I’ve harped on the whole “Catch-22″ of Internet marketing before…
You need to sell something to make money online. This can be your own product or selling stuff as an affiliate (other people’s products, eBay, CPA offers, whatever). But just because you put a slick-looking website or squeeze page online doesn’t mean you should go running to check yourbank account just
yet. You need traffic.
And there is your Catch-22. No Traffic. No Money.
There are a million and one products selling you all their strategies and blueprints but I just break it down to paid
and free traffic.
Over-simplified? Maybe. But it keeps me sane and making money online.
Paid traffic is stuff like PPC (Pay-Per-Click) the most popular being Google Adwords. You can also strike deals with email
marketers. Pay them to send a mailing to their list for your offer. You can pay them up-front for a solo-mailer or offer them a
commission of 50% and up for any sales they make from the traffic they send you.
You can get free traffic but it takes some elbow-grease by doing some stuff to ensure your website/offer appear in the search engines. That “stuff” is SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
So lets focus on free traffic and SEO.
In my over-simplified world, SEO breaks down in two areas:
On-page and off-page.
On-page SEO is the stuff you do on your website. Using your target keywords in your content, title tags, domain name, having
internal/external links on your site, etc.
Then we have off-page SEO stuff and there are a lot of ways of doing this…
- Article Marketing
- Social bookmarking
- Blog commenting
- Forum marketing
- Social networking (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
- Press Releases
If you’ve been studying Internet marketing online you know that list could go on and on, and on and on. 
And that is part of the problem. There are so many traffic techniques that you’ll drive yourself mad trying to master them all. In the end you’ll end up frustrated and you’ll end up with little traffic and no money.
That’s the reason I recommend focusing on 2 or 3 strategies and then stick to them.
What I use and recommend…
- Article marketing.
- Social bookmarking.
- Press releases.
Once you start getting traffic then go ahead and try other things but just stick to a few strategies at first.
In the next few blog posts, I’ll talk more in depth on my three favorite ways of generating free web traffic to my my web properties so stay tuned for the next blog post.
Alan…First I love your relaxed picture when you are hard at work!..LOL..Best way to work in my opinion.
One other traffic avenue I would like to throw out there is video marketing. I have seen excellent results from throwing up quick videos on YouTube and secondarily DailyMotion, etc. You don’t have to video yourself. Just use a video screen recording software such as the free CamStudio or shell out the bucks for Camtasia, throw up your website, say a few words about it and away you go. Just make sure you put in the right tags in YouTube. I search for videos in my same niche that have a whole bunch of views and use the same tags. Works everytime! And you get plenty of traffic. Thanks for allowing me to reply.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting Doug. And you’re absolutely right about video marketing! I should have added video into the mix since it’s a great (and fun) way of getting traffic.
The key I believe is to focus on a few methods but do them well.
Good content and with the links and articles put into the right places your traffic will find you.
Thanks for your comment BTW
Agreed. Focus is key. Reminds of the old saying… Jack of all trades, master of none. Enjoyed your post on your blog. Take care.
Alan,
I like the idea of focusing on a few things. I like simplicity. I don’t like the idea of going many directions at once so it is encouraging to know we can simplify to a few main methods of working.
Best Regards,
Cheryl
Thanks for the post Alan,
Glad to know that no Moolah doesn’t necessarily mean no traffic!
I’m new to IM and need to stick with free methods of driving traffic. Focusing on 3 sounds doable.
Thanks again,
Lesley
Yes, very true. Free traffic is out there but it will take some elbow grease. The nice thing is once it’s start’s coming it usually does for a long time to come. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
–Alan
Hi Alan
Yes good post. I was burned in the early days with PPC and now only use the free methods.
A little about me – My name is Sue McDonald and I am a student of Mark Terrell and I am actually going through the course a second time – by invitation. I love it and know if I do all he says, I will be successful. I am Australian but the US is my second home as I have family there and visit quite often. This is why I started Internet Marketing so I can travel whenever I want and have the money to do what I want.
Well I hope you are doing well and you become very successful. I would love you to come visit my blog and leave a comment.
Kind regards
Sue
Hey Alan
I have just come for a visit to your site. How are you going?
Yes it is Mark and I am following my students as they post on other peoples blogs. They don’t know that I am always checking to see they are getting results. I am passionate about helping them achieve and then they are able to make some money online exactly the same as I am doing. It is not really difficult as long as they are willing to put in the effort.
Keep up the good work.
Regards
Mark
hey Alan
well you are dead right when you say we can drive ourselves mad trying to master everything
fortunately i decided to get a good mentor and the 3 methods you have recommended pretty much mirrows what i am now learning
as an aside i notice the quality of your video is very good – are you happy with your smart phone – would it be your preference?
keep driving that traffic
allan
hi Alan,
loved some of the post I read.It’s good to know a few different ways work. i can not spend much so have to find other ways to get my list.
I am Rose Kline from Pa. I joined Mark Terrell”s coaching and an doing everything he says.That way I know I will make it to the top percentage of people who make it,,I just started a blog and would value your comment or feed back. To your success, Best Wishes and Keep going upward,
Rose
Hi Alan
I am a new student of Mark Terrell’s coaching, and was asked to stop other peoples blogs, I am so glad I stopped by it is so nice to see someone keeps things simple thanks for the info looking forward to stopping by again, I would love for you to stop by my blog and comment thank you
Karen