Introduction to Traffic and Internet Marketing

Within the world of internet marketing the term ‘traffic’ will be used all the time and basically refers to the flow of people to and from your website.   It is without doubt the most important aspect of your business as an internet marketer – this traffic is your potential customers.

I was very experienced at drawing in customers when I worked in the offline world, but Internet Marketing proved to be a completely new learning curve for me.  The hardest part I found was accepting that you are dealing with ‘faceless customers’ so you have to find some way of winning them over, of making them want to buy from you.

This is where some marketers become unstuck.  You see, they buy a domain name, put up a squeeze page or small website then sit back and wait for the traffic to flock to their website.  I have to tell you that many of them are still sitting there and they are waiting and they are waiting and waiting again….  It just doesn’t work like that unfortunately as over 90% of potential internet marketers find out to their cost.

The best type of traffic

Some marketers are under the misapprehension that if they buy lots of lists of names and email addresses then that will solve the problem.  So why does it not solve the problem?  They voice comments such as “I thought the whole object of the internet marketing business was to drive traffic to your website.”

Well the reason it didn’t work is because many of those people on that list had not the slightest notion of buying into their opportunity.  In a nutshell, they were not targeted traffic i.e. they were not opportunity seekers searching out a product similar to what you are selling.  Perhaps they were just browsing, came across your site, liked the FREE product you were promoting to get people to sign up and voila, they appear on your list.

Now in theory, this should work right?  All the other internet marketers tell us the money is in the list so why are the people on my list not buying my products?  The answer is simple although there may be a few reasons why they are not buying:

• They have absolutely no interest in the niche industry you are selling in
• There is no relationship built up between you and them, they do not know you, you are a faceless person to them
• They are just not in a position to buy at this time but could do so in the future
• They are not impulse buyers and take a bit longer to be convinced of the value a particular product can bring to them

In summary, you will not have an internet business until you have a list and you will not make money online until and unless your list is a targeted one.  You have a product or products to promote that are in high demand and your marketing is targeted towards finding those people looking for your product and driving them towards your opt-in form on your website.  It is the basic rule of economics – supply and demand!

The REAL secret to Making Money Online and what most people do not do

Making money online is a skill and just like any other skill in life, it CAN be taught.  Many people online teach how to make money, or claim to teach this but what they are doing in effect is trying to sell lame products.

How do you actually make money online?

Similar to any offline business, there is a system to success, it is no good starting out in a web business ‘hoping’ and ‘wishing’ and sitting with fingers crossed; there is a process to learn and you need to learn what this process is.

Does this process take time to learn?   Yes it does and it took me 5-6 months to really learn what it was all about.  Does it work?  You bet it does but you really do need to know what you are doing if you want to build a sustainable business and you are in it for the long haul.

4 main elements to online success

Basically there are 4 main elements, all equally vital to online success and these are:   Having the correct attitude, the right mindset

• Knowing some simple web skills
• Having a product(s) (be it yours or someone elses)
• Having the skills to market your product

You have the correct mindset already if you are reading this article, because it means you are interested in, or are considering moving towards an online business.

If you are serious about wanting to make money online and you have a fear of the web, you need to get over this.  I am sure 99% of people have this fear when they first start off and I was no different.

Products – this is where I see a lot of people make mistakes.  A large majority of new marketers will spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars buying a vast range of products from experienced marketers with great promises of ‘riches’ by simply selling them on.  What happens in many cases are these products, be they DVDs, CD ROMs or elearning materials end up gathering dust under the bed, in the garage or sitting on a computer hard drive and never opened up.  Why is this?  It is because most people do not know WHAT to actually do with the products.

Do you know how the majority of people make their money online?  They sell directly to their own list.  This means they sell directly to people who are already on their database.  How do they get people on this database?  Well they work very hard to capture our details when we first visit their website, we enter our name and email and we are entered straight into the marketers’ list or database.

How do they make money from their list?

