Today we’re going to tell you about 8 free sites that’ll help you explode your traffic…

AND get a better search engine ranking…

AND build a name for yourself as an expert in your field…

AND maintain better customer relations…

AND get new ideas for growing your business!

The sites we’re talking about are the ‘Net’s most popular social media sites. They’re online gathering places where people meet to share information and build relationships with each other. They’re also great places to meet potential customers and business partners.

… Plus, you can also build up a huge network of loyal customers who will do a lot of your advertising for you simply by raving about your product to all their friends and family. (And as you probably know, word-of-mouth advertising from a trusted source is the most effective kind of advertising you can get.)

And if some of these loyal customers start linking to your site from their sites, that can help you get a serious boost in the search engine rankings.

Here are the top 8 social media sites you need to know about:

• Facebook: The world’s biggest social networking site. Members go to find other people who share the same interests or activities. You can build your own online profile and share different types of information with each other, such as pictures, videos, blog entries, links to other sites, and music clips.A good marketing strategy is to create a Facebook “Fan Page” for your business and encourage your customers to join. Then you can easily alert them whenever you have updates to share about your business.

• Twitter: A “micro-blogging” social network site. Members send each other short text-based posts of up to 140 characters. When you find members whose “tweets” you like, you can subscribe to their feed and be updated whenever they send a new message.

• YouTube: The ‘Net’s number one video-sharing site. Members share and comment on each other’s videos. You can post a link on your profile page can direct other people to your site. Also, the videos you share can help establish your reputation as an expert in your industry. For example, you could share a “how-to” video that shows your market how to solve a common problem.If you’re not the next Stephen Spielberg, don’t worry — your videos don’t have to be super professional. In many cases, a video shot with a regular digital camera will work just fine.

• LinkedIn: The most popular business-oriented social networking site on the Web. As of May 2009, it had more than 400,000 registered users. It’s a great place to find potential business partners as well as people who may be interested in your products or services.

• Digg: One of the ‘Net’s most popular news-sharing websites. Members post links to their favorite news articles and then comment and vote on the ones they like best. If you get a good rating on an article that includes a link to your site, you could see a huge rush of traffic overnight.

• Stumbleupon: Wikipedia calls this social networking site a “personalized recommendation engine.” Members can explore and rate Web pages, photos, and videos. When they hit the “Stumble!” button on the site’s toolbar, the results displayed are ranked based on your previous ratings as well as the ratings of friends and of members with similar interests.If Stumbleupon members give your site or blog a good ranking, your site will be showed in their results more often, which could lead to a surge of traffic to your site.

• Yelp: A popular review site where members write reviews about local businesses. If you own a local business, this one’s for you!

• Delicious: A popular bookmarking site. Members save links to their favorite websites or articles — just like the bookmarks in your browser — and share those links with other people. Members can comment on each other’s links. Every comment you write links to your personal profile where you can include a link to your site. The more comments you make, the more people you encourage to visit your profile page — and the more traffic you’ll end up directing to your site.

By participating on sites like these you can meet your future customers and learn how to give them what they’re looking for. In exchange, they will be happy to spread the word about your site all over the Internet!

Just make sure you follow the #1 unwritten rule of social media marketing:

You can’t just barge in and say, “Hey, everybody! I have a great product! You should buy it!” Imagine doing that at a dinner party — everybody would treat you like you had a contagious disease.

The same principle applies here — people go to social media sites to socialize, not to listen to marketing pitches. If you want to become a respected member, you need to engage other members in things that matter to THEM. Be friendly, be interesting AND interested, and above all, be authentic. Fake intentions are obvious in a social space.

But if you do things right, play by the rules, and create some fun and interesting content, you’ll be able to spread the word about your business to huge new groups of people. If they appreciate what you offer, then just like in that old shampoo commercial, they might tell two friends — who will tell two more friends — and so on, and so on.

… And before you know it, you just may have an army of loyal customers getting the word out about you — free of charge!

Are you struggling to make serious (or any) money with your Internet business? Then it’s time to put your website to the test!

See, we know from years of experience that the MOST successful Internet businesses belong to people who are constantly testing and tweaking their sites, always on the lookout for changes they can make that will improve their results by even a tiny fraction.

That’s because, over time, these TINY improvements add up to BIG improvements… which lead to LOTS of additional profits in the bank.

And testing is SO easy to do, we’re shocked that so few people actually do it!

To run a test on your site, you just make a simple change (a new headline, for instance), and then keep a close eye on your sales. Do they go up? Then your headline is a winner, and you keep using it. Do they stay the same or go down? Then clearly that headline wasn’t so great, and you simply get rid of it.

Once that test is over, you test something else, either keeping or dumping that change depending on your results. And then something else… and something else…

See? Easy! In no time, you’ve conducted dozens of tests that, combined, will likely push your sales skyward… or finally help you break through your “no sales” slump, and start selling products like hotcakes!

So if you haven’t been doing any testing with your website, TODAY is the day to start!

