Have Site, Need Traffic

[Mr. Bill]

Greetings;

Can anyone refer me to a place that they have used that has helped to drive lots of laser targeted traffic to their site?

I am looking for first hand experience, not just a referal to a program, because you are an affiliate. I have lined too many pockets other than my own and wish to work with an outfit that actually delivers on the hype they produce in their advertising.

Can anyone help?

[homenotion]

Hello Mr. Bill,

I have found 'nothing' that will drive traffic to my site other than Pay per click search engines. I advertise on Google and Overture and research carefully gathering keywords and writing ads. I'm not perfect at it yet but getting there. The other thing is write articles and submit them to ezines. That's a great way to get notariety or develop an opt-in list, which always makes me grin as you can't get an opt-in list if no one is seeing your site! So my advice is start with Google or Overture.

Best of luck to you.
ELizabeth
www.pro-marketing-online.com

[rybo]

Mr Bill,

I would agree with Elizabeth, what's helped to drive traffic to our website is Google pay per click (not so much Overture and Espotting for us) and writing lots of Press releases and articles for ezines.

In addition, we have set up an affiliate program which is generating a lot of business for us.

The majority of our business is now coming from word of mouth/recommendation, but of course there is no way to control this.

Getting the website is only the start, after that it's serious time, energy and effort required to market it!

Sorry, that there's no secret remedy I can offer.

Good luck,

[gobuy]

Hi Bill,
I agree that the best traffic comes from Google and Overture.
There is a free way to get traffic to your web site but the traffic sometimes is poor. There called AutoSurf web sites. I have used them on my http://www.WallStreet.usand when I turn it off after using them the traffic does increase about 10 to 15%. Think of them as a banner ad so the web site needs to be easy to read, your domain name needs to be clear and easy to remember and the web site need to be fast down loading as many of the auto surf web site work on 15 to 30 seconds per web site view.

Henry

[jackson992]

Speaking of google did any aff marketers get hit like I did. I lost all my rankings on 5/6 sites. It's been a month now and still no signs of them coming back

[janeth]

Hi Mr. Bill,
We get traffic from
banner ads on forums,
from posting on forums,
from the free listings in the search engines,
press releases,
link exchanges,
articles we write,
sig exchanges in emails,
and a news letter.

The biggest of these being the free listings in the search engines. Each one is important and carries a little weight. I would never put all my marketing into one place.

[Linda Buquet]

Jack,

Being Goggle dependent has hurt lots of affiliates. That's why I think this thread is great. I think Mr. Bill is looking for a specific company that delivers results, but let's share any ideas we can about other ways to generate traffic.

Does anyone subscribe to the http://www.trafficology.com newsletter? It's jam packed with unique traffic generating ideas.

Janeth, thanks so much for sharing your ideas too. Ok let's keep this thread going. What else have any of you tried that works well???

[jackson992]

hi all:

Art.com just sent me a referral to something I'm trying. It is called Traffic Source. I don't know how effective it is but thought I would give it a try.

I also want to stress how great forums can be especially if they are topic related. Have an auto site? Join a forum that talks about cars and car parts and even let them know you carry such and such a part.

One last thing. Always, always, always have your sites listed in your email sig:)

[xmx]

Hello,

you mentioned already some of the best ways to drive traffic to a site.

Anyway I add the services that deliver traffic to your site selling you the so called full page popunder ads.

This mean that they generates a guaranteed amount of unique visitors, but they are no way deciding to see your site, so only a minority of them can be interested in your products or services.

If you want I provide you a couple of links so you can directly see what this promotional resource is:

http://www.hitzpro.com/
http://www.buyhitscheap.com/

There is also ezine advertising and regularly posting to safelists, but there are so many I don't dare to give you direct links.

[Karrina]

Hi Bill. I work for a company that does this as a service. Including continued tracking and consulting not just a one-time SEO. We back up what we do.

Karrina
kgregory@topfloortech.com

[rambodog]

We deal with a lot of websites - predominantly business. As you would expect they all generate traffic via:
1)quality search engines
2)PPC (Pay Per Click)
3)URLs listed in authored articles and Forum postings.

