By Jim Edwards
Not a day goes by that any serious website owner doesn't wonderhow to get more traffic to their site.
This intense desire to generate more clicks makes virtually anyonline entrepreneur easy prey to many of the traffic schemes andscams that pervade the Internet like conmen on a carnivalmidway.
Promises of fast traffic and big bucks often separate even themost savvy business person from their money because they want tobelieve the promises made by these traffic hucksters.
However, rather than thinking "complicated equals better" in thetraffic game, the best website traffic sources rate extremelyeasy to separate from the useless garbage traffic.
Fact: "Good Traffic" equals "Targeted Traffic!"
That means the visitors come as a result of desire to find outmore on a specific, niche topic, not as a result of "exit"traffic or membership in a "safe" list where members simplypitch each other in an incestuous spam fest.
Good traffic comes from people clicking links on topics targetedto their interests and getting directed to a website containinginformation they want and expect as a result of clicking thelink.
Bottom line, when you get right down to it, the best, mostdependable sources of targeted traffic come from links thatpeople click.
So, next time you're considering spending money on a trafficsource, understand that unless it involves a targeted link thata targeted visitor can click to get to your website, think twicebefore opening up your wallet.
To my knowledge, only three ways exist to get a link to yoursite: buy it, "voodoo" it, or grow it.
** Buy Links**
Buying links actually rates the fastest way to get traffic toyour website.
You simply sign up for Google AdWords at Google.com or you openan account with Overture.com.
You then run ads with a link on those sites and any time someoneclicks the link, you pay for the click through a relativelystraightforward bidding process based on the popularity of thekeyword.
You can also buy links in ezines, newsletters, and on otherpeople's website either on a per-click basis, for a period oftime (a week or month), or in exchange for paying them acommission if a sale gets made as a result of a click on thelink.
** Linking "VoodDoo" **
Linking "voodoo" refers to attempting to manipulate the searchengines into displaying links to your website.
You can find a large number of automated software programsonline at any given time that will claim to help you get moresearch engine traffic.
Depending on the intensity of competition in a specific market,and the fact that search engines change their rules frequently,pursuing search engine links can quickly turn into the onlineequivalent of Alice chasing the rabbit down a hole to"Wonderland."
** Grow Links **
I personally prefer this method to get links to my websites:growing them.
The best type of link to get involves one person telling anotherperson, either explicitly or implicitly, they should click thelink and visit the site at the other end.
One way to do this is simply to exchange links with another sitewhich targets the same audience as your site.
You can manage this process manually or use one of the manysoftware packages that will mange the process for you.
A search on Google.com for "reciprocal link manager software"yields a good start.
The easiest way to grow links is through using articles otherpeople post on their websites which link back to your website.
The reason articles work so well for "growing" links involvesthe numerous ways in which articles get distributed online, eachof which can create dozens, hundreds, even thousands ofdifferent links back to your website by publishing a singlearticle.
As time goes by, and as the article spreads around, the numberof links literally "grows" over time (but unlike a houseplant,you don't have to water an article!).
In fact, the following represent only the tip of the icebergwhen it comes to all the places you can grow and expand thelinks to your site by publishing articles online.
~ Blogs - Your articles can not only appear on your own blog,but get posted by others on their blogs with surprising ease.
The links in these articles can point directly back to yourwebsite.
~ Article Directories - Article directories such asIdeaMarketers.com abound online.
They not only provide an easy way to display your articles toallow others to pick them up for posting on their websites, butalso in and of themselves attract readers searching for content.
~ OPS (Other People's Sites) - Popular websites likeWebProNews.com attract repeat visitors by offering targetedcontent to their readers.
Since they can't produce all the content themselves, theypublish articles created by others. Links from these sites canbring a steady stream of targeted visitors by giving youtargeted exposure.
~ Ezines - By getting your articles published in other people'sezines, you can get a link on the most valuable real estateonline, a targeted prospect's email "inbox."
Many ezine publishers run articles written by others to theirtargeted readers, and your link in the resource box can bringyou a veritable avalanche of targeted site visitors whenhundreds, even thousands of people receive your article at thesame time.
Whether you choose to buy them, "voodoo" them, or grow them,getting targeted links to your site posted on the Internetrepresents the absolute best way to get steady traffic to yoursite.
Though not as fast as buying them or as exciting as trying tomanipulate the search engines, growing links with articles givesyou a long-term, dependable presence online.
-- Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and theco-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to usefr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors toyour website, affiliate links, or blogs...
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