Creative Ways to Increase Web Site Traffic

Any webmaster or website owner can tell it isn’t easy to increase web site traffic. For one, the competition is intense; your website is merely just one of the hundreds, probably even thousands, in the exact same field. How can you compete with that? Many resource materials have delved on this topic, but very few offer innovative advice. All of them say the same thing: write good content, create good website design, exchange links, advertise, improve search engine rank. But these methods to increase web site traffic are hardly new; every webmaster or website owner knows these by now, so it is expected they will use the same tactics. To increase web site traffic, you need creative and innovative marketing methods.

One of the recently used ways to increase web site traffic is through contests. Many might say that this method to increase web site traffic is no longer innovative since several websites have already done this technique. However, the nature of this strategy is impervious to competition. People tend to get attracted by promos and contests, or anything with the lure of instant money or prizes. So it does not matter if other websites are doing the same strategy to increase web site traffic, as long as your own effort is efficient and done properly. Usually, this type of technique is energized by the visitors themselves. This means the visitors are the ones will inform other online readers, who will in turn visit your website in hopes of winning your contest. The process entails little work and maximum results if done properly. The prize of the contest, and the nature of the contest itself, should be in line with the overall theme or content of the website in order to attract loyal readers.

Content is one of the traditional or well-known ways to increase web site traffic. But in order to be different from the rest, you need to take this tactic up a notch. Invite an expert or a well-known personality to write content for your website in order to increase website traffic. Needless to say, the personality or expert should be in some way involved or related to your website’s theme. If you are maintaining an entertainment website, employ the services of an industry insider, like a production or even just a production assistant. Just make sure the person can dish out exclusive content. Giving out free e-books is also one way of stepping up the notch of the content rule to increase website traffic.

If you have the skills or the resources, you can also create software of programs that will interest your target readers. This type of strategy is self-sustaining; all you need to do is do the initial marketing effort. If you program or software captures the interest of your readers and visitors, they will promote your website on the social media (such as blogs, discussion forums, and social networking sites, among others). Hence, their efforts will help increase website traffic. This is why it is best to use similar tactics to increase website traffic.

Of course, when these methods do not work, or if you do not have enough time or skills to make these methods work, you can get web traffic solutions in increase website traffic. This service will do the marketing effort for you in order to increase website traffic. This way, you can concentrate on the website itself rather than spending time on the marketing side of this endeavor. Of course, this method to increase website traffic would cost you. But if you get the right web traffic solution, you would see you website traffic increase instantly.

Seo Link Building – Relevant Links – Live Article Directory

Last week I made a post about the possibility of using this whole Tiger Woods story to help you market your business.  And as I expected, because it’s a pretty controversial topic, I received numerous responses and comments from both sides of the isle about the idea.

Here’s one particular response I received:

“Stupid idea Chestin.

Why do you think General Motors will never mention themselves in the same sentence with America, ever again?  Because America has failed many people, many sectors.  Things about America can no longer be trusted.  America is no longer looked upon as the best product out there.

I know you have Christian values, Chestin.  And from reading your past article, it’s apparent you have natural talent.  So… taking those two fact into account, why push the Tiger Woods B.S. marketing strategy?  It wrong on many fronts.

Like Tiger and General Motors, you now have some explaining to do — but not to me.”

And while I certainly respect and appreciate this person’s comments, I think this might be one we’ll have to agree to disagree about.  Here’s my response:

“Points well taken and I appreciate you sending your thoughts.

As sad as I may think it is, today’s society is very headline driven.  It’s this mentality that has made shows, magazine and websites like TMZ, Access Hollywood, US Weekly, and People wildly popular. You’re absolutely right that using companies or people like GM or Tiger Woods in your advertising is a risky proposition, but keep in mind that they’re topics that a lot of people are paying attention to, good, bad, or indifferent, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with trying to capitalize on a frenzy that already exists in the marketplace.

You see, the most expensive, difficult, and time consuming step to effective marketing is capturing the attention of your prospects and it’s because of this that many marketers use images, headlines, or ideas that are either outrageous or eye-catching.  Things like sexy ladies, talking animals, or wild stunts do a fantastic job of capturing the attention of a prospect, thus providing an opportunity for a meaningful conversation.