And while there are all kinds of things you can test on your website, we recommend you start with your salescopy. It’s one of the quickest ways to turn even the most sluggish website into a sales machine.

Here are six areas of your copy that you should be testing to improve your sales, along with the three golden rules of testing that you MUST follow in order to GUARANTEE good results:

1. Test Alternative Headlines

Make no mistake… your headline is the MOST important element on your website!

The stronger your headline, the greater your chances that a new visitor will stick around on your site long enough to buy something.

A good headline should GRAB your visitors’ attention, tell them — in less than 10 seconds — what the main benefits of your site are, what makes you better than your competition, and encourage them to read further, to find out more about what you’ve got to offer.

That’s a LOT of work for one single headline to do, so understandably, it can take a while to find one that accomplishes those goals effectively… and all at the same time!

So be sure you’re constantly testing new headlines, even if you already feel like your current headline is performing for you. You may surprise yourself and find one that improves sales even MORE.

But don’t just test the content of your headline…

Bear in mind that the Internet is a visual medium, and the way a headline looks can also have an impact on its success. So be sure to test other elements, like color, and for visual interest, consider bolding, highlighting, or italicizing the most important words.

2. Test Lower — And HIGHER — Prices

Here’s something that surprises people all the time: A price that’s too low can hurt sales just as much as one that’s too high!

The average online shopper has a “you get what you pay for” attitude, and will often feel that something with a low price mustn’t be very valuable… and therefore not worth having.

So be sure to do thorough price testing. By all means test prices lower than your starting price, but be sure to test HIGHER prices, too!

And remember, it’s possible to sell fewer units of your product at a higher price point, yet still earn MORE revenue, so when choosing a winner for your price testing, don’t just look at the number of sales.

Your price is one of the MOST important things you can test, because it has such an effect on your bottom line.

3. Test Your Site’s Main Body Copy

One painful truth about the website salescopy that you slaved over to get just right is that virtually NONE of your visitors will read it… at least, not word for word.

People who come online looking for information or products tend to scan webpages, rather than give them a close read.

So to encourage your visitors to go through your copy from top to bottom, and at least pick out all of the major BENEFITS of your site and products, there are a number of elements you can test to make the copy more scannable.

Consider trying:

• Bulleted lists and subheads
• Emphasizing important points with bolding, highlighting, or italics
• Using a plain font like Arial or Verdana
• Including relevant graphics and images
• Plain backgrounds, including unpatterned, white, and light backgrounds

You should also test breaking up the copy into smaller chunks. Long blocks of heavy text look like too much work to read, and so people tend to ignore them completely, which will cost you sales. Your visitors should never have to work to find out what your product or service is about!

4. Test Your Overall Offer

Don’t confuse your “offer” with your price, or the product you’re selling. Your offer is actually the entire package you’re promoting, including incentives or bonuses.

To get maximum conversions on your site, you’ll want to try changing your offer by emphasizing different benefits, and trying out different bonuses.

If you’re selling a product using a long-copy salesletter, bonuses are a MUST.

But bear in mind that bonuses shouldn’t just be thrown into the site as an afterthought. They need to be useful and relevant to your readers. The point of the bonuses is to add as much additional value to offer as possible.

So it’s a good idea, when possible, to test different bonuses on your site, to see if you can find some that provide the MOST value to your visitors.

Your benefits are also crucial to the success of your salesletter, so testing these is a very good idea. Your potential customers want to know how your product or service will make their lives easier. And you drive this home by focusing on benefits, not just features.

What’s the difference?

A feature is a particular highlight of a product or service, while a benefit is what the buyer actually gets from using the feature.

Attaching a benefit to the feature answers your visitor’s question: “What’s in it for me?” and gets them to imagine using your product to take care of the problem they’re trying to solve.

So test different benefits within your salescopy (and headline) to find the ones that really click with your target audience.

5. Test Your Site Layout

Any good site statistics program will show you where your visitors enter your site, and where they exit.

If you find that most people are exiting your site from a specific page — without placing an order — you’ll want to do some testing of how your site is laid out.

Elements of your site layout that can affect your sales include:

• The position of your opt-in offer: test different places, or even try moving your opt-in offer to a Hover
• The layout of your site: test one, two, and three-column layouts
• The position of your navigation links: test placing them along the top or down the left-hand side of your page
• The prominence of your call to action: test a different size of text or bolding the call to action

By carefully testing these five copy elements on your website (your headline, pricing, body copy, offer, and layout), you can dramatically boost the conversion rates on your site…

… But BEFORE you dive in and start testing, there are a few basic ground rules for testing that you MUST follow, or you’ll either end up with results that aren’t meaningful, or HARM your site’s performance… or BOTH!

Testing Rule#1: Test one thing at a time

The key to successful testing is to quickly identify each new element that HELPS your conversion rates, and keep it, while figuring out which changes HURT your conversion rates, so you can get drop them right away.

But if you changed your headline, your bonuses, and your call to action all at once, how would you know which of these changes was making a difference (either good or bad)?

So make sure you slowly and methodically go through your website, testing one element at time, monitoring the results carefully, and then either keeping or removing each change, before you move on to the next test.

