Quick Traffic Building - 3 Top Ways to Traffic Building

Quick Traffic Building - 3 Top Ways to Traffic Building

By James Krawder

"If you'd like to survive the tight competition in the Internet, you must know how to drive traffic to your site. Traffic is everything when it comes to online business. Its what makes your web site popular and generate more profit for you. Thus, traffic building should be your number one priority if you would like to venture in online business. The good news is that, it is not a very complicated process as long as you follow these proven methods:

1. PPC. Pay per click advertising is taking the Internet by storm. Due to its proven power in generating traffic to web sites the faster way, more and more online business are putting their investments in this traffic building technique. This is one paid method that will surely worth every penny you shell out.

2. Article submission. Link building greatly improves your web sites' popularity and search engine ranking. This can be done through submitting quality articles to article submission sites that can grant you one quality inbound link for every submission. It does not cost you anything and it is proven to work!

3. SEO. Search Engine Optimization is one the oldest traffic building techniques that is proven to improve your search engine ranking. It includes the process of optimizing your web site's content, page layout, and structure.

To make sure that you will get the traffic you desire, I strongly suggest you utilize the 3 traffic building methods simultaneously. Most successful web masters have done the same.

Want to learn more about it? Download the free ebook, Steps to Article Marketing Success.

Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

Want to learn more about driving traffic like I do? Download my free traffic guide here: Traffic Generation"

What is better: SEO or PPC?

Many webmasters are unsure whether they should advertise their website with SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC (pay per click advertising).

Actually, most commercial websites work best if you use both SEO and PPC. The exact mix depends on your goals.

Pay per click advertising (PPC)

Advantages:

• You get instant results. If you advertise your website on pay per click search engines, then you will get traffic now and not several months later.
• PPC ads are perfect for time limited offers such as holiday sales.
• You can stop PPC ads at any time.
• PPC ads make it easy to test different keywords and landing pages.
• PPC ads also work with websites that are not very well designed and wouldn't get good search engine rankings.
• PPC ads allow you to bid on a large amount of keywords, including misspellings and other keyword variations that you cannot put on your web pages.

Disadvantages:

• PPC advertising can become very expensive if you bid on the wrong keywords or if you don't calculate the maximum bid price correctly.
• Click fraud can be a problem. Not all clickers are potential customers.

If you advertise your website with PPC ads then you should use a ROI tracking tool to make sure that you don't waste your money.

Search engine optimization (SEO):

Advantages:

• Traffic through organic search engine results is almost free if the up-front work has been done.
• After optimizing your website you can use your money for different things and the optimized site will still run.
• A larger number of visitors and search result clickers is not a problem.
• Search engine optimization delivers long term results that don't require permanent financial input.

Disadvantages:

• SEO can be relatively time-consuming up-front.
• SEO can require a redesign of your web pages to make your website search engine friendly. However, this usually also results in a better user experience.

Search engine optimization delivers lasting results and it costs considerably less in the long term. However, you must make sure that you optimize your website correctly, if your want to get high search engine rankings.

Pay per click advertising and search engine optimization both contribute to the success of your website. If you use both wisely, you can get many new visitors and customers without spending a fortune. See the recommended resources below for PPC and SEO software tips.

Visit Axandra.com

Article by Axandra.com

Investing in PPC or SEO - a Company Decision

As click costs rise, many companies who are already investing in active pay per click marketing campaigns are looking toward hiring a search engine optimization company to supplement their marketing portfolio in order to increase their exposure and reduce their advertising spend. In some cases, frustrated by click fraud and increasing click costs, marketers are using search engine optimization to completely replace pay per click marketing. However, these companies will often try to evaluate search engine optimization using the same methodology that they had used for pay per click - by figuring out the cost per click.

In almost every case, a campaign created by a reputable search engine optimization company will eventually garner lower per-click costs than pay per click marketing for any industry. Yet using cost per click to compare the effectiveness of these two separate disciplines is comparing apples to, well, anything other than apples. The crucial difference between these two approaches is that pay per click marketing is more of an advertising investment, while search engine optimization is more appropriately likened to an investment in infrastructure. While both have their merits in terms of increasing a company's online exposure, it is important to understand the differences in the respective investments and to determine why cost per click is not a fair indicator of the performance of a search engine optimization company.

Pay Per Click Marketing

Advertising investments of all kinds, from billboards to print ads to television spots to pay per click marketing, all share a common trait. They exist in the public eye for as long as a company is willing to pay for them. Stop paying, and they disappear. True, a print ad may continue to exist for a while after it runs (until the newspaper or magazine gets recycled, at least), and a television spot may get attention if it wins any awards (or winds up on YouTube). But a pay per click marketing campaign will simply vanish as soon as the budget is cut. This means that when a company reduces its advertising spend in this arena, it loses all of its exposure immediately.

What does this really mean? Well, for one, it means that figuring out the average per-click costs of a pay per click marketing campaign makes sense because everything happens in real time. A pay per click campaign will begin nearly instantly after a company signs up and pays, and it will vanish just as quickly when the company ceases payment. In other words, there is a clear delineation of when a campaign begins and when it ends.

