If you agree that traffic is the true currency of the web, then you’d want to read this article very carefully…

Every web site owner and Internet marketer with a commercial goal understands the true value of the visitor, studying the synergy between traffic and sales.

The problem is, it is all too easy to get caught up in specific traffic generation methods and lose sight of the ‘bigger picture’.

What’s this bigger picture you ask?

Your focus should be on creating a total traffic strategy, instead of just concentrating on smaller individual techniques.

This is important as a well-defined strategy allows you to choose the BEST traffic sources for your business goals. It’s the smarter and more powerful approach for leveraging on your incoming traffic for skyrocketing profits.

Now setting up a strategy might sound daunting to some, but it really comes down to understanding the difference between SHORT-term traffic and LONG-term traffic.

Most marketers do not even realize there IS a difference between the two, and how this difference can impact your business in more ways than you will imagine.

First let us look at the definitions of these two traffic sources:

1. Short-Term Traffic

Short-term traffic creates a temporary boost in visitors, but there is more to this. You might immediately think of a pay-per-click campaign as an example of short term traffic; but, did you know that certain search engine optimization efforts could also result in a short-lived traffic boost?

The key word here is the word temporary and the question to ask is: temporary relative to what?

A PPC campaign might be temporary relative to your budget. Perhaps you can afford only X number of clicks in your current situation. It may be temporary in that it is not your primary method of traffic generation, but you run campaigns in order to collect leads for your newsletter or test your landing pages.

Likewise, if you have a large budget and have found through testing that PPC visitors convert well for you, then this method becomes a part of your long term strategy.

Here is another example:

Let’s say you jumped on the bandwagon and created “smart pages” or “doorway pages” before Google wised up and started banning those sites.

If Google failed to blacklist those types of sites, you could have had a source of long-term traffic on your hands.

I bring this up just to make it clear that not all search engine optimization tactics produce long-term traffic. Experts pound us all daily with the notion that SEO is the holy grail of consistent, long-term traffic. It bears noting that this isn’t entirely true.

Changes in algorithms can affect your ranking even when you use legitimate optimization tactics. Put another way, SEO is a preferred method, but you MUST stay on top of things, else your efforts will be short lived and so will your traffic.

2. Long-Term Traffic

Long-term traffic consists of repeat visitors and a consistent influx of new visitors.

Understand that repeat visitors come through relationship building and branding. The focus is on communication, compelling content and some form of direct link between the visitor and your site (e.g. by a newsletter subscription, bookmark or viral product containing your link).

For the search engines, new visitors will only reach your site through broad and consistent exposure. This means you should maintain at least first-page positioning on a handful of relevant keywords. Another necessary criteria is a dominance of a reciprocal linking strategy with other relevant sites. You should also learn how to convert new visitors into REPEAT visitors all the time.

As mentioned one way to a constant flow of long term traffic comes from being able to maintain high search engine rankings for relevant keywords, which is not easy. A powerful weapon I would recommend you to immediately use is at http://www.ewenchia.com/stomp.htm

After understanding the difference between these two traffic sources, the question is how do you use this knowledge to maximize your results and ultimately, profits?

The answer lies in identifying your business goals.

Why? Simply because your goals dictates the type of traffic you want to go after.

Here are some real-life examples. Is your goal to:

• Split test sales pages? Then use short term traffic through PPC

• Recruit new subscribers? Use short term traffic through PPC and long term traffic through viral marketing

• Create consistent flows of visitors to an established site for free? Then use long term traffic through search engine optimization, name and brand building, loyalty building within existing subscriber base and an affiliate program.

Do you now see how your goals decide which type of traffic you need most, which in turn decides how your traffic generation strategy should be planned?

In summary, short term traffic is mostly directed toward some form of testing or quick list building. It also presents an opportunity to collect important feedback on your site in real time.

Long-term traffic on the other hand builds your customer base, subscriber base and audience over time. It allows you to spot trends through examining month’s worth of patterns logged in your server’s web stats. Your repeat visitors provide a valuable test bed for researching your market and learning how to communicate with them effectively.

The successful marketer uses a blend of both short and long-term traffic and, more importantly, knows the difference between the two so as to create an effective total strategy for website success.

For a deeper understanding of the entire traffic generation game, check out http://www.ewenchia.com/ts.htm and you’ll be on the way to an avalanche of quality traffic in no time.