In this way, over time, even tiny improvements will add up to a BIG increase in sales!

Testing Rule #2: Use a “control” as a benchmark to measure your testYour control is your current best-performing salesletter, email, or other test subject.

For example, if a salesletter with a particular headline is currently generating a 2% sales conversion rate, your alternative headline tests should be measured against that control.

If, during testing, another headline generates a 4% conversion rate, you’ll keep that headline, and it becomes your new control. The next time you test headlines, you’ll try to beat that new one.

The aim is to use your tests to make continual improvements.

Testing Rule #3: Make sure you’ve got a level playing field

Ideally you should run tests within the same time frame to avoid skewing your results.

For example, you shouldn’t test one headline in September and another in December when seasonal factors could make a difference to your sales. Or, if you’re testing an email, you should send the two test emails to the same number of people to get a more accurate idea of which performs better.

The other important thing to remember is to always keep a record of your test results. You may find an old test one day that you thought should have done better than it did, decide to try it again and it works like a dream!

Once you’ve completed your tests, check out the corresponding statistics to measure your results.

The key numbers to keep an eye on include your bounce rate (number of people who leave the site again without visiting beyond your first page), number of visitors who reach your order form, and your sales conversion and opt-in rates. Then you can begin testing more elements!

The truth is, your job of testing never ends… and your salescopy is just the beginning of what you can test on your site to continually increase visitors, sales, and profits.

As we’ve just shown you, testing can be a pretty easy and effective way to start making SERIOUS money with your website, as long as you understand what and when to test, and know how to gather and interpret your results.

To help you out, we’ve put together a comprehensive testing resource that walks you, step by step, through the ENTIRE process of testing your way to BIG profits on your website, no matter how little you’re selling right now.

When you read it, you’ll discover all the step-by-step methods you need to follow to test not just your salescopy, but email campaigns, site usability, pay-per-click campaigns, and even your ordering process.

Plus, we walk you through all of the FREE and low-cost tools you can use to quickly, easily, and accurately gather and understand your test results (no math skills required!), and act on them right away!

And we’ve even included a sample testing plan, which gives you a week-by-week overview of exactly when to run your tests for MAXIMUM results.

Once you read it, you’ll know everything you need to know about how to turn even the most lackluster website into a winner, just through careful testing and tweaking.

You can check it — plus get hundreds of OTHER techniques, test results and resources for starting and growing your successful website  - Just click here!
To your success,

Derek Gehl & The Internet Marketing Center Team

After all, over 90% of people looking for something online start by typing keywords into a search engine like Google. And if the words they type match the ones on your web pages, YOUR site will show up in the results for those terms.

There’s no question that including keywords on your site will get you visitors…

… but using the right words in the right places will get you SALES!

Follow these three steps to turn your site into a keyword workhorse that brings you the people who want what YOU have!

Step 1: Get specific

The highest-converting keywords accurately describe what you sell — and they won’t necessarily be the ones that bring you the most traffic!

Let’s say you sell farm tractors. You include the general keyword “farming” on your homepage because farmers use tractors.

But people searching for “farming” could be looking for an endless number of things that have nothing to do with farm tractors! They could be searching for farm equipment, farm loans, or even information on fish farming!

For obvious reasons, “farm tractor” is a much better general term for your homepage… then you can get even more specific on your other pages.

For example, include the words that specifically describe the different types of tractors you sell (e.g., “back-hoe loaders,” “compact farm tractors” or even “John Deere compact farm tractors”).

Step 2: Put it in context

OK. So you’ve narrowed down your keywords so they describe exactly what you’re selling… Now it’s time to make sure you’ve put the right words on the right pages.

Forget your homepage for a minute. Make sure visitors who are searching for something specific go to a page where they find what they’re looking for… with no distractions. Create “landing pages” that focus on one set of related keywords.

You see, the search engines don’t just look for repeated keywords on a page when trying to decide what it’s all about. They also look at the context of the words around them!

In other words, does each keyword appear on a page with relevant content?

You don’t want to feature the keyword “John Deere compact farm tractor” on a page that sells only bulldozers.

The search engines can also understand synonyms (other ways of saying the same thing). So don’t forget to include variations of your keyword as well.

For example, “small tractors for plowing” on a page optimized for the keyword “compact farm tractor” is totally acceptable — and will help catch people using those other search terms.

And most importantly, your visitors will be able to see at a glance that they’ve come to the right place to buy their next compact farm tractor.

Step 3: Be strategic

Now that you you’ve chosen the right words for the right pages, make sure you put them where the search engines expect to find them.

The search engines will look at a number of places first when trying to decide what your page is all about.

Find out exactly where these keyword hotspots are by reading our blog post.

Then make sure you put your keywords there!

Once you’ve put these three steps into action, you should start to see a serious boost in your conversions across the board… including those all-important sales!

Questions? Comments? Results? Post them on our blog!

By Kate Morrison

But here’s some good news…

E-commerce is thriving in spite of these negative conditions according to Forrester Research. And throughout the remainder of this year and beyond it’s predicted to continue growing rapidly.

