Basics of Driving Traffic
Driving traffic is one of the most highly debated issues when it comes to running any sort of website.
It is a crucial element of having an online presence, but traffic is a hotspot that regularly sparks confusion, anger, myths, and a whole lot of disagreement.
It is easy to see why so many newbies get confused and disheartened when they try to learn about traffic.
Thankfully, by learning some basics you can avoid some of the common pitfalls.
There Is No “Right” Way
One of the most common traps that beginners fall prey to is trying to find that one special magic method that will send them all the traffic they could possibly need.
Unfortunately it just isn’t that simple.
There are plenty of courses that will tell you that they have the secret, but for 99% of website owners, just having one method that runs on autopilot and sends waves of eager buyers to their sites is a delusion.
There are dozens of methods that you can use to get traffic to your site, and you should learn about as many of them as possible.
This is simply because different methods work for different websites, and you can’t know if one will work for you unless you at least know about it.
Don’t let anyone tell you that there is one “right” way to go about getting traffic. Learn as much as you can, try to figure out what isn’t likely to work, and go from there.
Pick a Few Methods
Many beginners either focus solely on one method of driving traffic, which probably isn’t going to cut it, or they try to get into too many methods and spread their resources too thin.
The trick here is finding a balance between those two extremes.
Many people who are successful at making money online suggest picking 3-5 different methods of driving traffic and then sticking with those.
For example, you could choose to go with article marketing, twitter, and posting in relevant forums. Or you could choose blogging and eBook syndication.
You could also choose to combine all of those, or find a completely different set of methods. What is important is whether what you are using is working for you.
Driving traffic is one of the most highly debated issues when it comes to running any sort of website.
It is a crucial element of having an online presence, but traffic is a hotspot that regularly sparks confusion, anger, myths, and a whole lot of disagreement.
It is easy to see why so many newbies get confused and disheartened when they try to learn about traffic.
Thankfully, by learning some basics you can avoid some of the common pitfalls.
Be Patient and Run Tests
Of course, like was pointed out, not all traffic methods work equally well for everyone.
Some people excel at article marketing while others can’t seem to get a good response, and some people just can’t afford to head into solo ads or other methods that cost money – so you may need to change your plans after awhile.
If you aren’t getting a good return on one method, switch it out for a different one after a month or two.
Or once you are making some money, try investing some of it back into traffic generation.
Use Common Sense
This is a huge point simply because so many new online business owners won’t stop and think about what they are heading into.
If you really can’t afford to outsource your traffic, don’t let someone push you into it. There are plenty of ways you can generate your own traffic.
If a traffic method is promising loads of traffic that sound too good to be true, it probably is. Try to stick to proven methods and you are more likely to see success.
By being smart about your traffic generation and committing time to it each day, you should start seeing a response to your website that will only increase with more time and attention.
Reusing Content to Get Traffic
When you are trying to get traffic to your website, chances are that you are trying to figure out how to stretch your resources as far as possible.
One great way to do this is to use content in multiple ways whenever you can.
There are a few methods that you can try with this, and you should look at the kind of website you have and the skills you possess to figure out which are going to work best for you.
Your Base Content
First you need to consider the content that you already have or are getting created – this is your base content, and this is what you are going to use in as many ways as possible.
What is this base content? Is it articles, an eBook, audio, or something else?
No matter what it is, chances are good that you can use it a couple different ways as-is, and then you can go on to use it in many other ways by altering its format.
If you consider this from the beginning, you may actually be able to make your job easier by creating the content in a way that will make it easy to change later.
Getting Your Base Content
How are you getting the base content that you are using? The three main ways of getting content are making it yourself, outsourcing it to a freelancer, or buying PLR to content and then altering it.
None of these are “right” or “wrong.” It simply comes down to the resources you have at your disposal and the kind of changes you want to make to the content.
Consider each option before you make a decision, and then choose the one that you are most comfortable with.
An Example
Since articles are probably the most common type of content that people have created, we will use them as an example.
Say you have a set of articles written on your chosen topic and are planning to use them for article marketing.
This is a great start, and you should see how many article directories you can get those articles into. But what happens after that?
A lot of people get stuck here and feel that they now need new content. This can leave a lot of traffic, and therefore money, on the table.
An excellent thing to do with those articles is to tweak them a little bit and compile them into an eBook or report.
This can be branded with your website’s information and used as a giveaway to build your list or submitted to eBook directories.
You can also chop the articles into blog posts and create a keyword rich blog to go along with your website in order to draw more traffic in.
Finally, as long as you have a decent microphone, turning those articles into short educational videos is easy.
You can then use the videos on your site or submit them to video directories.
