If you've got a website...that's good. Now you need traffic.
The model for success on the internet is:
Today we'll talk about how to get 'em to come. Because the other two steps are moot without the first.
I've been successfully marketing on the internet since 2000. I'm no guru of internet marketing, that's for sure. There's over a dozen items on my "Fix Your Internet Marketing" list that I've yet to address.
But I've done some things very well - and my internet sales attest to that fact. I do five figures a month, month-in and month-out.
I make more money offline, however. Not many of the marketers you see online can say the same. In fact, very, very few.
I love the internet for what it is - a marketing medium. It allows you to be up and running and profitable in days rather than weeks or months. It allows you to test, scientifically, with little additional expense or effort. And lots more. There's tons of benefits. I do love it.
But I don't love it like I love offline marketing. And I'll tell you now that if you put all your eggs into the online basket, they might just break on you.
Get everything you can out of the internet. But don't forsake all the other marketing strategies for getting more business, including the US mail. Snail mail is still the most powerful and effective marketing medium I know of for developing relationships, WOWing your clients and customers, and making buckets-o-cash.
But today I want to talk about the internet, so let's look at how to generate tons of traffic to your website - because without traffic, you're dead in the water.
Targeted Traffic Tactic #1:
The KING of targeted traffic generation tactics is, without a doubt, using Joint Ventures.
This is the most powerful promotion method that exists. But you need certain tools to do it.
The tools of the trade for this targeted traffic tactic are information products.
I'll explain.
Recently, I completed a coaching program with 18 fitness professionals called "5 In 5" short for Five Clients In Five Weeks.
One of the projects I had the participants do was create an information product. I had each of them write two articles about fitness and then we compiled all the articles into an e-book (digital book) that each participant could use as "bait" to get targeted traffic to trade their name and email address for access to the book.
That's great for capturing visitors' contact info once their already at the site, but how can this e-book be used to generate targeted traffic?
Well, Joint Ventures are the quickest and most productive way to do that.
Your first step should be to find potential JV partners willing to offer your valuable e-book free of charge to their subscribers (I'll address the details of how to do that in a moment) - or have your JV partner resell your info product for part of the profits. Focus on people who have their own big list of customers or subscribers to recommend your product to.
Just keep in mind that it's very difficult to JV with an online partner if all you're offering is a service. The trick is to create a nice little information product they can give away or sell to their subscribers. The 5 In 5'ers created a 100-page, power-packed info-product in two weeks by combining their efforts. Why can't you do the same? Do you know five or ten other fitness professionals who can provide valuable content? If not, spend a day in the library doing some basic research and you can have your own e-book created in a couple weeks, too.
A resource I highly recommend to you is INFO MILLIONS. Listen to what Craig has to say about it...
"Eric, Great product (and have only read the bonuses). More detailed testimonial to come as I finish all of it...It will pay for itself within hours."
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, M.Sc.
Get all the details on INFO MILLIONS here.
In the 5 IN 5 example, the e-book we created can be offered free or sold for a nominal amount. Offering it free will dramatically improve the quantity of "opt-in's" - but the quality will be suspect.
On the internet, that doesn't matter because your email follow-up marketing to these prospects is completely free. With the right mix of offers, you'll convert a percentage of these leads to buyers, so the larger your list, the more money you make. That's why everyone on the internet who wants to make money uses some form of free bait to capture contact info (that's the "get 'em to opt-in" part).
You see, there are many list owners out there who have invested tens of thousands of dollars and years of hard work to build the kind of trust they have with their list. And many don't realize what a powerful asset this is.
All it takes is 10 minutes - a quick endorsement email from them - to give you the same thing: complete access to their in-house list AND the trust of their readers. Think about that!
By making a deal where these people recommend your info product (either a freebie or a paid product) to their subscribers - you can tap into this relationship and pull in a large amount of subscriber or sales fast.
Now, with that said, you'll find many more JV partners if you have a paid product they can offer to their list. Why? Because they want to make money from the promotion, of course. They want a piece of the action. That's why they do what they do, after all.
But this tactic can still be made to work with freebies... as long as they're unique freebies offering real value to the reader.