In fact, many e-business owners report increased sales over this same period last year.

Internet retailer Andreas Georgio, of AndreasInc.com, says, “[The recession] isn’t affecting me at all. Actually, my business has doubled almost every year since I started.”

Shawna Fennell, founder of 1Choice4YourStore.com, is equally optimistic. “I’m going into our Yahoo stores, and I’m thinking ‘Where’s the recession?’” she says.

“You don’t see it unless you go into the local mall and there’s nobody there.”

Look for e-commerce to experience over $130 billion of growth in the next four years, says Forrester Research.

Their February 2008 report, The Outlook for U.S. eCommerce in 2008 and Beyond, projects that ecommerce sales will jump from $204 billion this year to nearly $335 billion in 2012.

Growth Factors

Offline retail sales growth has slowed to a near standstill. So why is eCommerce flourishing?

Forrester cites several reasons consumers are doing more and more of their shopping online:

• For convenience
• To research products online
• To purchase anything, any time

The research also shows that frequent online shoppers are unlikely to slow their spending any time soon.

Generally speaking, online shoppers have higher income levels than average consumers and are more insulated from the effects of recession. They also tend to be more optimistic about their financial futures.

Overcoming Online Challenges

This is GREAT news for your e-business!

But even in a recession-proof market, you still have to provide the kind of buying experience your visitors are after… or they won’t be back.

Forrester Research suggests some key issues you need to tackle if you want to convert your visitors and get repeat business.

• Shipping charges
  The most common issue scaring customers away is higher-than-expected shipping charges.While you can’t eliminate shipping costs, you can help yourself by NOT padding your shipping charges. Avoid lowering your product price by falsely inflating your shipping costs. Potential customers will likely abandon their shopping-cart, never to return.
• Back orders
  The second-biggest cause of online shoppers’ dissatisfaction is back-ordered products. That’s why you must constantly monitor your inventory levels and your suppliers’ product levels — particularly on your popular sellers.Some wholesalers allow you to watch stock levels on their website. For others, you’ll need to call periodically to check their product status.

  Keeping a close eye on your wholesaler’s inventory becomes even more critical if you’re a drop shipper. After all, you’re not the only seller dipping into their supply. So when you see they’re nearly out of an item, protect yourself and remove the listing from your website until they restock.

  It’s also smart to order a few of your best-selling items and keep them on hand. Then, if your supplier runs short before you can pull the item listing. you won’t find yourself in a back-order situation.

If you can overcome these basic operational hurdles, you’re putting your eCommerce business in a position to profit.

The Outlook for eCommerce

Your online business may very well be your best bet for beating the bad economy.

To learn more about the state of the online retail industry and the best ways to grow your e-business, sign up for WorldwideBrands.com’s free ‘Winning with eCommerce’ video series

By Chris Malta,
CEO Worldwide Brands

But how do you get to the top of the search results when you have to compete with every similar business on the Internet?

YOU DON’T!

You only have to compete with similar businesses in your AREA.

Think about this… Erin lives in SoHo and needs to make some color prints during her lunch break.

She hops on the Internet, does a search for “color printing SoHo,” and Google Maps shows a bunch of businesses in her neighborhood.

It even shows her where they’re located.

She prints out the map and heads off to get her copies done.

Erin uses the location name in her search because if she just Googled “color printing” she’d get millions of useless results.

So if you depend on local business, use those same location-specific keywords throughout your site. You’ll get to the top of the search results for the specific market you’re aiming at.

Easily!

Because most of your competitors won’t know how to “optimize” their websites to snag those local searches.

In fact, a letter I received recently from a chiropractor based in LA is the perfect example. He commented that he’s “getting terrible placement” for his clinic site.

Well, he doesn’t need to compete for his keywords with chiropractors all around the world, since he can’t treat patients everywhere. If he adds a geographic location to his website keywords, he’s only going to face competition from the other chiropractors in his area.

With a site targeted directly at his local market, this is one chiropractor who won’t be suffering from injured rankings!

3 easy ways to optimize your site for local search

So, what’s involved in getting top search engine rankings for the region you want?

1. Use “geo-keywords”

First, decide on how specific to be with your location. The smaller the geographic location, the more targeted your customers will be… although of course you will appeal to a smaller audience.

The chiropractor in Los Angeles would want to include “Los Angeles” and “LA.” But he’ll also have to say exactly where he is — the city, the neighborhood… even the street. People will use all those terms when they perform their searches.

And here’s a tip: When you’re deciding on the location keyword, think about how locals would search for it.

For example, Southern California is often referred to as “SoCal;” while residents of Port Coquitlam in British Columbia call it “Poco.” If you’re targeting locals, you definitely have to speak their language and use those keywords on your site.

Make sure you work your location keywords into your copy and code wherever possible. Use them in your headlines and subheads. And throughout your copy for extra impact.

One of the pages on your website should be a directions page, complete with a Google map.

By using location keywords often you’ll tell the search engines that your site is relevant for those words.

