• Get ranked well on the most important search engines (Google, Yahoo, Msn, Ask.com, etc.)
• Pay Per Click (PPC) programs
• Per Click (CPC) programs
• Link Exchanges
• Directory Submissions
• And more…

All of these methods are valuable for getting traffic to your website. If you are not competent enough to rank well your keywords, you can obviously hire a SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) for this work. From search engines you can get a very large portion of traffic to your website.

Today, everyone wants to know the big secret to driving traffic to their website. Every day I see an article or an ad talking about driving people to your website; driving traffic to a website has become the “holy grail” on the Internet. People are realizing that if you build it, they won’t come… unless you give them a reason. Website traffic just doesn’t happen by itself. Your website is just one of many millions on the web and people rarely just stumble upon your site by accident.

There are many ways to drive traffic to your website. You can buy traffic from vendors that will pummel your website with hits from automated programs. This will increase your hits but will it increase your bottom line? Probably not. You can set up blogs that spider (connect to) your website increasing your traffic count. Does this drive users to your website? Only if your blog is so interesting that people are reading it. There are thousands of blogs posted on the internet and your blog is just a needle in the internet haystack.

Another trick is to create RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for your website and subscribe to other RSS feeds. This again will increase your hit count but will do very little to drive potential customers to your website unless you’re providing valuable information. Tricks will increase your hit count but do very little todrive potential customers to your website.

People often turn to traffic exchanges. Quite simply, a traffic exchange is a program where you sign up and agree to surf sites in exchange for some credits. These credits are then used when other members of the exchange surf to your site. This traffic is not highly targeted traffic. In fact, if this were your only method of advertising your website, you’d probably fail. BUT it is a great method of getting traffic to your site in addition to the other methods listed above.

So, why do people use traffic exchanges? Here are a few of the benefits:

• Increase your Alexa rating! Did you know that some search engines factor your Alexa rating into their algorithms? More traffic means higher search engine placement!
• Increase your branding awareness. Any marketing expert worth his salt will tell you that branding is extremely important to stand out amongst the billions of websites out there. More traffic equals more sales. A percentage of people surfing will be enticed by your ads and click on them to find out more information. Another source of revenue. Many traffic exchanges will actually pay you money to surf. More importantly, as you refer other people to the network, you’ll earn a percentage of the money that they earn! It may be small amounts but if you work the system it could amount to a lot of money.

Now, before you head over to Google and search for Traffic Exchange, I’d recommend knowing a few facts:

• traffic exchanges are simply out to get money from you and will refer very little traffic to you.
• traffic exchanges have poor systems in place to stop cheaters from running programs to increase their credits faster.

Finally, some traffic exchanges will allow popup, active x controls, site rotators, etc. in their network. Any of these can stop your auto surfing from working, or even worse, allow your computer to be infected with a virus.

The best part about Traffic Exchanges is that you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The worst thing that could happen to you is you get a little bit of traffic which increases your Alexa rankings and you don’t get any money.

Of course, for the system to work, you’ve got to make sure that you do some surfing yourself. The makers of the exchange programs realize this and some of them even have an auto surf feature where you get a reduced number of credits while your browser happily loads page after page every 10 seconds or so.

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The idea here isn’t about getting as many business directory listings as possible. The idea we need to create is about more community within your directory.

I always like using a “saying” I learned from network marketing: “I would rather utilize 1% of a hundred people’s effort, then utilize 100% of my own to market my business.” If you keep this in mind, there is nothing you can’t be successful at.

With that in mind let me be quick to point out that, I am not talking about creating an affiliate program. Those come a dime a dozen and can be bought. What we need to do is create something larger than ourselves. I am talking about taking our directory and improving everything involving people.

GENERAL DIRECTORIES ONLINE:

For these types of directories, it gets a little harder to create a community people can relate to. This is only true simply because the more broad your audience/visitors are, the harder it is to target your resources.

Here are some ideas you can use for a general directory:

- Create a blog and use it to feature some new listings within your directory. Maybe even offer a review of some kind.

- Offer the ability to add a logo or image attached with the listing in order to personalize it more.

- Give people the ability to submit more information than most of your competing directories out there.

- Make sure to include a detailed search function.

- Create an online questionnaire on tips to improve the directory. Use these tips right away.

- Email everyone within your directory maybe once a month outlining all of the new listings posted online for that month.