In fact, you don't even need a "product" per-se. You can take advantage of this tactic using articles you've written. More on that below. Just keep in mind that an info product like an e-book has a much higher perceived value and will generate more requests (opt-ins) than an article.
And a paid product is even better - at least in terms of securing the joint venture - because the website owners you approach for JV deals are motivated by profit.
Basically, there are three types of people you should approach as potential JV partners:
3-4 good JVs could net you thousands of new subscribers and/or hundreds of sales within months. The *secret* is providing valuable, different, tightly-focused information that matches the desires of the market.
Read that last paragraph again - because it contains the most important information in this entire report.
If you do nothing but create great little information products that solve problems and link up with established sites who can get your information into the hands of their subscribers - you will succeed...possibly on a grand scale.
Simply dedicate yourself to contacting 5-10 potential partners every week with a personalized JV proposal letter. If you do this, you'll soon have all the subscribers and sales you need.
Most marketers miss out on huge chunks of available profits by not doing enough joint ventures.
It's the easiest way to leverage resources you wouldn't otherwise have. But it will never work for you if you're afraid of approaching (emailing) potential JV partners. No person is an island unto themselves. If you want to grow your online or offline business fast - Joint Ventures are your ticket to the races.
Because JVs give you LEVERAGE.
Always be looking for ways to leverage your time, effort and money. JVs are one of the most powerful forms of leverage there is.
7 Tips For Building Joint Ventures Fast - And Making Them Last
I do JVs every day. Right now I've got nine different joint ventures in the works. Some are BIG winners and some are so-so. You'll never get the big winners if you don't get started. What I'll share with here is not theory - this is hard-won knowledge from my own experiences.
Tip 1: Build Relationships
Approach every potential opportunity from the perspective of what you can do for your JV partner. If you can't clearly articulate "what's in it for him or her" you've got no chance of landing the deal.
When your positioning is Give To Get - everything else will fall into place.
Be sincere. Be courteous. Be honest.
Trust begets trust.
Don't look at your potential partner as just someone you can use to help yourself, build the contact with sincerity and friendliness.
This way you can build a relationship to last a lifetime, as opposed to a one-time partnership.
Tip 2: Keep The Big Picture In Mind
You've got to think long term.
You can joint venture continuously whenever each one has a beneficial product or promotion. The secret is to create joint ventures for life, not just one off.
Tip 3: Tip 3: Don't Quit
Chances are the first couple (or dozen) potential partners you approach will not even respond to your email letter. Here's why: YOU HAVEN'T DUG DEEP ENOUGH.
Everyone would LOOOVVVEEEE a JV with e-Diets or Dr. Phil or South Beach or any of the other major players out there, but chances of you landing it are slim to none.
Dig deep. There's thousands (probably more like tens of thousands) of websites servicing your ideal clients. Your goal is to find the smaller ones - sites with 1,000 to 20,000 people on their list.
In fact, your absolute best bet is to find niched sites (i.e. weight loss for watch makers, fitness for farmers, exercise for electricians, etc.). There's niched sites out there for everything you can imagine. And these smaller sites will be much more open to your JV proposal than will the big boys.
Once you've got a couple JV's under your belt, then you're better prepared to really spread your wings and go after the major players. That's not to say you shouldn't go after the big sites right from the start - just be realistic about your expectations.
And don't quit.
This form of marketing is way too powerful to give up on. Two or three JVs will change everything for you. You can go from having 200 people on your list and $0 cash-flow to having 2,000 on your list and $300 a week in profits in a couple week's time.
Tip 4: There's Opportunity Everywhere On The Internet
You don't need to find sites that just cater to weight loss, fitness or exercise.
What about these (potentially) hot ebook ideas:
A quick Google search revealed:
Have you ever investigated Yahoo Groups? http://groups.yahoo.com/
Tip 5: Clearly Communicate Your Pitch
When you're approaching potential joint venture partners, it's very important that you're clear about your intentions and avoid hype.
Tell them the basic proposal and what they can gain, and leave out the big details unless they request more information.
