Years ago I used to run a small consulting business, we sold computers, software and provide consulting services.  We also installed networks and provided more specialized services such as data recovery.  One challenge that we always had was getting our name out there – advertising.

There is no easy way to advertise, all methods take a lot of money but here are a few methods that generated a lot of calls for us.  There is no reason why some of these methods would not work for the online world.

Offline Traffic Generation Technique #1
Advertise in Staples, Office Depot, FutureShop, BestBuy

During the time we were running this business, typewriters were still very common and places like Staples sold LOTS of different types of typewriters.  Each had paper loaded and we’d go in and ‘test’ them out.  We’d type out our business name, the phone number to call and our slogan.  We did this regularly and amazingly enough the staff never ripped out the paper because we’d get calls regularly.  They didn’t always turn into sales, but it helped get our name out there.

Today the twist on this traffic technique still works – except instead of the typewriter you’re using a PC.  Most of the companies I’ve listed open up their PCs so that you can surf the web.  Simply go onto any PC that is open, and change the homepage to YOUR SITE.  I do this whenever I get the opportunity with some of my niche, MFA sites.

Many stores are now showing off their Apple iTouch, these have WiFi capability – so again, you can change the homepage to be your site.

Offline Traffic Generation Technique #2
Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce or BBB

One of the first things we did was joing the Chamber of Commerce, you see they ran a breakfast meeting weekly where members got the opportunity to talk about their business and what they did.  These meetings normally had 30-50 attendees each time and think of one attendee as a business owner.  Memberships were about $300.00/year – but the opportunity to talk about our business betwen 30 and 50 times per year to business owners was invaluable!

On top of that there were many other advantages.  As a member of the CoC we could use their logo in our advertising, we got discounts on advertising in the CoC newspaper plus a HUGE discount on our merchant services account to process VISA and MASTERCARD payments.

Offline Traffic Generation Technique #3
CONTESTS!

This one is so easy, is silly.  Contest.  the one advantage with being in the BBB and CoC is that you got a chance to mix with other business owners and in mixing with them they tended to remember you since you had the chance to give your your business card.  Because we were in the computer businesses, we always got asked to donate prizes for contents.  At that time, modems were the big thing so we’d buy several modems from our suppliers and use these for contest giveaways.

This gave us LOTS of FREE PRESS plus since we also attached our business card to each prize we gave away we always got calls after someone won one of the modems.

I’ve got a few more offline traffic generation techniques that I’ll share next week with you… stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: generate traffic, generating traffic to your website, Increase Traffic, offline traffic generation technique, traffic generation technique

Hi,

Internet.  Business.  Profit.  To become successful you need to another word: TRAFFIC.

Every article or blog post you will find about making will always emphasize the importance of generating traffic.  Face it – no traffic, no profit.

A sign maker once told me “a business without a sign, is a sign of no business” – the same holds true for your internet business, except you need good, qualified and targetted traffic.  Pointless to send 50,000 visitors looking for “pharmacy” or “viagra” to your IM/MMO site, donchathink?

So, we all know that in the core of it all, traffic is the essential to a successful internet based business.

Aside from ensuring that you have a great product to sell and quality content it would be time to get to the nitty gritty of things, generating targetted traffic.

If your site is internet business/internet marketing or MMO (make money online) related then you are in a very competitive business, you need to be a step ahead of the competition, increasing your traffic flow should have been at the top of your list.

But this business is not as cut-throat as you would think — yes, it is competetive but others don’t go out of their way to blow you out of the water… at least, I have never heard of anyone doing that.

Timing is essential, that’s an old adage known to everyone. But with generating traffic, you should always be on your toes and be a day ahead of everyone. Never think of today and tomorrow as a starting point for getting traffic to your site, it should always have been yesterday.

To help you out in generating more traffic for your site, here are some seven surefire ways to increase your traffic starting from yesterday.

1. Invest in Good Advertising with Search Engines

   Google’s AdWords provides great advertising schemes that are very truly popular.  Although this surefire way to increase your traffic will cost some money.  While some would shy away from spending money to increase traffic, it is imperative in this case to do so because Adwords is a surefire way to increase your traffic.  Don’t think only about AdWords though – there are many other advertising methods on the internet.  You should also look at private ad placements on websites that are very popular, your CPM might be lower than what AdWords charges!
    