While PPC generates a lot of traffic we are paying as much as $20 per click on some competitive terms on Overture. Google Adwords have been much more affordable for the same terms. Understanding how to write the ad to attract appropriate click-throughs is vital. **In addition to Overture and Google Adwords we use Business.com and Capterra.**

However, traffic directly from search response (predominantly Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL) generate a lot of quality traffic.

Traffic, and increased search rankings, are developed with the publication of quality online articles that contain the particular sites listing.

With many of our PPC campaigns averaging $1,500 to $2,000/month the direct search/online article listings are vital for sites without that type of budget.

Without question the most important aspect of a site is having quality, relevant, machine readable text on the website pages that incorporates the keywords in a natural (organic) manner.

[golferboy]

There are a lot of different ways to drive targeted traffic to your site, some free and some not.

As far as pay-per-clicks, I agree that Google Adwords is fantastic! Overture has not been very good for me, nor FindWhat or Kanoodle.

There are at least five main things that you need to do to drive traffic to your site. I have just recently published a book called Niche Rich - The Perfect Business which covers the main five things you need to do plus a bunch more.

Depending on your product and your reputation, joint ventures are also a great way to go, providing you have your own product and not an affiliate for one.

The main thing is to be patient......it takes awhile to get listed in the search engines for the regular listings, and if you aren't on the first or second page, you are not going to get much traffic from them anyway so besides being patient I would have an advertising budget because if you don't advertise, nothing happens!

And, if you do it right, you can make a fortune!

Jim Longnecker
http://www.Niche-Rich.com
http://www.7713000.com Your eMarketPlace

[voodooboy]

I personally have not tried overture or google ads yet. But since Catalyst asked us to share things that we have tried I thought I would share this with you. I have recently decided to grow my local business. I started by going to overtures web site and using their keyword suggestion tool. I put in web design, then drilled down from there to get to Knoxville web design. (Which Knoxville is my local market) There are not a lot of searches for this search term, but it is pretty consistent month to month, so I decided to start there.

I then went to www.instantposition.com and used their SEO-Doctor tool (which is free for now) and did a test on my index page for Knoxville web design. I then took about 2 hours and optimized my index page to end up with a 27 out of 30 score for the “Knoxville web design” term and a 30 out of 30 for the term “web design”.

Once I got these scores, I resubmitted my site to some of the free search engine listings. I was already in Yahoo and Google (only found under my site name) so I left them alone.

After last weeks updates my rankings are now as follows for the search term “Knoxville web design” (with an average result listing of over 200,000):

AOL Search - #6

MSN - #10

Yahoo - #7

Google - #6 and #17

Alta Vista - #7

All the Web - #11

Now this is for a site that was not found under any search terms at all except for actually typing in the site name “Glacial Point” as the search term since the late 90’s. (I was not much into page rank back then…)

I am starting to believe that if you have a very specific target market, you can get good rankings without spending a lot of money (or any at all, in my case). Now if I was going for the most generic search term “web design”, then I would say that Google Adwords and Overture are your best bet, for high placement.

I hope this info helps somebody, as it did me.

Best of luck to all.

[lseeley]

Hi Mr. Bill,

I too am a search engine professional, and I want to reiterate what Janeth said: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. There are many SEO companies out there (ours included), which offer a variety of services. I'd look for one that offers several internet marketing options, and is willing to give you a consultation in advance to determine what would work best for your website/product. Internet marketing is definitely not "one size fits all", and someone who knows the marketplace can steer you away from a bad investment.

Although PPC (pay per click) is a guaranteed traffic provider, it can get very expensive. We always try to combine it with other options to see if we can get the price down a bit. If you can start to achieve solid rankings and traffic on free search engines, it's a much better ROI!

My main caution in terms of looking for someone to help you with internet marketing is to beware of that hype you mention. As in all things, promises that sound too good to be true probably are. We've "inherited" a lot of disillusioned clients from other companies, and it's distressing to me sometimes to hear what promises are made. Check the offer to make sure it's realistic, check the testimonials and case studies they offer, and check the guarantees, to make sure you aren't left empty-handed if things don't work out well.

Good luck!

[webiff]

Well the best way i can recommend you to drive large traffic to your website is through Banner Advetisment and Link Exchange with other websites. You may advertise on our website http://www.ApnaHyderabad.com/ which already contains large numbers of visitors from all around the world.