The marketers spend a lot of time and energy into building their list by sending out regular emails talking about themselves and offering value to the people on their list by way of free products etc.  They start to build up respect and trust with the people on their lists and then every time they have a product, they send out an email to this list.  Because they have spent time cultivating and building a relationship with their list, it normally always results in a sale.   You will hear the saying time and time again in internet marketing “the money is in the list” and this is absolutely true.

I see many newcomers to the industry make the same mistake in believing that simply having a product online will result in sales.  This may have been true some 8 or 9 years ago but no more.

Common mistakes made

As outlined above, many people misled into the industry believing they will make their fortune overnight become rapidly disillusioned.  Their initial all important enthusiasm (correct mindset and attitude) gets slowly chipped away.  Goodbye excitement quickly changes to hello resentment and they will start to say things like “the web is a con; you can’t make any money on it….”  Well, yes you can but you need to know WHAT and HOW you should be working your business.

The successful online marketers today work smarter, not necessarily harder but smarter.  By that I mean they focus on building their lists.  This business is a marathon and not a sprint.  You may be excited to get you site online and let everyone know about your product and this is great; this enthusiasm is encouraged and supported.

However, if you could just slightly change your thinking to concentrate, at least for a while on simply building a list, this will probably be the one defining element that will separate you from the majority of people who do NOT make money online.

In summary, the three most important elements to your business are:

• Building your list
• List building
• Building your list

There is a HUGE difference between having a website and having a business.  Whilst you do need a website, there are thousands if not millions of websites out there not making money.  Therefore having a website is not having a web business.

Having a product is also NOT a business, again there are hundreds of thousands of websites that have a product but make no money.

So, to finish off, what is the key to having a successful online web business?  The answer………Customers - or in other words ‘YOUR LIST’.

Want to work with me and start off the RIGHT way?  Just enter your details on the right hand side of the page here and get lots of FREE information that will start you off, and more importantly make sure you STAY on the path to MAKING MONEY ONLINE.

How to generate FREE site traffic using Yahoo Answers

If you were aware that Yahoo Answers has a user base of more than 21 million unique users in the US alone and over 90 million worldwide, would you not be intrigued to find out what it is all about?  If you also knew that it is one of the most effective and simplest methods of increasing your website traffic for free, would you not want to be a part of it?

One of the easiest ways to drive free traffic to your site is through Yahoo Answers and for some reason; it is one of the most overlooked methods in the strategies of many Internet Marketers.

Step 1

You will need to sign up at http://answers.yahoo.com although if you already have a current Yahoo messenger account, you will be able to create an account using that ID.  The author has no monetary link to this site; the link is added to increase value within this article.

Step 2

Complete your Profile.  Once logged in you can create or edit your profile and take the time to fill out as much information as you would like others to see then save this information.  Yahoo Answer members can contact you via messenger if you have this option enabled or through email.  You  have the choice however, of not allowing any private contact other than your responses to the questions you answer.

You will want to brand yourself so it is suggested that you upload a photograph and it’s an effective way to make your profile more memorable as this picture will appear alongside your answers.

Step 3

Take time to look over the site, looking at the types of questions asked.  On the left hand side of the main page you will see a list of categories and it is within these that questions are posted according to their subject matter.  To help increase the free traffic to your site, you will only choose those categories that relate to your niche industry.  Some of the categories listed (in alphabetical order) are:

Arts & Humanities, Beauty & Style, Business & Finance, Cars & Transportation, Computers & Internet, Consumer Electronics, Dining Out, Education & Reference

How to Promote Your Product

Before you start answering questions you should have a good idea as to what you plan on promoting.  You should never go into Yahoo Answers with the sole aim of promoting your product.  Instead focus on adding value, people have posted questions on there because they are looking for solutions.  If your product happens to be a possible solution for them, that is when you post your link.  Your link goes in the Source box at the end of your answer and not within the main body of your response.

This is how you get free traffic to your site; it is a simple but effective way to promote your websites and direct people to find out more about the topic of their question.

