Showing posts with label traffic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traffic. Show all posts

Thursday, July 31, 2014

How To Use Video Submission Sites for Online Martketing Business?

Videos are a great way to market a product or service. The problem is though is that you do not want to clutter your website with to many videos. Your social networking profiles also should not be cluttered with to many videos. While you can change your videos out to showcase different products you cannot or should I say do not want to leave them all on your social networking site or your business website. To be able to have every video you created viewable to the public you will want to utilize a social video submission site such as YouTube. this article will help you that how to use video submission sites for online marketing business.


A great point with video submission sites is that users are allowed to post comments on the videos that are on the site. These comments are a great way to find out how the public is viewing your videos. You get a free trial and error marketing testing by just using the site to air your videos. Remove the videos that do not seem to appeal to the public and replace it with a different video. Watch your comment section to see again how this new video is fairing with the users.

Use YouTube and Other Such Video Submission Sites.

YouTube and other such video submission sites allow users to create a profile and start uploading videos for other users to watch. With virtual millions of internet users watching the user submitted videos on these sites you are sure to see a turn around with your website traffic. There are however keys to creating a successful video because if your video bombs out then your traffic and sales are sure to bomb out as well.

Outline for Your Video.

First you need to decide upon the direction of the video and have a clear outline for your video. You do not want to start shooting your video and winging it as you go along. This type of performance is sure to not make for a clear video. Take the time to put together a clear outline to use during the shooting of your video.

Remember that internet users do not want to spend forever in one spot, so keep your video short. A web video should be no longer than 5 minutes. So realize that you only have 5 minutes to get your point across.

The previous point leads to the next point I am going to make. You need to make sure that by the end of your video that the viewer knows just what you are trying to convey. They should not be left at the end wondering what your video was about.

Place Your Website Link at the End of Your Video.

Make sure to place your website link at the end of your video. You can also place a text over the video of your web address as well throughout the video. For those that have a company phone number make sure to place that on your video as well. Make mention of your company name or your product during the video will help to drive home name recognition.

Avoid These In Your Video.

You need to make sure that the video that you created is not seen as annoying. We have almost all of us seen the annoying used car salesperson commercials. Avoid using these types of promotional tactics in your videos. After all if your video is annoying the viewer will move on to someone else’s videos.

Equipment for Video Creation.

Now that I have given you some of the outlines making a good video, let us talk about equipment. You do not need a high tech, high dollar video recorder; in fact you can make your videos using an average web cam. You will see a lot of decent videos on YouTube and other video submission sites that are created using just a simple web cam. A web cam and a microphone will allow you to create your videos without spending a lot on more expensive equipment when you are on a budget.

Use Still Pictures to Create Videos.

Another great thing with videos is that you really do not even have to have a video recorder or even a camcorder. You can create your videos using still pictures. Windows Movie Maker allows you to use still pictures to create videos with voice over. Therefore, you will need a microphone for the voice over. Alternatively, find the free to use music and use it over the still pictures and add some decent text throughout your video.

Use Windows Movie Maker.

Windows Movie Maker is great for creating videos with still pictures to the point that even a beginner can create some great videos. I used it when I was first starting with stills as videos and was able to turn out some great marketing videos. I had seen other users on YouTube featuring videos that were comprised of still pictures and decided to give it a shot. I found that they did work fairly well at driving some traffic to my sites.

The pictures that you use can be obtained on the internet from free stock picture sites. All you need to do is grab some relevant pictures and put them in the order that you wish them to run through the video and use the Movie Maker to add some text and incorporate your voice over or the music that you choose.

Video Should Be Brief.

Just remember that you should be working toward name recognition, your video should be short and to the point and that your web address is located at least at the end of the video. You want the viewer to know what it is that you are talking about and who you are, as well as how to purchase your product or service. Therefore make sure this is all covered in your brief video.

Add Keyword Tags Into Video.

You will be able to add keyword tags to your video so that it is easy for others to find. Make sure that your keywords are relevant and concise with your video. Use as many keywords that you can, so singular and plural forms of a word work as well as variations of the word. These are just as important as your video itself so make sure to take the time to give your videos adequate keywords.


Tips To Marketing With Social Media Sites?

You know that how to marketing with social media sites? Social bookmarking sites allow you to create a profile then bookmark your favorite sites. These bookmarks will be shared with other users. When you book mark a site you will give a brief description and then pick a category and add keyword tags to your bookmark. These keyword tags allow your book marked site to show up when a user searches for book marked sites for that key word. This of course is the basic explanation of social bookmarking. I prefer to use simple explanations for things over the tech talk explanations because that way everyone no matter what their level of knowledge can dominate the Web 2.0 market for their own marketing needs.

  • For your use you are going to bookmark your website and your blogs to better enhance your marketing potential. You will need to pick the appropriate category, give a short but to the point description of the bookmarked site and then pick the appropriate keywords to tag your bookmark with.

  • Not all social bookmark sites will have a category that fits your website. Some social bookmarking sites are geared toward a specific theme or a limited amount of topics. Should your website not fall into their theme or any of their topics then do not try to bookmark your website or blog on those social bookmark sites. This is considered under some circumstances as spam. Even when it is not considered spam to do this, it is still unprofessional. So stick with social bookmarking sites that offer your theme or category for your website.

