Promote Your Site

Now that you've built your website, added content, and learned how to make some extra money with it, you're probably wondering how you're going to attract visitors.  What actions do you need to take to "drive traffic" to your site?

Let's explore the options.

Option 1 is to do nothing and hope people just stumble upon it somehow.  This would be like taping a business card to your front door, hoping people driving by will see it and stop.

Option 2 would be to put up flyers in your neighborhood, directing people to the site.  But you already know that would produce pathetic results.

Option 3…

…Okay, I'll stop being ridiculous now, and get down to the real stuff.  After all, there are tens of millions of people using the Internet every day. This is your chance to really fill up your "funnel" by using resources already on the Web.

First, let's go over the basics:

1. Your goal is to drive traffic to your site, preferably qualified traffic from your target market, preferably hundreds or thousands of visitors per day.
2. There are primarily three ways people surfing the Net can find you:

• Through "natural" (free) search engine (SE) listings;



• Through links from other websites which point to your site (aka back-links);



• Through ads.

NATURAL SEARCH ENGINE (SE) LISTINGS

Ideally, you want your site to be ranked high enough to win a spot on the first two Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for its keywords since hardly anyone ever bothers to look beyond that.

SE ranking depends on several factors:

1. The quality of the information in the site. A website that's mostly ads will not rank as high as one that is primarily educational.
2. The freshness of the information. If no new material is added to your site for several months, your rankings will slip.
3. The number of back-links to your site from other high-quality sites.
4. The popularity of your site with real people. This is gauged by the back-links and also by the number of visitors who actually spend more than a few seconds viewing your site.

If you've studied my previous Basic Training lessons, I'm going to assume that you're already in the process of adding lots of high-quality, useful information to your site.  This takes care of the first two factors above.

(You can get more specific information about making your website attractive to the Google-bots by going to http://www.google.com/webmasters .)

The fourth factor, popularity, will happen automatically if you take care of the first three.

So that leaves us to address the third factor – back-links. (From now on, let's call them inbound links.)

Why do the SEs put so much emphasis on links?

Search engines love high-quality, relevant information, but the spider-bots they send crawling through your website to index the content are, after all, just computers.  And as sophisticated as they are, they still can't tell good content from bad.

So the SEs watch how real people react to your site.  When another high-quality website posts a link to yours, it's considered a vote of approval. In other words, a real-live person liked your site enough to recommend it, and that's very important to the search engines.

Having inbound links from other websites will also bring you more visitors from those sites, as long as the information in your site is relevant. Obviously, if your site is about network marketing, and you persuade your brother-in-law to post a link for you on his plumbing website, it won't help you much. His visitors are looking to get their drains unstuck, not to build a business.

Okay, how do you get other high-quality sites to link to yours?  And remember, a "high-quality site" is one with lots of fresh information that real people find useful.

I'll tell you about my favorite method first.

ARTICLE MARKETING

This is also the favorite of many of the most successful online marketers.

1. Would you like to get FREE publicity for your website from all over the Internet? 
2. Would you like to have dozens of high-quality sites linking back to yours, driving up your ranking in the search engines?
3. At the same time, would you like to develop a reputation as someone who knows what you're talking about.
4. AND… would you like to develop a relationship with your target market in a big way – so that people who arrive at your landing page already view you as an expert?

If so… welcome to article marketing.

How does it work?

All over the Internet, publishers of ezines and newsletters, not to mention individual website owners, are looking for fresh content. Much of this content comes from folks like yourself who write articles on topics they know well and feel passionate about.

The deal is – you donate your article for free, and they publish it for free. You get publicity for your website, and they get fresh content. Everyone wins.

Here are some of the specifics:

1. The article itself should usually be between 500 and 1,000 words, and should be informative, not commercial. Publishers will not accept an article that's just a thinly disguised ad for a product or service.

2. Every time you write an article, you include what's called a "resource box" at the end. This is where you get to promote yourself and your website. The resource box contains a brief description of who you are and what you do, your URL (website address), and gives the reader a reason to click to your website. It's your little commercial message.

3. There are dozens of "article submission sites" out there that do nothing but post articles from authors and make them available to publishers and site owners for free. Article submission sites usually get good rankings from the SEs because they are information-rich and are constantly adding new material in the form of articles.  Posting articles to these sites means more inbound links to your website (because remember, your website address is listed in your resource box) and higher rankings in the search engines.