2. Display your address and phone number

Have your full street address on the footer at the bottom of each page and on the side navigation bar.

Include a phone number with a local area code. This will give the search engines all the information they need to nail your location.

3. Get inbound local links

Search engines reward you for having links pointing to your website from other reputable sites and organizations.

Local directories give you an easy way to build up your inbound links… and get your site seen by highly targeted groups of local buyers!

You can submit your site to:

• Goog411 — http://www.google.com/goog411
•  Yahoo Local Business — http://listings.local.yahoo.com/signup/create_1.php
• TrueLocal.com — http://www.truelocal.com/listabusiness.aspx
• Switchboard.com Yellow Pages — http://www.switchboard.com
• Ask Local — http://city.ask.com/city
• MSN Local/Live Maps/InfoUSA — https://ssl.search.live.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx
• CitySearch — https://selfenroll.citysearch.com
• SuperPages — http://advertising.superpages.com/spportal
• Internet Yellow Pages — http://www.yellow.com/advertise
• Better Business Bureau — http://www.bbb.org/membership/index.asp
• Chambers of Commerce — http://www.chamberofcommerce.com/public/index.cfm
• Yelp.com — http://www.yelp.com

Most of these directories offer both free and paid listings. Test out the free service before upgrading to paid to see if it works for you without having to pay any further fees.

Don’t forget to look for other local directories and networks too. Search on “location name + directories” and see what comes up. More and more are appearing every day!

Here is a great resource for more information: http://www.locallytype.com/pages/submit.htm

Be search engine savvy when you’re filling out your listings. Whenever possible mention keywords, area names and product names so you can be found!

If your business is local, follow these 3 tips and watch your site blow away your local competition.

Last week I gave you 6 tips on how to drive more paying customers to your site.

After that newsletter went out, a lot of people wrote me asking for more information about the strategies I mentioned.

… So today we’re going to delve down into two of the strategies I talked about last week, and give you even MORE hot tips on how to make these great traffic strategies work for you.

In this article, I’m going to give you some advice on how to promote your article in forums.

 Forums are a great way to promote your business and indulge your “social” nature at the same time.

Look for forums that are popular with your customers, and then become an active participant in them. Not only will you boost your reputation as an industry expert, you’ll also get some great inbound links pointing back to your site.

To find your customers’ favorite forum hangouts, simply type your top keyword phrases into a search engine, along with the word, “forum.”

Just be aware that there’s a RIGHT way to promote your business in public forums… and a WRONG way.

(Remember… forums are places where people gather to chat and exchange FREE information — they’re not interested in being sold to!)

Here are 7 tips to help make sure you get the message out about your business, without annoying or offending anyone:

Forum Tip #1: Lurk before you leap!

Before you start wading into a forum with your opinions and advice, hang out as a silent “lurker” for a while and get to know the “flavor” of posts that are considered acceptable.

Every forum is different, so what might be considered humorous in one could be offensive in another. Learn who the “regulars” are, what questions are typically asked, and what responses are given. Then do your best to follow the accepted model.

Forum Tip #2: Focus on “relationship selling” — NOT product selling Forum promotions are all about selling YOURSELF as an industry expert, with a wealth of knowledge to share — they’re NOT about selling your actual product!

In a forum, gimmicky sales tactics and hype do NOT work. Unless you want to enrage the other participants, don’t post blatant “buy my product” advertisements.

Instead, look for opportunities to respond to questions with the exact information the people asking the questions are looking for. The trick is to sit back, listen, and wait for legitimate opportunities to share your expertise. This will help you gain the community’s respect and develop a solid relationship with your target market.

Forum Tip #3: Attach a “sig file” to all your posts

An electronic signature — also referred to as a “sig file” — is a three- to six-line footer that you can attach to the bottom of your forum postings.

You absolutely MUST make sure your sig file contains your name and site URL as well as a link to an informative article or newsletter subscription article!

For example, your sig file might look something like this:

All the best,
John Smith

================================================
FREE REPORT: “10 Cheap and Easy Tricks for Increasing The
Value of Your Home by $10,000 in Less Than 1 Week”

To claim your free copy, visit: http://www.topvaluerealestate.com
================================================

Not only does this provide a relevant inbound link pointing to your site for every post you publish on the forum, it also encourages other forum participants to check out your site and see what it has to offer.

Forum Tip #4: Score brownie points by doing the footwork for others

If someone asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, admit it — then tell the person you’re going to do some research to find the answer, and will get back to them once you do. It’s a great way to prove you’re willing to “go the extra mile” for your customers.

(Just make sure you follow through on your promise!)

Forum Tip #5: Encourage visits by announcing site updates

Once you’re a regular forum participant, invite other participants to visit your site whenever you add something interesting or new to it (such as a new article or a holiday edition of your service).

Just post a short note about the changes you’ve made then invite them to check out your website themselves.

Forum Tip #6: Post informative articles that link to your site

Article posting is one of our favorite forum promotion strategies — and it’s one for the fastest ways to get instant sales from forums.