  • Keywords should cover what you are bookmarking. Use as many keywords as possible that are relevant to your website or blog. Your account can be terminated by some sites if you are loading your bookmarks with a lot of irrelevant keywords. So refrain from doing this. Do not be afraid to use both singular and plural forms of words or variations of words for your keywords.

  • In addition to creating a profile some bookmarking sites require that you download an application that will run in your browser bar. The purpose of this is so that when you are on a website and you wish to bookmark it all you have to do is click on their icon in your browser bar and you will be able to bookmark that site. Not all bookmarking sites will require this.

  • Most bookmarking sites offer you a feature so that you can place their buttons on your website so that your website visitors can bookmark your site themselves. Now while you are going to bookmark your site yourself, it is still a benefit to have these buttons on your site. Your site visitors who wish to bookmark your site will click one of these buttons and discover that it has already been bookmarked, now they have the option of voting on it. Since they were going to bookmark it themselves the chances are they will go ahead and take the time to vote it up. This means that you are moving up in the ranks with no extra work on your part.

  • To increase your review on these social bookmarking sites you should also bookmark other quality websites or articles that you find on the internet. Now you are probably wondering why I am telling you to bookmark other people. The reason is that if you are seen as a contributor who contributes quality bookmarks then your other bookmarks that you are bookmarking to promote yourself will also get good reviews.

Therefore, bookmark things that are of quality that are informative, useful and you will gain a reputation and thus increase your own traffic. In fact some social bookmarking sites will terminate your account if they feel you are spamming their site with your own promotions. While it is ok to promote your own website and such, you do not want to give the impression of spamming.

You need to understand that a lot of traffic can come about as a result of bookmarking your website on one of these social bookmarking sites. Digg is one of them that if your content is good, other users will digg, your bookmark and thus raising you up in the ranks. As you rise up you will be hit with more and more traffic to your website, there fore make sure you have a server that can handle this possible traffic overload. While this does not happen to everyone there is still that chance that users on the social bookmarking site will love your content and thus your traffic increases. Reddit is another social bookmarking site that can drive a nice amount of traffic to your website.

While you can end up with more traffic than you know what to do with, remember that this can take time to happen. As mentioned in this chapter you will need to have your website placed in the right category, use lot of relevant keywords and offer a good description. When you apply all of this you will have a better chance of getting known and rising in the ranks on these social bookmarking sites. This is all needed to see the huge amount of traffic that these sites are capable of delivering to your website.


Sunday, July 20, 2014

What Is Viral Traffic Generation?

In recent years there has been more and more written about Viral Marketing and why you should be using it to drive traffic to your site. So, what is viral marketing, What is viral traffic generation? and why should you care? Is this just another fad that will soon fade away? 

In short, viral marketing involves getting other people to willingly spread your message for you. People who like what you have done tell other people, and the message spreads from person to person like a virus. When that happens, it is referred to as your message “going viral.”



It relies heavily on word of mouth advertising; someone sees or reads what you have to offer and tells a couple of their friends. Their friends see or read your message and they tell a couple of their friends, and they tell a couple of their friends, and so on. The number of people who are aware of you and your message increases exponentially. The more people hear about your site, the faster your traffic grows. How large will it grow? There is really no way to tell. The only real limit to the amount of traffic possible is how many people your site host can handle.

Just think about how quickly it could spread. If one person saw your message and told 2 people, who told 2 people, who told 2 people, and it continued, your message would very quickly be in front of thousands of people. If each person just told two other people, look how quickly it can grow.

1 x 2 = 2
2 x 2 = 4
4 x 2 = 8
8 x 2 = 16
16 x 2 = 32
32 x 2 = 64
64 x 2 = 128
128 x 2 = 256
256 x 2 = 512
512 x 2 = 1024

Now just imagine if you started with 100 people spreading your message, or 1,000 people. You can see that it doesn?t take long before hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people are aware of who you are, and better still, are visiting your web site and buying your products or services.

Viral marketing effectively taps into pre-existing social networks that your customers are already using. By creating something that is worth talking about and passing along, you create a “buzz” that spreads across the internet, and traffic floods to your site to see what the buzz is about. Once they are there, if they like what they see, they pass the information along, and the buzz continues to grow.

Word of mouth marketing is by far the most effective way to get word out about your site. People will listen to others that they already know and trust much more readily than they will listen to you. These people do not know
you, so why should they trust what you are telling them? After all, you might be likely to say anything in order to make a sale. However, they will listen to a friend or family member, especially if the person spreading the word does not have anything to gain by telling them. It is just a friend passing along a great deal they found, or some useful or interesting information.

Why Should I Use Viral Traffic Generation?


You may be thinking that viral marketing techniques are only for the major players with big budgets, and that it can not work for small businesses with small budgets. If that is your thinking, I can assure you, you are wrong. You might not be able to afford to produce the highly polished ads like the big companies, but there are still a lot of opportunities for success. Any business or individual with a message to get out or a service or product to sell can benefit from a well crafted marketing campaign.

There are several reasons that you should be using viral traffic generation techniques to build your business and attract customers to your website.

1.) It is a fast, effective way to drive traffic to your site.