4. You can also submit your articles directly to ezines and newsletters. In the beginning, this will take a little digging on your part to find publications suitable to your topic.

5. An output of two to four articles per month is ideal. There are writers out there who throw together several per day, but their stuff looks… well, thrown together.  Quality is more important that quantity.

What if you feel you don't write well?

You're not alone. The good news is there are lots of resources on the Internet that can help you improve your writing skills. It's mostly a matter of practice and determination.

For minor errors like spelling and grammar, your word processing software can probably run a check for you.

You also want to remember that you're not writing for your high school English teacher anymore. No points are taken off for dangling participles or split infinitives.

Although your readers will appreciate your efforts to make your article as readable as possible, they mostly want to know what's in your head. Focus first on organizing your thoughts and getting them down in a logical and clear order.

What if you just plain hate writing?

Google the term "ghost writer."  For a relatively modest amount, you can hire a professional who will turn your ideas into a well-crafted and polished piece. Your name will be listed as the author and you will hold the copyright.

Is this cheating?

Not at all.  It's a very common practice both on and off the Internet. After all, you're not writing a term paper or entering a creative writing contest – this is not considered plagiarism.  You're just trying to get useful information out to the public. 

It would be impossible for me to cover every aspect of article marketing in this lesson – after all, people have written entire books about it.

An ebook that I've found terrifically helpful for aspiring article marketers is by Jim and Dallas Edwards, "Turn Words Into Traffic." (Read my review of it here.)

Jim and Dallas spend the first half of the book teaching you how to write an article – stepping you through the writing process, from brainstorming your topic… to outlining your ideas… to polishing the finished article. The second half of the book takes you through the ins and outs of the submission process. Jim and Dallas will teach you exactly how to format your article to please publishers and the most efficient way to deliver it to each site. 

However, this submission process can be quite time-consuming and tedious, so let me suggest an alternative.

Article Submission Services

If you don't want to spend several hours submitting your article every time you write one, I recommend hiring an article submission service.  The one I use is Submit Your Article.

With this service, I can spend just a few minutes uploading my article to their site and have it distributed to dozens of targeted websites and top-ranked article submission sites almost immediately.

They also provide tons of advice on writing your article, crafting an effective resource box, and basically showing you how to make your articles produce the results you're looking for. After all, if you're successful, they're successful.

TRADING LINKS

As your site becomes more popular, you might try contacting the owners of other sites in your niche to see if they would be willing to trade links with you. This means that you would each post a link to the other's website and agree to promote it with a short review.

In general, you'll have better luck getting another site owner to agree to this if your site is already getting a fair amount of traffic and if you offer to place their link on your site first. Also, let them know upfront how much you appreciate and admire their site. I believe this is called "schmoozing."

Obviously, you would not want to trade links with someone who is in direct competition with you.

REPEAT VISITORS

As you're brainstorming creative ways to get more traffic to your site, it's easy to overlook your most valuable free resource – repeat visitors. These are people who apparently like what you have to say and want more of it – exactly the type of people you're trying to attract.

How do you get them coming back?

This is where your opt-in list comes in. (Click here for a refresher on list-building.) By sending regular, informative emails to the people on your list, you'll be increasing the likelihood that they'll return for a visit.

Your future business associates will most likely come from this group as they begin to trust your advice more and more.

What sort of information do you send to the folks on your list to keep them in touch?

Stick with non-promotional, useful information at first. Just because they opted into your list is not your signal to start bombarding them with sales pitches.

Appropriate topics might include:

• Announcements of new material you've just added to your site and how this new information can benefit them;
• Short tips for improving their business or web-building skills;
• Entertaining short stories that make a point;
• Links to other relevant, useful websites.

The possibilities are endless. Just remember to give them what they're looking for – useful information that helps them solve problems.

So far, I've given you free strategies for promoting your site. Now we get to discuss paid advertising.

PLEASE NOTE: I recommend that you make sure your website is converting well before you start paying for advertising. "Converting well" means that a good percentage of visitors are taking the action you want them to take -- opting in to your list, purchasing something, clicking through to affiliate links, etc. If your site is not converting the way you want, tweak it until it does.

GOOGLE ADWORDS

Google Adwords are the little four-line ads, also called "sponsored links," that appear in a column on the right side of a Google search page. They are paid for, as opposed to the longer free listings on the left side of the page which we already talked about.