The phrase "Short, Sweet And Simple" couldn't be more relevant here.
Tip 6: Differentiate Yourself
In order to get profitable joint ventures set up, you need to be different.
This is especially true if you were to approach the big names. They get tons of joint venture proposals daily, and what's to make them accept yours?
Be different. Give them something others are not offering.
The more specialized and tightly matched your offer is to their target market, the more different and appealing it will be.
Tip 7: Be Irresistible And Be Responsive
A good example is to create a simple product tightly matched to their niche market (like the bowling ebook) and allow them to sell it for $14.95 and keep 70%, 80%, 90% or even 100% of the profit. That's being irresistible.
The short-term profit pales in comparison to the long-term benefit of acquiring possibly hundreds or even thousands of new names and email addresses of BUYERS who now own a product you've created and therefore know you, like you and trust you.
Treat them like the customer. Create irresistible deals to get the joint venture going. Provide a host of benefits and be responsive. Every one enjoys being treated well, especially valued joint venture partners.
Targeted Traffic Tactic #2:
Get Your Articles Published Online
Write a few good articles and submit them for publication in related newsletters. There are many publications out there with 1,000 to 100,000 subscribers, all looking for good information.
Unlike a newspaper or magazine article, when you get published on the internet, the article could stay "up" for months or years. I've got nine articles published on other's websites that have been online for over one year. And I'm totally slacking on this. I should have 90 articles published by now.
Each article contains my contact information and a direct link to my website. I get targeted traffic every single day from these articles.
The process involves 3 simple steps:
As soon as your article is published in a few large newsletters around the world, you can start getting thousands of targeted visitors to your site. It also brands you as an industry expert.
And this is extremely targeted traffic. Conversion to sales from this traffic can be very high. It is for me.
Targeted Traffic Tactic #3:
Use Paid Advertising
I bought an ad early in 2003 in Personal Fitness Professional's ezine (email newsletter) that cost me $250. It brought in 260 leads in two hours and 639 total leads in ten days. That's a lead cost of 40 cents each! I've since sold over $30,000 to those leads. That's a return on investment of 120:1 - for every marketing dollar I invested, I earned a return of $120. That is HUGE.
I'm also proud to say that I set the record with Personal Fitness Professional for most "click-throughs" from any advertising they've ever run.
The sales rep called me two hours after the ezine went out and said, "uh...are you seeing this?" And I giddily responded, "Yeah baby...yeah!"
I was "seeing"it happen because everytime someone opted in, my website would send me an email saying "new subscriber."
It's pretty exciting.
Paid advertising is an effective way to "buy"subscribers (then convert them to customers), and do it fast.
Three things to test:
It may not sound exciting, but think about what it really means... It means you can easily and automatically double your investment whenever you want.
Invest $1,000 and get $2,000 back. Invest $10,000 and get $20,000 back.
When you have a good idea of your average conversion rate, you know approximately how much money you can spend to "buy" one customer. And as long as you track your results, you know exactly which ads are paying off for you.
The process is scalable, and all you need to do is consistently reinvest 50% of your profits in new ads. Pyramid your profits.
Targeted Traffic Tactic #4:
WebSite Optimization For Search Engines
You need to be investing time getting your website optimized so the search engines give you a good ranking. There's TONS of traffic - targeted traffic - to be had if your site appears in the first one or two pages of results for your keywords.
Here's how to do it:
First, determine which keywords are best for your industry or the traffic you are looking to generate.
Keywords are the terms your prospects will type into a search field when they are looking for information. So consider the words and phrases they might use to describe your product or service.
Here are some additional tips for selecting keywords:
* Include plurals of your keywords, but avoid excessive repetition (i.e. personal trainer and personal trainers).
* Don't use only obvious keywords. Include phrases that may get fewer searches but more targeted results.
* Don't let your combined keywords exceed 1,000 characters. The fewer the keywords, the greater impact they will have.
Need help coming up with a list of good keywords? There are tools that can help. Good Keywords, for example, is one of the most widely used and respected keyword-targeting applications on the Web. It runs directly on your PC and can be downloaded for free from www.goodkeywords.com
Next, based on the keywords you've targeted, create "meta tags" on every page of your website.
