Step Into My Parlour? Easy Ways To Entice The Right People To Your Website

Though traditional marketing methods cannot be ignored, having a website is a very effective gateway to getting new business. Not just that, you can maximise sales to existing customers with your website by making it easier for them to do business with you. Now, this sounds really rosy?you put up a website; you become a millionaire. Though that is not such a far away possibility, a lot comes in between the two.

Once you put up a website, it is important to market it right and generate tremendous traffic inwards before you can start converting your leads into cash cows. Now, you would ideally want everyone and their cousin to check out your website, right? Isn't that what we mean by 'tremendous traffic'? Think again. No matter how great products or services you sell, you will not start making a profit until you have the relevant people hitting the right buttons on the website. By relevant, we mean people who fall within your targeted segment and who are most likely to buy your products and services. Hard as it may sound, traffic generation should be a top priority for a home business owner. Here are some effective ways to market your website online and not have to pray for fortune to fund them:

  • Register with 'Affiliate Programs': Undoubtedly a great way to market your website would be to get your affiliates to do it for you. An affiliate program is a revenue sharing program where an affiliate website receives a portion of income for driving traffic, sales or leads to your website. Most affiliates use a pay-per-sale model and by far get you the most focused traffic than other methods.

  • Email Promotions: Email is god's gift to the home-based businesses. You can use email to get in touch and keep in touch with existing customers and prospects. Initially, target your existing customers. If you run a weekly newsletter, use the subscribers' email database for your email promotions. One of the easiest ways to encourage visitors to keep coming back to your site is to offer value. Get the word out on discounts on purchases from the website, e-coupons and other attractive promotional offers. Try to resist the temptation of buying email addresses from web companies, for 2 reasons. One is that not all the people on that list may necessarily be part of your target audience. Second, and more important, you could be seen as a "Spammer"! That would not only not give you much sales; it will also spoil your company's reputation.

  • Search Engine Optimization: Free search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN are 'the' places people go to when they are looking for information. Make sure that your website gets in the top 10 of these websites' result pages. This is a sure shot way to attract quality traffic to your website. Take a four ?pronged approach to do this:
    • Submit your site's URL to these and other free search engines and online directories (www.goto.com, www.altavista.com, www.morpheus.com)
    • Optimize your website so that it can be easily indexed by search engines. You can also use website optimization and SEO placement agencies for this purpose. (www.proboostgold.com, www.addpro.com)
    • Make your website's content rich in keywords and pay special attention to keyword placement
    • Finally, create a content rich site, which actually gives useful information to the customer

  • Reciprocal Links: Reciprocal link is a hyperlink you place on your web page with the understanding that the linked web page will do the same for your website. The obvious choice for a partner here is a website that is related to your business but not in direct competition. For instance, if you sell contact lenses, choose websites that sell eyeglasses or related products like cleaning solutions. Another good choice would be websites that give out clinical information on contact lens usage. Reciprocals are a cost-free and effective way of attracting focused traffic to your website.

  • Give away free content: A major online golf publishing company offers visitors syndicated articles on golf and related products. The people who use this syndicated content not just get free content from a credible source, but also visit the company's other websites. Anything 'free' induces happiness; and when it is free content, it gives you delighted customers who keep coming back for more. By offering them free content in the form of articles, information for use in their newsletters, product reviews etc. you are doing them a favor as well as giving more exposure to your website.

  • Get Interactive: Get your customers talking, to you and to each other. Offer advice columns, message boards, and articles relevant to your product and to the industry. Archive these into a separate section where visitors can browse to look for specific information. A good idea would be to include an " email article to a friend" button with these articles. This way your visitors will do some marketing for you. If you offer a newsletter, contests, a 'tip of the day' or other fun stuff, include a " tell a friend" click box with these. People love to share fun stuff with friends. When you see the number of jokes forwarded to you in your email, you'll believe us.

  • Be seen & heard: Build an online identity by networking. Participate in newsgroups, discussion forums and message boards. Starting a Blog is also an idea that is picking up currency. This will allow you to develop a relationship with potential customers and allow them to identify you as a recognizable name. Tools like these will also help you determine, to an extent, what your target segment really needs.

    For a home business owner not having a website is a little like Robinhood without his bow and arrow. But for a business to have a website without much traffic is like Robinhood with no one to shoot at! Still the idea is to not just have "everybody" clicking in to your website, but a chunk of the target audience who really need the product you are selling. It is better to have a sizeable number of focused potential customers clicking on your website than to have a whole lot of curious ones who just stumbled on. It is from the potential customers that your conversions will come. Finally, it is bet to use a combination of all the tactics listed above. Put a "tell a friend" button on the newsletters, or include your top keywords in the free content you give away. Think out of the box to use these tactics for traffic maximisation to your advantage.