Reagrds,
ApnaHyderabad.com Team

[eko]

Hi all,

I will talk about my experiences on marketing as a site owner.
1)Adwords on Google was terrible resulted last year(or 2 years ago) and costed really much.The turn over was too little according to your spending.But this year I must accept that they suprised me.Adwords added really good functions to filter the clicks.Also by their new system, you are not always falling under the CTR.As everybody knows here I dont like Google very much but their improvements impressed me.
2)Overture was my favorite till my last campaign.Unfortunately, their Editor Team is a real disaster!I can not belive how a team can get this much lazy and careless in a year.
When you want to "modify your listing" this means when you want to change your keywords or description, you will have lots of problems.They have a "loading system" This is for users who must load their modified listing to Overture,this form can be in form of excel,text or .. BUT it s not possible to success.Catching their accessable type is more difficult than "writing a new OS"
If you request their Editors to modify your list by themself,their standart answer is "Sorry, you must do it by yourself" If so, why Im paying? If they wont help me, why IM paying 0.15 per click?
I explain this point by 5 emails,Overture customer service called me 2 times but they refused to help.

So,I cancelled my campaign and wanted my remaining money in my account but the caller woman told we can do modify in very short time for you.Yeah,she told we can do this.Then why you havent done up to now?
Ofcourse I didnt accept and wanted my money back.
Do you know what they told to me? They will send my remaining money but this can take 8 or 12 weeks!!! What is this? They are charging very quick but sending back in nearly 3 months.This is not fair!
I definetly wont advertise on Overture again,their stuff were more helpful and friendly last year but now,NO!

Im starting campaign on an affiliate in these days, this is a new experience for me.I will report the results and my feelings soon.Lets see.

I hope this will article gives you some ideas about advertising.Wish you all the best

[igor1]

I obtained a quite nice traffic to my website a few month ago.

www.ij.nQ.pl (Polish version)

However the most of this trafic was generated by teenagers seeking Java Virtual Machine to start an online chat.
The reason is simply: they typed "Java" into search box of WP search engine
(see "Wirtualna Polska" at : http://www.ij.nq.pl/english/engines.jsp ).

I am a programmer. JAVA is my area of interest. Thus the keyword is important.

As result I have added a short instruction: "how to download JAVA" (at the bottom of the front page).

Yes, indeed, my website still needs traffic ...

[hbonline]

Believe it or not I use Pop-unders, I have found it to be a quick and cheap way to increase traffic. It might not be the most targeted way, but you can regionalize your popunders. Since my site is pretty much a tourist destination, everyone is a potential visitor.

I am really after someone who will bookmark my site and check it out later. The way I look at it is if I can get 10,000 people bookmarking my site I will have repeat viewers.

I also created a surf-exchange ( http://www.surf-exchange.com )for local business which generates popunders. The more local members I get the more local traffic I get!! I think it works pretty well. Right now I get about 2,500 visits per day from my surf-exchange.

I am trying to get 200 local businesses signed up that way if they have 25 visits a day that is a potential of 5,000 popunders per day! And if those 200 sites get 100 visits per day that is potentially 20,000 Per Day!

I am talking PER DAY most sites are struggling just to get 100 visits per day.

Also with my advertising on my site, I generate way more than enough money to pay for my advertising, I now have a smooth running FREE traffic machine.

and yeah I know lots of people have popup blockers, but most don't and if you use DHTML or Flash they can't be blocked.

Since I rank high in the search engines I don't want to pay overture or google ads to pop-up twice ;)

Today in Alexa I rank: 38,209

using the keyword "huntington Beach" my site comes up:

• #1 in MSN
  #6 in Google
  #3 in Teoma
  #3 in Yahoo
  #3 in AOL Search

check out the site at: http://www.hbonline.com

later

Nick

[karkfump]

I am not an educated professional in this arena, but my business does depend on my ability to keep my website out there where my potential clients may find it, and thus I have spent thousands of hours working toward this goal. First, I will say that I do focus on a limited number of keyword phrases that I have constantly seen come up in my site stats, and the main three for my business are, "alaska hunts,Dall sheep hunts, and brown bear hunts." At this present time I am #1 and #2 on Google for "Dall sheep hunts," #3 and #5 on Yahoo, and #1 and #6 on MSN. My results are similiar for the other two search phrases, although "alaska hunts" has bounced erratically from, #8-20 on Google since the last update. I feel my position has been excellent, and during the month of March I had 1,731 unique visitors with 20,080 page views. This is a good amount of traffic for this type of business, and things continue to increase.

