I had a discussion with a client yesterday, a small business owner who was exploring the possibility of putting up an online presence for his existing physical business. He noticed a decline in his business here in the US given the uncertain economy, so he thought having a website and marketing online would open doors to new customers.
But as he had very little experience with marketing over the internet and is more so apprehensive due to his lack of tech skills PLUS what he has heard from other people who tried venturing online but failed, that it is difficult to get visitors to websites, or expensive to do.
So, I gave him some tips. I had posted these on an internet marketing forum earlier and I thought I would post them here, in case someone would benefit from it.
So webmasters on a budget, business owners who want to drive traffic to their sites but don't know how... here are 10 proven traffic tactics, that may not cost you much but certainly need your investment in time and effort.
1. Create a Facebook account, and build your network, target people who have the same interests. Having a big list of contacts who share your interests are a captive audience for your messages. Just make sure not to hard sell or spam. Build the relationship, gain their trust. You are there to help them and not to sell them. Permission marketing at its best.
2. Create a Twitter account and build your network, also people who have the same interests. This tool is by far the fastest way to generate contacts on the digital realm. Plus, you get 100% deliverability of your message. Let’s face it, people hate opening email today, unlike a decade ago when it was a joy; people are so bombarded with spam messages which is why your message may either fall victim to spam filters built into their email client, or simply get overlooked by your recipients irate over all the spam they get when they open their inbox.
3. Join forums and bulletins where you can interact with other members, and get to post links. Forums are generally communities on cyberspace, each community bound by common interests and topics. Find the community which you believe your market to reside, and blend in, interact, share, build your relationship, earn trust, score some points for your product or service.
4. Post ads on classified ads sites (craigslist is one, US freeads, and others). Now seriously, do I need to explain classifieds? Well, they work pretty much like the daily paper, only thing is, it’s on the internet.
5. Take advantage of social sites. Create accounts on social sites like Squidoo, Hubpages and Tumblr; on blogs like WordPress.com and Blogger.com, publish more useful articles, and link them to your main website.
Go to Social Marker and create accounts on all the bookmarking sites it submits to, then bookmark your site and posts. Social bookmarking sites are one category of the Web 2.0 phenomena. User Generated Content (USG) has taken center stage with websites providing more interaction and even near immediate exchanges between host and visitor, or visitors and other visitors. Social bookmarking sites allows its members to bookmark their favorites websites and webpages, for other members to see and check out.
To avoid making this too lengthy, the remaining 5 can be found on this page...
10 Top Traffic Alternatives to Pay Per Click Advertising
10 Proven Traffic Tactics For Webmasters On A Budget
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