Now's The Time To Look Past SEO & Start Diversifying Your Web Traffic

Social Media When you hear the words “email marketing” you probably think of spam. When I say email marketing, I’m not talking about purchasing a list of email addresses and mass emailing them, I’m talking about building your own list and dripping emails to them over time. These are people that have given you permission to email them, and you should do so on a regular basis. If you don’t have a list, then leverage someone else’s list. You don’t know how many webmasters and list owners are out there that are always looking for businesses like yours to partner with. They will email their list, promoting your products and services, and take a percentage of the revenue generated from the promotion. It’s a brilliant tactic and one that is often times overlooked.

Forum Marketing

Again, when you heard the words “forum marketing” you probably think of spam. There are many people who proclaim to be online marketers and all they do is spam blogs and forums, this is not the way to do it. When forum marketing, you have to be genuine in your approach. As I mentioned above in the social media section, when you give, give, give, and give some more, others notice. The same goes for forum marketing. If you jump on a forum and drop a reply or two and never come back, you are not being genuine. Take time to get to know members of the community. Provide legitimate answers to peoples questions and remember to give, give give, before you ask for anything in return. When the time comes, add links to your replies and you can also add links to your signature. Most forum owners have made it so you have to provide at least 100 replies before they unlock this feature. In essence, they are forcing you to give before you receive… so just do it and give away! Over time this will bring hundreds, maybe even thousands of new customers to your website and these customers are ready to purchase what you have to offer.

Display Advertising

I think that most marketers believe that display advertising is a thing of the past and to be honest… they may be right to some extent. I’ve never found it too valuable to spend thousands of dollars per month on semi-targeted / non-targeted ad buys. In my opinion, all they are good for is getting your name out there and starting to build some brand awareness. Over the last year or so, I’ve been doing ad buys on a much lower scale. I’ve been seeking out sites that are indirectly related to mine, don’t get a slew of search engine visibility and buying ads on those. For example, I own a site that sells mens wedding bands. I’ve been advertising on local wedding photographer, wedding planner, event space, etc type websites and seeing a high return on my investment. What’s really great about these opportunities is they are cheap! I’ve gotten some placements for as little as $25 per month for a return of about $500 per month. I could do this all day! What’s awesome about this that it is so cheap, it doesn’t kill you to test dozens of sites and keep the ones that perform. What’s also really cool is that many times, as the site grows, you get to keep your “initial pricing” and reap the benefits of increased visibility. Again, this isn’t an all inclusive list, but I hope this has given you a starting point in your efforts to diversify your web traffic. If you have any other suggestions that you would like to add, please do so in the comments below.]]>