR tool and using TwitterFeed allows you to maintain a high level of online visiblity . . . without adding any time to your busy schedule. Give it a try and watch how easy it is to stay visible!

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How you can Start Making Money from Internet Marketing with Less Than $100

by Mandeep Anand

There is no smarter way to make money online than internet marketing, not just because you can make a lot -and I really mean a lot- of money, but you can do that with little or no money in your pocket.

There are many ways to approach the internet marketing business, and some of them involve paying for advertising like Google Adwords and other similar PPC services.

However, there are many ways to market online without the need for you to spend a dime in advertising while still reaching a great number of targeted prospects for whatever you are selling or promoting.

This means that you can put together a very efficient marketing operation where all your earnings will be profits. However, the downside of the free internet marketing methods are:

• You will not attain immediate results. Internet marketing through article marketing (one very effective free technique), will take some time to deliver results, but make no mistake, it will.
  
• It will take some work. Free methods usually involve building a network of content throughout the internet that will slowly start driving traffic to your site. This is a slow process, but has the advantage that once you have a huge network in place it will stay there and will keep driving traffic to your site forever.
  
• It will take some studying. It is not enough to spread a lot of content over the internet, you also must learn how and where do you need to place that content in order for you to achieve actual results. Therefore, you need a source of knowledge which can be found in several good internet marketing courses.
  

Therefore, in order for you to make money from internet marketing you really do not need money, as the only essential that will demand an investment is your internet marketing education, which you can access usually for less $100. After that, all can be achieved with zero money in your pocket.

Now, how much can you honestly make from internet marketing using free marketing techniques?

If you take your time to learn and work consistently and systematically for a 3 month period you might well be putting an extra $1,500 - 2,500 per month in your pocket by the 3rd month, and by the 6th to 12th month you could be making a very relaxed living from your internet marketing operation. It all will depend on the kind of program or system you use and the dedication you put into building your business, so choosing a truly useful internet marketing course is crucial.

Believe me, internet marketing is a fascinating business in which you will always keep discovering new ways to make more and more money, all you need to do is start, and from there you will only go forward.

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Learn How To Make Money 24 Hours A Day, 7 Days a Week and 365 Days A Year

Excerpt from Brian Rooney article
Internet Marketing brian@trafficwave.net

I would like to share this marketing strategy that Brian Rooney is using in his business.

"For years now, I've been playing a game with my kids. It's called "Guess What Daddy's Doing!" and it goes like this:

I could be at a restaurant with my family, at a basketball game, driving down the road, standing in line somewhere, laying on the couch, or playing a video game (I'm a big 'Rock Band' fan). Sometimes, I might actually be working!

Every once in a while, without warning, I'll turn to one of the kids and say, "Hey! Guess what Daddy's doing!" Of course, now they already know the answer and they pretty much roll their eyes at me when I ask, but it's still fun.

Can you guess the answer?

The answer is: "Making money!"

No matter where I am... No matter what time it is... No matter what I'm actually doing at the time... I could be on vacation, at the beach, sitting at my desk, coaching basketball, playing music... it just doesn't matter.

I am making money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

How do I do that?

I use AutoResponders to generate, manage, and follow up with my sales leads.

AutoResponders are quickly catching on with online marketers as a "must have" tool for success. And it's easy to see why. They make life and sales much easier.

The simplest way to understand AutoResponders is to think of them as a system that automatically responds to requests for information. You can set up your AutoResponder to send out sales messages, follow-up messages, price updates, training information, special announcements, weekly articles, and more.

My favorite way to use AutoResponders is as my personal sales assistant. As my advertising works for me around the world and around the clock, I am receiving requests for more information. Some days, it may be a couple of requests here and there. Other days, it can be dozens of requests. I love what I do for a living but the thought of managing and replying to each request one at a time would just be insane.

Instead, I let my AutoResonder handle it.

Here's how it works for me:

My websites all have a form that visitors can fill out to request more information from me. When someone fills out my form, my AutoResponder collects their information. The first thing my AutoResponder does when it receives their information is send a confirmation request to their email address. This protects me from spam complaints and makes sure that the person whose email address is entered in to the form really wants my info. Once the new prospect confirms that they do want to receive my information, my AutoResponder sends my first sales message out to them. The message is personalized with the prospect's name. This helps my messages get through and helps me build credibility and rapport with my prospects. From there my AutoResponder will continue sending follow-up messages to my prospects every few days. The best part about this system is that it's all 100 percent automated.

