One of the biggest challenges for any internet marketer is getting people to your web site. As you know, without traffic, no one sees your offer and no sales are made.
The first thing to realize is that people dont go online looking to buy something. Theyre looking for information. This is a leftover concept from when the internet was a place to find free products and service. Surfers are used to getting what they need without paying.
So your first challenge is to gain their trust. You can do that by offering them advice. Over time, they will come to appreciate you and want to do business with you. People who trust you and know that you offer valuable information are much more profitable visitors than those just surfing by.
When they eventually buy your product, you just have to be sure its of the same or better value and quality as your free advice, product or service.
Here are some ideas you can use to attract people to your site. They continue to work for many top marketers.
People are much alike - they like to get free things. Thats how the internet became so popular so quickly. It provided almost anything surfers could possibly want.
Webmasters, striving to gain peoples trust in this new medium decided to offer their free services. In fact, they didnt have much choice. The internet was still little known, used by few, and not considered a trustworthy place to do business. Luckily for many businesses today, that is changing rapidly.
A free e-zine subscription is one of the most widely used techniques to attract surfers. Free e-books is another way to get people to your site. Once they are there, they will see your other offers. If they like your free products and services, they are more likely to develop a trust in you and will be more open to buying from you.
Thats why you need to catch their contact information while they are there. Youll want to follow up with them at least 7-8 times to earn their trust and sell them on your products later.
Some of your visitors are likely to be webmasters who need content for their sites. Providing original, up-to-date material will do several things. You will be viewed as an expert in that particular topic. This means people will come to relate your name with the subject next time they are looking for answers.
If webmasters use your material in their e-zine or on their web site, you will be getting links back to your site. The more links you have out there pointing back to your site, the higher Google will rank your site. In turn, this means your site will appear much higher in the search results for that particular search term.
Offering an online directory has become a popular way for people to list what they have to offer, along with links to services on the internet. There are dangers in building such a site. Be careful that youre not just building a link farm.
A link farm is a site that offers a collection of links to other sites. The link farm site doesnt have any of its own content. Such a site will severely handicap your Google ranking. In fact, it could mean it wont get listed at all.
The benefits of providing a directory are greatly outweighed, unless you include your own articles, advice and other offers of use to your visitors. They will like the directory aspect of your site, but since the major directory sites provide such a great resource, its best to leave extensive directory sites to the pros.
Make your directory unique and include value. A good way to do this is to focus on a particular topic for your directory, like internet marketing or worlds best recipes. Your articles and links will relate to those topics only.
For example, a recipe site can offer more than recipes. Add product reviews of anything related to baking and cooking. This could be a new cooking utensil. Link to specialty shops where cooks can find ingredients and supplies. Include books on recipes. This might be a link to Amazon.
Make your site unique. Make it the site people will promote for you to all their friends and anyone else looking for a one-stop destination that answers all their questions. Give away free recipes.
If you have the expertise, consider offering free online seminars or chat rooms where you can meet with your visitors at regular intervals to answer their questions on your area of knowledge.
If youre not an expert at the start, seek someone who is and invite them to join you. In exchange for your experts participation, offer him or her a free ad on your site. Give them an extra plug during the online events. Before long, you will become an expert too.
Viral Marketing is an excellent technique to get people to your site. Simply create a product they can download free from your site. It could be freeware, shareware, demos, reports, e-books. Where possible, include your ad inside with a link to your site. Let other people give it away. People will find you when your product is passed on, so be sure to encourage your visitors to spread your product around to all their friends and contacts.
If you take this approach to marketing your site, youre sure to have those hungry surfers chomping at your sites doorway.
Sylvia Dickens is an author, book reviewer and affiliate marketer. Visit her at for her latest reviews and offers. Get Everything You Need To Make Money Online Including Over *30* Time-Saving, Profit-Producing, Influence-Expanding Tools & Software Programs Absolutely Free In The Next 60 Seconds. Download The Science of Making Money Online now!
Beginner and experienced home based business owners have the unenviable task of submitting their web sites to thousands of search engines and classified ad sites.
The purpose is always - and has ever been - to increase web site traffic. As you know, more site visitors means more sales.
The purpose of this article is first, to provide a no-nonsense guide to web site owners and webmasters on the best web sites to submit your ads and URLs, for free. Second, my aim is to give a fair warning to all and sundry to be very careful about buying web site and ad submission services and software.
As for the first, there are noteworthy web sites to where you can submit your free classified ads and URLs. The problem is locating these web sites. As you know, there are thousands of web sites to submit to, but just submitting to a few sites will spell a difference on your profit position.
You can find these sites through the age-old practice of research. I have done some research of my own, and some of these sites are featured on my web site. These sites are listed below. More are being added regularly. If you are interested, the link on the resource box below will lead you to my classified page.
As for the scam submission services, Ill say the Latin words for alerting you as potential buyer of lemon submission services: Caveat Emptor, or let the buyer beware.
If you want, I can even tell you of one of these services, now continuously promoting their software this early days of 2006. Just write to me using the email address listed on my web site found at the resource box below.
Im sad to say because one of the web pages of the late Corey Rudl, whom I esteemed highly, was used to advertise this lemon service at one time in late 2005. Ill be happy to have snatched you from parting away your forty or so dollars from this ineffective program.
Ill also tell you of one software - which appears to be working good as this point in time. As of now, this program is being sold at about $50 on the Net.
If you are resourceful enough, you can find this same software on eBay at a much lower price. Ill give you the source of this same software sold at $10 on eBay if you send me an email.
Lastly, below is a listing of web sites where you can post your classified ads for free. This listing is updated regularly on my web site classified page.
1second.com/1america.htm - 1 free ad and one category per advertiser every 10 days.
5starads.com
Ablewise.com - Your ad has a duration of 1 week. Repost your ad after 1 week.
Ad-line.com
Adpost.com - The ad you placed is good for 30 days. You can renew your ad.
Adtrackclassifieds.com
Adv-marketing.com - You can renew your ad every week.
Appearfirst.com
Free-world-classifieds.com - This is a free posting to various web sites.
Bestmall.com
Bravenet.com - 1 free ad and one category per advertiser every 10 days.
Buysell-classifieds.com
Classifiedclub.com - Your ad is good for 1 month.
Classifiedsforfree.com - PR 5
Cgispy.com - PR 6
Craigslist.org - You can post to one city/area at a time.
Entertheweb.com
Freeadvertisingforum.com - PR 4
Free-world-classifieds.com
Getyourstuff.org
Inetgiant.com - Your ad is good for 15 days.
Intheworld.com
Netterweb.com
OneIndia.com
Ozemedia.com
Pageland.com
Adanad.com - PR4
Adlandpro.com
Asianclassified.com - PR4
Classifiedscentral.com - PR3
Free-online-ads.com
Greekads.com - PR4
Inetgiant.com - PR5
LAclass.com
Malebits.com
Marketingresource.com - PR3
Myebizpage.com
Netnickel.com - PR6
BTW, Im not affiliated with classifiedsforfree.com, but I have to say their service is excellent and produces results. Its free.
Good luck to your ad posting!
Rick Tanzo is the creator of , which offers free home business and internet marketing resources, free classified ads guide, free software, home business articles, free downloads, and more.