Web Site Traffic Ranking - Convert Targeted Traffic at High CTR Rate with an Increase.
How to Start With ZERO
Visitors, Test Your
Web site to Maximize Sales, and Then Roll Out
a Traffic Campaign that Attracts 1,000s
of Qualified Buyers
All about purchasing and generating high traffic to your website.
I see it time and time
again: The #1 challenge faced by brand-new Internet business owners
is a lack of traffic.
Obviously, if your web
site isn't getting any traffic, you're not generating
any sales. But worse -- without traffic, you can't test the
key components of your sales process…
And if you roll out a large traffic campaign BEFORE you've
tested your web site to make sure it converts maximum visitors into
buyers, you risk losing sales and looking unprofessional to potential
business partners and affiliates.
So you're caught
in a vicious cycle -- before ramping up a big traffic campaign,
you need to test your sales process, but without any traffic, testing
is difficult, if not impossible!
In the following article,
I'm going to give you an eight-step action plan that will
show you...
1. How to get CHEAP,
instant traffic to your web site -- so you can test key components
of your sales process (sales copy, order form, navigation, and
opt-in offer) BEFORE rolling out a large-scale traffic campaign.
2. How to ensure that every element of your sales process is optimized
to convert maximum traffic into maximum sales.
3. The most effective
strategies for attracting 1,000s of highly qualified potential
buyers to your web site right away (cheap and FREE!).
4. The secret to putting
your entire traffic campaign on autopilot.
So even if your web site
is getting ZERO traffic right now, you can be testing the key elements
of your sales process tomorrow -- and as soon as two weeks from
now, you can be rolling out your traffic campaign in full.
Sound good? Let's
get you started off on the right foot!
Step One: Get
the traffic you need to test your web site -- fast!
When I talk about testing
with new Internet business owners, I hear the same two questions
all the time:
How do I test my
site?
What do I test
on my site?
As you may already know,
there are an infinite number of things you can test on your web
site to increase sales. From layout to copy to design, there are
limitless combinations of changes that may improve your traffic and visitor-to-sale
conversion rate.
But what's "enough"
when you're just starting out?
What elements should
you focus on testing before rolling out your traffic campaign?
My advice is to stick
to the basics. Focus on testing your...
• Salescopy (Especially
your headline, benefits, guarantee, and call to action.)
• Order process
(Is it simple enough for a novice web user to place an order?)
• Opt-in offer
(Are you successfully capturing visitors' contact information?)
• Site navigation
(How many clicks does it take to buy? Ideally it should take less
than three.)
These are the four critical
aspects of your sales process that need to be tested before you
start driving traffic. Later on, once you've generated sales and
have some steady traffic, you can move on to testing other parts
of your web site.
Of course, all this talk
of testing your new web site raises one BIG question: How can you
test without traffic? If you're just getting started, chances are
good that your web site doesn't get much traffic yet.
The solution is simple:
Buy traffic through PPC search engines.
Pay-per-click search
engines are a lot like auctions -- they allow you to bid for top-ranking
positions under keywords of your choice. For each visitor who searches
the keyword(s) you bid on and then clicks through to your web site,
you pay whatever you bid. Prices typically range from five cents
to a few dollars per click-through for popular keywords.
There are a ton of PPC
search engines out there, but the two best ones to get started with
are...
With PPC search engines,
you get cheap, instant, qualified traffic --provided
you bid on targeted keywords. Not only that, but bidding on traffic
in the PPC search engines can help your site get ranked in the free
search engines, too!
Here are a couple of
tips to help you start bidding for traffic without breaking the
bank:
In
Yahoo Search Marketing, bid to appear in the top three listings
whenever possible, since these results are also "pushed"
to appear in the search results for MSN, Yahoo, AltaVista, InfoSpace,
AlltheWeb and NetZero --reaching 80% of Internet users!
Bid on targeted,
descriptive keywords -- d on't
just bid on "sock", bid on "red wool sock".
Not only are targeted keywords and phrases usually cheaper
to bid on -- they'll also attract more qualified potential buyers.
Use a keyword selection tool like Wordtracker (www.WordTracker.com)
to research targeted keywords that attract maximum traffic for
minimal cost-per-click!
After you've tested
and tweaked your web site with a limited amount of purchased traffic,
it's time to start generating qualified traffic for your site
on a bigger scale.
