How To Explode Blog Traffic

One of the things about the internet I've noticed is that when I'm searching for things I usually end up chasing one link into another into another, and find myself so far from where I started. However I usually come across 10-20 great sites I never would have found otherwise. They might not have a great standing in search engines and stumbling over them by clicking a link in another site might be the only way you will find them. While reading up on traffic and business I came across a very informative blog. Please check it out, because this blogger gives great ideas on getting more traffic. Here is the link:

Increase Blog Traffic: How to Explode Blog Traffic!!!

Don't ever stop what your doing

I now have 4 blogs and I'm trying my best to keep up. Don't ever stop what your doing when your trying to build a business, but also don't over extend yourself. I'm cutting down my 4 but yet there are people who have 10 or more blogs. Do they update daily? If not most of those blogs will die away. Take things slowly. Especially if your just starting out.

Increase slowly, lets say about 3 months after your first website or blog. Also remember that revenue drawers, like adsense, chitika, and yahoo only works if you actually have traffic so wait until you have steady traffic before trying to make money. All you will do to yourself is spend your days checking minute after minute and being super happy when you get 1 click and 5cents in your account.

Keep on trucking everyone. And remember to think realisticly.

Business and Ideas

I have recently been thinking about creating a book website. Not going to give away any secrets lol. I am stumped however because I am unsure how to do it and what hosting I should use. I can't use regular templates because I need to be able to search by author, title, and/or summary. I would really like to use isbn numbers thats on the books, and that is the biggest problem. I just don't know where to start with this.

Well I'll let you know how i'm doing.

Traffic Methods That Actually Send YOUR Traffic to OTHER Websites

By Maksym Nesen

Believe it or not, there are many rather popular website promotion methods that actually drive traffic away from your website. They usually clutter up your website with a bunch of graphics and do virtually nothing to improve your bottom line. Here are just a few examples:

Top Sites - The premise is that you put a vote button on your site and people click to vote for you, raising your site up in the list of "top sites". People who visit the top site list see your site near the top and click on your banner to see what your site is all about. Things to consider: You have to put a graphic on your site. Of course, you will make the link open in a new window, so you don't lose your visitor, but you have created a distraction for your visitor. You want your visitor to focus on your sales message, not a graphic that leads your visitors away from your website. Let's be serious. If you've participated in a Top Site or visited a top site page, when's the last time you did any shopping from it? Realistically, the Top Site List serves to best promote the website that created the list rather than the individuals on that list. Check your website stats to see how much traffic you get from this list and see if anyone buys.

Banner Exchange - Everyone participating in the exchange places a banner on his site. This banner rotates throughout the participating sites every time a page refreshes. The premise is that you get a lot of exposure by having your banner appear on a number of sites. Things to Consider: Again, you have to put a distracting graphic on your site. Usually banner exchanges are made up of like-sites. Why would you send your visitor to your competitor?! Most banner exchanges give you one impression of your banner for every two times the banner exchange appears on your website. Does it seem wise to possibly give away two visitors for every one visitor you might get back to your site? As in the Top Site List, the banner exchange serves best to promote the website that created it. The banner exchange usually has a link to the creator's site underneath the banner. This is the one link that doesn't change on the rotation, thus, giving the creator constant exposure on all sites, but giving you very little in return.

Web Rings - A web ring is a graphic placed on a website that allows visitors to travel from one related website to another. The idea is that everyone puts the graphic on her home page to create a continuous "ring". Things to Consider: It's the same old story. You're creating a distraction for your visitor and potentially sending your traffic to your competitor. It just doesn't seem like a good idea. These rings are often broken by members and you never know it.

And even more BAD ideas:

Buying Hits - It is so sad, but there is an entire industry that takes advantage of traffichungry website owners. If you see an ad that says, "Buy 10,000 targeted hits" or an eBay auction that says, "2 Million Hits to Your Website," run the other way. Here's how these programs work: Your entire web page pops-up while somebody is surfing another website or is using particular software. Sometimes these hits are delivered within in a day or a few days and you have no idea where your site is popping up. You must realize that these aren't bonus fide visitors to your website; it's just people who may have been annoyed by your website popping up in their faces. Let's go back to our conversion rate calculations. We know that a 1% conversion rate isn't bad. If buying hits was a good idea, we would get 100 sales for every 10,000 hits we bought. We've tested this. It just doesn't happen. And don't be fooled by people who tell you they can target your hits by country or industry. There is NOTHING targeted by forcing someone to view your website without permission.

Surfing for Traffic - There are all kinds of programs where you can surf other people's websites in return for other people surfing yours. These programs are generally free.

Search Engine Submission - It's big business but is a COMPLETE waste of time and money - Let us start by saying that you should NEVER pay anyone to submit your website to search engines. First of all, many of these programs use auto-submitters, which are against many search engine guidelines. But the biggest "scam" of all is that these companies will say things like: "Submit your site to the top 500 search engines" "Your site submitted to 5000 search engines" Let's be serious. There aren't 5000 worthwhile search engines, let alone 500. There are just a handful of search engines that will bring you a significant amount of traffic. These include Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Then you'll probably see some traffic from AOL, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, EarthLink, DogPile and a few more. But you know what? You don't actually have to submit to these sites to get listed. Search engines follow links on the Internet and if you have websites linking to you, these search engines will find you. So, if you want to get listed and stay listed, all you need is to acquire a few links to your website. If you don't believe us, take it from Google & Yahoo:

Google Webmaster Guidelines: "We add thousands of new sites to our index each time we crawl the Web, but if you'd like, you may submit your URL as well. Submission is not necessary and does not guarantee inclusion in our index. Given the large number of sites submitting URLs, it's likely your pages will be found in an automatic crawl before they make it into our index through the URL submission form...
...The best way to ensure Google finds your site is for your page to be linked from lots of pages on other sites. Google's robots jump from page to page on the Web via hyperlinks, so the more sites that link to you, the more likely it is that we'll find you quickly."