Like I mentioned above, once the word starts to spread, it can spread very quickly, and there is really no limit to how many people can hear your message. Because your message often comes to someone from a person they already know, it has more credibility than if the message showed up uninvited in an email from someone they do not know.

Once the message starts to spread it picks up size and speed as it goes, like a snowball rolling down a hill. You may start out thinking that your efforts were not very effective, then one morning you open your email to find it full of new orders. When it works, it can work very fast.

2.) It can be very inexpensive.

Once the word starts to spread, there is not much additional cost. The biggest cost you will face is paying for all the additional traffic to your site. All of the cost and effort of spreading the word about what you have to offer is taken care of by the people spreading the word. More than likely, the biggest expense will be the upfront set up or production costs. Depending on which technique you decide to use. After that initial expense, the cost remaining costs are nominal.

3.) It can help shield you from negative comments.

One thing to remember is that a negative message can go viral, too. Unfortunately, you are not going to be able to please everyone. If you do enough business, eventually you are going to have someone who is unhappy with you and your business. It only takes one customer that is dissatisfied to put a shadow of doubt in your customers minds about whether they should do business with you or not. Once that doubt is there, it is hard to remove it. If people are not happy with the service they received, they are more likely to tell people about it than if they are happy customers.

As unhappy customers start spreading negative messages about you, the word will start to spread, and there is not much you can do to stop it. The more it spreads, the more untrustworthy your business appears. All you can do is have enough of a buffer in place that the negative messages do not overpower the positive messages. If your message goes viral, not only will is send a flood of traffic to your site, but other sites will link to you, and your site will rank higher in the search engines. Your name will also appear on other high ranking sites. If a negative message does start to go around, it will have a much harder time getting out, because your positive message is already so highly ranked that the negative messages can not find their way to the top of the search engine listings.

4.) It can find hidden customers.

Despite the time and money you spend trying to narrowly define your customers, figuring out who they are, and more importantly, where they are, there will always be people that you have missed. Once your message goes viral, there is no telling where it will end up, or who will see it. Because of the widespread coverage that can occur, people that you had not even considered to be your customers will get a chance to see your message. They will decide whether they are potential customers or not.

As word continues to spread about what you are offering, you do not have to worry about finding all the possible niches your customers might be hiding. You do not have to go find them, they will find you.



Tuesday, January 7, 2014

How To Use Camtasia to Increase Your Affiliate Income?

Since there are already lots of people getting into affiliate marketing, it is no wonder that the competition is getting stiff. The challenge is to try and outdo other affiliates and think of ways to be able to attain this.

There are also many tips and techniques being taught to these affiliate in order to best plan their strategy for their program to work effectively so that more earnings will be achieved.


What better way to wow your prospects and customers than to record and publish top notch, full motion and streaming screen-captured videos. Nothing like feeling your hard work getting paid by having your customers jumping up excitedly in great anticipation to buy your product right there and then.

This is Camtasia in action. It is a proven fact; giving your customers something they can actually see can explode your online sales instantly.

You do not need to have trainings and education to be able to know how this system can work for your affiliate program. Anyone can create stunning videos, from multimedia tutorials and step-by-step presentations available online. The process is like having your customers seated next to you and looking at your desktop, as you show them the things they need to see and hear. All this done step by step.

For those who does not know it yet, how does Camtasia works?


It can record your desktop activity in a single click. No need to have to save and compile all your files because it is recorded right there and then.

Can easily convert your videos into web pages. Once converted you can have your customers visiting that certain page. Videos are easier to understand and take in unlike reading texts which oftentimes is a trying thing to do.

Upload your pages. Publish them through blogs, RSS feed and podcasts. You may want your Camtasia’s videos to get around and reach out to other people that may be potential customers in the future. Nothing like being visible in many sites and pages to advertise yourself and get your message through.

There are other things you can do with your affiliate program using Camtasia. You can…


Create stunning multimedia presentations that are proven to increase sales because all the senses are engaged. This also has the tendency to reduce scepticism among hard-to-please customers.

Reduce refunds and other customer issues by demonstrating visually how to use your product and how to do it properly. Complaints will also be minimized because all the facts and the presentation are there for the customers to just see and hear about.

Promote affiliate products and services using visual presentations. This is an effective way of redirecting your viewers straight to your affiliate website after they are finished with the video. Make the most of the presentation by putting your site location in the end and make them go there directly if they want more information.

Multiple your online auction bids exponentially when you give your readers a feel of what you have to offer. Based from reports, auctions that includes pictures increases bidding percentage by 400%. Imagine how much higher it will be if it were videos.

Publish valuable infoproducts that you can sell for a much higher price. It will be all worth the price because of the full coloured graphics menu and templates that you will be using.

Minimize miscommunication with your customers. Instantly showing them what you want they wanted in the first place is making them understand clearly the essence of your affiliate program. The good thing about multimedia is, nothing much can go wrong. It is there already.

These are just some of the things you can do with Camtasia that can be very helpful in your chosen affiliate program.

Note that the main purpose of using Camtasia is to boost the income that is generated from your affiliate program. Although it can be used for entertainment and enjoyment purposes, which is not really a valid reason why you choose to get all through that trouble.

Try to focus on the goal that you have set upon yourself to and achieve that with the use of the things that may be quite a lot of help in increasing your earnings.