But how do you go from
some traffic to a ton of traffic?
Step Two: Get
cheap traffic quickly with PPC advertising!
Once you've tested
your site with limited PPC traffic, the fastest way to ramp up traffic
to your web site is to roll out a PPC campaign on a bigger scale.
Obviously, you should
start with Yahoo Search Marketing and Findwhat, as mentioned above.
But here are some more PPC engines to consider bidding with as you
increase your investment:
This is also a great
time to get started with Google AdWords -- Google's own PPC
contender: http://adwords.google.com.
You get instant traffic
-- with no waiting! As soon as you put the money down on your keywords,
your ad goes up and starts working for you!
Step Three: Get
FREE traffic from search engines like Google!
Now that you've
bid on keywords for a strong showing in the PPC search engines,
it's time to tackle the organic search engines and directories!
Search engines (like
Google) and directories (like Yahoo) can still be a great source
of free traffic for your web site. The trick is getting a competitive
ranking for your best keywords.
The first step in getting
a top ranking in the search engines is submitting or suggesting
your site to them. In other words, you have to provide them with
details about your site!
You want to make sure
that the “spiders” -- automated programs that crawl
the Web indexing sites for the search engines -- find your site
and include it in the search results.
While the spiders DO
index sites and pages that have not been submitted, you certainly
don't want to leave this to chance. A spider might find your web
site and index it next week... or it might be two years before it
finally happens. Take the time to submit your site, and you can
be sure that you're included! Once your site has been submitted,
expect it to take two to six weeks for your listing to appear.
Every engine has a slightly
different process for site submission, and it pays to follow their
guidelines. For example, there is a fee to list your site in the
directory at Yahoo, but Google does not charge for their submission
process. If you submit your site exactly as they ask, you stand
a better chance of getting a good listing on the first page of search
results.
To submit or suggest
your site to the major engines, follow the simple instructions they
provide:
For AOL, submit your
site to the Open Directory Project, which uses ODP data: http://dmoz.org/add.html
And don't bother
with companies that offer to submit your web site to the search
engines. Since each search engine uses a different set of criteria
to rank your site, free submission services can actually end up
doing more harm than good, since they submit the same information
to all the engines.
Step Four: Give
away irresistible free content for priceless publicity!
Believe it or not, a
really easy, frequently undervalued strategy for getting traffic
is giving away free content to other web sites. Even just two or
three well-written articles can generate truckloads of traffic,
as long as they don't contain a sales pitch.
You want to include rare,
hard-to-get information that will lend your articles automatic value:
the kind of information that establishes you as an expert in your
field!
Once you've finished,
write a short bio paragraph about you and your business and place
it at the end of your article along with (and this is the most important
part!) a link to your site.
E-mail other web site
owners in your industry -- be sure to choose sites that receive
attention and visits from your target market -- and invite them
to use your article on their web site or in their newsletter at
absolutely no cost.
Many site owners need
fresh content, so they'll be more than happy to post your articles
-- and it won't be long before those articles start driving traffic
back to your web site.
Another option is to
give away your articles through free content web sites like:
Your articles will be
made automatically available to thousands of web site owners seeking
free, quality content -- and all you have to do is submit your articles
once!
This was the key strategy
that Maria Gracia put to work with her home organization web site
(www.GetOrganizedNow.com).
She exchanged great free articles for links on high-traffic sites
and got tons of free exposure and traffic. Now she gets over 1 million
visitors per year and earns a 60% profit margin!
Don't underestimate the
power of giving away free content. And as your articles gain more
exposure, don't be surprised if you're contacted by high-profile
magazine and portal sites related to your industry looking for free
articles to include on their sites, too!
Step Five: Get FREE "word-of-mouth" publicity
using viral marketing
Imagine a marketing strategy
so simple that you could put it to work immediately -- without spending
a dime -- walk away from it, and trust that it would keep working
without any extra effort from you.
That's what viral
marketing is all about. Simply defined, viral marketing enables
you to spread your marketing message like a virus. You encourage
people to pass on information about your web site to one another
and use that word-of-mouth publicity to advertise your business!
Once you start the "virus,"
it spreads without you lifting a finger!
