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Friday July 30th 2010

Increase Web Traffic: A summary of tips

We have already mentioned lots of innovative ideas on how to increase web traffic into your website so that you can increase your sale of products or to increase advertisement based revenue. Now we basically present a summary article which lists the most common methods of increasing traffic. Although these seem very easy and common, they are actually most important in bringing visitors to your website. So no matter how mundane they may seem, they should be implemented.

1. The first and foremost requirement is quality content. If what you are publishing on your website is good, innovative, helpful and progressive then you will automatically have more and more visitors. Hence content is the most important thing for any site.

2.Get yourself a proper and catchy domain name. Sometimes the name makes a lot of difference. People are attracted to catchy web domains and may visit your site often. A catchy and interactive site also helps to attract recurring visitors.

3.Get listed in the big shot search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo! This always help in bringing spiders into your website and is a major method of increasing sales or ad revenue.

4.Link creation is also a major method of getting your site well known. Create as many links as possible and get listed in directories and other websites to create a network of inbound traffic. You can also spread your website by posting links on social networking sites, public forums and other places where a lot of activity takes place.

5.Register for Google Adwords or Microsoft Adsense or Yahoo ads. This will highly boost the sales of product based websites and help to bring your target audience into your sites. Since the links provided are triggered by search words, it is important to find out and register the keywords which define your website or your products.

6.Create interactive forums or blogs in which potential customers can talk with existing ones and have an opinion about your products. You can also take regular feedback and ask for suggestions to improve your services.

7.You can also opt to give away freebies or offers or discounts . These things are obvious methods of attracting customers and viewers to your website. You may also run a contest or play small games to increase visibility of your website. If your site is well liked, people will keep coming back and increase revenue.

8.Lastly, do a small research using any form of statistic tools on your inbound traffic. Try to find out what type of people are recurring to your site, what types like your site most, what like it the least. With these data you can effectively target those people who will serve as the major portion of inbound traffic to your site. Also try to improve and innovate to bring in newer customers.

Link Building- An effective way to get your website listed and visible

What is link building?

This is definitely the question that would pop into your head when you first read the topic heading. Link building is a kind of internet marketing in which a webmaster or site-owner creates inbound traffic onto his own website by posting a link. The links maybe posted in e-zines, newsletters, search engines, directories or even in others’ websites in which case it becomes a two way link building. This is known as reciprocal link building or exchange links. Reciprocal link building is a symbiotic method in which two webmasters agree to advertise each others’ links on their respective websites.

Why should I build links to my website?

The next question that you would be asking is that what’s in it for you? Basically link building and site listing has lots of advantages. The obvious outcome is an increase in revenue which can be generated by taking into account pay-per-click schemes. Linking can also be done to increase the brand value of your website so that it becomes popular. Another important aspect of link building is that it can be used to distribute awareness friendly websites. You may even use it to increase the page rank of your website in popular search engines such as Google.

What are directories and why should I list my site in a directory?

Web directories are web pages which list the links to websites which have similar content. It is basically a organized list of all those websites which are similar in category and content. Internet users refer to web directories a lot of times if they need to find particular sites. It is basically like a phone directory only in place of numbers you get websites. Web directories are excellent ways of increasing traffic into your website. There are generally three important ways in which a directory can help you get traffic:

1. The directory may showcase your website and contents and there may be people interested in it who will then visit the site. This is known as click-through traffic.

2.Next you may opt to index your site and its pages onto the directory. This is like registering yourself into yellow pages and making your site visible to others.

3.The last method is done by the directory sites themselves. If your website grows in popularity and traffic then the directory may automatically increase the page rank of your website which in turn will increase the rank of your site on search engines. This is a great way of increasing traffic into your website.

Here we provide the link of a popular web directory.

http://www.321directory.com/

This is a popular directory website which will host any of your websites for link building and provides you with 6 links. The websites are first assessed by the site’s engineers and then added to their list. The cost of adding your site to the list is $19.95.

Building Virtual Communities

vir-commuSocial networking is an effective marketing tool utilized by many B2B companies as a way to keep the customers updated on key business developments and periodical success stories. A closer and clearer look at social media as a marketing device reveals that it is more effective as a community than a mere communication idea. Most IT companies understand that the online community always begins as discussion threads and with the help of supportive forums. Real value from the customer rolls out from a deep engagement that is substantially relevant and inter-personal.
Recognition is valuable, and the capital that you have truly accrued to your online presence. Community building aspects of social media offer a powerful platform which provides real value to your customers and keeps them coming back for more. For building an effective online community your online experience must however include –
? Building Personal Profiles
This will give your customer a personal bonding and create a belonging with the community. His ability to project himself as he is will immediately help him connect with the surrounding. He will be able to find and communicate with like minded people, look around and desire to expand his horizons. He will be able to permanently retain his online ‘space’ in this gathering of people enriching the virtual space.
? Allow Creation of Different Groups
The community will be what you and the other members make of it. Being a part of it and involved in the growth process helps create strong bonds. These online groups have almost been useful ever since the birth of the internet. Over 270,000 distinct communities and forums were registered at the start of this decade. Different groups allow for the much required breathing space, and enable growth as communities within the community.
? Encourage and Allow Collaboration
Instead of building single communication threads which may collapse any moment without a trace, it would be meaningful to allow for collaboration among members at different levels. This inter-woven structure would withstand all kinds of virtual weather-storms that might affect the health and growth of the virtual community. Working together is not only easy, but it also enables build stronger and lasting platforms. Online saloons and discussion forums therefore must encourage and allow collaboration making inter-linking possible and gain on strength.communities_200
? A Rating System Encouraging Personal Recognition
Awarding has always been able to generate the requisite enthusiasm whenever effectively applied. An internal rating system among the members of groups will definitely boost and encourage wider participation.
Man has always been that social animal who has enjoyed meeting people, playing around, sharing jokes, stories, and has always been interested in one another. Online virtual communities will always prosper as an extension of this basic human nature.