Sadly, once the attention is captured, most don’t know how to transition into a meaningful conversation so the opportunity is lost.

As this all relates to the Tiger Woods conversation, it’s really nothing more than an opportunity to capitalize on the media frenzy to capture the attention of your prospects.  As I mentioned in my previous email, it certainly isn’t for everyone and you’d need to be very careful about how you execute something like that to make sure the transition is made correctly from ‘interrupted to meaningful conversation’, but I absolutely think it’s possible to do so effectively.

Again, you’d absolutely want to avoid comparing Tiger to the company, product, or service being sold, but you could absolutely make comparisons to the problems or challenges being solved.

Also, keep in mind that one of my objectives is to get people to think outside the box when it comes to marketing.  This is most definitely an ‘outside the box’ and controversial and as I said, I wouldn’t fault anyone for avoiding it like the plague. However, if I can cause people to really think about an issue, good, bad, or indifferent than I’ve done my job.

I imagine we’ll probably disagree on this topic and that’s okay.  I just hope you capture the essence of my message, that headlines and current events can be a HUGE asset when marketing your business.  It’s something that almost always requires creativity to execute effectively, but it can be one of the best ways to cut through all the clutter and give yourself an opportunity to engage your prospects.”

Again, this is something that this reader and I will most likely disagree on, but that’s okay.  As I said several times, using a story like this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

However, do firmly believe that any business could capitalize on the frenzy the story’s created to create a marketing campaign that provides an opportunity to engage your prospects.

A perfect example of this is this blog post! A lot of people read it because of the headline or subject matter.  Have I compared myself or my business to Tiger Woods?  Absolutely not.

I have however, managed to engage prospects that I might not otherwise have uncovered.  So as far as I’m concerned, mission accomplished!

So, what are your thoughts? Id’ love to hear what you think about this strategy.  Good?  Horrible?  Possibility?

Go ahead and leave your comments below.

Have you been paying attention at all to this whole Tiger Wood’s saga?  Personally, I hate it for him and his family.  I know there will be many that don’t think he deserves any sympathy at all and they could be right, but it’s my belief that you can’t really judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.

I do know that he’s human, is subject to human frailties, and in spite of the fact most of us thought he was squeaky clean, I feel sorry for him because I know he’ll be facing pure hell in the coming weeks and months.  And I’m not even referring to the media firestorm that’s already been stirred up.

So, how does this whole fiasco apply to your business?

To be completely honest, it doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the situation!

You see, people absolutely LOVE current events. We live in a very voyeuristic society and one of the BEST ways to create buzz or interest for your product or service is to put current events like this Tiger Wood’s story to good use.

Now I know there are many that will shy away from this story because of the moral betrayal involved, and I wouldn’t fault them for that.  Just remember that  the super-successful didn’t get where they are by always playing it safe.

If you don’t have a problem using this story, here’s how I’d put it to good use:

• Create a special package or offer you can present to your existing customers or prospects or both.
• Create a marketing campaign to promote this special package or service offering. Could be a special direct mail campaign, an email campaign to your existing list, or any of the methods you use to communicate with your prospects and customers.
• Come up with an attention grabbing headline that references the story, something like:
  • “Tiger Could’ve Saved Himself All Kinds Of Trouble By Simply Calling [YourCompanyName]”
  • “What Do Tiger Woods And [ProblemYouSolve] Have In Common?”
  • “ Unlike Tiger Woods, If You Act Now You Can Enjoy [List a few benefits of your service]”
• Come up with a story that ties in the headline to your special offer

Again, this can be a touchy subject so I wouldn’t dwell too much on the details.  Instead, just use the overall story to capture their attention and lead into your special offer.  Have some fun with it and definitely keep things as positive as possible.

Also, don’t compare your company to Tiger Woods, because people probably have a negative impression of Tiger right now and you don’t want them to associate that bad feeling with your company. You do however want them to associate those feelings with the problems you solve for your customers, which is a perfect transition into your offer.

Anyway, I’ve definitely got my eyes open for some creative uses of this story because know there are some savvy marketers out there that will put it to use.

If you come up with something I’d LOVE to see what you do. And if you have any questions or want to get some feedback on an idea, definitely let me know and I’ll offer my ideas.

