Generating Self-Sustaining Website Traffic

Generating Self-Sustaining Website Traffic
By Willie Crawford (c) 2005

Upon returning from a recent seminar, I had two messages
from newspaper reporters on my answering machine. They were
both seeking interviews. I also had emails showing that
I'd earned several thousand dollars while I was out of town
speaking. The orders had all been processed automatically,
and the emails were just for my information. It was at that
point that I realized my Internet business had truly
reached critical mass.

Critical mass is a term that I first heard my friend Jack
Humphrey, author of Power Linking, use in reference to
generating website traffic and growing a business. Jack
used it to define that point at which you could stop
actively promoting your online business (for a while) and
it would continue to grow and prosper.

I'm sharing this with you because I want you to see the
tools that enabled me to reach that point. This article
will show you to see why those tools are so powerful.

Let me begin by telling you that it took me eight years to
grow my online business to the point where it is largely
self-sustaining! I don't want to mislead you there. A big
part of success is unwavering persistence.

Now, let's look at the tools I used to reach and maintain
critical mass.

1) Search engine marketing. All of my important sites ARE
manually submitted to the search engines. I submit and
re-submit them "semi-automatically" though. I use a site
called SelfPromotion.com. This site allows you to store
all relevant data about a site into their database. The
software then submits your site to selected search engines
and directories.

The beauty of self-promotion.com is that you can then set
it so that the software periodically resubmits your sites.
It's truly "set it and forget it" website promotion.

SelfPromotion.com is free, but if you make a contribution,
to help pay for the upkeep of the site, you get access to
more nifty tools. You can get a free account with them at:
http://selfpromotion.com/?CF=Willie%20Crawford . That URL
lets Robert know that I sent you. I've used this tool for
over 5 years now - and love it!

2) Article marketing. I've written and distributed over
300 articles. Articles establish you as an expert in the
marketplace, build inbound links to your sites, pre-sell
your products, and help you rank higher in the search
engines for your targeted keywords.

The power of article marketing is that once the articles
are in circulation, and on hundreds... or even thousands of
websites, they can work for you forever. I still get
traffic to some of my websites from articles I wrote in
1998!

Many online marketers now use articles to market their
websites, but they don't do it very effectively. Articles
have to be written, and deployed, in a way that they both
gain you advantages in the search engines and that they
convert readers into customers, subscribers, clients, and
fans. That means your articles need SOLID content.

In writing articles (or having them ghost written) you must
always remember that people surf the Internet looking for
information and solutions to their problems. Your articles
must actually provide this information or help them to
actually solve their problems. Distribute articles that
accomplish this, and you'll develop an endless stream of
raving fans, all storming your website for more of YOU.

Writing articles is relatively easy. If you don't know how
to write articles though, I recommend that you take
advantage of the training available at a site called
Content Propulsion Lab. Content Propulsion Lab teaches you
not only how to use articles to grow your business, but
also how to use multi-media content (such as MP3's and
online video). You're shown how to deploy multi-media
content in a way that causes the search engines to gobble
it up.

I mentioned the multi-media content because, while articles
work beautifully, website audio and video is growing at an
amazing pace. You need to offer your audience information
in the formats that they prefer consuming it in. More and
more, this format is becoming audio and video. These
formats allow your audience to connect with you on a much
deeper level since they see or hear a live person.
Connecting with your audience on a deeper level means MORE
sales.

I now use Content Propulsion Lab's resources to push my
content out to an amazing array of places. I also TEACH
others how to do this through tele-classes and webinars
featured at Content Propulsion Lab. You can check out all
of the mind-boggling capabilities Content Propulsion Lab
offers at: http://CashThroughContent.com

3) Viral tools. A viral tool is merely something that,
once set in motion, continues to grow, and spread, and
benefit you, without any additional input being required
from you.

