An Affiliate Marketer from the Ground Up

How to Increase Traffic and Profits
By Jim Janowiak

We all know the more traffic you get the more money you will make. You can't get around the fact you need traffic. Yes, you need more traffic especially if you're just getting started. If someone were to tell you their website was getting enough traffic they are either lying or nuts.

Traffic for traffic's sake is not always good. OK you are getting five thousand hits per day and not converting or selling anything. Your conversion rate is less than one percent and dropping. You are wasting a tremendous resource.

Keep in mind there is a difference between money/revenue and profits. I guarantee you can get five thousand hits a day with pay per click (PPC) on Google in a well searched niche. The problem is I would be broke in two weeks with the website above. The cost for PPC has risen in high searched niches that only great converting websites will make any money. It is not unusual to lose money with this marketing campaign. Pay per click is not the answer in most cases.

So let's step back and start from the beginning. You have to establish what you want your visitors to do and then you can develop an effective marketing strategy to get traffic. First, what do you what your visitors to do?

Do want them to subscribe?

Do you want them to buy your product?

Do you want them to buy an affiliate product?

Do you just want them to click on your Adsense add?

Establish, what exactly you are trying to get your visitors to do. Write your copy using this simple but very effective system. Here is what I've got. Here is what it will do for you. Here is what I want you to do next. This three step system is used by all the top marketers, the big guys.

Don't be hesitant to lay out exactly what your offer is. Be up front and proud of the offer. Just make sure you lead your visitors to take action. Show them where to click, download or subscribe.

OK, you're set to steer your visitors to your offer and take action. Now you need visitors and traffic. If you're just getting started, I strongly suggest not using PPC. You should start with organic traffic. Organic traffic costs you nothing but your time. Since you have no direct cost, your profits will go way up. Here are four ways that definitely work to drive traffic to your website.

1. Boost Your Credibility, Attract Targeted Traffic and Pre-Sell Your Prospects Using Articles: Submitting your article to leading articles directories is a "tried and tested" way to bring in traffic to your website. Though the task is daunting, it is one of the best methods.

Article directories are frequently visited by search engine robots because they love content rich sites. When they find YOUR website link, they will start 'crawling' and indexing your site too. Publishing articles will also double up as a 'lead-generator' because ma ny newsletter publishers rely on new content made available at leading article directories.

2. There are hundreds of forums on every imaginable topic on the Internet. By participating on leading forums in your niche, you will not only get a steady stream of highly targeted traffic, but you will also get back-links. As an added bonus, you will become an authority figure and boost your credibility. When people visit your site from a forum, they already know and trust you. This plays a very important role in converting visitors to paying customers.

3. Attract Organic, Targeted Visitors by Becoming Excellent Search Engine Fodder. This is an Easy & Long Term strategy. By submitting your website URL to leading Search Engines and Directories, you will start showing up on natural search results by REAL people, bringing in a constant stream of eager visitors to your website. However, just submitting your site is not enough. It has to be done along with other tasks below. Further, submitting your site to a group of 150 hand-picked search engines is found to give good results.

4. Help Real Visitors Find Your Website Quickly AND Tell Others About You, At No Cost. Social Book Marking Sites can get you a huge number of traffic. You ought to have  great content to hit the front page. If you hit the front page of Digg or Netscape, you will have a good time seeing visitors flow by your site. Stumbleupon and Del.icio.us can get you traffic in the long term. Further, people visiting those "high-traffic" social book marking sites have the ability to vote for your site that makes it go up on the listing, resulting in even more publicity and targeted traffic.

If you follow this strategy you will increase your traffic. With increased traffic you will have increased profits. Get to work.

Article Source: http://www.affsphere.com/Internet-Marketing/Websites-Traffic-Promotion/How-to-Increase-Traffic-and-Profits.html

Top 7 Tips for Getting Repeat Website Traffic
By Jinger Jarrett

Getting visitors to return to your site is easier than getting new visitors to your site. For those who have already visited your site, they're familiar with who you are. If you want your current visitors to return, then there are some things you need to do.

1. Offer constantly updating content.

If your site doesn't change once in awhile, your visitors have no reason to return. Write new content like product reviews and articles. Try to add something new on a regular basis. If you own a blog, you'll want to write more often.

For those who don't have time to write new content, adding RSS feeds and dynamic content will give your visitors something new. What's good about dynamic content is that once you set it up, you don't have to constantly add to it.

2. Switch up your product offerings.

If you sell your own products or services, add a new product or service. Offer specials on your current products or services. Add an affiliate program offering that complements what you already sell.

For affiliate marketers, expand your affiliate offerings. Look for new affiliate programs to join and mix up

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5 Simple Ways to Begin Using Social Media for Killer Results
By David Ogden

No matter who you are or what you are marketing, social media could be the best thing that ever happened to you. Not limited to social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, social media includes podcasts, message board, forums, and any other type of media that combines technology with human social interaction.

Using social media to your advantage can significantly increase your marketing results with very little effort. For those who aren’t sure how to apply it, here are 5 simple ways to begin using social media for killer results.

1. Take advantage of podcasts. Podcasts are, in simplest terms, broadcasts that are uploaded in digital format so they can be downloaded by other people and played on computers and mp3 players. They can be syndicated, which allows them to be included in RSS feeds. As a result, a series of podcasts can quickly and easily be accessed by millions of listeners on a constant basis. Podcasts allow you the ability to establish yourself as an authority in your market area, converting customers without ever using an “in-your-face” advertisement.