The trick is to write an article that’s full of valuable information your target market is going to be excited to get their hands on. Then, at the end of your article, include a short biography that plugs your product! Here’s an example…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to start profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 million (or more!) per year. To get instant access to all the most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools, and resources that he’s used to generate almost $100 million in online sales, visit: www.marketingtips.com.

… If the other forum participants like the information you provide in your article, you can bet they’ll click on the link in your “bio” to see what your site has to offer!

Forum Tip #7: Focus on forums that DON’T accept advertising

There are two types of forums: ones that accept advertising and ones that don’t. Stick to posting in forums that DON’T accept advertising, because this is where you’ll get the best response.

(Why? Because there won’t be as much competition!)

If you follow these 7 tips, and always remember to be a polite and helpful participant, you’ll find that forums are a great place to generate more leads for your business.

… Plus, you’ll have the chance to “hang out” online with people who share your interests — your future customers!

To your success,

Derek Gehl

Quality traffic — it’s the “Holy Grail” of online marketing.

After all, there’s not much point in having a website if your potential customers aren’t able to find it!

This week, we’re going to focus on some of the different ways you can drive quality traffic to your site. (And by “quality,” I mean visitors that are likely to BUY what you sell on your site!)

In this article, I’ll talk about 6 of my favorite ways to attract more customers to your site. (And all of them are cheap or even freeee!)

And in the article below, two very special “guest contributors” are going to give you ANOTHER hot tip – and talk about how you can use one of the ‘Net’s hottest communication tools to drive even MORE qualified traffic to your site!

So let’s get started with my top 6 tips — if you’re not using any of these strategies, the time to get started is today!

Traffic Tip #1: Give away content

This is one of the best traffic strategies out there… Simply write a series of short articles that are packed with useful information and tips, then submit them to online article directories and other free content sites.

Not only will you get some great inbound links pointing to your site, which will help you with the search engines — other people can republish your articles on their own sites, which will help spread the word about your business and build your credibility as an industry expert!

Here are some article directories you should check out:

• www.ezinearticles.com
• www.freesticky.com
• www.ideamarketers.com
• www.goarticles.com

Traffic Tip #2: Register your site with the ‘Net’s top directories

Not only will you get more visitors from these sites — you’ll also get great inbound links that will boost your ranking with the search engines.

And that’ll send even MORE visitors your way!

Here are some directories you can start with:

• The Yahoo Directory (http://directory.yahoo.com)
• The Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org)
• Best of the Web: http://botw.org
• Jayde: www.jayde.com
• Iozoo: www.iozoo.com
• The Virtual Library: www.vlib.org

Traffic Tip #3: Get links from as many relevant websites as possible

By “relevant,” I mean sites that have content that appeals to your customers and relates to your business or product in some way.

… For example, if you sell vintage hot rod accessories, you’d want to get links from sites that appeal to antique car and hot rod fanatics.

Not only will these links help you with the search engine, they’ll also put your site in front of a greater number of targeted visitors.

Traffic Tip #4: Issue press releases about your business

Online press releases are a great way to announce a new product or report on exciting developments in your industry. And, like the strategies listed above, they will help you get quality inbound links as well as new streams of direct traffic to your site.

Some good press release sites to check out are:

• www.prweb.com
• www.eworldwire.com
• www.sbwire.com
• www.webwire.com
• www.ereleases.com
  
• www.24-7pressrelease.com
• www.prleap.com

Traffic Tip #5: Advertise your services on free online classified sites

These sites are great because they’ll bring visitors who are already in the “buying mood.” Plus, they’ll give you even MORE of those all-important inbound links!

Here are a few good classified ad sites to start with:

• www.craigslist.org
• www.kijiji.com
• www.classifiedsforfree.com
• www.gumtree.com

 Traffic Tip #6: Get active on social sites that focus on your market

Discover the blogs, forums, and social network sites that are popular with your customers — and then get active on them!

By becoming a vocal participant on social sites, you can establish yourself as an industry expert and build your credibility as you spread the word about your business. It’s a great way to build strong relationships and turn potential customers into people who will buy from you again and again.

To find blogs that appeal to your target market, try running a search on your top keywords (one at a time) at Google Blog Search (http://blogsearch.google.com) or Technorati.com (www.technorati.com).

To find a forum that appeals to your target market, do a search for your top keywords and add the word “forum.” You can also check out the following forum directories:

• www.big-boards.com
• www.worldforumdirectory.com
• www.forumvirus.com

Just remember, driving traffic to your site is an ongoing process. You’ll need to constantly test the effectiveness of the strategies you use, in order to figure out which one works best for you.

Happy “trafficking!”

Blogging — both writing blogs AND reading blogs — has gone from being a “fringe” activity to one of the most popular pastimes on the ‘Net. In fact, blogging is now a global phenomenon. There are currently 112.8 million blogs in existence, with 175,000 new ones launching every day.

… But did you know that blogs are also a great way to drive traffic to your site?