Step 4

It is important that you answer questions as thoroughly as you can and at all costs avoid spamming your websites within answers when there is no relevance for this.  If you need to do some research to help someone out, then this is what you should do.  It is all about adding value, building a credible presence and aiming for your answer to be voted a ‘Top Answer’.  This is how Yahoo Answers works; the person who posted the question will choose what they consider to be the Top Answer and the responder then earns a further 10 points.  It is worthwhile spending some time in the early stages to look over some resolved questions (those that have top answers voted) and see the different ways that people answer the questions to earn this prestigious position.

Step 5

No Spamming.  If you do this, you run the chance of not receiving any votes and your answer may be removed completely.  You want to build up a credible presence by giving lots of content in your answers and whilst aiming to promote your site, focus first and foremost on giving good content.

WATCH THIS – How to Get FREE Traffic using Yahoo Answers video that will give you a walkthrough on what Yahoo Answers is all about.

If you would like to learn more about this and other FREE traffic sites, sign up on the right of the page here, grab the FREE eBook and this will be followed by a series of 26 Internet Marketing videos (valued at $197) but yours for FREE.  These videos were designed and delivered by one of the TOP Gurus within Internet Marketing and he takes you by the hand to making great money online.

The #1 Secret as to why 97% of people fail to make money online

Making money online is the ultimate goal of every internet marketer whether you are marketing affiliate products or running a business opportunity.  What is it then that makes 3% of people hugely successful whilst others can only look on in envy?

Why do so many people fail?

In summary, the answer is that ‘97% of people marketing online have no real idea of what they should be doing’.  If you are one of the 3% of people that are really making money online, then this article will resonate with you.  If on the other hand, you are with the majority, then what you will read here should, if you want to change the statistics, really make you think and operate differently.

The main reason I did so well in such a short space of time was that I focussed on getting the basics right, the fundamentals and completely took my eye off what is most people’s focus, making lots of money in as short a time as possible.

How do I do it the right way?

To make money online, you need to follow systems that work and replicate them.  Innovation is also great and welcomed but if you continue to build castles in the air with very little or no foundations, the sustainability of your business is at risk.

The success of any online marketing business is building a list and makes all the difference between failure and continued success online.

Any successful online business works in basically the same way – a website is created and focussed on the niche industry you are marketing.  You then GIVE SOMETHING AWAY FOR FREE in order to build your list.  This is THE most important step that many people (97%) miss out on because they are too focussed on trying to make immediate sales and it just does not work, well not long-term anyhow.

Once you have that list, you need to nurture a relationship with them.  You need to always under promise and over deliver each and every time you are in contact with them.  You need to provide information of value to them and if, after a period of time, this value is in the form of your products, then you market them to your list. 

By nurturing a relationship with your list, you get to know them; you get a feel for what they are looking for – remember the basic rule of economics, demand and supply.  If they need something to move their business forward and you happen to have that product, then at this point you sell it to them whilst outlining the value it will bring to them.

Once you understand the power of building a list first and building a relationship with that list BEFORE you do any selling to them (treat people as people, not walking ATMs) then you will succeed in your online business and make lots of money online.

Would you like to learn these strategies and follow some very simple but really effective strategies?  Sign up on this page here to receive your first FREE gift from me and there are many more to follow, I give you that guarantee!

Forum marketing – generate endless leads in a targeted marketplace

What is forum marketing?

Forum marketing a super simple strategy that almost anyone can use for networking, building relationships and building leads in this industry.  All over the internet there are a vast amount of interesting and free forums ranging from any niche you can imagine, from houses to animals to cars etc.  Network marketing, internet marketing, residual income, you name it, there are forums absolutely anywhere that you can network in.  Not only can you network in them, but you also get a signature file in a forum.  This is like a little ad that displays underneath every single post that you ever make in a forum.  This is one of the primary ways that you can generate traffic and leads from within forums.

A post (known as a thread) relates to something you write; anytime you think of a topic you want to write a short note about or you see topics displayed that you can add benefit to, then you are submitting a post.

