Three Of The Most Amazing Traffic Generating Internet Marketing Strategies…EVER! For Now?
by Marsha Maung
Sept 24th, 2008
Internet marketing is a really interesting business because nothing ever stays the same for a very long time. During my early days in this business, I built websites and sat around for months waiting for traffic to come in…knowing nothing about internet marketing and trying to drive traffic to the sites that I’ve created. Months! Painful months, I kid you not. Website traffic can only be created through proper internet marketing methods and through proper channels; and if you’re new to all this internet marketing business, you have my full permission to get confused now.
Paying for it – the most popular internet marketing strategy (not the most effective, let me qualify here)
Anyway, the first type of internet marketing method or promotional effort of driving traffic to your website is the…well, obvious one. You pay for it. Back in those days, internet marketing was all about purchasing banner space(s) or text advertising links in other high traffic volume websites. You pay for traffic – and you’ll need to budget something if you use this internet marketing strategy.
Yahoo had a rather good head start in the internet search engine arena but they didn’t really make headway until Google came into the picture. Google rolled this off with their Pay Per Click advertising internet marketing advertising option called the AdWords program…then Yahoo followed suit with the Sponsored Search Program. Both internet marketing strategies pretty much work the same way - you pay for the traffic that you get for the keywords that you want.
When you look at the whole internet marketing scenario on a short-term basis, Adwords and Yahoo Sponsored Search Listing might be worth a shot but in the long run, trust me, you can run up a bill so high if you don’t know how to convert the traffic that you’ve PAID FOR into SALES! A very uncertain internet marketing method for green horns.
With these PAID FOR internet marketing methods, here’s something that you have to consider.
- You pay for traffic that might NOT convert into sale
- The more popular the keyword, the higher the price…lots of people has (conniving) ways of driving the cost per click up without you knowing. You could be celebrating your millionth click through this internet marketing method and not know that you’re paying through your nose for touch-and-go clicks.
- The system and the way they calculate the cost of Pay Per Click and Sponsored Listing internet marketing program is too complicated for people who are used to advertising in newspapers and magazines. (read: common folks who don’t search for tampons or baby milk powder delivery on the internet)
What do you do when you can’t afford Adwords and Sponsored Listing internet marketing method?
You exchange links with others…which is what I consider borrowing or trading or bartering with someone else for traffic. There are two benefits to this internet marketing method.
One, there’s mutual benefit – you win, the other person wins.
Two, Google (and thereafter, all the other search engines as well) seems to like in-coming links as well…which led to what we used to call ‘link farming’. Ban, says Google. Ban them all…mua ha ha ha ha.
They came up with a tactic to methodologically eliminate and render useless, the link farming internet marketing. I told you, the internet marketing industry is a strange, strange…STRANGE industry.
The problem with this type of internet marketing method is that the search engines want ‘targeted’ or ‘related’ traffic. In short, it only counts when you exchange links with websites who are within the same industry or complements your industry. Example….razor blade + armpit hair (I know, gross…but so what?), menopause + women mags, parenting + milk bottles…etc.
If you run a website on ‘how to milk a cow’ and you’re exchanging links with a ‘graphic design’ company, the search engines will ignore the link completely. So…the internet marketing activity is thrown out of the window.
The problem is, trying to get links from your competitor or companies within the same industry can be a pain in the rear end because we may be fighting for the same target market. The question like ‘What if my customer goes to your website, likes yours better than mine?’ would sooner or later crop up.
Well, if you have an open-mind about this, that’s great; “Let’s exchange links. If they go to yours, fine. If they come to mine from yours and like mine better, your bad”. But there are some really aggressive internet marketing experts out there who can make it happen. You can also exchange links, not only in your website, but also in your newsletters or mailing list.
The hardest but most worthwhile internet marketing method would be to create your own traffic
Ask any internet marketing guru out there who is worth his or her salt and he or she will tell you that the best internet marketing method is one that creates traffic, not borrowed or bought. I don’t even know where to begin when I talk about creating your own internet marketing plan and putting it into play because there are literally hundreds of ways to generate online traffic to your website! (And people have the audacity to tell me that I sit around all day, doing nothing, write, publish, link and mail stuff to people…sheesh!)
The number one traffic-generating internet marketing method is through…guess…WORDS, of course. The internet is full of words. That is why I say a ‘flash based website’ is a load of bollocks!
YOU. NEED. WORDS. SO. THAT. SEARCH. ENGINES. CAN. READ. THEM. COLLECT. DATA. AND. LIST. YOUR. WEBSITE. BASED. ON. THE. WORDS. YOU. HAVE. ON. YOUR. WEBSITE (pages).
That is why I write, I write and I write everyday till my fingers are falling apart, for myself. Even if I have a ton of work to write for my clients but this is the internet marketing strategy that I believe in. And you should too! This internet marketing method works for everything including websites, blogs, online journals, etc. Creating and distributing free ebooks and videos work too, for your information.
But sigh…I’ll end up writing an ebook of my own right here right now if I get into that. So, I’ll leave you with the above and hope that you have some time to digest what was just said (written).
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based freelance writer with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her blog for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
REPUBLICATION RIGHTS! IMPORTANT!!
Listen up! I am a very nice person, if you think this article is neat and you'd like to publish it in your website, all's cool with me but with one condition. Only one and from the bottom of my heart, I wish that you would, in all sincerity, allow me my one single wish....to place the following codes into the your website at the END OF THE ARTICLE. It's not going to disrupt much, so please do it?
Either paste the above ABOUT THE AUTHOR stuff into your website (with links included) or copy the following codes into your website. That's it! Thank you! *muax*
<b>Marsha Maung</b> is a Malaysian-based <a href="http://www.marshamaung.com" target="_blank">freelance writer</a> with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her <a href="http://www.marshamaung.blogspot.com" target="_blank">blog</a> for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
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