Copyright 2006 Tale Chaser Publishing, Inc.
Things haven't been this perfect for a long time. In fact, not since one of the big engines really started to take off, when those who were lucky enough to be already seated firmly in the Top 10 for their keywords, has there been such a plethora of new traffic opportunities.
The internet marketing world has become multi-dimensional in ways that are surprising to most people who are still hooked on search engine marketing as their sole website promotion strategy.
Here are the new avenues of traffic that most people are NOT taking advantage of outside of the big companies and a handful of savvy marketers:
1. Podcasting
While it was "the word of the year" for 2005, most people still have no idea what Podcasting is really about outside of being able to download music at iTunes.com.
And, frankly, it's because the people who "get it" are, for the first time ever, keeping quiet about it! Or at least keeping the information of how they are profiting wildly with Podcasting behind closed doors and in small groups.
And I am not going to get too far into it here for the same reason as the others: I don't want the competition that will be here by the end of 2006 to come any earlier because I blabbed about how it is done in public!
Sorry, but you will have to pay something to become a millionaire using this information!
But I will give you a clue. Go to iTunes.com and download the free software that allows you to, yes, download music. But ignore that part for a minute.
With the iTunes software you can grab Podcasts from major news organizations and tiny garage websites mostly focusing on short comic bits.
Pay attention to what you are NOT seeing. One thing is there isn't a lot of video Podcasts - period. Not even comedy! And there are no how-to podcasts save a couple from the people I talked about above.
The savvy marketers are already in the game and getting traffic from a source all other marketers seem to be totally discounting right now. To the tune of 6 million or so pairs of eyeballs dying to see and hear more content, especially video content, at iTunes.com alone!
Last year you could see the word "Podcasting" uttered thousands of times by marketers trying to gauge the buzz worthiness of it among their customer lists.
Well, without showing people how marketing with Podcasts is done, and with article marketing doing a great job of bringing people traffic in ways they COULD understand, not too many marketers really got into it.
We were lucky recently to have a guest speaker from none other than the Hawaiian Tropics site come in and talk to our clients about how easy it has been to blow away the likes of Playboy and other major competitors by offering their content through Podcasts.
We got to see the inner workings of a successful marketing campaign on a very very high level. And we gained valuable insight into how marketing with Podcasts can be done on the guerilla marketing level.
You watch. By the end of this year you will wish you started caring about including Podcasting in your marketing a year ago!
2. Audio and Video Syndication
Article syndication is not dead. It actually has yet to see its true "boom" period. I say that because until the content people syndicate gets MUCH better overall, we are basically using sophisticated software and networks to distribute garbage.
But as the article syndication industry slowly comes around to the fact that demanding good content is not going to hurt business, quite the opposite, there are new networks developing that will have us creating, syndicating and streaming much more audio and video around the web to promote our sites.
All-text content is wearing thin on the patience of surfers and possible customers. As the bigger sites lead the way (they almost always do when it comes to new web technology) we are seeing that our own customers, formerly content to read 15 page sales letters, are leaving for something more exciting.
As we all get used to the internet everyone promised us would be here long ago, we see that as we buy stuff and entertain ourselves on the web, we also expect small websites to measure up to the speed, excitement, movement and sound we see on many other sites today.
Less text. Much more multi-media. And as many different ways to access and consume content as we can possibly dream up. That is what's on the menu and the source of traffic is MASSIVE!
Think of all those people who left your all-text site in the last month without buying or clicking on a thing. Where exactly to you think they were headed? That's right. To sites with motion and sound to feed their brains without ruining their eyesight trying to read 10 point font at high resolution for 15 pages!
You have probably bought a product from a choice between a few different dealers just because the site was more engaging than the others. I know I have. And usually I buy from sites that look like they are really in business.
Any monkey can get a merchant account and slap up some text to sell a drop shipped product. I want to buy from people who take the time to take their business (and my credit card information) seriously! That means people who are into displaying information in formats other than all-text.
Audio and video editing and syndication tools have come a long long way in the last year. Anyone can get into the game and dominate in areas where the traffic is theirs for the taking because no one is competing with them for it yet!
So, after you are done writing your next article, while you are syndicating it around the web, make sure you remember that you are not done until you figure out ways to convert that article into an audio for your site or for a Podcast. Or a video script to power a how-to video for the same purpose.
Articles, audio, and video should become synonymous with syndication and traffic generation when thinking about your marketing campaign. Leaving any of them out of your marketing is going to cost you big time in 2006 and beyond!
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Jack Humphrey (http://www.jackhumphrey.com ) is the managing partner at Content Propulsion Lab. To learn more about how to propel your content around the web at the speed of sound, visit Content Propulsion Lab at http://www.contentpropulsionlab.com