Like this article? Show your appreciation here: http://ewenchia.com/drink.htm.

Copyright 2004 Ewen Chia

About The Author

Ewen Chia is a successful Internet marketing expert who has mastered the science of instant profit generation. You can learn his proven money-making secrets and explosive marketing strategies by going to: http://www.InstantMarketingSecrets.com.

Did you know that web linkage is responsible
for a significant amount of web traffic?

Search engines are still extremely important
but many of the most successful e-commerce sites
claim that linkage programs offer a tremendous
source of web traffic.

It makes sense. The nature of the World Wide
Web encourages serious web surfers to navigate
from site to site through the links to other
related sites and resources “found” on the sites
that are visited. People sometimes forget that
the name “web” itself is based on an extensive
interweaving of sites, similar to links in a
chain.

It’s important for any site owner to seek out
and invite related web sites to “exchange”
reciprocal links. The site being invited should
be interesting, provide good links and present
useful, relevant information that complements
what you are already presenting.

A web site with an extensive listing of quality
links offers several advantages. First, the
site is perceived as being a useful resource,
and justifies revisits. Second, it’s more
effective than just placing banner advertising
on other sites, since a reciprocal hyperlink is
considered to be more believable. Finally, it
helps your site’s ranking with search engines
that place some importance on link popularity.
This is especially important with Google.

Business-to-business web sites require extensive
research to seek out, invite and establish
appropriate reciprocal links with other sites.
For others, “non strategic,” or general links
to other sites can be established quickly by
checking out some of the reciprocal link exchange
services that exist for free on the Web.

A word of caution about reciprocal links. Be sure
your site includes navigation within the HTML code
to prevent your site visitor from leaving entirely.
A simple method to prevent this is to modify the
links so that a new browser window opens. This can
be done simply by adding a “target” attribute to
the links, and set it to the value “_blank”.

Geoff Caplan is an Internet marketing consultant and copywriter with 11 years of continuous experience. He has presented seminars and has worked with major web brands, including eDiets, and myTravelUSA. He can be reached at geoff@geoff-caplan.com. His site is http://geoff-caplan.com

There are literally billions of Web sites online now offering all types of products and services. Some succeed brilliantly, while others fail miserably.

There can be many reasons for the failure of some Web sites: poor marketing, poor planning, a weak knowledge of the target market, or just an overall lack of knowledge of business principles by the Web site owner.

One shared trait of successful Web sites, however, is the ability and drive to provide good resources to its visitors. This is a tactic that increases traffic, keeps visitors engaged and coming back, and lends authenticity and reliability to a site. Yet many new (and sometimes “not so new”) Web masters neglect this very important facet of Web site development and Internet marketing.

Why? There are many reasons, however, here are the “most” common:

1. A Web master may be unaware that resources when added to a Web site can add value and increase sales. Adding resources, especially those that are Affiliate links to other products or services, is a great way to “backend” sales, by offering visitors more than the main product or service to buy.

2. A Web master may feel (wrongly) that offering other products or services, or including great informational resources may “compete” with their own product or service. They may be reluctant to expose others to resources or products and services that are the “same” as theirs, feeling that the competitor will end up with the sale. This may be true to some extent.

However, the benefits of providing other resources and products or services besides the main product or service greatly outweigh the negatives. Studies have shown that Web sites containing great resources have more return visitors, and greater sales numbers overall.

3. A Web master may not feel comfortable assuming the liability for other products and services, or other resources that are added to a site. Of course, the more that a site contains, the greater the maintenance and cost associated with a site. However, again, the benefits of a resource-laden site far outweigh the liabilities.

4. A Web master may have no idea how to find good resources or make a judgment about what to add and what to omit.

All of the above seems to account for the reluctance of some to add additional products and services or resources to their sites. Since adding additional products and services are beneficial to almost all Web sites, here are a few guidelines when choosing which resources to add, which to omit, and the approximate amount of resources to add.

1. Resources should always reflect the main theme of a Web site and be complimentary to the main Web site, as well as the other products, services, and resources that already exist. E. G. An Internet Marketing site should, in all probability, only contain links to products, services, and resources that reflect Internet Marketing.

2. Resources should always be “content rich” and interesting to the visitor. A smattering of lackluster, “same old, same old” type resources does the Web master little good, and may even hurt the Web site, by reducing its sales effectiveness.

