Day 2: Article Marketing and Forum Marketing

You’ve probably heard about Article Marketing and Forum Marketing. In fact, you may even be sick of hearing about it. But are you doing it? The reason that you hear so much about these two marketing techniques is that they work!

Yes, article marketing and forum marketing builds traffic slowly. There are faster ways to get traffic. But, when you build traffic using these methods as well, you are also building your credibility. You are drawing responsive people to your site, and if your site is doing its job as well, and you get those people on your list, you can draw them back time and time again.

Note: If you are not collecting email addresses at your website, the traffic that you bring there is essentially wasted. By building an opt-in list, you can bring traffic back to your site over and over again, and this is essential to online businesses. Email addresses and first names should be collected with an opt-in page, or with subscribe boxes located on every single page of your website!

Now, let’s start generating some traffic with articles. The concept is that you write an article, which should be anywhere from 350 to 750 words in length. You include an author’s resource box at the bottom of your article, and your website link is included in that resource box. You submit the article to article directories and ezine publishers.

If you can’t write, you can get article written for less than $10 each by a ghostwriter. If you don’t have the time it takes to submit articles, you can hire a service to do that for you as well. It is essential that you do article marketing, because it is viral. Your articles will be used on other people’s websites, blogs, and in their ezines - spreading the word about your site.

Forum marketing is also important. To do forum marketing, you find good, well populated forums that relate to your niche. You simply participate in those forums, and include a signature file at the bottom of all of your posts, that lead people to your website. Forum marketing does not take much time at all, once you’ve found the forums that you want to participate in.

Again, these are slow, but effective (and free) ways to generate traffic. But no matter how slow they are, they are essential to your overall online business because of the virility of these techniques, and the credibility that it gives you.

Homework Assignment: Write and submit one article, each week. Participate in your niche forums on a daily basis, posting one message in each forum per day, using a signature file that brings people to your website.

Thanks to Big Ben Patton for another great post in this series. Look for the other 3 in the coming days.

Day 1: Introduction to Traffic Generation

Welcome to the first installment of the five part series Traffic Generation Course. Today, I want to discuss the various things that you need to check to ensure that your site is ready to receive traffic.

Think of this: If you were expecting company at your home, there are certain things you might do in advance. You would make sure your home was clean, that there was fresh soap and clean hand towels in the bathroom, and you might prepare some snacks, or even an entire meal.

Preparing your website follows the same concept. You want to make sure that things are neat and tidy. Make sure that your navigation follows a logical sequence. Make sure that you have plenty of good content, and that everything is spelled correctly.

You also want your visitors to be able to participate in your site - to take action. Look at each page, and determine what type of action your visitors can take. Do you have a forum or blog? Do you conduct polls or surveys? Do you have a subscribe box for your opt-in list on every page of your site? Make absolutely sure that your website is ready for company! Also make sure that your pages lead your visitors to take the action that you want them to take, no matter what that action may be.

That is the first and most essential step of traffic generation. If your site isn’t pleasing and welcoming, any traffic generation activities you do from this point on are wasted! Take the time, and put forth the effort to make your site as good as possible - and learn to look at it from your visitor’s point of view!

After you do this, make sure that you are using all of the best known Search Engine Optimization techniques, such as making sure that you have clean HTML code, that you’ve used your keyword effectively, that you have keyword rich text links and alt tags, and that the title of your website, in your HTML code, has your main keyword or phrase as well. Take some time to explore SEO techniques, so that you can draw natural search traffic as well.

Once your website is ready for company, you are ready to start inviting that company. You do not need any special tools for traffic generation. What you need is your computer, an Internet connection, your mind, a willingness to do the work, and knowledge. That’s all it takes.

Homework Assignment: Make absolutely sure that your website is ready to receive traffic. Do you have an opt-in page? Do you have a subscribe box on every page of your site? Look at each page, and determine whether there is enough content, and if there is an action for your visitors to take on each page. Make sure that your site is optimized for the search engines.

Everyone stumbles across a blog like Problogger or John Chow, and it seems as if they almost fall into a love affair with blogging as a new way of life. While it’s true that blogging is a new way of life, odds are, it’s not the way out for you.

Conservative estimates show that 200,000 new blogs are started daily on every topic from Gardening, to Hot Rods. Less than 1% of these blogs ever make more than a part time income using blogging as a vehicle. I’m not trying to be a buzzkill here, but it’s the truth… you’ll have to learn to cope. So if blogging isn’t a vehicle to financial freedom, what is? Well, in short, blogging of course!