Before you create your own meta tags, it's a good idea to take a look at those of your competitors. You can easily do this on any website you visit. Go to your competitor's website, then from your browser's tool bar, simply choose the "View" menu. Click on "Source" and a window will open with HTML text that you can study.
The most important meta tags are found near the top of the page between codes like this: < head > and < /head >. If you are creating your own website, depending on which software you use, all you have to do to add meta tags is type the words you've chosen in the appropriate places.
The key meta tags for marketing purposes are Title, Description, and Keywords. These tags control what surfers see when your site is listed in the search engines, which means they will help people decide whether to visit your site.
"Title" is what your visitors see at the top of their browser windows when they are visiting your site, as well as what they will see in their bookmark lists. So make sure each page has a Title that makes sense to visitors, not just to you. Be descriptive; failure to put strategic keywords in the page Title is often why Web pages are poorly ranked.
When your website comes up in search-engine findings, the meta tag identified as the "Description" is often the opening statement people will use to decide whether to access the link. The Description should concisely answer the question "What benefits do you offer the prospect?"
Your Keywords should not only be in your meta tags, they should also be included in the first 25-50 words of each page.
You can use Good Keywords as a meta tag creation tool. Keep adding the keywords you need into the Keyword Pad available within the software. Once you are done, a simple click will get you the required keyword meta tag, ready to be pasted into your HTML file. Now your website is "primed" for optimum search-engine placement.
If you aren't comfortable with HTML editing, you can visit Elance.com and place a bid for assistance from various U.S. and offshore agencies. Meta-tag placement for a 4- to 5-page website generally can be completed for under $100 if you place a bid request that is specific for such work.
NOTE: I had an elance provider build my site SixFigurePersonalTrainer for $200. That site has made me a respectable amount of money in the past year - and I do almost nothing to promote it. I had it nicely optimized for the search engines and submitted it to all of them one time. If I got off my butt and did something with that site, it could be a substantial money machine. You can do the same. Take a look at elance - their service providers are good - I've had zero problems - and they let you focus on the important stuff (marketing) while they do the busy work for you.
Get your website listed in all top search engines.
There's a raging debate over whether it's better to allow the search engines to "spider" your site on their own or whether to use a paid service to submit your site to the major engines.
I've done both. My results to date are somewhat inconclusive because, frankly, I don't spend nearly enough time on search engine placement as I should. All I can tell you for certain is that allowing the engines to spider your site "probably" gives you better placement in the long run (again, not 100% on this), but it takes longer (sometimes up to three months).
When you invest in paid submission on the other hand, you get listed within days. Just make sure you've done a good job with your keywords and meta tags before submitting (although they do allow you to adjust these as you move forward).
The service I use for all my sites other than this one (I'll explain why I don't use a submission service for this site in just a minute) is wpromote.com which offers a very competitive pricing structure. The service guarantees express submission to all three of the world's most powerful search indexes. As a result, your site gets the quickest possible submission to Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, Ask Jeeves, HotBot, Excite, Lycos, About.com, DogPile, InfoSpace, WebCrawler, AllTheWeb, Overture, Teoma, Metacrawler, and other top search engines.
This will have you listed and indexed in these engines within 48 hours, and submission is complete and guaranteed in all of the above engines in just seven days. Additionally, your site will be re-visited and re-indexed every 48 hours to ensure that all of the engines have the most recent possible version of your site in their indexes. It's pretty sweet - and fast.
My main site, www.HowToSellFitness.com, is submitted automatically to all the search engines as part of the service Site Build It! provides - so I dont' have to sweat those details. It's pretty well ranked right now, but could be better. That's my fault. Usually, I'm in such a hurry to slap up another page that I don't spend the time to optimize the page correctly with my specific keywords and then work those keywords into my copy.
If I was better at following the comprehensive SiteBuildIt Action Plan (which, by the way, is far and away the best "how to" guide I've ever seen on being successful on the internet), I'd have better rankings. But right now, they're nothing to sneeze at.