When you hear the term “internet marketing“, what do you think of?

For many, that term conjures thoughts of websites or spamming or search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. For others, it’s all about graphical design, writing fancy code or even affiliate programs. All of those answers correct, but the essence of internet marketing is much simpler.

At its core, internet marketing is about these things:

* Understanding the target market to which the product/service/cause you’re marketing will appeal
* Determining exactly how your target market interacts with the internet
* Positioning your content on the internet to attract the attention of your target market
* Collecting information about your target market (also known as “leads”) for follow-up and conversion into sales
* Design of offers or incentives to induce the desired actions from your leads

Since there is insufficient space in this article to give all of these topics adequate attention, let’s focus on just one specific topic with the realm of internet marketing: Email Marketing.

My best payoff has always come by focusing on permission-based email marketing. Permission-based email marketing refers to the practice of collecting information (including email addresses) from website visitors and communicating with them via e-mail with their direct consent. The “permission” aspect of permission-based email marketing is what separates legitimate email marketers from the spammers that everyone despises.

My love of email marketing is strong for one reason: It works very well. Email marketing has been much like a never-ending goldmine: It enables us to produce income on demand simply by sending a good offer to our list. When you have thousands of loyal subscribers – as we do – and you put a strong and compatible offer in front of them, income becomes nearly automatic.

However, the key to successful email marketing is the development of a legitimate trust relationship with your subscribers. If you opt to send your subscribers a request for purchases every single day, they will likely tire of your badgering and cease reading your emails altogether.

Alternatively, if you take the time to provide good content to your readers on a regular and frequent basis, you’ll discover that your readers take all of your emails far more seriously, and as a result your emails will be opened, read and acted upon with greater frequency. Essentially, email marketing is really an exercise in trust.

While there are many more aspects to internet marketing than just permission-based email marketing, email has definitely been the cornerstone on which our business is built.

As you look for ways to spread the word about the lawn care or landscaping services you offer, it’s become incredibly difficult to overlook the various marketing opportunities provided online.  The Internet has very quickly become an integral part of how we do business today and even though you don’t provide a product or service online, you should still include the Internet in your toolbox of ways to get new lawn care customers.

You see, a majority of your prospective customers are already turning to the Internet to look for and research the service providers they choose to do business with.  Sites like Google Local, Yahoo! Local, and now Bing Local are quickly replacing the old standard, the yellow pages.  Where the yellow pages used to be the default method for finding a new lawn care or landscaping service provider, the new standard is the home computer.

So, if you’re looking for ways to grow your lawn care or landscaping business quickly, it’s an absolute MUST that you be online so your prospects and customers can find you.  The next question then is, “where online do I need to be?”

Yes, there are countless avenues or marketing opportunities and you don’t have time to focus on all of them. However, if you’ll focus on just a few primary Internet marketing methods, you’ll quickly position your business to gain a lion’s share of the prospects available online.

These are the areas I’d recommend you focus on:

• Optimize your website so it ranks well in the search engines. This means selecting the appropriate keywords and making sure they’re found in the title tags, meta tags, H1 tags, and sprinkled througout the text on your site. These are called the on-pages factors and will go a looooong way towards making sure your website ranks well in the search engines.
• Gather and use your prospects and customer’s email addresses. Email is still the most cost effective method for marketing to your prospects and customers and you should be using it. You don’t want to overwhelm them with sales pitches, but if you’ll use it to provide information and insight you’ll quickly position yourself as ‘the expert’ and people will turn to you for advice and direction about their lawn care needs.
• Use social media to connect with prospects, customers, and potential JV partners. Social media is one of the latest ways people are connecting online and it’s a great way to stay in touch with your target market and allow them to see you as a real person.  Remember, people do business with people, not businesses so it’s important that your customers and prospects can see you as a real person with a life outside of your lawn care business.  Social media allows you to do that.

Remember, growing a business is about getting your message in front of as many people as possible so you can convey the many benefits you offer.  The Internet provides a fantastic opportunity to reach your target market quickly and for a relatively low cost.  The biggest thing is just to get started doing it because those lawn care or landscaping businesses that do it now will reap the rewards.