Once I set up my messages, the AutoResponder just handles all my follow-up and list management tasks. All of my sales messages include information on how to order. Most of my customers just place their order directly without ever actually talking to me. Every once in a while, a prospect may email me with a question. It takes me just a moment or two to answer a question when the prospect is already familiar with me and my offer.

My AutoResponder works on autopilot. I don't have to remember to send a follow-up message. I don't have to remember which message is next or when. I don't have to worry about managing the list. If someone wants off my list, they just click a convenient link and they're gone. Meanwhile, as prospects are responding to my ad, my AutoResponder just keeps working like a little personal sales assistant. And the best part? My assistant never talks back, never complains, never calls in sick, never asks for a raise, and never forgets to do their job!

Now THAT is what I call a good assistant!"

Brian Rooney is the co-founder of TrafficWave.net LLC. TrafficWave.net provides Email Marketing tools such as AutoResponders and AdTracking services to thousands of clients worldwide. For more information, please visit here

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Ten Things You Should Do To Make Your Website Optimized For Humans and Search Engine Spiders!

I came across this article which i find very interesting for all webmasters improve their websites especially those who are beginners in online business.

I have made mentioned in my previous post that keywords is important. Keywords are the means by which your customers find you and the first step towards identifying the right keywords is knowing your target market.

If you are done finding the keyword research, here are 10 things you should do to make your website optimized for humans and search engine spiders!

Improve Web Page Titles and Remove Duplicates

Look through your web pages. How many of them have no titles or titles that are too generic / duplicates? There are software that can generate a list of all titles and description tags . Simply type in a URL to get a list of the titles and description tags of every page linked from that URL. It just takes a few minutes! Modify your titles to include important keyword phrases and get rid of duplicate titles.

Improve The Web Page Headings

Do the same with your web page headings. Use a good page structure that includes , , tags. Don't over use the h1 tag. Make sure that the headings are natural and contain the important keywords if relevant. Simply don't stuff keywords into headings.

Check Web Page Copy

Use keyword phrases in your web page content. Keywords when used properly as part of web page text can really increase your traffic from long-tail keyword searches. However, don't over-stuff keywords and make your web pages spammy.

Make Effective Use of Anchor Texts

Use keywords in link texts (anchor text). Replace the links that say click here to more relevant ones that have the keyword in it, if possible. Use good anchor texts even if you are linking to pages on your own sites (internal links) . You can quickly get a list of all anchor texts used in any web page with a single click after entering the URL!

Create Good Alt Tags for Images

Use keywords for image tags (img alt tags). Many images may not even have an alt text. Look through your web pages and add them wherever possible. The "Anchor" tab in the lower panel will display links with an image as IMG [Anchor Text]

Check Your Competition

Do a Google / Yahoo / Live search for the keywords and then study the top competitors. Improve your products, services and web pages based on your research. The blog post linked above has some tips. Find and research your competition.

Write Articles or Blog

Write an article that contains some of the important keyword phrases and post it to your blog. Don't have a blog? Start one. If you don't want to mess with technical things you can easily start a blog by signing up at Blogger or Typepad.

Start a PPC campaign

Start a Pay Per Click campaign and Bid on the keyword phrases. Create new Adword groups if required. Make sure that your landing pages have good quality score before you create new ad-groups.

Learn From Your Log Files

Study your log files and pick all the long-tail keyword phrases used by your visitors. The advantage of studying long-tail keywords is that the intention behind the search is more easy to understand. Do you think your product or service can help such visitors? Optimize your web pages so that you offer what they are looking for.

Get Inbound Links

Try and convince others to link to your web pages using relevant anchor texts. While this may not be always possible, you can and should ask your affiliates and friends to use relevant and useful keyword phrases while linking to you.

Here is a free software program that will help you generate ideas of keywords. These will help pick more keywords. You basically put one keywords and it comes out with all kinds o keywords phrases that were searched on for the pay per clicks.

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Ten Marketing Strategies that will Energize Your Business in 2009

by Joel Sussman

Marketing Strategy #1:
Perhaps the single, most important marketing strategy that should be practiced by all small business owners is to make marketing a daily routine. Granted, there may be 101 different priorities vying for your attention at any given moment, but if you neglect marketing on more than just an occasional basis, then you risk losing potential sales, being overtaken by the competition, and placing self-imposed limitations on your income growth. In a challenging economy it's more important than ever to be known as a company that provides value, dependability, and great service. Without some sort of regular marketing program, your existing and prospective customers may find themselves to be unexpectedly interested in your competitor's latest offerings -- which may have been brought to their attention through a postcard mailing, a trade show exhibit, a blog posting, a phone call, a press release, or a well-written sales letter. (It's the old "out of sight, out of mind" principle.)