Strategy – Give Your Online Business a Good Pair of Eyes

consultancyMake no mistake. In the kind of ocean the world-wide-web is, it is essential that you learn to navigate if you do not want to get lost. Building a strategy for your online business is going to help you reach your destination easier and faster. In the absence of being strategic, most of these untargeted efforts would only prove to be a big waste of efforts, money and time. Not knowing your way, or the marks that you want to set are a huge disadvantage to begin with.

Looking strategically is big help

Strategy is a lot about how to think more holistically. It enables you to be innovative, lead teams while helping you deliver value tactically daily.  Shouting at people through television ads are actually days of the past when it comes to online marketing, and no more does this work like it used to. The consumers are really looking at different forms of consuming media, the social media scenario is a good example of this changing scenario.

Seeing what you would have otherwise missed

Normally, we are all on the ‘hit’ mode, and trying to work things out in order to generate value. We are constantly working out, planning and making our way through the thick and the thin of the day. Since we lose a strategic eye, there are a lot of instances, which come as glaring situations or opportunities that simply tend to pass by.

The big question is, when you are busy spinning the wheel and trying to get work done, are you really having the time to provide value to the organization?

You’ll miss the bus. This is why, being strategic gives you an opportunity to derive more of value in this marathon. This will mean, halting your daily grind, analyzing a consumer and finding what exactly are they looking for. Understanding the media and developing contacts with them, and giving them a clear picture of what your plans are all about. Looking at data to understand patterns, user behavior and other relevant feeds; this will mean that as a strategic thinker you are providing more value by increasing your customer list, and actively engaging, re-engaging and retaining customers.

Set aside time to think

Set aside time on a daily or weekly structure to think more holistically as a marketer should. Get to know what people really want from you. Marketing is not pushing or advertising products or services, it is about truly understanding what is important in a marketplace. It is a process of creating value in an industry which will eventually lead to obtaining customers and retaining them.

Take professional help

Consultants will be very helpful for strategically thinking over problems in any organization. Firstly, they provide a fresh set of eyes with a wide angled outlook for your business. They are capable and will be more objective about features, content and other aspects. They will externally analyze a business, an industry, and the customer, and suggest recommendations that you can implement.

strategyMoreover, consultants are also tacticians who help alleviate your daily support needs. Whether it is managing communities, managing SEO or PPC campaigns and many other factor professionals can effectively address. The truth, however, is that they will be able to give you that free time, which you needed to think strategically. After all you know your business better than anyone  else ever can.

Your web strategy is crucial

Spend enough time developing your web strategy. It is very important to think strategically as businesses begin to evolve online. Understanding the growing online market is more important now than ever to make that difference which will set you apart. Your web strategy is what will chart your course and help you score for a long, long time.

Google Buzz – Google All the Way

09_google_kGoogle has just introduced Google Buzz a new Gmail based social sharing service, and if you are using Gmail, you are already a member. The Buzz like all Google products is loud and clear, which all other social media websites will closely be observing and devising strategies to counter this offensive. With Gmail, the most popular internet mailing service backing up the new products that Google is rolling out, there is hardly any challenge Yahoo, MSN or any other provider has to offer.

Add anything with Google and they not only start making sense, but are also able to create products and generate business. The internet advertising juggernaut Google has come up with Google Buzz now. Buzz will allow you ‘to start conversations about things that you find interesting, and be able to share updates, photos, videos and more.’ Things that you already have been doing all this time on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other social media sites. However, Buzz insists that this is different. Like Todd Jackson, product manager for Gmail/Buzz says, “Our belief is that organizing the social information on the Web – finding relevance in the noise – has become a large-scale challenge, one that Google’s experience in organizing information can help solve.”

So Buzz will now bring you the news, and keep the chatter low. This will be integrating right in your Gmail box directly and enable you find a new social graph with ease. Buzz will follow all the people that you already email, building from your current contact list. You will automatically be set up with feeds coming in from your contacts right in your Gmail inbox. This will enable Buzz bring millions of users from the start, simply creating by waking up and making an overnight heavyweight in social sharing.

Buzz comes with some of the best key features that will enable overcome competitor challenges and might also contribute to help reduce noise – like.

- Key feature #1: Auto-following

- Key feature #2: Rich, fast sharing experience

- Key feature #3: Public and private sharing

- Key feature #4: Inbox integration

- Key feature #5: Just the good stuff

gmailfailwhaleGoogle Buzz users may also use their mobile phones and tag posts by location. Google is also going to be helping you find what, is the best thing that you can see. Buzz will recommend certain items that you may or may not wish to see. When you tell Buzz something is dull, the system will learn to keep that sort of update away from you.

So the next time you open your Gmail inbox, do not be surprised if you come up with a Google Buzz splash page.