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Saturday, January 4, 2014

5 Greate Tips To Create video Tutorials To Promote Affiliate Product.

Video tutorials are a great for explaining “how to” topics. You can actually show your audience how to do something, and they get a great visual which can give them a better understand of how a product/service works.

Here are the 5 Greate Tips To Create video Tutorials To Promote Affiliate Product.


1. Write a script — Select a concept or short task you can briefly describe. You’ll want to make it around 300 words, since videos are ideally three minutes and no longer than five minutes long. Make the script as much like conversation as possible. Read through it several times and actually walk through the steps you want to show your audience. Having your script on a monitor with the places where you are to perform an action highlighted can help you stay focused and on task during the video.

2. Prepare a simulation — Decide the kind of information, event, or other task you want to show and run through it. Make sure it works and you can show it in a simple way. Practice it a few times so you can be sure that your actions line up with your script.

3. Record the simulation and narration — Ideally, this is done in three steps:

  • Record your script on one monitor and the simulation on another monitor — Don’t worry if you find yourself slightly deviating from your script. It happens when you’re trying to be conversational, and that’s alright. Try to keep your voice natural, but focus on the simulation. Get clean, smooth screen action. If it’s a computer simulation, don’t use a touchpad mouse. The movements can be jerky. Instead, use a regular mouse and drag it smoothly. Avoid moving the mouse around when you talk, because it causes editing to be difficult.

  • Record the audio again — You’ll need to separate the audio from the video. Then read your script again. Make sure you pause where you need to pause. When doing this type of voiceover, try to be aware of things such as: varying the pitch of your voice, avoid rhymes that are repetitive, enunciate, speak clearly and confidently, and mix the pace of your speaking so you will sound as natural as possible.

  • Match the timing — After you record the audio again, play both tracks simultaneously. Match the timing. Your pauses may not match up perfectly, but don’t worry about that. You can adjust the space between audio waves and come close.

4. Simulation post-processing — Go through the audio and the simulation and take out any long pauses that are unnecessary or any moments of inaction. You can add callouts where necessary to call attention to something you want to show on the screen. Give your video about a two-second title slide. Make sure it describes the purpose of the video. Fade in your recording as you fade out the title.

The type of software you are using will make a difference in the options you have for callouts, annotations, and animation. Just be sure to keep it as simple as possible. The more you add to your video, the greater the file size. The greater the file size, the more time-consuming it will be to produce. If you want to integrate a music track, you can browse istockaudio.com to find a loop or sting.

5. Publish and integrate the video — Make the video to an MP4 format. Then upload it to your server. If you upload it to YouTube, it will automatically render it in HD. Using HD allows any text you use to show up clear and not blurry. YouTube also has voice recognition software that automatically syncs your caption with the voice. Simply upload the script in the captions section. The auto-sync program helps non-native speakers and those who have difficulty hearing to know what your video is saying. Search engine optimization is also increased.

Recommend it on your Site or Blog — Once you’ve created the tutorial, you want as many people to see it as possible. Remember you want quality content. If your audience is engaged and excited, then they’ll come back to your site more often, and they’ll stay on it longer.

It is important to remember the quality rule when you’re selecting your products. A lot of bloggers don’t seem to select their products by the quality. They just promote anything. Other times they may be promoting quality merchandise, but they don’t seem to care how they promote it. They never use a fresh, new approach to promoting products. You should take the time to consider the vendor. They care about their customers and their integrity. Poor promotion of their products doesn’t make them look good.

That’s one reason video tutorials are such a hit. They give your readers a new look at an old product or a first look at a new product. It helps build trust with your audience when you provide them with content they feel is valuable.

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Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Boost Your Online Profits Using PPC In Your Affiliate Marketing Business

PPC or Pay-Per-Click in full is one of the four basic types of Search Engines. PPC is also one of the most cost-effective ways of targeted Internet advertising. According to Forbes magazine, PPC or Pay Per Click, accounts to 12 billion dollars a year and is expected to increase to around 18 billion dollars by the year 2016.

Let us take a quick look at how PPC Search Engines work.


These engines create listings and rate them based on a bid amount the website owner is willing to pay for each click from that search engine. Advertisers bid against each other to receive higher ranking for a specific keyword or phrase.

The highest bidder for a certain keyword or phrase will then have the site ranked as number 1 in the PPC Search Engines followed by the second and third highest bidder, up to the last number that have placed a bid on the same keyword or phrase. Your ads then will appear prominently on the results pages based on the dollar amount bid you will agree to pay per click.

How do you make money by using PPC into your affiliate marketing business?


Most affiliate programs only pay when a sale is made or a lead delivered after a visitor has clickthrough your site. Your earnings will not always be the same as they will be dependent on the web site content and the traffic market.

The reason why you should incorporate PPC into your affiliate marketing program is that earnings are easier to make than in any other kind of affiliate program not using PPC. This way, you will be making profit based from the clickthroughs that your visitor will make on the advertiser’s site. Unlike some programs, you are not paid per sale or action.

PPC can be very resourceful of your website. With PPC Search Engines incorporated into your affiliate program, you will be able to profit from the visitor’s who are not interested in your products or services. The same ones who leave your site and never comes back.

You will not only get commissions not only from those who are just searching the web and finding the products and services that they wanted but you will be able to build your site’s recognition as a valuable resource. The visitors who have found what they needed from you site are likely to come back and review what you are offering more closely. Then they will eventually come back to search the web for other products.