If your business would like to guarantee excellent search engine ranking results, advanced SEO services will do the trick. As we know, a website today is the foundation of any offline or online business. The ability to create an above-average website is only about 1/4 of what’s required to build a profitable online presence. 75% of the success of your business depends on the methods you use to market your website in such a manner gets your site a lot of vital traffic, helping you build a strong customer base.

A professional website designer can help you create a potent and powerful site. It’s also important to get the proper assistance from a good SEO company – whether you hire them out or simply use them for consulting purposes. There are lot of companies which offer ethical and advanced SEO services, helping your company face stiff competition with the help of cutting edge techniques.

The most crucial SEO function is keyword research and optimization – everything else is built with this foundation in place. A good SEO firm provides exceptional keyword analysis and research. The firm will select appropriate keywords, cross referencing them among other tools and gauging competition for the phrases selected. One of the most important functions of these advanced SEO services is in fact analyzing the competition.

Another area that most SEO firms overlook is the website’s usability. They have to watch out for flash, high-memory images and lenghy HTML code which might negatively effect indexing postions from the robots that crawl the site. If the navigation of a site is poorly designed, then the search engine rankings are likely to be affected. It’s in the interest of the website owner to ensure the SEO firm chosen conducts a usability analysis of the site.

Professional SEO services will provide other valuable services such as meta-tag optimization and SEO copywriting. Optimizing meta-tags can improve search engine optimization to a great extent. Writing effective and well written copies with an appropriate density of keywords is very important for page ranking and converting visitors to buyers. Firms that offer advanced SEO services excel at writing the most result-oriented and powerful copy.

Link building through back-links, one way links and reciprocal links is another vital aspect of search engine optimization. Engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing give a lot of value to keyword-rich bank-links to your site – especially when they come from a relevant site.

Tracking the results in the search engines can be healthy and promote your businesses’ long-term growth. This means measuring exactly how far the efforts are bearing fruit.

Advanced SEO services should also include social media marketing services such as video marketing, social media property creation, article directory submission, and classified ads to market client’s website effectively.

Whether it is online or offline business, a good SEO firm providing professional services is an asset which can help your business reach great heights.

In a time short world we’re continually searching for just the right fast source of information; just at our finger tips when we need it. In this scenario a marriage of almost perfection was made.

Consumers wanted local information at hand just when they needed it.

Arrive the fridge magnet – a simple, low cost way to graphically display messages and images on the household fridge. Around the mid 1970’s a flexible magnetic material of thin proportions was made allowing printing and placement of that message on the family fridge. Plumbers, electricians, real estate salesman, vets, doctors, local politicians and many more besides have come to rely on the humble fridge magnets power to infiltrate the family home.

The communications force of a insignificant fridge magnet relies in the reality that an average fridge is visited – read viewed – some 17 times each day. That’s a lot of views.

A fridge magnet marketing card follows the same reasoning, but is larger. They have a magnetic patch on a small section on the card’s reverse side. The substantial advantages of the magnetic marketing card are its lower cost, size on size to a fridge magnet and its lower weight and hence lower distribution cost.

For many businesses wanting to have a larger than average message on the family fridge, they are a brilliant choice.

Another adaptation of the fridge magnet has been the development of a thicker material suitable for car magnets.  So these car magnets have given great flexibility, to businesses, to utilize their cars as moving billboard.

A bright idea is to put fridge magnets over your company car, tell your message and invite that the small fridge magnets be taken. It’s a fresh way to advertise from the combined use of car and fridge magnets.

I’m sure by now you’ve heard of something called ‘Social Media’.  It’s basically a type of website that’s been built that allows people to interact with other people. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn are just some of the more popular sites, but there are TONS of social media sites across the web.

One of the questions I get quite frequently is, “Isn’t this stuff a waste of time for growing my lawn care or landscaping business?”

While these sites can be a huge waste of your time, if you understand their intent and utilize them properly, these social media sites really can be a powerful way to attract new prospects, interact with your existing clients, and ultimately grow your lawn care business.