Blogs, by design, are built to quickly and easily attract traffic, whether it be from search engines or from a rapid influx of links. The moment you publish a post, your blog goes to work for you letting the world know that you’ve made an update - the search engines come running and you find yourself ranking #1 for keywords in no time.

Here are 4 ways to attract traffic to your site using blogs (and 4 reasons why you NEED to start blogging):

1. Long-Tail Keywords

Instead of using only the most obvious or generic terms related to the topic of your post, focus on more specific words and phrases, i.e., long-tail keywords.

For instance, if you are writing a post about nordic skiing at Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops, British Columbia, you don’t want to target keywords such as ‘travel’ and ’skiing’ which will put you in direct competition with Expedia.com, SkiNet.com and the like.

Instead, use “cross country skiing at Sun Peaks Resort” and not only will your post show up in a blog search, but it’ll soon rank in the top ten in Google’s organic listings as well.

Blogs are notorious for ranking high and fast for long-tail keywords. Over time with hundreds of these, the traffic is far more valuable than having one “highly competitive” keyword.

2. Bookmark with OnlyWire

Onlywire is a service that allows you to automatically bookmark your post on well over 17 high-traffic sites.

It takes just a few clicks to do this every time you post. You simply click a button on your browser, type in a few keywords and hit “submit.” Yes, the service is absolutely free.

Onlywire is a great way to not only attract visitors but to also get the search engines running in to index your new post.

3. Leave Blog Comments

One of the best ways to get traffic and highly valuable links in the beginning is to leave comments on other high-traffic blogs in your niche.

Finding these blogs is easy — either just search Google or visit Technorati and find the most popular in your topic.

A couple of key techniques to use:

A) Don’t use your name, use something catchy (or a keyword). When they post links to your site, they link the “name field” — so as long as you use something enticing, you’ll get people to click.

Or you can use a keyword and that way you get more search engine recognition for the term you are optimizing for.

B) Don’t abuse this — You can easily find yourself blocked from leaving future comments. Leave a comment that is useful and shows that you read what you’re commenting on. Not only will this make the blogger happy but it’ll get you more traffic and credibility.

4. Involve the Press

Too many people have forgotten how great press releases can be for traffic — mostly because they don’t know the “right” way of using press releases.

The trick is to base your press releases on information that actually MATTERS to people.

The easiest way to generate the valuable content for press releases is to quickly poll your readers (or get another blogger to help generate the results). So long as you can get at least 50 people to respond, you can issue a press release with your new-found data.

The press loves data, readers love data — posts and press releases like this make their way around the Internet very fast.

In summary, the above 4 tactics represent less than 20% of the ways that a blog can generate free and targeted traffic to your website.

If you don’t already maintain a blog, you should seriously think about starting one up right away. It’s the easiest way to establish a solid online presence.

… And if you’re not sure how to go about setting up your own blog, don’t worry — we can help!

Simply click here to check out “Blog Classroom.”

There you’ll find 130+ videos that will walk you through the entire process of setting up a blog, managing it, and making posts, plus over 18 techniques to drive traffic.

You can get started today and have FULL access for only $2.97!

Just go to: www.marketingtips.com/blogclassroom — and you can literally have your blog up WITH traffic in less than 10 minutes.

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about my “BeBiz Challenge” — in which I challenge YOU to build a money-making website from scratch in 28 days or less.

(If you follow my proven 4-step system, I guarantee you can do it!)

… Ever since then, I’ve been getting emails that say something like:

“A money-making website in 28 days??? Easy for you to say! You’re able to dedicate yourself 24 hours a day to your business — but me, I’m already working a full-time job that leaves me exhausted at the end of the day, plus I have a family who needs me.… With all these demands on my time, how can *I* ever build a profitable business in just 4 weeks???”

I hear you…

… When you’re already doing everything you can to keep your head above water — but that ever-growing “to-do” list of yours keeps dragging you down — the idea of taking on a massive new project can seem pretty daunting.

(Even when you KNOW the rewards of completing that project will be HUGE.)

However, I want you to know that no matter HOW busy you are, you can always squeeze more hours out of your day. You just have to know where to find those hidden hours — and then make the best possible use of them!

Here are 6 “time-finder” tips that will help you cross those items off your “to-do” list as quickly and efficiently as possible, so you can devote more time on the work that REALLY matters…

… Building your very own money-making website!Time-finder tip #1: Turn off your email!

Set yourself specific times to check your email and respond to it (if ABSOLUTELY necessary — otherwise, ignore it). When I’m in a time crunch, I only check my email at 9:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and then at 5:00 p.m., just before I leave work. That way I don’t have to deal with endless distractions during the day.

… And I figure if someone who’s emailed me REALLY wants to get in touch with me ASAP, they can always pick up the phone and call me!

Time-finder tip #2: Set yourself scheduled “surfing” timesFor me, Internet browsing is right up there with email as a major source of distraction. It’s all too easy to get sucked into reading your favorite blogs or news sites — and then discover that almost an hour has passed, and you have nothing to show for it!

