5 More Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Online Store

In a previous article, I discussed 5 free ways to increase traffic to your online store. If you have not read it, you can see it here:

http://www.onlinestoreexchange.com/5freeways.html

If youre like most new website owners, you wonder how to bring potential customers to your site without spending lots of money on expensive advertising. In order to help you, Ive compiled another list of five methods that I have used to drastically increase traffic to my own site. In addition, there are two websites listed under each tip that will help you get started implementing these suggestions.

1.Win a web award: A number of webmasters give out awards to sites that go the extra mile when designing their store. In addition to prestige, winning an award can generate interest and traffic from the giving site. If you have a unique looking site, then you can be assured that a web award will bring a good deal of traffic. The two sites listed here are large directories of websites that give out awards: http://www.awardsites.com and http://www.uwsag.com

2.Become part of a webring: Many webmasters join up with similar websites and create what is called a webring. By combining forces with other complementary sites, receive traffic from people who are already interested in your product or service. Each participating site is given a code that they place at the bottom of their webpage. Visitors navigate through the sites by following the buttons that are placed in the webring code. To find out more about webrings, check out the following sites: http://webring.com and http://ringsurf.com/

3.Write a press release: Writing a press release is an incredible way to boost your web traffic. Once written, press releases are sent to key contacts in the media business. By describing the unique aspect of your business, product, or service, you allow reporters or writers to give you free publicity that can bring in tons of traffic. To write a proper press release, check out this site: http://www.press-release-writing.com. In addition, the following sites have a large database of contact information for all forms of media: http://www.mediapost.com and http://www.mediauk.com.

4.Banner Exchange: A good number of websites use banner exchanges as a way to get visible exposure on other sites. By exchanging banners with other websites, people see your unique banner without much competition from other businesses. In exchange, all you have to do is post the other webmasters banner on your own site. Many services even allow you to rotate banners on multiple sites. Check out the following sites for a good starting point: http://free-banners.com/ and http://www.bannerswap.com .

5.Directory Listing: When the Internet first gained popularity, Yahoo became famous for having a well-organized directory. Although they now charge money for inclusion into their directory, it is still possible to find plenty of other highly visited directories. By having a listing on these sites, you can generate a steady amount of highly targeted traffic. The following are two of the more popular directories that offer free listings: http://www.webworldindex.com and http://www.dmoz.org .

By following these steps, you should see a dramatic increase in your web traffic. The key is to always think about website promotion--if you spend a little time each day following one of these steps, you will be rewarded with more visitors and hopefully more customers. Good luck, and happy advertising!

P.S. Stay tuned for more free ways to increase traffic to your website!

Scott Patterson is the owner and webmaster of http://www.mizambar.com, and http://www.onlinestoreexchange.com. To sign up for our 30 day course on how to promote your site for free, send a blank email to the following address: 30dayfreecourse@sendfree.com .

In our previous Super Affiliate Strategies articles, we went over ways to increase your web site's click through ratio. Today we are going to take an entirely different approach, this time we are going to be promoting affiliate programs outside of your web site.

I realize that there are a lot of affiliates that don't have their own web site and are looking for effective ways to promote their affiliate programs. You don't need to have your own web site to send targeted traffic to your affiliate program. In this article we are going to go over a few ways to effectively and profitably promote any affiliate program. In order to generate large affiliate commissions you need to send targeted traffic to your affiliate program, here are a few ways to do so:

Pay Per Click Advertising

Pay per click advertising is a great way to send targeted traffic to your affiliate program. Before you start promoting an associate program with pay per click advertising, you need to make sure that it offers a high commission percentage and has a conservation rate of 2% or higher. If your associate program doesn't offer either one, then you shouldn't be using pay per click advertising. If the associate program you are promoting doesn't offer a high commission percentage nor have a high conservation ratio, then you won't make any money with pay per click advertising. There are plenty of associate programs out there that offer high percentages and have excellent conservation rates.

If you are considering promoting more than one affiliate program, which many people do, including myself, then you should promote products that are not in indirect competition with each other. If you promote products that are in indirect competition with each other such as online marketing books, you would be using the same keywords, which would mean one ad is going to do better than the other. When you're using the same keywords for more than one ad, your visitor could favor one ad over the other. Basically, your click through rate will be evaluated between the two ads instead of one. Instead of having one strong click through rate, you could have two weak ones. Your click through ratio plays a major role in your ads position.

The trick to having success with pay per click advertising is writing a killer ad and selecting appropriate keywords. When selecting your keywords, you shouldn't pay more than $0.05 per click. Instead of increasing the cost per click of your ad and chance losing your shirt, you can find very cheap high traffic keywords that product excellent results. If you're considering using pay per click to advertising for your associate program, then I recommend that you get Adword Analyzer. Adword Analyzer is an amazing piece of software and it will help you locate those overlooked and neglected high traffic keywords.