What do I use that works? The number one thing I focus on is plenty of relevant content. It simply can't be said enough. Many of my competitors have one to three pages with virtually no content and I have around 30-40 pages of substantial content. Not to mention that I have two other independent websites under my alaskahunts.net domain, and these two website total over 3,000 webpages (one is simply family history). I have recently added two new relevant domain names and connected such to my business site (the main site is www.alaskahunts.net, and the 2 new domains are www.brown-bear-hunts.com, and www.dall-sheep-hunts.com)and these sites have been readily indexed by Yahoo, Google and other search engines. I have started using Ad Words on Google, but I find it to be of limited value thus far, but I am not willing to spend a truckload of money per click, since I am getting satisfactory results with the techniques I am already using. I have recently paid to have a premium listing in one outdoor directory that has an Alaskan hunting forum that I frequent and post on routinely. Since it is allowed I do add my signature on that forum, and it includes links to my three main domains, and this drives relevant traffic to my site.

Another new tactic that I recently learned about on this forum is the use of rss feeds to provide relevant news about my business to those who are interested in such. My hosting service includes a blogging database, but I found blogger.com to be very adequate for me to get a blog up and running, actually two separate blogs, and Yahoo will index these atom (rss, or whatever this is) feeds if you add them to your content on My Yahoo. Now I am getting results from people finding my blogs in Yahoo, and other engines have picked them up as well, and the rss feeds are there for anyone that wants to subscribe to them.

I have decided that I will put money where it counts, and from what I can see, these places are usually well ranked directories, that I can pay for ads without having to use reciprocal links. This is what I am looking for, but the price has to be right. For instance, I advertise with a premium listing on http://www.outdoorsdirectory.com/dir...uthcentral.htm for $39 per year and they have a Google PR of 5 on that page, but other companies want $250 for an ad, and they will have a PR of 1, or 2. It isn't going to happen.

Personally I don't think there is a place that will drive the right customers to our websites in the fashion that we want, since there will always be a competitor wanting the same thing from the same company, but I do believe, that a dynamic website with constantly updated info and material will always rise to the occasion.

[Keimos]

Hi Mr Bill,

Just thought I would pru my twopenny worth in.

There have been many good suggestions in previous replies and the main theme that I agree with is that you need to distribute your marketing to a lot of different places.

i.e. Directories, Adwords etc.

There are main things to consider, mainly your budget. As a totally Internet driven business I have found that content and size of site are a couple of key factors in being found. The bigger the site with relevant content that is updated will maintain a fairly good ranking.

Get listed on as many free directories that are relevant to your main search terms, how would you or your customers be looking for you.

Keywords are critical as the wrong keywords used via ppc or adwords will produce limited results. Adwords work when you actually get the search term that the majority of your customers are looking for what you are offering.

As for pop-ups and banner-ads, I personally have both switched off when browsing as I find them to be a nuisance.

Our budget for adwords is $200 a day limited to the top keywords found in our stats. We have over 1100 keywords yet the phrase we started with is still tops. We have been regularly ranked in the top ten sice 1997 apart from the november google reconfig.(it will happen again next november, be warned. Happens every year)

As I digress, adwords was started to take into account ranking, whether with overture , google or any one else. We could be found whatever. We have never reached the £200 a day mark ever nor by month because our site is found not only through the index but through the other pages that are relative to what people are looking for. (Google, MSN, Alltheweb, aol,Yahoo etc.) They do not account for the most traffic, which comes from directories that are picked and chosen to ensure that they are relevant to our product.

Having given away most of the secrets that those touting for business were looking for good luck. Take all trhe advice mix it together and you will get there.

Time and effort are what wil get you there.

Oh and by the way, choose your affiliates well. Do not go for the affiliate, find the chief, that is where you will get the best deal.

Happy hunting.