5 Tips for Banner Ads that Work

If you’re looking for ways to optimize your website, think about banner ads. They’ve been around for over 10 years, but they have changed a lot during that time.  Using banner ads to help increase traffic to your website can be a very good and cost-effective strategy when combined with other traffic generating ideas.

Banner ads are a good way to Read more

10 Ways to Effectively Generate Traffic

It seems like everyone is trying to find new ways to attract traffic to their websites. But there are some often overlooked simple strategies that should be deployed before looking at more complex and paid ways to attract traffic.

Take a look at some of these tips to help you draw a crowd:

1. Be sure to update your content consistently and often, and then use a service such as www.pingomatic.com to notify the search engines of your fresh new content. You can also use Ping-O-Matic or WordPress to ping your customers when new content is updated.
2. Go international – check out the resources to translate your website into other languages and see if it works for you. Search for translation services and you’ll find there are a lot of them. Google can do this for you for free and there are more extensive ways of doing this that are free and paid. Check out Google’s translation tool at http://translate.google.com/translate_t#.
3. Participate in a newsgroup and get your name exposed to a broader audience. You’ll soon be recognized as an expert in your field and the traffic will flow to your website.
4. Visit authority sites on relevant topics and see what they have to say. Leave comments. Build a relationship with authority site owners and see if you can encourage them to link back to your site.
5. Don’t forget to take advantage of the social bookmarking sites like Digg and del.icio.us. These are great places to engage people in discussion and expose them to your website.
6. Don’t forget Squidoo lenses! Check out the article on our site about Squidoo and use this resource to expand your marketing reach.
7. Participate in the ‘answers websites’ such as www.answers.yahoo.com or www.stumbleupon.com/tag/answers/ and demonstrate your expertise while promoting your business. Be sure to leave your URL with your post.
8. Make sure you have an RSS feed button on your site where it is easily accessible and often used! Submit your RSS feed to RSS Feed directories.
9. Although it may be obvious, it’s worth stating again – optimize your titles with keywords and use words that attract attention. Research what people are searching for and include it in your title.
10. Don’t forget the value of creating long-lasting relationships with loyal customers. Those customers are a great way to increase traffic because they’ll tell others about your site.

Many of these things are often overlooked because online marketers are searching for the ‘magic bullet’. With online marketing, there is no magic – just good common sense, creativity, and ingenuity!

I hope these tips can help you increase the traffic to your website – let me know if you find them helpful.

Traffic Strategies that Attract Visitors

When you’re striving to generate more traffic for your website, it’s important to test out a number of options. We’ve talked about a lot of them here in our Traffic Strategies section. Here are a couple of ideas for you to try that can boost traffic.

Pop-up advertising

One thing to consider for your site is pop-up and pop-under advertising.  There is still an open question about how effective these ads can be since the data is limited at this point in time. But they are absolutely working for some online businesses.

Try using pop-up ads that are those little boxes that appear on the screen just before people are able to see the actual page they are searching for.  Paying to advertise on a site with relevant content will quickly catch the attention of the site visitor and they may decide to click onto your pop-up ad. It’s a paid strategy worth testing.

Pop-under advertising

You can also try the pop-under ads which are sometimes considered less intrusive since they don’t interfere with the visitor’s ability to quickly access the search results page. It’s only after they visit a website that the ad appears and the website they visited has been closed.

Pop-under ads could be an effective strategy if the visitor has already read about relevant content before the ad appears on their screen. It’s possible they’re ready to learn more and are searching for a product or content that you can offer.

You can test both types and see what works best for your business. 

Make the ads concise

Make the ads concise with attention-grabbing information to entice visitors to your site. You may find that this type of advertising is worth the money to generate more traffic to your site.

Let us know about your experience with these types of advertising so we can share the pros and cons of both types with our blog readers.

Videos go viral quickly (Part 7 - Viral Marketing Series)

We don’t have to tell you how important it is to optimize the technology available to you as an online marketer. It seems that there is some new technology introduced every day or some new way of reaching out to your potential customers.

But there are many existing ways that you can capitalize on to ensure you are making the most of your marketing efforts. Viral marketing takes on a life of its own when you utilize tools that allow your articles, reports, and other content to proliferate through the Internet. Read more

Ways to Optimize Press Releases (Part 6 of Viral Marketing Series)

If you typically think of press releases for hard-copy newspapers and believe they are reserved only for the big corporate announcements from large companies, then think again! Press releases are a great way to gain attention and position yourself as an expert in your market. They are also a great way to capitalize on viral marketing.

Well-written press releases make optimal use of keywords and unique content. They offer you an incredible opportunity to expand your marketing reach by creating newsworthy updates and information related to your area of expertise. And press releases are free so it’s not like paid advertising.

Timeliness counts

Press releases must be timely and have some news of value to report. You may want to notify your target market about a new product, new findings in your industry, or new reports available that contain data and statistics relevant to your business. They must include something of value for your target market and they must be professionally written and meticulously written. Read more

Blog Carnivals Attract Traffic (Part 5 - Viral Marketing Series)

In your efforts to increase traffic to your website, have you considered participating in a blog carnival? Blog carnivals are a great way to meet people who are interested in your niche products. They are likely looking for something you have to offer and they are willing to pay for it!

A blog carnival is basically on online magazine, or eZine, that is created by a large group of people who are interested in a particular niche. The term ‘carnival’ was coined to help create an air of enthusiasm and fun around the release of these online magazines periodically.

There is usually a lot of hype and preparation to the blog carnival and lots of people visit the website of the blog host to find out what’s happening. People submit articles to the online magazine for publication in the blog to showcase their knowledge and expertise.