Dollar for dollar, Adwords may be the most effective PAID advertising method on the planet. They have the following advantages:

• You select which search terms you want your ads to appear with.
• People will see your ad at the precise moment when they are actively looking for a solution to a problem that your site can help them with.
• You only pay when someone actually clicks through to your website.
• If you do it right, advertising this way can produce a very good "return-on-investment" (ROI).

"Doing it right" is the key thing here.

A few years ago, my husband and I had a shopping mall website that doubled as a fundraiser for youth athletic teams. To promote it, I purchased some Google Adwords. I had no idea what I was doing, and consequently, I paid an arm and a leg and got no results whatsoever. I was very disgruntled and wrongly concluded that Adwords were just another way for Google to wring even more money out of their already successful search engine service.

If only I had known then what I know now.

Now I must confess -- trying to explain all the ins and outs and subtleties of Google Adwords is way beyond my personal abilities or the scope of this course. So I'm going to give you a brief overview and then a list of other resources you can consult for fine tuning.

Here are a few basics:

1. Naturally, you want to try to get your ad on the first of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Most search engine users never bother to look further than page two, if that far.

2. Advertisers "bid" on specific keywords. In order to get on the first page of your keyword's SERP, you need to outbid the other website owners. Or at least all but seven of the other owners. (There are eight ads per page.)

3. What you are bidding on are clicks. You only pay for your ad when someone clicks from it to your website. Therefore, it is referred to as "pay-per-click" advertising.

4. In general, clicks can be as low as 3 or 4 cents all the way up to several dollars. It all depends on how many other advertisers are bidding against you. The quality of your site also factors in. Google likes to reward relevant, content-rich sites with higher rankings for lower bids.

5. "Network marketing"-related keywords tend to be very competitive. "MLM" is even worse. At the present time, if you want a shot at being on the first page of any network marketing-related SERP, it will cost you at least $1.50 per click, which is pretty high.

6. Constant testing and tweaking are critically important in any Adwords campaign. Changing one word in an ad can sometimes double or triple the click-through rate.

7. Google will let you set a daily spending limit on your campaign. Nonetheless, be prepared to spend a few hundred dollars in click fees in the process of testing and tweaking for the first few weeks until you get it right.

8. What you're shooting for is to earn more with your marketing efforts than you're spending. That way, every time you invest a dollar into an Adwords campaign, you know you'll be getting even more back. You need to tightly track how much you're spending versus how much you're bringing in.

9. If your website doesn't "convert" well, in other words if visitors to your site don't end up filling out your subscription form or buying something or clicking through to an affiliate link, it doesn't matter how many clicks your Adwords ad gets. In this case, you need to pause your campaign and rethink your landing page. Especially if you're paying a buck and a half per click.

HERE'S SOME IMPORTANT ADVICE REGARDING ADWORDS: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO START A CAMPAIGN WITHOUT DOING SOME SERIOUS STUDY FIRST. You will lose your shirt.

As I said before, trying to teach you all there is to know about Adwords is outside the scope of this mini-course and beyond my personal capabilities at the present time. However, here are some exceptionally good resources which you can use to learn more, if you decide Adwords is the way you want to go.

The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords , an ebook by Perry Marshall is a must-read for anyone thinking about running an Adwords campaign. Perry writes in a very down-to-earth and easy-to-read style and uses lots of real-life examples to add interest.

Adwords for Dummies by Howie Jacobson. You can find this at any large bookstore or order it from Amazon.com. (I haven't read this one myself yet, but I've heard from very reliable sources that it's excellent.)

BANNER AND CLASSIFIED ADS

There are a kazillion sites on the Internet that accept banner ads and classifieds. Just like in the offline world, you'll pay more for popular sites with high traffic.

You'll need to give particular attention to your headline. In order to produce results, it will need to really grab the reader's attention. Keep in mind that the Web is already swamped with work-from-home and make-money-in-your-spare-time advertisements. So differentiating yourself can be challenging.

Is this type of advertising effective? You'll never know until you try it out and TRACK your results obsessively. This is one of those situations where you need to be prepared to spend a bundle before you get it right. For this reason, I would suggest that you wait to try this strategy until your site is making some money and you've had a little more experience with other forms of Internet marketing.

But if you run a paid ad campaign that gives you a good return on investment, write to me and tell me how you did it.

Lesson 7 will be about what to say when prospects actually start calling YOU. You've come this far, don't blow it now!

IN THE MEANTIME, HERE'S YOUR ACTION ASSIGNMENT:

Plan a promotional campaign using the free strategies discussed in this lesson. Start to implement them.