This kind of affiliate program is also an easy way for you to generate some more additional revenues. For example, when a visitor on your site does a search in the PPC Search Engine and clicks on the advertiser bided listings, the advertisers’ account will then be deducted because of that click. With this, you will be compensated 30% to 80% of the advertisers’ bid amount.

PPC is not only a source of generating easy profits; it can also help you promote your own site. Most of the programs allow the commissions received to be spent for advertising with them instantly and with no minimum earning requirement. This is one of the more effective ways to exchange your raw visitors for targeted surfers who has more tendencies to purchase your products and services.

What will happen if you when you integrate PPC into your affiliate program?


PPC
usually have ready-to-use affiliate tools that can be easily integrated into your website. The most common tools are search boxes, banners, text links and some 404-error pages. Most search engines utilize custom solutions and can provide you with a white-label affiliate program. This enables you, using only a few lines of code, to integrate remotely-hosted co-branded search engine into your website.

The key benefits? Not only more money generated but also some extra money on the side. Plus a lifetime commissions once you have referred some webmaster friends to the engine.

Think about it. Where can you get all these benefits while already generating some income for your site? Knowing some of the more useful tools you can use for your affiliate program is not a waste of time. They are rather a means of earning within an earning.

Best know more about how you can use PPC search engines into your affiliate program than miss out on a great opportunity to earn more profits.
  
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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Translate Your Website for Non English Audiance To Increase Traffic

Ethnocentricity isn’t only the domain of English-speaking people, but we do have a pretty good hold on it. We sometimes forget that not everyone speaks English, and even if they do it might be nice to browse a web site in their own language. The internet is a global phenomenon, and so recognizing that fact and embracing it can go a long way to boost your presence on the web. But don’t you know how to write your content in several languages? Can’t you tell the difference between French and Chinese? This Post will share a few facts about web translation services and how they can benefit your web site.

So as you may have ascertained from my introduction, there are services on the internet which will translate your web site for you. Of course, all of these services are mechanical so you’re not going to get the flow you might from hiring a native to that language. How well the translation comes out, even with the top of the line and most expensive commercial translation programs will depend to a large extent on both the source and the target languages. The closer the two languages are to each other in grammatical structure, the better. Also, some ideas might not survive the translation if they are too culturally entrenched; so you will do better with a text that is free from local colloquiums. One of the better translation engines is actually operated by Google, so it is easily available.

And speaking of Google, did you know translating your site into other languages can do wonders for your search engine placement? If you happen to translate you pages into let’s say nine languages aside from English, you’ve just multiplied your content by a factor of nine. What’s more, the search engines will see all those new pages as fresh new content; even if you started out with PLR articles it isn’t likely all of those articles will be translated. Even if they are, they won’t be translated exactly the same by two different engines, so you won’t be dinged for duplicate content. Not to mention, if you happen to have Adsense ads on your site, they’re going to be present on all of your new pages as well. Since your articles will have new keywords from other languages, your Adsense ads will be targeted to those non-English speaking audiences.
So as you can easily ascertain, the web is one place you don’t want to be ethnocentric. It is a global marketplace, and you’ll do well to make certain you run a web site with global appeal.


 
 
 

How To Submit Site To Web Directories and Build Targeted Traffic

Everywhere you turn these days you’re hearing about Search Engine Optimization. It’s “SEO this and SEO that” until you might start to think there is no other way to get traffic. But did you know there is a whole different world of places people go when they’re looking for web sites just like yours? This is the world of web directories, the smaller and more personable cousin of search engines, where your web site is actually viewed and indexed by human eyes and not by search engine spiders. But how do you let the web directories know you exist, and which directories are worth dealing with? This Post will give a brief overview of the best directories and how you can make certain they know all about your web site.

Although many web directories supplement their listings with search engine feeds from places like Google, the primary method of getting yourself listed with a search directory is by telling them about your site, also called “submitting” your site. You can submit your site to the web directories by hand or there are software solutions to do the work for you.

If you are looking for paid and free directories, you’ll check these lists to find suitable web directories for you:

http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php   

http://www.bestweb-directories.com/ 
                             
http://info.vilesilencer.com/

http://top.seo-links.org/

http://www.web-directories.ws/

http://webseodesign.com/resources/free-directory-listings.htm

http://ask-dir.com/Directories/

http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/free-web-directories.html

http://www.directorycritic.com/

Many of the smaller web directories focus on a particular niche. Just because they’re small, don’t rule these directories out. If you want targeted traffic who was already looking for a web site or a product just like yours, these smaller web directories are the place to find them. But on the other end of the spectrum there is an array of large web directories covering almost every topic under the sun. Probably the most well known of these large directories is actually DMOZ  which calls itself the “largest on the web” and is constructed and maintained by a “vast, global community of volunteer editors.” Yahoo! Directory  is another well known web directory. Although Yahoo! is best known as a search engine, they are also a web directory where you can submit your site for listing.