If you want the most superior website building and marketing system available on the internet (I know this for a fact - I've searched high and low), then take a look at Site Build It!
Targeted Traffic Tactic #5
Linking Strategy
This is what I'm currently devoting a lot of time to. Getting relevant links (the key word here is "relevant") can bump your search engine rankings substantially.
There are two types of links:
First, here are some tools you’ll find useful…
* Link popularity check
Websites which allow you to check both your own site’s and your competitors’ link popularities…
http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop
http://www.linkpopularity.com
http://www.linkpopularitycheck.com
http://www.checkyourlinkpopularity.com
* To source for good link partners
- Alexa Toolbar
www.Alexa.com ranks websites according to how much traffic they're getting. It’s a nifty tool for instantly determining if a specific website will be a good link partner, based on it’s traffic ranking.
- Google Toolbar
Two useful aspects of the Google toolbar are PageRank: See Google's ranking of the current page - and Page Info: Access more information about a page including similar pages, pages that link back to that page, as well as a cached snapshot. This is a tool you really must have if you're serious about internet marketing. It's free to use from their site or to download to your browser.
- Zeus Collective
Zeus Collective searches reciprocal link partners for you from a web-based interface (no software to download). The best part about it is you can search by Keywords, for a theme that is relevant to your business.www.zeuscollective.com
- Zeus Reciprocal Linking Robot
This software builds your link directory and finds reciprocal links for you. It comes highly recommended throughout the internet marketing world, but I’ve not used it personally, so I can't advocate for or against. I will be checking it out more thoroughly going forward. www.cyber-robotics.com
Why are Links so darn important??
Here’s something to think about – Your links will determine your search engine ranking in a large way. This is due to major changes that have taken place in regard to how a web site is ranked in the Search Engines.
There is a new ranking system that is now being used by Alta Vista, Excite, Google, Lycos and the search portion of Yahoo. This new system will track and rank sites according to the number of links pointing to a particular web site.
Not only is the number of links considered, but the quality, relevance and weightage of the links are considered as well.
Establishing quality links to a web site has not only been an effective way to build traffic, but now has become a necessity.
And indexing by ‘found pages’ is highly preferred. To look at it simply, by obtaining just a few links from high-traffic web sites your traffic will increase considerably.
The more high-traffic links you receive, the more traffic you will receive and the higher your web site will be ranked in the Search Engines.
Upwards of 80% of ALL web site traffic originates from the Search Engines. It is well worth your time and effort to spend some time developing as many links to your web site as possible.
Not only will these links bring you additional traffic, but you'll increase your ranking at the Search Engines as well.
How To Recruit Potential Link Partners
Seeking relevant and targeted websites to become link partners is simply a matter of looking. Write them a nice short letter regarding your link exchange request.
If you can, offer an Incentive like a free ebook or links to some of your best articles. This is a good way to establish your credibility immediately.
Here’s a sample of a basic e-mail you can use for link exchange request…
====START====
Dear [Name],
My name is [Your Full Name] from [Your Website's Name]
I’ve just visited your web site, [Web Site Name Here] and found some great information regarding [Insert Subject Here].
I thought you might be interested to know that I have a web site dedicated to [Your Site Details].
This kind of information would be a relevant addition to your resource center, and will help enhance your positionings in the major search engines.
I’ve taken the initiative of placing your link on my web page at [give the URL of the link]
I'm hoping that you might consider linking to my site as well and invite you to review our site at your convenience. If you determine that a link to our site is appropriate, please add it at your your discretion, or might we suggest the following link and description:
[Your site name and URL] - [Your site description - keep it brief, focused and not too much hype]
If you'd like to discuss this further, please feel free to contact us at [Your contact details].
Thanks!
[Full official signature lines here]
===END===
Keep this little chestnut in mind when developing your linking strategy: quality is much more important than quantity. Relevance is very, *very* important. I've heard horror stories of sites dropping off the search engine rankings in days because they *spammed* their links. By that I mean they got links from anyone and everyone with no relevance whatsoever to the content on their site. Your goal should be to develop as many high quality links from relevant sites as possible.