Before you click off the page scratching your head and wondering what message I’m trying to convey, here it is… blogging isn’t going to make you rich (probably). There are a few exceptions to the rule, but generally there is only enough space at the top for people that were pioneers in the niche they blogged about. Or at least lucky enough to garner some real world or cyber attention that got them where they are today. So, what I’m trying to say is this… blogging isn’t an income vehicle, but it is a vehicle to obtain income if you use it in the right way.

You should try to make as much money as you can from your blog, but always keep in mind that you should be using your blog as a springboard for bigger and better things. Bryan from OneMansGoal.Com made a hefty sum of cash monthly from his blog, but he didn’t reach a “great” income until he used his newfound fame to generate contacts, form partnerships, and obtain knowledge about other ways to make money online. I’m not saying you won’t make money blogging, but too many of the bloggers I see are closed-minded and they pass up money-making opportunities every day. Focus on your blog, but don’t lose sight of the world and the opportunities that are presented to you every single day. As one of my favorite bloggers once said “There’s always gold in your inbox, you just have to mine it correctly”.

So in closing, build your blog, but don’t let it hinder your chance for long-term success. Over the next few days, we’re gonna discuss ways that will make your blog far more valuable than just an income creation tool. We’ll discuss ways to use your blog as an outlet that might draw others to you, and in turn, provide you with that “way out”.

Check back!!!

This is a guest post by Ben Patton who blogs about internet marketing and blogging, he’s a great guy who has a unique site, check it out!

Welcome to the first installment of the five part series Traffic Generation Course. Today, I want to discuss the various things that you need to check to ensure that your site is ready to receive traffic.

Think of this: If you were expecting company at your home, there are certain things you might do in advance. You would make sure your home was clean, that there was fresh soap and clean hand towels in the bathroom, and you might prepare some snacks, or even an entire meal.

Preparing your website follows the same concept. You want to make sure that things are neat and tidy. Make sure that your navigation follows a logical sequence. Make sure that you have plenty of good content, and that everything is spelled correctly.

You also want your visitors to be able to participate in your site – to take action. Look at each page, and determine what type of action your visitors can take. Do you have a forum or blog? Do you conduct polls or surveys? Do you have a subscribe box for your opt-in list on every page of your site? Make absolutely sure that your website is ready for company! Also make sure that your pages lead your visitors to take the action that you want them to take, no matter what that action may be.

That is the first and most essential step of traffic generation. If your site isn’t pleasing and welcoming, any traffic generation activities you do from this point on are wasted! Take the time, and put forth the effort to make your site as good as possible – and learn to look at it from your visitor’s point of view!

After you do this, make sure that you are using all of the best known Search Engine Optimization techniques, such as making sure that you have clean HTML code, that you’ve used your keyword effectively, that you have keyword rich text links and alt tags, and that the title of your website, in your HTML code, has your main keyword or phrase as well. Take some time to explore SEO techniques, so that you can draw natural search traffic as well.

Once your website is ready for company, you are ready to start inviting that company. You do not need any special tools for traffic generation. What you need is your computer, an Internet connection, your mind, a willingness to do the work, and knowledge. That’s all it takes.

Homework Assignment: Make absolutely sure that your website is ready to receive traffic. Do you have an opt-in page? Do you have a subscribe box on every page of your site? Look at each page, and determine whether there is enough content, and if there is an action for your visitors to take on each
page. Make sure that your site is optimized for the search engines.

It’s been a few days since I launched the contest and things seem to be going quite well. There has been a lot of interest and contest entries. You’re probably wondering why there was a lack of posts and I’m sorry for that I’ve had so much happening the past few days! I’m going to see what I can come up with for more entries in the next few days so make sure you subscribe to check it out.

Guest Posting
**Edit** - Let me make this a bit more interesting, each guest post you write gains you 5 more entries in to the contest.

With my new contest started up I think it’s a great opportunity for you to gain yourself some traffic by writing an article that is helpful to my readers. It can be of any length as long as it’s related to social media, blogging and anything else that you and others find useful! I’m sure you can come up with something quick and submit it via this form.

My RSS numbers are shooting up so it’s your chance to expose your website!

[CONTACT-FORM]

It’s there for you to write! Please include any HTML you wish to add etc, etc.