 
 


Monday, December 9, 2013

How To Use An RSS Feed To Increase Site Traffic

It wasn’t all that long ago you could say the term “RSS” and get blank stares from just about anyone. Okay, so there are still hoards of people who wouldn’t know an RSS if it bit them in the face, but with the proliferation of blogs and other sites offering an RSS feed the term is becoming more and more common. But what’s the point? Will an RSS feed really do anything to improve your web site traffic, or is it just a fancy feature nobody really cares about? This chapter will bring you up to speed about RSS and help you decide if it might be a good addition to your traffic building strategy.

Although it sounds as intimidating as any techno babble out there, RSS is just an acronym for “Really Simple Syndication”. As the name implies, it is a method for syndicating the content of a web site. An RSS file is really just another version of your web page, written in a code meant to be read by a program called a “parser”. You could write an RSS file by hand, just like you could write an HTML page, but since the purpose of an RSS file is to provide quick and up-to-date information from your site, most RSS files are built by a website’s content management system.

So what are we supposed to do with an RSS file? Read it in an RSS reader, of course. The real beauty publishing an RSS file for your web site is in this; it allows your visitors to read your site in an RSS reader. Don’t worry; it is often possible to include your Adsense ads in your RSS feed, so you don’t have to give up that revenue source. But the true benefit is that some site visitors are more likely to regularly read your posts if they can read them in an RSS reader. Most of these people will read the feeds from several sites every day, and isn’t that the kind of site visitor you want to cultivate?

But while you’re at it, there are a few other useful things you can do with your RSS feed. First, you can offer blog updates by email if a person subscribes to your feed through a service like FeedBlitz  or FeedBurner . Second, you can send broadcast emails to your mailing list by attaching an RSS feed to your autoresponder. Using this method you can actually publish a newsletter based solely on your blog posts, scheduling a broadcast each time you have a certain number of new entries.

But above all, the key benefit of RSS feeds is convenience. If you make it easy for your site visitors to keep reading your content, and the content is good, you’re more likely to keep them around. We all know it is cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one, and an RSS feed provides an easy way to keep those visitors reading your site.


 
 

How To Create Email List And Maintain Your Site Traffic

You’ve probably heard it said, and it is very true, that it is cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one. But have you considered how that saying still holds water when you’re talking about traffic to your site? Once you get someone to visit your site, the expensive part of the transaction is over. But what is next? Once they’ve visited, how do you keep your visitors coming back? Once they’ve made a purchase, how do you keep them as regular customers? This post will share a few tips on how to keep the traffic you already have by building an email list.

If you want your visitors to come back, take a minute to consider why they came to you in the first place. Was it for your great content? Was it for technical help or some other service? Was it to get something for free? Whatever reason brought your visitor the first time could be the key to getting that all-important repeat visit. But how will your visitors know they can return and get more of what they want? You’re going to capture their email addresses so you can tell them so, and you’re going to tell them over and over again.

Maintaining an email list of previous site visitors and customers is an integral part of building your online business. Through your email list you can keep these clients informed about new and exciting offers, information, and freebies you’ve placed on your web site since their last visit. Your email list will be the tool you use to keep your site in the forefront of your clients’ minds.

There are two basic types of tools internet marketers use to manage an email list, an autoresponder or a broadcast script. An autoresponder is just like the name sounds, it automatically sends responses to someone who has subscribed. You can have these responses timed to just about any interval and you can set them up in advance to send out messages for days, weeks, months or years to come. A broadcast script is used to send out emails to your list as you write them; you could use this to send out announcements on a sporadic basis, or you could publish a regular newsletter. Some online autoresponse scripts allow you to perform a combination of these tasks, sending out regular pre-written emails through the autoresponder and adding occasional broadcasts whenever you want.

Hotscripts.com  is a good source if you are looking for PHP or ASP based e-mail list scripts.

Most internet marketing gurus recommend using a hosted service like a hosted solution with it’s own mail servers, then you’ll consider using Aweber or GetResponse because these services have an excellent track record of actually delivering emails. With the proliferation of spam filters, it can be difficult to get emails through, even to those who actually want to hear from you.

A free option would be to send out broadcast emails by starting a private Yahoo Group or Google Group .

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Get More Visitors By Answering Questions

I’ve heard it said that one of the deepest desires of people today is the desire to feel important. One easy way to make someone feel important is to give them attention and show you care about the things they care about. Be there when that person needs you and help that person when they need help, and you’ll be satisfying the deep desire to feel important. Now if you can make your customers feel important, do you think they’ll be interested in buying from you again? When you’ve bought from someone who truly seemed to care about you and think you were important, didn’t you feel a certain loyalty? This post will show one way to build a base of loyal customers by answering questions at places like Yahoo Answers and Answerbag.com especially if you own a service oriented business.

Sites like Answerbag.com and Yahoo Answers have become very popular. People can ask questions on just about any topic and end up with at least one answer. When users on Answerbag were recently asked why they answered questions, the responses included:

“I have made new friends here at Answerbag, and I like to share my knowledge with them.”

“I love sharing views and opinions.”

“In helping others, it seems to help me. Feel better about myself.”

“I want people to answer my questions, so I will answer theirs.”


So what does that have to do with you, an internet marketer? How could that possibly help your online business? Do you notice the words “friends”, “sharing”, and “helping” in the comments I quoted? These are all relationship words, and creating relationships is the key to building a loyal customer base.