- Make sure to have a “news” page so that visitors can see what’s new.

I think you get the idea now. The whole point is, there is no limit as to how you can expand “around” your directory listings in order to increase the value of your directory online. The more you give back to people, the more they might tell their friends about your directory.

TARGETED TOPIC RELATED DIRECTORIES:

Whether your directory is targeting the local business community or you are targeting the international health community, having a directory that is more content specific will make it a lot easier to create a community based website.

Here are some ways to better your targeted directory:

- Create a forum detailing all of the topics within your directory so that people can discuss issues or tips within those categories. For ex. If you own a local business directory, create a forum to allow local business owners to discuss business related issues, hot commercial real estate properties, special deals on office equipment, etc.

- Create a news section that outlines some local news & events within your community. This will especially help to bring more local visitors to your directory and expose your listings further.

- Offer weather & traffic reports within local community directories.

- Add a feature page where you actually interview one directory member (maybe once a month). This will help people to get more familiar with the members of your directory and it will also help promote your directory. People who are submitting to your directory may only submit just for the chance to get interviewed about their service/product/expertise.

- Add a blog with your experiences related to the topics of your directory. This will help in two ways:

1) People will be able to relate to you and feel more connected with you.
2) People will begin to respect what you are doing and may tell more people about your directory since they are starting to feel that your directory is more people oriented instead of just simply getting the most listings in the world.

- Add related tips to the industry. The internet is full of reprint articles for your website. I am 99.9% sure you can find articles related to your industry. Maybe start a newsletter for members of your directory and send them tips on their industry. Who doesn’t want to learn more about their industry!?

In Conclusion:

As you can see from above, by simply taking some ideas here, and implementing them within your directory, you will be well on your way towards creating a more community-based directory. This is very important these days as more and more directories like yours are popping up everywhere.

Let’s not forget about search engines. They too are increasingly rewarding communities more than they are rewarding simple directories online. The more resources and content you add around your directory listings, the more valuable they become in the end and the more traffic you will get.

The more valuable your listings are, the more visitors will be willing to come back from time to time and possibly tell their friends about it. You never know what will make it or break it but, all we can do is try our best to increase the value of our increasingly popular online community.

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However, many websites are facing this problem: No visitors >> No sales. And it can be a daunting task for newbie webmasters new to online marketing. In this article, I provide some internet marketing tips and solutions for webmasters new to website promotion.

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There are many ways you can market your website indeed:

a) Search Engine Positioning
Some may call this search engine optimization, or “SEO” for short. It is the most effective way to market your website online. To illustrate what I mean, you may type the keywords “Singapore web design and hosting” into MSN search box, and see if you can find Singaporewebdesigner.com. [We are currently ranked top 10 for the keywords you just typed].

In fact, statistics have also shown that more than 80% of online traffic is driven by search engines. However, to squeeze your way into Google top 10 can requires a lot of time and effort. If your site is newly built and has not been indexed by Google, there is no way you can rank top 10 for popular key phrases within 1 month. You can take my word for that.

Benefits:
1. Highly targeted visitors searching for your products and services.
2. Very cost effective in the long run compared to advertising.
3. Increase your website’s online reputation.

b) Pay per click advertising
This effectively means that you advertise your site on other websites by pay per click. You will pay for every click when visitors click on your ads on other sites.

Currently, the 2 most popular pay per click advertising campaigns will be Google Adwords and Yahoo! Overture This is another very popular way to market your website online. It is not easy for new websites to climb their ways to the top of search engines ranking. Hence, this is a very popular marketing solution for new websites.

c) Article Writing
If you can write articles in good English, article writing can be one of the most economic ways to market your site. You need not write like an English professor. In fact, many internet marketing experts suggest that you write in a personalized style. Your articles need not be too long. Online visitors do not spend the whole evening trying to figure out what you want to say. Also, writing in proper paragraphs and point forms help to convey messages fast and effective.

After writing an article, remember to include a resource box.

See example below:

“Article by Byon Ong, Singapore web design, hosting and website promotion”.

You may also suggest your article to Articles Factory as a writer. If your article is interesting with useful content, many sites would want to publish your articles in their sites. By contributing useful contents for their readers, they provide valuable backlinks to your site in exchange.

Here are only basic ways to promote your websites. For more promotion tips and techniques, you may want to read Internet promotion and marketing Part 2.

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