Forum marketing is free, takes little effort and is lots of fun because you’re interacting, learning and building relationships.

Some recommended sites

Some forums I can recommend are:

• Richdad.com
• conqueryourniche.com
• warriorforum.com
• Betternetworker.com
• wahm.com (work at home mums)
• homebasedbusiness.com

The wahm.com forum, although by implication may be aimed at a specific audience, is not that at all, there are lots of different types of businesses on there and a variety of threads that you can add value to and promote your business opportunity.

For example, I went into warriorforum for the purposes of adding some value to this article and there are currently 689 people viewing the internet marketing forum threads in there.  What potential is that for you to promote your opportunity?

It’s not all about you and your opportunity though, and if that’s all you go into forums to do, people will get annoyed; you need to go in and add value.  This can be done by educating others, sharing experiences or simply starting a thread on a niche topic that is of interest to you and you wish to gauge the opinions of others.  The main point of all of these is about building relationships; remember people join people not businesses!

The main concept about online marketing and internet marketing is ‘What attracts people to you?’  It is the amount of value that you offer them, the depth of the relationship that you have with them.

How to position yourself when in the forums

This is how you want to position yourself when you’re in any social networking.  You want to promote the team training that you have to offer alongside the team infrastructure.  You want to position the fact that you are plugged into people or that you yourself can teach people how to make money.  It’s that simple – you can teach people how to be a true professional in this industry, how to understand the true marketing principles out there that allow people to generate leads or bring in new business and do all these different things and that you know how to teach that to anyone.  On top of that, you’ve got the whole training platform infrastructure in place so when you’re networking and building relationships and talking to other leaders, you can relate to the unnecessary duplication required because everything is already there.

So, what are you waiting for?  Get out there and start building new and productive relationships within the many forums connected to your niche, promote yourself as a leader in the industry, provide value to others and raise awareness of your opportunity in a targeted marketplace.

Want to Make REAL Money Online? The Money is There Waiting in Your List!

Building a list is extremely important and once you understand it, it is really simple to grasp.

The fact is you can build a list in a couple of different ways.

How to do it

1. The number one way to build a list is to give something away for free.  This could be a:

• Free report

• Free product

• Free trial

I would suggest exercising slight caution and careful thought as to what you want to give away, you don’t want to devalue your main product and if too much is given away free, there may be reluctance when your prospect finds out they eventually have to pay for a product.

2. Another way to building a list is to create curiosity where you make an upfront statement or a bold statement in your headline that people are just drawn to.  They’re thinking “Oh I guess I just need to find out more about this”.  An example of this could be on your capture page you have a heading such as ‘Find out the controversial and sometimes shocking truth behind (your business opportunity)’.  Another example could be ‘Just released (your business opportunity), video report reveals everything you ever wanted to know about this business’.

When you create an opt-in form, you want to be selling the opt-in form; you don’t want to be selling your opportunity.  You just want to be giving people an incentive to join your list because when they join your list, this is your opportunity to cultivate that list, get people to bond with you, like and trust you so you don’t have people who are coming on and just leaving.  You want to be able to continue to market to these people things that are going to be beneficial to their business or to their interests and that’s when you can get into marketing affiliate programmes and such like.

Resources

The main essential resource you will need for building any list is an effective auto responder.  This will ensure your message is getting to who you want it to, when you want it.  If you are just starting out and your marketing budget is tight, the small investment of about $12-15 per month for an auto responder is absolutely essential if you want to continue in the internet marketing world.

Mindset and Determination

Many people when they start in internet marketing become increasingly agitated and frustrated and their inner voice is constantly there telling them they can’t do this.  They think “I don’t know how to build a website, I have no idea how to create any of this stuff, and I have no idea what the heck I’m doing”.  “What do I say to these people?” 

Just think back to when you started on the path to the business you were in.  What were the things that attracted you to invest?  You just need to put yourself in the prospects’ shoes, what are they looking for, and what do they want to know?  Then just give it to them.