What better place to demonstrate your expertise in a niche than to participate in one of these carnivals? When you do, you’ll find that your target audience is once again – right at your fingertips! You just create your articles, reports, and other compelling content to be included in the blog carnival and they will definitely come to read it.

Blog carnivals are typically used to create an interest in the niche and to increase product exposure. People are invited to comment on articles and to provide insights into the niche, in addition to submitting their well-written articles. They are also allowed to include their URL and other information in their articles so visitors can find them easily. This increases your exposure and your ability to capitalize on viral marketing.

Finding a blog carnival in your niche industry is simple. You can visit one of the following websites to find a comprehensive listing of blog carnivals organized by topic or niche category:

•  www.blogcarnival.com
• www.genbetween.com/category/blog-carnival

Visiting these sites offers you a huge listing of upcoming carnivals. They are usually promoted and advertised many weeks or even months in advance. The most effective blog carnivals are held on a consistent schedule and the person who organizes the carnival and aggregates the articles and content is rotated for each carnival. You could host a carnival and gain even more exposure.

Don’t just wait for traffic to come to you. Go out and find targeted traffic and entice them to visit your website. A blog carnival is one place where you’ll find massive numbers of potential customers for your niche. When you display your expertise and knowledge in your niche market, they’ll be knocking on your door.

And don’t forget the value of viral marketing – once they visit your site and are impressed with the products, information, and interactive content they find, they’ll invite their friends and others in their community. Your website and information will remain on the online magazine for many months to come.

Blog carnivals can keep the traffic coming for a long time to come!

Visit a carnival today and see for yourself.

Newsgroups go Viral (Part 4 - Viral Marketing Series)

Viral marketing is a unique way to promote your website and find new potential customers which will increase traffic to your website. It’s a viral marketing strategy because once people recognize you as an expert in your niche, they tell other people about it. They will also invite friends to participate in the newsgroups that they find interesting and that means even more exposure for you.

Newsgroups are a group of people who meet online to discuss topics in a specific area of expertise. They interact and exchange ideas, thoughts, and questions. It is a virtual gathering to review and exchange valuable information related to specific topics, or niches, and people are searching for that particular topic!

That puts a target audience right at your fingertips!

Some of the things discussed on newsgroups include:

• The value and importance of specific websites and who has the best products and information
• What people want related to the niche
•  Blogs of particular interest that provide unique, interesting posts
•  News of interest in the particular niche market (or topic area)
•  Other online resources to support the group including upcoming blog carnivals, eZines, newsletters, and other
•  Where to find experts in the niche

When you participate in newsgroups specific to your niche expertise, you can demonstrate your knowledge and entice people to visit your website or blog. And don’t forget that many people make buying decisions by listening to what people have to say in newsgroups.

Another valuable aspect of participating in newsgroups is that you learn more about what people are saying and what they want. It enables you to ensure your niche products are responding to the market demand.

Visit http://www.newsgroups-1.com/ for an alphabetical listing of thousands of newsgroups. You can dig deeper into sub-categories to find the newsgroup that best matches your niche.  The best strategy is to visit the newsgroup several times to hear what people are saying, understand how they interact, and gain insights into what they talk about. Then you can begin to participate and before long, you’ll be a welcome member of the group with your expertise and knowledge in the niche.

Participate in a couple of newsgroups to make your website viral. Viral marketing is an excellent way to keep the traffic flowing!

Our next post update will be about blog carnivals and how they can make your niche website go viral even faster.

eZines and Newsletters Attract a Crowd (Part 3 of Viral Marketing Series)

Looking for interesting and creative ways to attract a crowd? Make sure you’re capitalizing on the benefits of eZines and newsletters. These online ‘publications’ are a great way to position yourself as an expert and attract a crowd to your website.

These tools are an effective way to communicate with potential customers in your market niche. It’s also a great strategy to stay in front of your customers on a consistent basis and provide them with value-added information, data, and knowledge. You can send customers and registered visitors an email link to your newsletter or eZine notifying them that the publication is available and draw them into your website – when your site is ‘sticky’, they’ll stay around longer too.

Asserting yourself as an expert through your eZines is easy when you include valuable information and up-to-date findings in your niche area. Tips to help you create fresh, energetic content that also helps make your site ‘sticky’ include:

1. Create content that involves breaking news
2. Provide creative tips relevant to the niche market
3. Create compelling content that is value-added to your audience – make sure your content is fresh and is not found on every other website on the Web!
4. Provide your niche market with data and statistics that showcase the value of the niche without being too ‘salesy’ or giving the appearance of ‘advertising’
5. Include surveys and other ways to solicit reader feedback, opinions, and comments
6. Make them an offer they can’t refuse – include a link to a free article, free report, or free eBook that they can download from your website
7. Ask your customers to submit their own articles for inclusion in your content
8. Quote industry experts to increase credibility of your niche site
9. Use keywords effectively throughout your content
10. Conduct customer satisfaction surveys through the publications

Newsletters can be published more often than eZines since they are usually much shorter and provide summary level information. eZines are typically published to your online audience monthly or quarterly. You can create your own content or invite your customers and visitors to contribute to your articles. You can also work with a freelance copywriter or editor to help you create interesting periodicals that keep your customers coming back for more. Private label rights (PLR) articles are useful but only when you take time to heavily edit and rewrite them to make them unique to your niche.

Make your newsletters and eZines interactive and attractive. This is one of the best ways to engage your audience.  Include surveys or solicit questions for a ‘Question and Answer’ section. Survey customers for feedback and highlight their comments in upcoming issues – people love to see their name on websites.

Creating a strategy to consistently provide your target audience with fresh, unique information is the best way to keep them coming back for more. Give it a try and you’ll be a believer.

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