3. Resources should be updated at least monthly, to keep the site “fresh and lively” for return visitors. Visitors quickly lose interest if a site seems stagnant.

4. Resources should be plentiful enough to fill out a site, however, they should never overshadow the main theme of a site nor should they take away from the main purpose. They should be placed in an orderly fashion, and laid out for easy accessibility and readability. Clutter should be avoided at all costs, and a clean look maintained. There is a fine line here between “just enough” and “way too much”.

5. Avoid gimmicky, poorly written, ethically substandard resources. A Web master must use judgment when choosing resources that are truly an asset to the site. “If in doubt, don’t” is a good rule of thumb here.

Resources not only add quality and backend sales on a Web site, they enhance Search Engine placement by providing content and incoming links. They give visitors a good feeling about the site, and they set the Web master up as an “expert” in any given field.

However, quality must always rule over quantity, when placing resources and additional products and services on a site. If prudence is used, resources will enhance sales and traffic, and keep the site “alive and well” long after other competitive sites have disappeared!

Vishal P. Rao is the owner of: http://www.work-at-home-forum.com/
An online community of people who work at home.

Doorway pages are “Meet and Greet” professionals! Their job is to invite and welcome visitors and to direct them towards a site which is relevant to their needs and offers more information. In other words, to funnel traffic towards sites which are designed to convert traffic into revenue.

Proper design of these doorway pages is vital to their success. They are your frontline troops. However, instead of arming them with guns, they are designed to express enormous charm and visitor appeal! They are acceptable and appealing to human visitors as well as the search engines.

Some Useful Tips For Your Doorway Pages:

1. A doorway page should load quickly, to encourage the visitor to enter and explore the site instead of getting peeved and impatient, building resistance. So keep your graphics to a minimum. Banners and logo should be small and linked to the next level up – the sales page. Also include your keywords within the image “ALT” tag. Beneath your logo, prepare an intriguing sentence that you link to the next level.

2. Host your feeder sites cheaply. This can be done by signing up with a host that allows muliple, even “unlimited” domains on the one account, such as reseller accounts. Having multiple blogs serves a similar purpose. It’s possible to buy domain names very cheaply – around $5 each. Blog names are free.

3. If you use any questionable marketing (“black hat”) tactics, such as automatic page generating software, do not use them with your star and planet sites. Don’t risk having them banned. Likewise with your advertising accounts. If you display ads, such as Adsense, be sure that those sites are squeeky clean, so that you don’t risk your account.

4. Select three keyword phrases that closely describe the site (doorway page) you are designing. For instance, if the page is to be about dog training, you might have keyword phrases such as: dog training, obedience training, house training. Place these in your keyword meta tags, between the heading tags, of your web page source code. Separate each phrase with a comma.

5. Prepare a descriptive sentence about this site using the keyword phrases you’ve selected, such as: “Dog Training Course: Expert Tips For Successful House And Obedience Training.” Use this sentence for your DESCRIPTION meta tag. Note the initial caps.

6. For the TITLE meta tag, simply use your primary keyword phrase. For example: Dog Training.
Also suitable would be a line that includes the secondary keywords, separated with a pipe: Dog Training | Obedience Training | House Training

7. Place your keywords in the comments tag. This can be done throughout the web page as you organize your content.

Example:
!–Begin Dog Training Introduction–

!–End Dog Training Introduction

These are not visible on your web page but can be read in the HTML.

8. Provide valuable content that contains your keywords every couple of sentences. It does not need to be lengthy. It could be in the form of a comment, report or article of about 250 – 350 words. Your aim is to provide keyword rich, search engine friendly, useful material.

9. Save your doorway page using one of the keywords.

Example:

dog_training.html

If there are multiple pages, a number can be added to distinguish each one:

Example:

dog_training1.html

dog_training2.html

The power of doorway pages to attract website traffic comes from the valuable, keyword-rich content that you’ve designed to have BOTH search engine and visitor appeal. Of course, you don’t have to stop with just one page! Imagine the flow of website traffic if you have a hundred, or more, of these focused doorway pages, all feeding traffic to your site…

This article began in Part 1 with important details about a marketing strategy which utilizes doorway pages to generate a huge flow of traffic to selected websites in the system. Both parts are available online.

Ivan Kelly managed a Direct Mail business with extensive mailing lists for ten years and has designed and promoted many websites. Part 1 if this article is available online at: Doorway Pages – Part 2