Once you’ve started to build a releationship with someone on one of these Answer sites, you’ve started to open the door to doing business with them. If you gave a truly helpful answer, and as I said earlier made someone feel important by helping them, you’ve created a powerful emotional attachment with that person. Once you have this attachment you can carefully introduce the fact that you have a business related to the topic you helped that person with, and that you may be able to help them even more through your business.

Although most of these Answer sites are limited in how they can allow you to link back to your web site, there is usually some place to put a little description of yourself in a profile. Be sure to mention the fact that you own a web site on a particular topic, and you may create a bit of traffic from your profile. But remember we are talking about a relationship-based type of marketing, and as with any relationship you have to give it time to grow before you can expect someone to jump on board and buy your product. However with a little patience, you can be well on your way to building a loyal base of visitors by making them feel important.

 
 

Give Your Opinion And Make More Free Traffic

I have a friend who once told me, “Everyone has a right to my opinion. So who am I to withhold it from them?” Of course he was joking (to some extent) but there is an element of truth for anyone in that statement. If you have had an experience with a product or service online, there might be a thousand other people who are thinking about buying that product or service and would like to know what you thought about it. But did you know you could post reviews on sites like Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Epinion  and help yourself while you’re helping others? Posting reviews gives you an opportunity to establish yourself as an expert, and it allows you to build links back to your web site. This post will cover some ground work about sharing your opinion by writing reviews, and set you on your way to giving everyone what they deserve out of life, your opinion.

So, you may be wondering why you should bother writing reviews. Most likely you’ve already heard about writing articles to promote your web site or affiliate product. You probably already know how those articles will not only bring direct traffic to your site but will increase the “backlinks” and therefore improve your search engine placements. But product reviews at sites like Amazon don’t get listed on Google by themselves, and the only people likely to see them are people who happen to be shopping for that particular product, right? Bingo! You’ve just hit the nail right on the head; people reading your review on Amazon are looking for that particular product. If your own web site is related to that product, then you might just have found yourself a new site visitor. Not only that, but you’ve found a site visitor who already knows you are familiar with products just like the ones they are shopping for.

Now that probably doesn’t sound too exciting, does it? It may seem like a lot of work for gaining a few new visitors to your site. You’re likely to be thinking there must be a more efficient way to build traffic. If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re right. But if you look at the big picture, you may be terribly wrong. In the big picture, yes you’re bringing a few visitors to your site but you’re also creating backlinks from some of the largest sites with the heaviest traffic on the internet. What does that do for you, you ask? The answer is simple: it makes your site appear relevant. Here is one of the biggest sites on the internet and they’re linking to you, and that’s the sort of thing which really impresses search engines like Google. Your relevant back link from a major web site will do wonders for your search engine results page placement.

So now are you starting to believe there are more people who should be hearing your opinions?

 
 

How To Get Free Traffic By Promote Niche At Forums And News Groups

It seems like a brilliant idea; join a few forums and newsgroups then just tell them all about your great new product or web site. Everyone will want to know because it is just so new and so hot, or they’ll at least admire your self-promotion efforts, right? No, that couldn’t be more wrong. Online forums and newsgroups are usually tight communities of like-minded people. You can network, build relationships, learn and grow your business through online communities. But if you spam these loyal and tight knit groups, you had better be ready to run for cover. This post will share a few tips about posting on forums and newsgroups without being accused of spam.

Today’s online forums and newsgroups are communities centered on a common interest. Most often people come to these web sites to learn and share, or sometimes they just want to hang out. But because these sites feature such a high concentrate of potential customers within a defined niche, they are also the frequent target of spammers. Often of course, these spammers don’t see themselves as such.

So we’re all on the same page, let’s take a minute and review just what spam is. Spam is simply an unsolicited advertisement. You didn’t want it, you didn’t ask for it and you will probably hit the delete button as soon as possible when you suspect it. In a forum or news group spam is a message that tries to sell something or promote a web site, when nobody asked for such a thing.

But what about all those targeted forums out there serving all those wonderful niche markets, isn’t there some way to reach them? Sure you can reach them, but since these sites form virtual communities you’re going to have to be accepted into the community first. That doesn’t mean you can just join and post a few times then expect people to do cart wheels when you announce your product or site. You’re going to have to be an active participant, establishing your reputation and giving back to the community.

Even then, most forums and news groups have rules about posting links. It is always a good idea to read the site rules before trying to promote anything. Some forums might have a special area where you can announce new sites and products, or even directly solicit your wares. Many sites will allow you to place discrete links in an area called you “signature”.

Are these types of sites good places to promote your product or service? You bet they are; you might find some of your most loyal customers in an online forum or news group. But for that to happen you’ll have to exercise patience and follow the rules.

Whatever you do, avoid being labeled a “spammer” as much as you would avoid the plague.

Build Free Traffic With A Contest Or Challenge

"And the winner is . . . !" People thrill at that statement, and just about everyone loves to win. How many times have you given your name, telephone number, and maybe even your email address away just to enter some drawing? Sure you figured someone would probably call and try to sell you something, but you probably took that chance anyway, didn’t you? Contests and challenges are a great way to build the contact or email list for your business, as well as a great way to build excitement about your product or service. This post will discuss a few ideas about how a contest or challenge could be a great promotional tool for your business.