Ezine Advertising

Advertising in ezines is one of the best and easiest ways to send targeted traffic to your affiliate program. Even though pay per click may accurately target your market, they cannot target it precisely link ezines can. I'm not trying to discourage you from pay per click advertising, but with a great ad copy and carefully selected keywords its capabilities can be too broad. Ezines on the other hand, are precise in targeting a market and have a list of pre-qualified subscribers. A pre-qualified subscriber is when someone has voluntarily subscribed to receive additional information about a particular topic, making them qualified and easy to market to.

With so many ezines to choose from, it makes it hard to select a quality ezine to advertise in. The best way to find quality ezines to advertise your affiliate program in, is by using Directory of Ezines. There are free ezine directories on the web, but you get what you pay for. Most of the free ezine directories are saturated with discontinued ezines or are outdated. Moreover, with the Directory of Ezines, the ezines are always kept up to date, providing you with the latest information and new ezines everyday, making it a valuable resource.

Targeted Opt-In List

Another way you can promote your affiliate program is by renting targeted opt-in mailing list. Renting a targeted opt-in list is a quick access to expose your affiliate program to hundreds, even thousands of people that have opted-in to receive more information in that field. By renting a targeted opt-in list you will have to use a third party source. If you decide to use a third party source it is imperative that you find out how they are gathering the email addresses for their list. You want to use a third party opt-in list that has been gathering their email addresses properly. That way you know that the people have given permission to receive more information and didn't use a email extracting software to harvest them.

I'm going to be straight with you, renting targeted opt-in lists can get expensive. The bigger the list is the more it's going to cost you! It's a good idea to start small and then gradually increase if you are successful. The reason you want to start small is because you want to see how successful your campaign is going to be. You don't want to go with a large list, if the campaign isn't going to do well, that's a good way to lose money. You will need to conduct some tests before you start your campaign. Here are a few third party list providers you can use, Postmaster Direct, List Universe, and E-Target.

Rich Hamilton, Jr is the CEO/President of http://www.ElitesMarketing.com and the Author of Inside Internet Marketing. His book will show you how to ignite your sales by unlocking the absolute truth to internet marketing and how you can aggressively promote your web site without paying a cent for advertising.
http://www.Advertising-Free.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dateline: Washington D.C. Over 100 Russian Mail Order Brides to gather in Silver Spring, Maryland, on June 26, 2004.

June 26th, will mark an unusual precedent for the city of Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of the Nations Capitol. Over 100 Russian Mail Order Brides will assemble for the Premiere screening of the Award Winning US Independent film, POSTMARK PARADISE.

The screening date coincides with the Home Video & DVD release of the film on June 29th, by Distributor Vanguard Cinema, based in Costa Mesa, California. The DVD edition of the film will be loaded with DVD extras that will include one of Ms. Nazarovas music videos from her debut music CD, a Directors Commentary, a video presentation of actual Russian mail order brides, as well as additional goodies and surprises for retail consumers.

THE FILM STARS RUSSIAN ACTRESS/SINGING SENSATION NATALIA NAZAROVA.

Natasha Spivak (President of Encounters International), who founded the Premiere Russian Mail Order Bride Service in the US, is assembling in excess of 100 Russian Mail Order Brides to attend the screening being held at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. This glittering event promises to be unprecedented in US history.

POSTMARK PARADISE, is an award winning American independent film that warmly and richly weaves the story of a Russian Mail Order Bride who is tricked into coming to America to meet her future husband. Upon arrival, her future husband turns out to be nothing like his pictures and letters, which were sent without his knowledge by his neighborhood bar buddies, while he spent time in the local county jail. Likewise, she turns out to be nothing like they expected.

In addition to Postmarks four Best of Festival awards received from American Film Festivals, Ms. Nazarova was awarded the Legionnaires Award by the Russian National Actors guild for the Best Performance in a Foreign Film by a Russian Actress.

Natasha Spivak served as a consultant for the film, which was written by Daniel Slider, and directed by Thompson Clay. The US Home Video & DVD release is scheduled in stores nationwide on June 29, 2004. The film is being released throughout North America by Vanguard Cinema.

Phone: (949) 258-2000 / www.vanguardcinema.com
Contacts: Eric A. Peterson, V.P. Sales / Paul Gale, National Sales

For additional information concerning production of the film, please contact Ellliot Grysen at (800) 727-1470.

You may also visit:
www.NataliaNazarova.com
www.PostmarkParadise.com
www.encount.com

Eric A. Peterson is V.P. of Sales for Vanguard Cinema