Monday, April 6, 2009

You Can Get Traffic to Your Website - Fast!

By Darrel Hawes

If you have a website, you need traffic.

What is website traffic? Website traffic is actual people browsing your site. Many people have spent good money for the nicest-looking site with all the latest bells and whistles, but lack the visitors that actually generate cash from that site. This is just like building a Walmart, with all the items in stock and employees on staff, and placing in the middle of the Sahara desert.

There are numerous methods for getting traffic to your site. If you are in a hurry, the two methods I explain below should get your special attention.

The first method you should consider is borrowing traffic. If at first you're unsure if this method will work for you, please carefully consider it because it can be a very powerful means for getting new leads. The basic idea is for another website owner to suggest that his or her readers look at your offer. Generally, you will need to pay a commission or referral fee to encourage this action on the part of the website owner.

This particular method is effective for two reasons I'll mention. Firstly, the website owner has already gathered the list of people who are interested in your specific topic, saving you the expense and time of identifying them. Secondly, in so doing you are "borrowing" on the goodwill of the referrer. Consider in your own experience. If you need to make a buying decision, do you place more weight in traditional, self-serving advertising or upon the impartial recommendations of friends and advisers? Most people choose the latter.

If you borrow traffic as described above, it will likely not cost money upfront, though in most cases you will pay a percentage of sales to the referrer.

Next, consider paid advertising. Your options for paid advertising are many, and at the top of your list should be pay-per-click advertising. Google and their Adwords program is where you should begin, and before long, take a look at Yahoo and MSN. The largest benefit to pay-per-click advertising is it allows you to restrict who sees your ads; in this case, only those people who type specific words into the search engine will see the ad.

This method of advertising is attractive for numerous reasons. Chief of these is the ability to match the words people are searching for with your particular ad. Another great benefit is you can track many aspects of your pay-per-click campaigns.

This method does mean you will pay before making sales, although Google probably won't charge your credit card until the end of the month. As a caution, in the beginning you will want to monitor your Adwords account often to make sure you are not spending more than you intended.

We have only covered two methods of generating traffic to your site. In future articles, we will cover many more.

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