Targeted Traffic Tactic #6:
Free Publicity
It's quite possible to get tens of thousands of dollars worth of free publicity for your business online and offline.
Some people use no other form of advertising to sell their products or services, and still manage to bring in thousands of sales through free publicity - at no cost to them. If you're interested in doing media interviews, this is powerful.
Simply write a provocative press release and submit it to the right media contacts. If your story gets picked up, the coverage can make your name known instantly.
If you've got a tips booklet or special report you offer from your website, free publicity can result in hundreds or thousands of new opt-ins.
A great resource for you to check out is: http://www.imediafax.com/
Some of my customers have used Imediafax very successfully. Here's what Bill Hartman has to say about it:
"It allowed me to target a lot of golf related publications. I got my news release faxed to 360 different media for $50. Less than 24 hours after the release went out, I got a call from a writer from Golf World Magainze and ended up doing a phone interview right then and there! Next day I got an email from a writer at Golf Week Week Magazine requesting an interview. I just completed the 45-minute interview today for an article highlighting yours truly due to come out the week before the Masters Tournament!"
Targeted Traffic Tactic #7:
Viral Marketing
You can get your sales message spreading like a virus all over the Internet, but only if you do it right.
Usually the idea is to create a valuable free service/special report/email course that's designed to spread your advertising message automatically - and encourage people to pass it on. Selling low cost products that contain links to your other offers is also a powerful viral marketing technique.
You set it up once, and then you let a few major players announce it to their lists in order to get the effect started - that's the key to making it work. If you can find a good viral marketing angle for your market, go for it.
My little ebook, 101 Personal Trainer Publicity Secrets, is a viral marketing tool. On the second page of this book I tell the reader - encourage the reader - to pass it along to all of his or her contacts in the fitness world. I don't have a scientific way of tracking it's effectiveness as a viral tool (actually, I do, but I didn't use it - I could have placed a trackable subscribe link generated from my shopping cart right in the ebook and I'd know exactly how many new subscribers came from this viral source - but that's just one of the dozen things to do I haven't yet gotten to).
By the way, Shopping Cart has revolutionized my online business. It's simply the greatest online marketing tool I've ever seen or used. It's not cheap, but then again, very few things worthwhile are. If you're doing $300 or more per month online, or plan to, you need a killer shopping cart.
Here's the key to getting massive results from your efforts:
I know some people will be disappointed because I'm not giving you hundreds of revolutionizing "magic" traffic building tricks here.
I have a very good reason for not doing so:
The "tricks" don't work very well. And they are certainly not worth your efforts. My job is to help you get real, tangible results, not give you a hundred useless things to keep track of every day.
The key when trying to attract massive traffic to your site is to keep it simple, focus completely on a few proven strategies that WORK, and then keep using them for all they are worth. That's all there is to it.
Don't waste your time trying a new promotion technique every week. Stick to the basics.
I know some people will tell you that you constantly need to keep searching for new traffic generation tricks, but that is simply not the way to go if you want fast results. It is, however, a good way to waste your time, efforts and money.
Key Point: All seven of these tactics are important, so I encourage you to use them all. But I've given them to you here in the order of importance. So if you're pressed for time (who isn't?), then start with tactic #1, get the JVs rolling, then move to tactic #2, and so on.
If you stick to these methods, you'll get all the traffic you want. Just do it!
By the way, if you have not yet built a website, or are looking to add another, go here here to find out what I recommend.
A Resource To Consider - It's FREE:
As I mentioned earlier, there's lots of "gurus" out there who will offer to teach you stuff about internet marketing. Some have crap, some have good stuff and some have really good stuff. But what I like is GREAT stuff. And I want to be sure I'm learning from someone who's actually "been there - done that." So there's only one significant resource I'll recommend to you (and it's free for 30 days) because it includes DOCUMENTED results from the people who are in the trenches.
On Cory Rudl's site, Secrets To Their Success, he interviews highly successful businesspeople who are right now making a killing on the internet. You can join the site absolutely free of charge for one month by going here:
Secrets To Their Success - Free for 30 days
© Copyright 2007 Eric Ruth.
All Rights Reserved.