2. Write a blog. In fact, you can write several blogs, if you’d like. Because the content is constantly changing, the blog will get more attention from search engines than a static web page, leading to more visitors. As with other forms of social media, blogs are your opportunity to establish yourself as an authority. A steady stream of blog entries about guitars, guitar parts, strings, picks, and chord charts will tell potential customers that you know what you’re talking about, leading them to buy your easy guitar playing method eBook. Of course, you will want to announce its release on your blog, too!

3. Make friends. Social media focuses on interaction, so having friends is a key element of using social media effectively. On social networking sites, like MySpace, anyone connected to people on your friend’s list can also see you. As you blog, add videos, and let other people see who you are and what you do, you encourage them to find out more, leading them gently to your sales page.

4. Remember your signature. While this may seem insignificant, it’s actually a very important tip. Social media outlets are great for marketing, but nobody likes SPAM. Constantly marketing your product in a forum, for example, will get you banned for spamming the forum. Marketing your knowledge, however, will get people to read what you have to say and, eventually, click on the link in your signature.

5. Link up. This goes with making friends, but it takes a little more effort. Offer to exchange links with people and businesses that have similar interests. This builds traffic to your site by creating the external links that search engines are looking for, and visitors to the other sites will naturally follow their curiosity and check out your site, too. Building traffic is an important part of getting people to buy what you are selling.

Although social media is relatively new, it shows every sign of being around for a long time to come. There is a great deal of power in the ability to connect with others from around the world, and learning to harness that power can produce killer results for your marketing efforts.

Article Source: http://www.affsphere.com/Internet-Marketing/Websites-Traffic-Promotion/5-Simple-Ways-to-Begin-Using-Social-Media-for-Killer-Results.html

Probably most people getting into affiliate marketing don't have lots of money to spend on advertising. Although pay-per-click advertising can be very effective, free, targeted traffic is much more attractive, and can be obtained many different ways. Here are 3 very good methods.

1.) Twitter -

Probably most regular Internet visitors know of Twitter by now. I actually new of Twitter for some time before I decided to see what the fuss was all about. I was somewhat reluctant because there seems to be 'the next big thing' every other day online.

I'm glad I took a look though. The 5 minutes or so that it took to set my account up (now 2 accounts), was time very well spent. It was just a short time after launching my account that I got my first follower, then my second, third, and so on.

You don't have to think very hard to realize the importance of this. When I have something to promote, or update, I have a targeted audience waiting to get the 'Tweet'. I mentioned affiliate marketing in my profile, so everyone that follows me on that account knows what it's about.

I don't use it a lot, so as to not wear it out, but if there's something with potential, I Tweet it. This is fairly powerful stuff here.

2.) Article Marketing -

I didn't give article marketing the attention that I should have early on when first getting into affiliate marketing. If I had, my traffic would probably be many, many times what it is now. Article Marketing, in my opinion, is the ultimate in free, targeted, viral traffic generating options.

Ebooks, courses, just about anything else that you care to produce can obviously go viral, but what else can you produce as easily, and quickly as a few 500 word articles ?

There's people that have hundreds, and some even thousands of articles, I would guess. All it takes is for just a few of them to get around to the right places to get your links working for you.

If I had but 1 option to use for traffic generation, it would be, without a doubt, article marketing to get the job done. Of course I would also recommend adding original content (even the articles you submit to directories) to your site on a consistent basis.

Although you may receive the authority on any articles that you submit to directories because they were on your site first, if you chose to use them, there's really no way to guarantee it, especially if your site, or those pages, were never indexed.

Submitting articles to directories doesn't produce a nearly instant result in increased traffic, as does PPC advertising, but it's just about guaranteed to be traffic in the bank down the road.

3.) Squidoo -

Unfortunately, even though I now realize the power that Squidoo Lenses can potentially have, I've been lax in getting many done. I presently only have 4, but that will be changing in the future. With even 1 lens in a high ranking position, you can generate lots of money, and help out any of your other related sites also.

If you want to get an idea of the unbelievable potential of Squidoo, search for some of the top most lenses. There are some people that have hundreds published, many in good ranking positions, and they're adding more all the time.

The income potential can be great also, just from the lenses themselves, not only the potential income from the increase in traffic to your other sites with links from any high ranking lenses.
For a good example, have a look at 'Work at Home with Squidoo', this ingenious lady is doing it right, and has the number 1 lens to prove it!!

Some of the good things about Squidoo Lenses are...1.) it's free!!, 2.) it's easy, 3.) it's quick, 4.) it's nearly limitless!!

If you don't have the time, or desire to set lenses up yourself, it would probably be worthwhile to seek out a student, housewife, or someone else that needs some extra money, and would work at a reasonable rate, to churn out a couple of lenses per day.

I believe that if someone could get even a dozen or so quality lenses online, and consistently updated them with quality content, that the relatively small cost for paying someone to set them up, would be returned many times over.

Obviously there's a multitude of ways to generate free, targeted traffic, limited only by one's imagination. These are just 3 ways methods of traffic generation that work...and work well.

If you've been searching for the best ways to generate traffic to your Website, you've probably come across the recommendation of writing articles. You'll see this often for a reason. Article writing is quite possibly the best way of generating targeted, free traffic to your site.

If you're trying to make money on the Internet you may be using affiliate marketing as your means, but you might also be marketing your own product. Regardless, article writing is still one of your best means of getting your site 'out there'.

What should I write about ?

Obviously it does matter what topic you write your articles on. If you're promoting hair loss products, you don't want to be writing articles on snowboards. I would guess most people would realize what their article topics should be. Your articles should be based on whatever niche that you're trying to make money in.

I'm not a great writer, should I look for something else ?

Article writing is such a great method or producing traffic that it shouldn't be left out. If you feel like you

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