If you’re like me and enjoy surfing a bit too much for your own good, do what I do and set yourself scheduled browsing times. For example, for every two hours of hard work you do, reward yourself with 10 minutes of random “pleasure” surfing.

Just make sure you don’t go over your allotted time! Set an alarm if you have to, so you can get back to your work when your time is up.

Time-finder tip #3: Cut your lunch time in half

If you get an hour off for lunch, use 30 minutes of that time to work on your website. Half an hour might not seem like much, but it’s amazing what you can get done in that time if you really focus on it.

… Also, if you don’t already do this, try to bring your own lunch to work so you don’t have to waste valuable time going out to buy it. Plus, you’ll also save money that way!

Time-finder tip #4: Use your “slack time” wisely By “slack time,” I mean those periods of time during a day where you’re stuck doing nothing — such as when you’re commuting on a bus or train, or waiting in line at a bank machine.

Bring along some training materials to read wherever you go, so you can use that “slack time” to brush up on your learning and put the time you spend in front of a computer to better use.

… You should also bring a notepad and pen with you wherever you go, so you can jot down any good ideas you might have (for example, ideas for niche markets or keywords to research).

Time-finder tip #5: Prioritize your tasks

Even though all the tasks on your “to-do” list may seem like they’re all high-priority items that need to be done ASAP, chances are some tasks are truly more important than others.

Before you begin work each day — whether it’s for your “day” job or your website — write a list of everything you have to accomplish that day, then prioritize the items on the list according to how important they REALLY are.

Next, rewrite the list so the absolute MOST important tasks are at the top of the list, with the least essential ones towards the bottom. That way, you’re guaranteed to get your most important tasks out of the way first.

… And if there are any tasks on the list that don’t REALLY need to be done, then consider crossing them off the list altogether!

The last thing you need to be involved in are silly “make work” tasks that don’t really benefit anyone. Your time would be better spent working ahead on the important projects that really DO need to get done right away.

That way, you can free up even MORE of your time to devote on your website!

Time-finder tip #6: Go on a “TV diet”Many people like to come home from work and “decompress” with a little time in front of the TV.

… Well, as you probably know, TV is one of the biggest time wasters there is — so even if you think that an evening of TV is helping you relax, all it’s really doing is stealing valuable time from you — time that would be better spent working on your website!

Allow yourself one hour of TV watching MAXIMUM each day. Pick your favorite show each day and pre-record it, if you can. (Tivo is one of the great tech inventions). That way, you can fast-forward through the commercials and earn yourself an extra 15 minutes that otherwise would be wasted.

If you’re working to get your website finished within a specific time frame, (as in my “BeBiz Challenge” for example) then you might want to try cutting TV out altogether, or only watching it at special times, such as Friday night. Then, when your site is finished, you can reward yourself with a free weekend in which to catch up on all your favorite shows!

… So there are my “time-finder” tips to help you squeeze more time out of your day.

They might seem pretty simple, but if you follow them faithfully, you’ll be amazed at how much more time you’ll have to spend on growing your website.

To your success,

Derek Gehl

So you’ve found a niche and a blockbuster product, written your salescopy, and built your website…

… Now you’re ready to start counting your money, right?

Not so fast!

Before you do anything else, do this quick five-second test to make sure your site is EASY to use!

Just how important IS website usability?

For an e-commerce site, it’s CRUCIAL. If people can’t follow your navigation scheme, they won’t be able to find your products…

… And if they can’t find your products, how can they BUY them?

In fact, according to market research from the Gartner Group, more than 50% of web sales are LOST because visitors can’t find what they’re looking for!

With results like these, I firmly believe EVERYONE should test their sites for usability.

And with the five-second test I’m about to show you, you can find out key information very quickly:

• Your visitors’ first impressions
• Major roadblocks in your site navigation
• How well your web page communicates its MOST important content

Don’t think five seconds is long enough to learn anything useful?

Well, that’s roughly how long the majority of web surfers spend deciding if YOUR site has what they’re looking for! (The maximum is 10 seconds.)

Here’s what you do…

The Five-Second Usability Test

Step 1: Find several people who fit your target market and ask them to be your focus group.

Step 2: Give your users a focused goal. Let’s say you sell computer software tutorials. The goal you give them might be something like, “Find tutorials relevant to your skills and interests.”

Step 3: Display your homepage for five seconds, then ask your focus group to try to remember everything they see.

Step 4: Once you’ve removed the page, ask your test subjects to write down everything they remember about the page.

Step 5: Ask two relevant questions to see whether your page allowed them to find what they were looking for.

For example, “What kind of tutorials does my site offer?” or “Did you spot a tutorial that fits your current skill level?”

If any of your subjects AREN’T able to recall the most important elements on your page, make adjustments to your layout… then re-test.

That’s it!

(Still in the planning stages of building your site? All the better to find out valuable info BEFORE you invest time and money in it…

… Just do the test using a sketch of your homepage.)

I’d love to hear the results of YOUR Five-Second test when you’re done.

Did you:

• Learn anything new?
• Get unexpected results?
• Wish you’d skipped the whole experience?

Leave your feedback and comments on our blog.