Marketing Strategy #2: Develop a "marketing consciousness". If you can get yourself to become just a little "obsessed" with marketing, then you'll tend to read more marketing books, attend more marketing seminars, and discover more marketing websites, newsletters, and blogs that will provide you with valuable ideas and inspiration. Of equal importance is becoming more attuned to how other people are marketing their businesses, and learning from their successes and marketing blunders.

Marketing Strategy #3:
Continually ask questions, re-evaluate what you're doing, and be flexible. If your website isn't converting the way it ought to be, try to pinpoint its weaknesses and correct them. The same holds true for print ads that are not generating responses. If the solution doesn't jump right out at you, ask your associates, acquaintances, neighbors, or spouse what their initial gut reaction is to your latest print ad, website landing page, a marketing postcard, or a radio ad. Instead of asking them what they think of it, ask them the more pointed question of how they think it could be improved (and assure them that you won't be offended by their constructive criticism). Useful feedback can often come from unexpected sources.

Marketing Strategy #4:
Start a blog related to your area of expertise about solving or preventing problems or making the most out of the products or services you offer. Then, invite your customers and prospective customers to check our your latest blog posts. Blogging will help give you more credibility as an expert, and it will also help keep your name and company in the forefront of your customers' minds.

Marketing Strategy #5:
Email a press release to your local media whenever you have anything newsworthy to announce. It's a free way to keep your name in front of the public, and it should be a part of an integrated marketing strategy. Two tips:

1. Insert your press release into the body of your short, introductory email message. The reason for doing that is many reporters and editors don't like to open email attachments;
2. Only send press releases if you have something newsworthy to announce. That could include hiring new employees, getting a government grant, organizing a successful fund raising event, a grand opening, a new web site, being a keynote speaker at a seminar or graduation ceremony, a business expansion or relocation, and that sort of thing.

Occasionally, it may pay to use one of the online press release distribution services for greater exposure and coverage.

Marketing Strategy #6:
Speaking of media relations, another strategy worth exploring is to let the media know that you're an expert in your field and are available as a company or industry spokesperson. Depending on your credentials, as well as your comfort-level with being interviewed by a reporter, you might want to send a brief letter outlining your accomplishments and expertise, and mention that they can feel free to call you if they need comments, quotes, background information, or opinion on a news article or feature story they're working on. The positive publicity, credibility, and recognition you could potentially get from this kind of coverage can potentially give your business or practice a real boost.

Marketing Strategy #7:
Business cards can either by a waste of paper or an effective bridge between a prospect and their potential as a long-term client. Business cards are an integral element of your company's branding strategy, and can sometimes make or break you when it comes to getting prospects to take you seriously. A lot of companies skimp on business card design, concept development, and printing; and that lackluster image is conveyed directly to prospective clients. Bottom line is: Your chances of favorably impressing prospects will improve substantially if your business cards are printed on high-quality paper, display a professional-looking logo, and use a font style that's easy to read and is representative of the nature of your business. Your business cards should also contain either a well thought-out slogan or a short bulletted list that capsulizes your services, your expertise, and your commitment to excellence.

Marketing Strategy #8:
Anticipate why a prospective customer might be reluctant or ambivalent about doing business with you, and then make sure to address their concerns in a clear, deliberate, and confident way. Guarantees of satisfaction, believable testimonials from satisfied customers, and assurances of dependable customer service after the sale are a few of the ways that you can reduce sales resistance.

Marketing Strategy #9:
If you find yourself chatting with a blogger who's in your profession or industry, but does not directly compete with you, offer to fill in for him, occasionally, as a "guest blogger". Blogging can be a pretty arduous undertaking, so they might welcome the chance to take a break and present their readers with a slightly different point of view. Make sure, of course, that you are allowed to include one or two links back to your website. This will accomplish two objectives:

1. You'll probably draw in at least a trickle of additional traffic to your website, and
   
2. Inbound links to your site from other relevant, high quality sites can help improve your search engine positioning (ranking) in Google.

Marketing Strategy #10:
When developing a marketing plan, don't forget that there is a huge range of marketing ideas you can employ, many of which are free or inexpensive. Marketing ideas and techniques include yellow pages advertising, Pay Per Click advertising on Google and other Internet portals, exhibiting in trade shows, networking at local or regional professional conferences and business groups, direct mail, distributing coupons, sponsoring contests, and of course, traditional media advertising, such as radio, TV, newspaper, and magazine display ads. That's just the short list of marketing strategies you can pursue as part of a planned marketing campaign, so devise an exhaustive list of possibilities, target your audience, and then plan a campaign based on your budget and your goals.

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