Hotmail.com, the free
web-based e-mail service provider, is a classic example of viral
marketing. At the bottom of every single Hotmail e-mail sent by
Hotmail members, there is a simple one-line message:
“Get your free,
private e-mail from MSN at http://www.hotmail.com”
How much time do you
think it took Hotmail to include that signature line as part of
their e-mail service? Not much at all -- but look at the impact
that this simple strategy had on the growth of their business.
In my personal experience,
more than 35% of e-mail users have Hotmail accounts!
You can easilyduplicate
this strategy by doing something as simple as including a "pass
it on link" at the end of a free newsletter.
Something as simple as...
"If you've enjoyed
this article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!"
By simply asking readers
to take action and forward your newsletter, you'll prompt free "word
of mouth" exposure for your business -- without any extra cost
or hassle!
And there's no limit
to how far your message can travel!
So how do you put viral
marketing to work for you? Here are a few simple ideas:
Give away free articles
(like the ones in Step Four!) with a “pass it on”
link.
Give away free demos
of your product.
Offer a free trial
of your service with a “share this great resource”
button on the page.
Hold a contest on
your web site and give participants an extra entry for every
friend they refer.
Start an affiliate
program (see Step Seven!).
As you can see, you don't
need to be the next Hotmail to get started with viral marketing
-- by simply encouraging people to "share this resource with
friends," you can attract some great "word-of-mouth"
traffic.
Step Six: Get
FREE links on other high-traffic web sites!
Link requests require
minimal effort from you, but they can absolutely explode your traffic
numbers overnight. How? If your site is a featured link on a major
site in your industry -- one that receives a ton of attention --
your site immediately benefits from all the exposure their
site receives!
Getting started with
this strategy is simple, but you should follow a standard process
every time you request a link. Let's break it down into a
few easy steps:
Do a Google search
for your standard keywords -- the ones that people generally
use to find your site.
Make detailed notes
about the sites that appear regularly in the top ten listings
for your major keywords.
Use the Alexa Toolbar
(www.alexa.com),
LinkPopularity (www.linkpopularity.com),
or Technorati (www.technorati.com)
to find out who these sites are linking to, who is linking to
them, and how much traffic they are receiving, then look up
their contact information.
Make sure you know
the correct URL for the site, the URL of the sub-page on which
you want your link to appear, the name of the site owner or
webmaster, the date you last visited their site, and a brief
description of the contents of the site.
When you're ready
to contact these web site owners and request a link, write a personal
e-mail -- don't use form letters. Be sure to include some positive
comments about their site, information about you and your site (along
with your URL), an explanation of why a link to you would benefit
them, and instructions for contacting you to get started!
You want your request
to be thorough and professional. If you can present
a persuasive argument for why the link request benefits both of
you, you stand a better chance of forging a connection.
If you are really eager
to get your link on their site, be prepared to up the ante by offering
them a commission or a link on your site in return. The investment
could be well worth the extra exposure your marketing message receives.
But be stingy
when other businesses request links on your site -- just as links
on others' sites serve as a personal recommendation of your
site, links on your site are recommendations for their businesses.
Only recommend the best!
Okay, now let's talk
about the ultimate linking strategy...
Step Seven: Get
1,000s of web sites to promote your business -- FREE!
Imagine hundreds, even
thousands, of web sites promoting your product or service... and
all this great exposure doesn't cost you a DIME unless someone refers
a paying customer. You can do this with what's called an affiliate
program.
Affiliate programs (also
referred to as "reseller" or "associate" programs)
are a great way to get other people called "affiliates" to promote your product or service for you. For every
paying customer your affiliates refer to your web site, you pay
them a commission. And since you only pay when you make money --
it's extremely low risk!
Your affiliates send
visitors to your web site using banner ads, text links, letters
of referral, and so on, while you track these referrals using special
software. It's an extremely powerful way to grow your business
because it automates your traffic generation.
To get started with your
own affiliate program, you need to...
Set your commissions.
(To keep your affiliates motivated, you should pay them 40%
to 50% of your profits per sale.)
Get software to
track the traffic and sales of your affiliates so you know
what to pay them (check out www.MarketingTips.com/assoctrac).
Provide your affiliates
with tools they can use to promote your products (like e-mails,
banners, etc.).
Recruit your affiliates!
(Look for sites that target your market, and invite them to
become affiliates.)
Affiliate programs are
an ideal way to automate your traffic generation because other people
market your web site for you -- and you don't lift a finger.
Your sales increase on
a daily basis -- but they do all the selling for you, and
it doesn't cost you a dime until they send you paying customers.