Obviously, you’re going to need some way to contact the winner of your contest. Everyone knows that, so there isn’t going to be much of a problem about asking for an email address or phone number. Those who don’t want to give out their information simply won’t enter your contest. The same applies for a challenge as well; if someone wants the prize for winning the challenge they’ll have to be contacted. This makes holding a contest or a challenge a perfect way to build your list, but it doesn’t stop there.

Everyone who enters a contest or challenge wants to see who the competition is. Even something as simple as a coloring contest can drive us to size up the competition. “My entry is better than that” or “That entry looks like trouble” are common to the competitive spirit in many people. So why is it a good idea to stir up all the rating and ranking? Some people will visit your site to see the competition and others will visit just to see what was entered. People are likely to tell their friends about the contest, either to check out their own entry or to get their friends to enter too.

But if you want all that traffic to translate into increased sales of your product or service, you’re going to want it to be as targeted as possible. Promote your contest or challenge at a site related specifically to your topic. If the contest requires a little talent or expertise in your subject in order to win, then your traffic will be even more targeted. Even if you only have a few entries, there could be many others who want to see the entries.

Are exhibitors the only people who look at entries in the county fair? No, there are many others who just like looking. Holding your own contest will not only bring exhibitors but others as well. Either way, all that looking around translates into traffic for your site.



 
 

Create a Squidoo Lens And Get More Free Traffic

A short time ago word started spreading about a brand new site called Squidoo . It sounded like an interesting concept, a little like a blog and a little like an "About Me" page, they asked you to sign up and create something called a "lens". It was certainly a unique idea, and everyone wondered if it would catch on. Now more than a year later the true benefits of making a lens at Squidoo are clear. It is a great place to create a new site about your hobby, passion or business, but even more it is a great place to promote any existing web site you may have. Not only can you tell Squidoo visitors about your site, but a lens gives the search engines another reason to place your site higher on the results pages; a Squidoo lens is a perfect place to build "backlinks" to your blog or web site.

When making a lens at Squidoo you have the option to display RSS feeds from other sites. Place an RSS link on your lens and suddenly the site publishing the feed has a new set of backlinks from a popular and relevant site. That is just what the search engine spiders love to see. What other RSS feeds could you place on Squidoo? Do you submit articles to an article directory, and if so does that directory offer an RSS feed of your articles? If you operate an eBay Store you could post its RSS feed.

Of course an RSS feed isn’t the only way to promote your site on Squidoo. You could create static links to specific pages on your site. Write a summary of one of your articles and link to that article. Write some information about an ebook you’ve written or promote and link from Squidoo. You could also simply place a list of links back to different pages of your website. The possibilities are only limited by the ideas you can come up with, but one important tip: don’t just link to your site’s main page, make keyword specific links to particular pages within your site.

The general consensus among internet marketers right now is that Squidoo is slipping a little in the search engine results pages. Squidoo recently made some changes in their templates, and so over the last few weeks it seems to have affected their search engine optimization. Marketers are reporting a definite slip in their SERP (search engine results page) placement. Even so, creating a lens at Squidoo is a profitable way to promote just about site you own.

 
 

Free Advertising and Get More Traffic With Craiglist and USFreeAds

Everyone knows how important it is to advertise. It’s what sets the chicken apart from the centipede; the centipede lays a thousand eggs in silence while the chicken lays just one but squawks about it. Which one is better known as an egg layer? The chicken is, of course. But unless you have the budget of a small nation, advertising expenses can be an ominous prospect. So where are some places you can advertise for free? What are the advantages, disadvantages and legal issues? This post will cover a few places you might consider for free advertising.

Two of the most common places people go for free advertising are CraigsList and USFreeAds .

CraigsList, as you may already know, is a recent phenomenon of the internet world which lets you advertise the sale of just about anything and all for free. USFreeAds has actually been around longer than CraigsList, since 1999 in fact, but isn’t quite as well known. Both sites allow you to post ads for free, but these sites do have a few limitations and regulations you will have to follow.

CraigsList has the advantage of being totally free, but since it is free it carries one major hurdle to the internet marketer. That hurdle, as you may have anticipated, is that they do no allow affiliate ads. In other words, you can’t run an ad with the purpose of linking to an affiliate product. Up until very recently, marketers have found ways to work around this. But CraigsList has become more aggressive about their regulation. Either way, if you’re in this business for the long haul it is wise to follow the rules.

USFreeAds does offer a free account, but it carries limited functionality. However they offer two types of paid accounts; the Gold Membership for only $10 a year and the Premium Membership for $9.99 a month. Of course the two levels of paid membership increase the features as you pay more, so you will have to decide which membership will serve your needs. You might be wise to start out with the Gold Membership and do some testing before you dole out for the monthly Premium membership. USFreeAds is generally open to posting affiliate links, but maintains a family-friendly policy and so they will not allow ads leading to Adult content.

General experience with these types of sites is that the general clientele is looking for really good deals, and generally consider the good deals to be something for free. eBay has somewhat of a reputation for this as well, the reputation that its clients want something for nothing, and my experience has been that it holds true even more for free ad sites. Of course this type of client might not be the right fit for everybody, and there will always be exceptions. So in the long run it remains for you to test out these options for yourself and decide if they work for you or not.

But what the heck, as long as it’s free you can’t be out too much more than a little of your time.