Here are 5 suggestions for putting social media to work for your business:

1. Understand that in the social media world, selling is against the rules. No one joins a social media network because they want to be sold to. In fact, selling in the social media world is completely against the rules.  However, providing good, quality information is actually acceptable and in many cases, appreciated.
2. Be an active participant. You can’t simply join the party and then hang out by the punchbowl.  If you’re going to join the social media party, you’ve got to become involved and interact with everyone else. If people can’t get to know you and learn about you, how could you ever expect them to want to do business with you in the real world?
3. Focus on providing good, quality content and information. Again, because selling is against the rules in the social media universe you should focus on providing quality information that your social media mates can benefit from.  Sure, it’s okay to post random tidbits of info about your personal life (in fact, you should be personable) but be sure to sprinkle in an occasional bit of advice or useful information that will showcase your expertise and knowledge.
4. Identify your target market. Just as you should offline, one of the very first steps you should take is to identify your target market.  People that live within your service area, or people that have similar interests, or even people within the green industry.  Remember, the more you target your market the easier time you’ll have crafting a message and offers that appeal to them and motivate them to take action!
5. Social media is just ONE tool in your toolbox. Just as there isn’t a silver bullet for marketing your business offline, there isn’t a single online method that will result in a flood of new business.  You should look at social media marketing as just one way to generate leads and convert customers online.

As you look for ways to continue growing your business and strengthening relationships with your existing customers, social media is a powerful, emerging way for you to achieve your lead generation and customer acquisition goals.

Yes, it can be a confusing world at times, but as long as you set goals for your social media activities, stick to your plan, and focus on these 5 suggestions, you’ll soon become a social media rockstar and your business will benefit as a result!

As this economic turmoil contiues to impact both businesses and consumers negatively, it becomes increasingly important to find ways to grow your business in spite of what is going on with the economy.  Well, one of the very best things any savvy business owner could do is to find mutliple ways to create steady streams of qualified, interested prospects.

You see, lead generation is one of the most important components to growing any successful business.  Without a consistent stream of prospects that have the money, the need, and the inclination to purchase the lawn care or landscaping products and services you offer, your business will slowly dwindle until there’s really nothing left.  Especially as people continue pinching their pennies.

Fortunately, there is an almost endless supply of ways you could generate quality leads.  At the same time, because there are so many choices it can be incredibly difficult to decide which ones are best for you business.

Here’s a quick-start guide to help you identify the lead generation methods that have the most potential for good for your business:

• Understand where your target market ‘hangs out’ so you can be sure you’re message will be seen/heard by them.  You can’t generate new leads if your target market can’t read your message so be sure you’re in places where there’s a good chance it’ll be heard of seen.
• Start with those methods that don’t require a large upfront commitment. Things like the phone book, billboards, radio or TV spots, or other methods can require a HUGE commitment or upfront costs and unless you the budget already set aside for these methods, don’t do them. There are things you can do that won’t tie your hands and once you’re in a spot where you can afford them, then you can take the plunge.
• Put as many ‘lines’ in the water as possible. The only way to create massive results is to take massive action and they only way you can do that is to do many things SIMULTANEOUSLY. Many businesses want to try one thing at a time, but when you want to grow rapidly you’ve got to do a lot of things at the same time. Otherwise you’ll continue growing at a snails pace, but wonder why you’re not reaping massive rewards.
• Only use methods that are measurable. If you can’t tell if something’s working, don’t do it. With all the tools and resources available to the savvy marketer today, it’s just downright foolish to invest any money in marketing without knowing if it works or not and how well.
• ALWAYS be in marketing mode. I don’t care if it’s the dead of winter or if you’re so busy you can’t think straight, you MUST always be doing something to get the word out about your business.  Again, effective lead generation is the KEY to growing your business in any economy, but if you take your eye off the ball then you’ll soon find yourself behind on your marketing efforts, which only leads to a drop in new customers and sales.  Commit to do something EVERY DAY, even when you think it doesn’t matter!

Growing a successful lawn care or landscaping business doesn’t just happen overnight and it really doesn’t matter what the economy is doing.  It’s tough in a good economy and even tougher in a down economy like the one we’re going through currently.

However, if you’ll commit to becoming a lead generation expert you won’t have to worry about what kind of hype the television talking-heads are coming up with because you’ll be creating your own sound economy!