Two of my favorite viral tools are online discussion forums
and blogs. Online discussion forums allow people interested
in a given topic to congregate and and discuss that topic.
Over time, your discussion forum will develop a core
following who will help to spread the word, and help to
maintain the community. Seek volunteer moderators to help
police the forum and maintain standards. Many people will
volunteer for a link back to their site, or just for the
exposure.

The number of blogs is growing exponentially. Blogs are
proven traffic magnets. A blog allows you to share
information, opinions, etc. with your audience. If your
blog engages your audience they will help to spread the
word. At the same time, blogs are visited frequently by the
search engines. Search engines notice which ones are
updated often and become "trained" to spider those blogs
often.

Because blogs are spidered so often, it's one of the
quickest ways that I know of to get a new site noticed by
the search engines. Just post a link to one of your new
sites on a blog that's frequently crawled, and the search
engine spiders will follow that link and index your new
site. This is VERY powerful to be such a simple technique.

Blogging is very simple, but there are lots of tricks and
techniques that offer you an amazingly competitive
advantage. My favorite blogging platform is WordPress,
which I learned all about from my friend Sherman Hu.
Sherman has a series of short online videos that explain
practically everything you could ever want to know about
blogging with WordPress.

You can watch 22 (yes - 22) of Sherman's videos on
WordPress blogging absolutely free at:
http://ShermanHuOnWordPressBlogging.com

Other viral tools include ebooks, PDF special reports, MP3
audio files, and Camtasia videos. We can't cover all of
these here, but any of them could be created, and then
offered to the marketplace. If they deliver tremendous
value, or even entertainment, they will be passed along.
If you create these viral tools properly, they will lead
highly qualified traffic right back to your site.

4) Link Building. People find, and then visit, your sites
by following trails. Those trails can be mentions of your
url in online or offline media, articles, press releases,
and links on other sites pointing to you. The more links
you have pointing to you, the greater the chance of someone
finding one of those links and visiting your site. So, you
should set out on an aggressive effort to build quality
links pointing to your site.

Since I value quality links over sheer quantity, I have
over the years simply emailed webmasters of sites I wanted
to exchange links with suggesting the exchange. Now, I hire
others to coordinate link exchanges for me. This is a
better use of my resources in the long-run than doing it
myself, since there are services that do this fairly
inexpensively. To locate one of these services, simply
type in an appropriate term at the search engines.

You can also set up an affiliate program as a way to reward
others for linking to you. Affiliate program management
software, such as the one I use at http://ProfitAutomation.com
allows you the option of paying people (on a per click basis)
just for sending traffic to you. I do this on a few sites,
but on most sites where I have affiliate programs, I pay on
a per sale basis. This still generates a lot of one-way
links but only costs you when those links make you sales.

There are many, many more techniques that you can use to
build a steadily increasing flood of traffic to your sites.
I use literally Dozens of different methods. If you're
looking for an "encyclopedia" of traffic generation
methods, I highly recommend a course by my friend John
Reese, called Traffic Secrets. You'll find John Reese's
Traffic Secrets Course at: http://TrafficSecretsByJohnReese.com

The most important part of building your websites' traffic
up to critical mass is just getting started. Pick ONE of
the methods outlined above and get started. As you verify
that a particular method works great for you, and your
marketplace, keep using that one and then add others. If a
particular method doesn't produce for you, stop wasting
your time with it!

One final thought... even when you build your website
traffic to critical mass, you still should continue to
promote.

Yes, you'll continue making sales, but if you completely
stop promoting, sales will eventually begin to drop off.
Major international corporations such as Coke(tm) have
proven this over and over again. That's why you see these
major corporations with MAJOR market domination continue
to promote their products and services.

Now that you understand the intricacies of generating
self-sustaining website traffic, what are you waiting for:-)

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Willie Crawford has taught PROVEN Internet marketing
techniques to thousands of successful Internet entrepreneurs
since late-1996. Subscribe to his free weekly ezine, which
helps you cut through the clutter and time-wasting hype.
Subscribe now by visiting: http://WillieCrawford.com
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