Now, for the final step,
let's talk about what you need to do to keep your traffic coming
back to your site again and again.
Step Eight: Use
e-mail marketing to attract repeat visitors
Getting lots of traffic
to your site is great, but if you aren't collecting the contact
information (i.e. names and e-mail addresses) of visitors, you're
wasting every single click!
If visitors leave your
site without buying your product, there's a good chance they won't
ever be back -- and you'll have absolutely no way of following up
with them!
Remember: It can take
up to seven points of contact to make a single sale, so you'll want
to begin collecting visitors' contact information from day one using
an opt-in form on your home page!
Here are some ideas for
e-mails you could send in case you need an excuse to follow up with
your opt-in subscribers:
Monthly or bi-weekly
newsletters with tons of tips and info
Free reports on a
variety of topics that your market would appreciate
Answers to common
questions people ask about your product
Offers for products
similar or complementary to ones you may have already offered
them
Free product trials
that give potential customers a taste of what you have to offer
A "downgrade"
offer for a product that is less expensive or robust than your
featured offer
Following up with the
addresses you gather is quick, easy, and simple with e-mail management
and automation software. You can create e-mails called "autoresponders"
that potential customers receive automatically, as soon as they
opt- in on your site -- within seconds -- no matter what
time of day it is, or whether you're even at your desk!
That's right --
as soon as your visitors opt in, they start hearing from you on
a regular basis without the stress of writing a ton of e-mails to
individual addresses. This is a process you can put on autopilot
from the very beginning!
For a solid e-mail management
solution with everything you need to get your e-mail marketing campaign
started, check out www.MarketingTips.com/mailloopFinal thoughts
In this article, I've
shown you how to get past the biggest hurdle faced by new web site
owners -- finding traffic to test your sales process and maximize
your visitor-to-sale conversion rate before launching your web site.
I've also provided you
with a 10,000-foot overview of the steps involved in rolling out
a traffic campaign that will quickly ramp up visitors to your new
or growing web site.
First, I recommended
that you start with a PPC campaign, because it generates instant
traffic and sales for your web site at a low cost, provided you
follow the bidding tips I shared here.
Next, I recommended that
you move on to submitting your web site to the "organic"
search engines and directories like Google and Yahoo, which can
be a great source of unlimited FREE traffic, provided your listing
appears on the first page of search results for your top keywords.
From there, the three
traffic strategies you'll probably want to tackle are (1) giving
away free content to get free links (and traffic) from other web
sites that target your market; (2) using "recommend this to
a friend" links in your newsletters and on your web site to
get free "word-of-mouth" publicity (viral marketing);
and (3) requesting links from high-traffic web sites, so you can
piggyback their top search engine rankings!
Finally, we briefly discussed
how you can start an affiliate program to exponentially grow your
business by recruiting an army of affiliates who will promote your
business on every corner of the Web, with absolutely no risk to
you -- because you don't pay them a DIME unless they send you a
paying customer!
Obviously, we've covered
a LOT of ground in this article... So I think it's only fair I point
out that, before you dive into ANY of these strategies, you'll need
to do a bit more reading and research on each of these topics.
For example, there's
NO WAY I could cover everything you need to know about PPC campaigns
and search engine submission in this short article given that we've
spent over 70 pages on these subjects alone in our Insider Secrets
to Marketing Your Business on the Internet course.
And another 60 pages
is devoted entirely to "How to Start Your Own Affiliate Program"...
Like I mentioned earlier,
I wanted to give you the 10,000-foot view, so you have a clear roadmap
of exactly what you need to do first, second, and third to test
your web site to maximize conversion rates and then rollout an effective
traffic campaign that attracts swarms of potential buyers -- automatically
-- for years to come.
If you want to know more
about any of the topics covered here in this article, I highly recommend
that you check out our "Insider Secrets" course at www.MarketingTips.com/tipsltr.html
And before I wrap up
this article, I'd like to make one last point...
Over the years, I've
noticed a common thread that links all of our most successful clients
who have Internet businesses that make $250,000... $500,000... or
over $1,000,000 per year:
They have all focused on doing one or two marketing strategies really well.
So don't feel like you
need to become an expert in ALL of the strategies we've covered
here. Focus on becoming really proficient at one or two -- because
this may be all you need to dramatically increase your traffic...
and sales!