I’m sure this comes as no surprise, but if you want to grow your lawn care or landscaping business you’ve got take steps to make it happen.  You can’t simply sit back, put in minimal effort and expect your business to grow.  And in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace it’s even more true.

Achieving above average results definitely requires above average action. But what kind of action?

So many business owners are frustrated and stressed out because they say things like “marketing doesn’t work” or “people just aren’t buying anymore.”

And while it can definitely be said the green industry marketplace is very different than it was just a short time ago, to discount it completely and say nothing works or that nobody’s spending money just isn’t true.  One simply needs to take a drive to their local shopping mall to see the close to capacity parking lots. Or drive past their favorite restaurant and see the line out the door waiting for a table.

Again, it’s not nearly what it was a short time ago, but people are definitely ready, willing, and able to spend money for those things they truly want.

You see, that’s the key.  Your customers have to WANT what it is you’re offering.

The problem is, most lawn care or landscaping businesses do very little to help their prospects or customers see the value in the products or services they offer. As a result, they’re left scratching their head trying to figure out how to get people to spend money on what they’re offering.

To help overcome this challenge, here are 5 steps you can take right now to grow your green industry business in spite of all the challenges our current economy presents:

1.    Provide products or green industry services that are worth talking about.

Today’s consumers are extremely jaded and skeptical when it comes to buying things. As a result, you’ve got to figure out a way to get people to voluntarily talk about what you have to offer and the way you do this is by providing a product or service that gets people talking.

It could be the actual product or service itself, it could be the way you deliver it, or could even be in the dramatic changes it makes for your customers.  Whatever the case, you MUST figure out a way to offer something that is worthy of having your customers talk about it to their friends.

Remember, if you’re only slightly better than the next guy then you only deserve slightly better results!

2.    Make your lawn care or landscaping customer’s lives easier.

This is one way you can become worthy of being talking about.  Everyone is looking for ways to simply their life and if you can help them remove a burden, whether it be actual or perceived, you’ll position yourself to be talked about, to be referred by customers, and to win a lion’s share of the available business.

3.    Talk about all the BENEFITS your products and services offer your customers.

In order to help people know about your green industry business you MUST get the word out.  It could be through direct mail, Internet marketing, networking, good old fashioned door-to-door sales, or even a combination of multiple methods.  But no matter which methods you choose, it’s absolutely critical that you sell the benefits you offer and NOT just the actual products or services you sell.

I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, “sell the sizzle and not the steak.” What this means is you’ve got to help your prospects and customers see exactly how you’ll make their life easier, how they’ll save time and money, and how you can help remove a major point of stress for them.

4.    Take massive action to get massive results.

This is a principle followed by many successful businesses.  You see, if you want to achieve mediocre growth then you can get away with doing just a few things.  However, if you want to see amazing growth in a very short period of time than you can’t be content with doing just a few things.  You got to take something called massive action.

Massive action is the principle of doing many things simultaneously. Instead of slowly taking action on a few things, you take action on many things at the same time.  This way you can have multiple marketing campaigns generating multiple streams of new prospects which in turn translate into more new customers.

Admittedly it’s not easy to take massive action because things can get pretty confusing, but if you’ll spend some time mapping out your strategy before you get started you’ll soon find that by taking massive action you not only get more new business but you accomplish more as well simply because of the momentum you’ve generated.

5.    Focus on creating valuable relationships.

Again, consumers are extremely skeptical today.  It doesn’t matter what business or industry you’re in.  As a result, it’s absolutely critical that you do more than simply sell to your customers.  You’ve got to figure out a way to develop a real and meaningful relationship with both prospects and customers.

Developing a relationship with your prospects makes the sales process easier because instead of taking a huge leap of faith to purchase your products or services, they trust what you say making it much easier to commit to doing business with you.

With your existing lawn care or landscaping customers, because they’ve already demonstrated some level of trust in you, by strengthening that relationship and furthering the trust you have the opportunity to sell more and sell it more often.  This gives you an opportunity to build your business much faster because as every savvy business owner knows, it’s much easier to sell to existing customers than it is to sell to prospects.

As you work to build your green industry business in today’s super-competitive marketplace implement these 5 principles of growth and watch as your bottom line grows, your customers remain loyal longer, and your competitors become frustrated because you’re stealing all of the available customers!