There are dozens of other things that you could do with the articles as well, but this just gives you a taste of what you could do to quickly and easily add thousands more visitors to your site every month.
Most website owners have finite resources that they can use to grow their site, especially when first starting out.
So it is important to make sure that you are getting all the benefit possible out of your content. Think about some of the ways you could repurpose your content.
Once you get started, you will be ahead of most other website owners out there.
Using Advertising to Get Traffic
There are many ways to get traffic to your site, and some are more direct than others.
Directly advertising your website usually costs money, but it is a great way to get a lot of visitors who are eager for the information you are offering.
Placing Ads
Obviously, regular ads a great way to garner attention to your site – as long as you put them in the right places.
It probably isn’t advisable for you to run out and pay for ads that will be shown to everyone and anyone.
This will get you a very low response rate since the traffic isn’t targeted, and you will burn through a lot of money very quickly.
The trick is to put ads in highly targeted areas.
You need to know what kind of information or services you have, and then you need to determine where people who are looking for that kind of information are going.
Then you can start experimenting with ads and seeing what works for you.
Forums
Forums are a great place to advertise because they have become one of the most popular places for people to search for information.
This generally means that the people in forums are already hungry for information on a certain topic.
For example, if you are in the organic gardening niche and you put up a banner ad in a forum that focuses on gardening, you are more likely to garner a lot of attention.
If the forum is even more specific and those in it only discuss organic gardening, you should get an even better response.
Newsletters and Ezines
Something else that a lot of people seek out when they are looking for information on a specific topic is ezines and newsletters.
Like forums, there are newsletters and ezines to go with just about any topic you can think of.
Many of these “publications” allow ads, so you just need to determine how much they charge for their ad space and if you think that price is worth the exposure you could get.
There are a few types of ads that you can generally get in newsletters and ezines.
Most people are familiar with classified ads, which are usually inexpensive, but are also small and often located at the end of the newsletter.
Sponsor ads will likely get you a better response since they are located throughout the body of the ezine, but they are priced according to their location and can be expensive.
Solo Ads
Solo ads are a great way to get a lot of traffic, but they are also one of the more expensive methods available to beginners.
When you pay for a solo ad, you get to create an entire email – subject line and all – that gets sent out to the list of the person you paid.
Since there is nothing else in the email, all eyes are on you, and you can get an impressive response out of these.
Do Your Research
One of the biggest mistakes that people make is just buying the first ad space they come across.
This includes ad space on websites, Google AdSense, or anything else.
Try to figure out how much the advertising is going to cost versus how many visitors you can realistically expect.
Unless you have a lot of money to throw at ads, take your time and do as much research as possible before choosing where you are going to buy space at.
Track and Test
Finally, make sure that you are tracking your ads and traffic. If you aren’t you are probably going to throw a whole lot of money away.
Tracking is the only dependable way to determine where your traffic is coming from, so it is absolutely necessary.
Then just be willing to run tests with different ads in various locations.
Using advertising is highly effective if you do it right, and by making sure that you are taking care of some of the basics, you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting it right quickly.
Working With Others to Explode Your Traffic
If you already have some traffic coming to your site, or have already started building a list, you can take your traffic to a whole new level by working with others in your niche.
Swapping ads, webinars, and autoresponder messages are all great ways to greatly increase both your traffic and the traffic to those you partner with.
You Have Options
One misconception that many people have, even if they have already started building a list, is that there are only a few kinds of joint ventures that they can enter into.
The truth is that there are dozens of things you can JV with someone on, and many ways that you can promote yourself to their list and vice versa.
Ad Swaps
Swapping ads is probably one of the best-known methods of joint venturing with someone, simply because it is easy.
You can place a partner’s ad on your site and they will put one of yours on their site.
These ads can also be put into newsletters or onto a thank you page, and all in all are very effective if you choose your JV partner properly.
Autoresponder Swaps
This is a great way to take another step toward getting a lot of traffic from other people.
This is similar to the ad swap, but instead you are exchanging autoresponder messages.
Generally these messages are put into the autoresponders and programmed to go out within a week of someone new joining the list.
Webinar Swaps
Videos and webinars are getting to a point of ridiculous popularity, and that is only going to continue growing.
If you want to offer someone massive value and get your name out there at the same time, you can offer to do a webinar for their subscribers.
This is a great way to set yourself apart from everyone who just says “promote my product!”
Not only do you make it more likely that the person you are offering this to will say yes because the value is built into your offer, you also make it more likely that the webinar viewers will join your list since they can see the kind of information you share right away.
By adding these methods to your traffic-getting strategy you should see a nice flow of new traffic coming in each month, and you don’t have to spend a whole lot of extra time or money to get it.