    Also see:
    http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/22/22_1/poor-web-page-design-will.shtml
    http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol18/limitedbudget.htm
    http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol4/hardknock3.htm

    ==========================================

    Wanna Learn the Secret of Creating Passive Income Online
    From a man who made $3,244,842.32 from the Internet in Only 27
    months? => http://www.the1andonly.biz

    Presented by:
    Perfect Home Based Business Opportunities

    In The News:
    Erin Kuiper named General Manager of InBuckeye, the city's only hyperlocal news source
    Introducing "¡Skewed Up!" Your New National Online Humor NewZine
    Deep analysis of a quirky documentary "Prince of Eurasia: Monotheism and Devils" of the director and executive producer Prince Oak Oakleyski
    Ingrid Smith Home Alone on the Phone!
    "Jim Peters At Night" Does Its 100th Show

    • pen paper and inkwell


    cat break through


    Maximum Exposure: Ten Ways To Effectively Increase Your Sites Prominence On The Web

    It's a strange world, this place we call the internet.... Read More

    Seven Red Hot Tips for Linking

    1. Vary the keywords in your link 'anchor' textUnless you... Read More

    Website Visitors - Building Strong Website Traffic

    It is worth looking at some values and strengths of... Read More

    Driving Qualified Traffic Using Directories

    Some education is essential to enlighten you about this form... Read More

    Link Building That Makes Sense: Who To Link To

    When you are building links to increase your link popularity,... Read More

    The FREE Web Traffic Explosion Method

    Dear Friend,Many people like to listen to all the graphic... Read More

    5 Free Ways to Increase your Website Traffic

    I don't know about you, but when I first entered... Read More

    Free Tips To Increase The Number Of Visitors To Your Website

    If you are looking to increase the number of visitors... Read More

    How to Get Your Traffic to Take Off in a Hurry without Paying a Dime

    The desire of every webmaster and in fact anybody with... Read More

    7 Great Tips on Driving Targeted Traffic to Your Website

    We all need traffic. It's the life-blood of an online... Read More

    How to Drive a Stampede of Laser Targeted Traffic Using Postcards

    How would you like to make $4 for EVERY visitor... Read More

    Link Exchange: Good for Ranking and Internet Presence

    To improve our website ranking and internet presence we need... Read More

    A Simple Guide to Analyzing All Those Web Traffic Ideas - Part 4

    Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this topic outlined some... Read More

    12 Free Ways to Cause Traffic at Your Site

    There are many easy ways to get your name out... Read More

    How To Find Relevant Web Sites For Link Exchanges

    If you've been on the internet very long at all,... Read More

    Do You Need to Marry The Daughter?

    For the sake of this article let's forget about search... Read More

    More of What You Need to Know About Your Website Traffic is Contained in 3 Other Key Stats

    Their is an old Saying it goes something like this... Read More

    A Simple Guide to Analyzing All Those Web Traffic Ideas - Part 3

    Just to recap - Parts 1 and 2 of this... Read More

    Getting Free Viral Traffic Using Automated Visitor Referral Systems

    Would you like to get unlimited viral traffic to your... Read More

    Online Guru or Scam Artist: How Can You Tell?

    You want to start your own online business. You want... Read More

    Triple Your Traffic with Top Keyword Strategies

    Although the topic of keyword strategy and selection may appear... Read More

    Ethical Link Exchange, You be the Judge

    Webmasters understand that quality and relevant inbound links can increase... Read More

    Turn One-Time Hits Into Repeat Visitors

    Every website owner faces the same challenge: How to get... Read More

    5 Illustrious Strategies To Explode Your Web Site Traffic

    Are you spending hundreds of dollars on advertising campaigns, only... Read More

    Reciprocal Linking

    Reciprocal linking is considered by many people the most effective... Read More

    10 Ways To Have People Keep On Coming Back To Your Site

    1: Original and Fresh Content Present your visitors content they... Read More

    Power Packed Linking Strategies - Part One

    This is the first in a series of three articles... Read More

    3 Instant Traffic Techniques for Mini-Sites

    When building websites there are two main options: large content... Read More

    Reciprocal Linking - A Business Partnership!

    Link popularity is becoming the latest "in-thing" to get your... Read More

    Viral Marketing Technique Creates a Chain Reaction with One-Time Action!

    Suddenly your site's traffic multiplies. You get "Money Waiting" emails... Read More

    Top 10 Traffic Building Mistakes To Avoid

    When people look to submit their sites to the major... Read More

    Use eBay as Cheap Traffic!

    Did you know that according to alexa, www.eBay.com is ranked... Read More

    The Best Website Traffic Sources

    You have to search a lot to find what is... Read More