2. Exchange or Trade Links with Other Sites

   Yes, this still works – though it may not work as well as it did years ago, this is a traffic technique that is always worth exploring.  With exchanging links with other sites, both sites benefit from the efforts to enhance each others sites traffic.  The more links traded with more sites the more traffic could be expected.
    

3. Use Viral Marketing

   This form of marketing is not easy, getting a video or e-book or other item to go “viral” is a difficult process.  Viral marketing allows you to spread the word about your company and product without any costs or through very low costs.

   This is a marketing method that can be quite sneaky; you can attach your company’s name, product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, entertaining game, an interesting article or a gossip or buzz.  Through this method, people get “infected” with the creativity and entertainment of the medium and they end up passing it onto others that they know.
    

4. Search and use Proper Keywords or Keyword Phrases for Your Sites Content

   Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking in high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you.

   Your content should still flow well, and don’t think about keyword stuffing.  It doesn’t work anymore, and if you’re caught (the SEs are pretty damn smart) you’ll be stripped from their index… or you’ll be found at entry 10,000,000.
    

5. Write Articles that can Lead Traffic to Your site

   Yes – this still works.  Submit articles to Article Directories, in turn others may use your articles for their e-zines or as content on their websites.  Make sure you create and use the resource box on your articles otherwise you’re throwing away perfectly good, targetted traffic.
    

6. Join Forums

   To a certain extent, this still works – but the key is to find the right forums that have not been taken over by the MLM crowd.  Regardless, you can capture a market and show your expertise and credibility.  When you have good foundation for your site, people will trust you and your site and will pass on to many people their trust.  Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.
    

7. CAPTURE E-MAIL ADDRESSES!
   
   Try and capture your visitors & readers e-mail addresses.  This is a good way to increase traffic, since you have a large source of “tapped” traffic.  Offer something useful and ask your visitor to subscribe to get the item.  For example, I offer individuals “blog alerts” – an alert when there is something new posted to the site.  I don’t offer any “freebies” currently – however have managed to build my blog alerts e-mail database.  I do not spam the individuals and they only hear from me when I post something new.

Regards,

Technorati Tags: generating traffic to your website, Increase Traffic, Internet Business

Hi,

Some time I ago, I wrote a post on Yahoo Answers

http://www.oibo.org/use-yahoo-answers-to-drive-targetted-traffic-to-your-site.html

I received an e-mail the other day telling me that it didn’t work.

I agree.  It won’t work.  Unless you are consistent.

I tried to locate stats for Yahoo Answers, but was not successful.  I am guessing that Yahoo keeps this information close to them – if you know where I could find stats, could you tell me so that I can update this post accordingly?

Based on the Wiki entry for Yahoo Answers, as of December 2006 there were 60 million users and 65 million answers.  How many questions get asked daily?  How many answers are provided daily?  You can quickly see that if you’re not active your answers will get buried.

Here is a look at my profile:

So I’m at 169 points.  There are people on Yahoo Answers that are Level 7 and have OVER 100,000 points.  I’m a little drop in the bucket, and obviously I don’t post answers on Yahoo Answers as often as I should.

In fact if you pop on over to the Yahoo Answers leaderboard you will see that the leader is Judas Rabbi has accumulated 470,367 points, he is a at Level 7 and has provide 149,678 answers!  And he’s been registered since 2006.  Those stats were only for US, not global.

Second profile image:

So I need 81 more points to get to Level 2.  Of the 20 answers I’ve submitted, only 2 are selected as Best Answers and even those are in a different category (see below).

Final profile image:

There are my two Best Answers – in General Careers & Employment and Business & Finance.

• Job Dilema – Best Answer
• How can I accquire a Bank Draft in Australian Dollars here in the Philippines? – Best Answer

So what is my opinion on Yahoo Answers?  It WORKS, provided you are consistent.  You have to do it daily, otherwise answers that you do provide with links to your site will get buried.

Yahoo Answers is an easy way to get traffic – but it takes work.  Is this high on my list of traffic generators?  Nope – absolutely not, that’s why I gave away the process of using Yahoo Answers to Drive Traffic To Your Site for free (while others charge for the information).

Take care,

Technorati Tags: evergreen site traffic yahoo answers, generating traffic to your website, Getting Evergreen Site Traffic With Yahoo Answers, traffic from yahoo answers, yahoo answers