By Lars Knutsen

 

In my experience it pays to optimise your website enough to be found in the search engines.  Although, if you are just getting started online, or are still struggling to make a decent income from the Internet, you should highly consider paid traffic as a way to turbo charge your business. 

 

The choice is yours; either spend time and money waiting for your business to naturally receive lots of traffic, or spend time and money to instantly receive lots of traffic.

 

Option #1 – the organic traffic method.  This is the worlds best known source of traffic.  This model requires you to spend your resources to build a network of links pointing to your website / business.  You would then optimize the content on your web pages to include common keywords your target customer is searching for online.  After you have optimised your website for the search engines you will begin to receive “free” traffic to your website.  At this point you will be able to see if your business is something your target market is interested in.  If you were right about everything up to this point you will begin to make money online.  If you were wrong about your market or optimisation characteristics it is possible to easily waste a lot of precious time and resources.

 

This is why I vote for option #2 – the paid traffic method.  It is always better to quickly drive traffic to your website, especially if it is new.  This allows you to quickly test offers, ads, and ideas to see what works for your business.

 

Success Tip:  Offers, ads, and ideas usually need tweaking for optimum efficiency.  Always track clicks and conversions.  Your checking account will thank you for it.

 

After you have a proven business model and know who is interested in your product, where those customers can be found, and how to sell them the product, you can start to invest time and money into SEO type practices if you are so inclined.  I have found that my time is best spent driving paid traffic to my businesses through text and banner ads placed in publications as well as on targeted websites. 

 

One of the resources I use on a daily basis is The Directory of E-zines.  Charlie Page has put together the Internets largest collection of niche publications that accept advertising.  The rates vary, but one thing is for sure; Ezine advertising is a very low cost way to reach your target audience and can be extremely effective for of advertising for most small to medium sized businesses. 

 

Lars Knutsen

Chief Editor / Owner

 

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More Clicks = More Money

When placing an advertisement it is important to get the consumer to perform a specific action cooresponding to a specific goal.  Common goals are filling out a purchase form, requesting more information, or downloading a free whitepaper. 

 

Whatever your goal is, it is important to follow this simple 4 step process.

 

Step #1- Attention. Step #2- Interest. Step #3- Desire. Step#4- Action

 

Attention – First off, get the consumers attention! Say something shocking, ask them a question, use bold text, and connect on an emotional level.

 

Interest – Now that you have their attention it is time to obtain the consumers interest by showing how your product can solve their problem quicker, better, cheaper. 

 

Desire – Prove to your Audience that your product is legit.  Make sure to include lots of testimonials of satisfied clients, before after photos / videos, etc.  It is extremely important that the consumer trusts your business and believes your product will deliver on all promises.

 

Action -  Now that your lead understands what you can do for them and trusts your business you may now ask for some sort of action on their part.  In most cases you will either ask for permission to send them something via email, or you will ask them to purchase your product / services.  Always include a bonus!  People love free stuff, and if you include a free bonus in your offer you will typically receive better results.

 

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A secret of many marketers is to use a squeeze page to collect the names and email address of consumers interested in a product offering.  The idea is to exchange what ever it is that you are offering for permission to send more information on the back end.  This could be a series of messages relating to the first offer, or it could be information on different offers in the same niche.

 

Success Tip: Consumers do not easily give away their contact information so it is important to offer something of immense value.  This could range from a free video course to a free consultation.

 

Once you have the name and email address of your lead you may follow up with marketing messages keeping “top of mind awareness.”  This will put your brand in front of the competition when the customer is ready to purchase goods and services related to your niche.

 

Many of the top marketers I know use use a template called Optimise Press to create their squeeze pages.  It is simple to use and has proved to be extremely effective. 

 

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Nice to meet you,

Sincerely,

Lars Knutsen

Chief Editor / Owner
EntrepreneurFreak