Yahoo Help:
"Yahoo! Search crawls the web every 2-4 weeks and automatically finds new content for indexing. If pages already in the Yahoo! Search index link to your site, it will be considered for inclusion in the next update of the index."

So, If you want a search engine to index you, get links from other sites on similar topics. We can give you help to post information on other sites. Just visit http://nezabudka.oksima.biz to find more information about advertising solutions.
The Oksima's Java developer.

Just Say No to Sign and Wait – 10 Steps to a Fast Action Start

By: Marie Gervacio

So you just signed up for a new, exciting opportunity… wait did you realize?

The majority of Americans are taught to follow the leader, follow instructions, and do a good job. There has been a trend for some years now to begin a home business. The lure of this trend is more time with family, less travel time, less fuel expense and more.

Unfortunately many quit their new business before they really begin. The lure of a dream life is not enough to keep them on the path to success. Many of the networking companies that they join are reputable, viable businesses with excellent compensation plans and training. So why is there so much attrition?

Though many dream of having their own business and not having to answer to a boss, unfortunately they are doomed to that life. It takes a special kind of guts to break away from what we have been taught and delve into uncharted waters.

Many start standard brick and mortar shops and services and are faced with a number of known expenses to get going and service customers. Those starting with seemingly low start-up like networking have a definite advantage. But both may forget important factors like the need to proper market and advertise their business. Some people are actually misled that all they have to do is sign up and they will have the work done for them and other such balderdash – huh?

So what can you do to give yourself and edge and a fast start for the long haul?

First, realize you are the boss. Don’t treat your new business like a hobby or think about “trying it out for awhile” (Quit now and save yourself time and aggravation if that is the case). No one is going to give you your schedule – you have to make a schedule. No one is going to make you punch a time clock – you need to make the most of your time. Answer this question for yourself, “Can I work put as much or more effort into my own business as I would for someone else’s business because my “job” depended on it?”

Second, (something you probably should have known before signing up by-the-way) use the product. Answer this question, “Why do I want this product?” Answering that question will eliminate virtually all your sales issues. People buy things they want ---- not need. Remember this, even essential purchases end up being purchased that way because one product is wanted more than another.

Third, determine your target market. Who wants what you are offering? Where do they live, shop, eat, etc.? Your answers will help you to reach out to them and connect them to what they need.

Fourth, determine your advertising budget. If it is small you will be starting small but that is ok. If you have more you can set aside then you will be able to reach your goals quicker (especially if you can do TV advertising like the “big guys” *smile*)

Fifth, determine how much time you can dedicate to your business. Make a schedule – and stick to it. Let everyone around you know your schedule just as if you would be away for X hours in the day so you are busy in their immediate presence. (Try and set aside an area away from family traffic flow if possible.) Allow for distractions in your schedule but preferably set aside family and friend time because we all started our own thing just so we could have the freedom to work loved ones into our schedule. This is really an important area that can cause failure either with family or business so you will really want to plan this one well for the long haul.

Sixth, create or order your advertising mediums. Business cards can be made or printed. T-shirts, hats or any other promo materials ordered. Ads in local fliers or online classifieds or both can be created and posted. Affiliate links can be promoted online by sending out safelist ads, ezine ads, solo ads, traffic exchanges, search engine pay-per-click ads and more. Some of these options can be free or economical depending on how much time you are willing to dedicate to doing the work yourself.

Seventh, start a blog. If you don’t have your own website, you will probably want to get one as soon as possible. A weblog, or blog is one of the new crazes that will not only help to drive traffic to your website but if you can not budget a website yet then a blog is a free way to start a web presence. I would recommend www.blogger.com because of it is owned by google, which can help being ranked sooner. All blogs are meant to be content-rich which is what all search engines love.

Eighth, set aside at least one hour a day, at least five days a week to do something that drives sales. The first and foremost should be talking to customers, prospects, leads. Though it is important to read, learn and set up promotions to get the customers to you, the bottom line is the sale. Many people forget this. Though I have promoted offline and online it seems it is mostly forgotten online when we expect sales to be done behind some kind of cyberspace wall. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) we tend to still not only buy things we want but we buy them usually from people we get to know, like and trust.

Pick up the phone, email, mail – however you do it communicate with customers, prospects, leads, preferably talk to them over the phone or in person. The world is becoming so small, I even use an online VOIP conference center that brings customers to my virtual room were we can speak and even see each other if both have webcams. I even meet with groups of people at the same time. I marvel at technology!

Ninth, focus. Understandably there will be interruptions, more within a home environment then in a workplace environment but if you have a plan and a schedule then you are half way to being truly focused. The other half is up to you to make it work and remember, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. Don’t let distractions take your eyes off the plan to become independent and free to do things they way you choose to manifest them.

Tenth, have fun! Who would add this to list but me, lol (laugh out loud). Really, we choose to become independent to free ourselves from the “mean ole boss”. I have told you first and foremost that now, “YOU ARE THE BOSS” which means take your business seriously but it doesn’t mean you still can’t have fun. Remember, we choose to manifest money, love, relationships, and fun. Choose to get the most out of your life, love and business. Enjoy the ride!

© All rights reserved by Marie Gervacio, founder and editor of Article Blender.com ShineYourStar.com, and SimpleBeautyTips.com. Get free content for your website, ezine or blog and/or publish your articles at ArticleBlender.com. Submitted with AD Submitter.