This delineation is important, because it excludes many other potential factors that muddy the waters when you try to apply this same ROI analysis to a campaign created by a search engine optimization company.

Search Engine Optimization

As said previously, utilizing a search engine optimization company can be likened to making an investment in the infrastructure of a business rather than an investment in advertising. This is because with search engine optimization, there is no clear delineation of where the benefit from the campaign ends. If a business stops paying its search engine optimization company at any point after the campaign has been launched (presuming they have hired a decent search engine optimization company), there will continue to be results from that campaign for an extended period of time - usually many months or even years.

Of course, it is not recommended that any business actually quit an ongoing SEO campaign because a good search engine optimization company will always be expanding and honing that campaign over time to make it more successful over the long term. However, budgets get revisited and revised. Decision makers can change. And if the budget for SEO does get cut, a business will continue to see results for long after. How, then, can you determine value on a per-click basis? The simple answer is that you can't.

It should be noted that while maintaining ongoing results after payments have ceased is a big upside to search engine optimization, the inverse downside is that an effective campaign put in place by a search engine optimization company can take some time to implement, and the results may not appear for weeks or months. A search engine optimization campaign takes patience, effort, and, most of all, time. If a business needs its marketing campaign to be up and running immediately, pay per click marketing is going to be a better short-term choice.

Conclusion

It is important to recognize the innate differences in pay per click campaigns and search engine optimization when trying to quantify results. A pay per click marketing campaign can have a definitive beginning and end, which makes cost per click a good way of determining ROI. Yet the results gained from hiring a search engine optimization company, although an SEO campaign can take much longer to implement, will outlast the results from a pay per click campaign if a business ever needs to cut spending. And this is where the notion of analyzing the effectiveness of a search engine optimization campaign on a cost per click basis breaks down.

10 Tips for Pay-Per-Click Success

This list details some very important points to keep in mind when creating or managing any pay-per-click campaign. Is this all there is to know about pay-per-click advertising? Absolutely not, but for those new to PPC it should serve as good place to start. Additionally, pay-per-click veterans or at least the moderately-seasoned will want to touch upon these points now and then to brush up on their fundamentals.

1) Do your keyword homework.

Use Google's free Keyword Tool or sign up for a WordTracker account to find out which keywords are the most competitive. The more competitive the keyword, the more expensive your clicks will be. While you're finding out which keywords are too expensive you'll come across some that aren't being targeted heavily by advertisers. Take a good look at these - they may be your keys to a successful niche campaign.

2) Don't bunch your ad groups.

You should be striving to separate your ad groups by keyword. Whatever your target, separate your keyword lists into closely related groups containing the same target words and write ads geared specifically to those words. Your ads will show up higher in results based on their quality, and search terms show up bold in results - a click-through rate booster.

3) Drive home your selling point.

What's your offer? Why are you better than the others? Remember that your ads are going to display with your competitors. The difference between a user clicking your ad and clicking a competitor ad is about 100 pixels on the screen - or a millisecond of time. You need to convince them that you are the one they want. You are better. Grab them.

4) Don't send users to your home page.

This is perhaps one of the worst things you can do to your Pay-Per-Click campaign. Internet users are notoriously impatient. Send them to your home page when they were searching for a specific product or service and see how fast they leave. Don't waste your advertising budget - send them to optimized landing pages.

5) Optimize your landing pages.

Your landing pages need to drive something home immediately for your users: "you have landed in the right place." They need to know that, yes, this is what they were looking for, here it is, here is why it is better than the rest and here's the easy thing they need to do to get it. In most cases you'll need to create multiple landing pages based on your different ad groups and keywords, but look at it this way - if your users aren't landing at pages geared exactly to their search phrases they'll leave and take your advertising budget with them.

6) Don't lie in your ads.

People aren't dumb. If you promise something in your ads you had better well deliver. Otherwise you'll not only waste advertising dollars but damage your brand. Be honest, and focus on points that make you stand out from the competition. Grandiose ad text might bring in clicks, but if it isn't the truth it won't bring in conversions.

7) Your domain name counts.

In most cases you can display a domain name that you own as the "display domain" but point the ads to a page on a different domain. Why does this matter? If you own a domain name that contains the keyword text it will show up bold and increase conversions. Enter the optimized domain as the displayed domain, point the ads to your landing pages and you can expect higher CTRs in most cases.

8) Utilize negative keywords.

Google has a new Negative Keyword Tool that will allow you to find negative keywords that you should specify for your ads. Negative keywords are those that you don't want your ads to display for. For example, if you're selling "blue widgets" you don't want to display your ads to those users searching for "free blue widgets." If you don't use negative keywords you are missing out on a chance to get more targeted traffic to your landing pages, and this can really hurt your conversion rates.

9) Test, test, and test some more.

The greatest thing about internet advertising is the ability it grants you to measure your success. It's easy to create A/B split tests with Pay-Per-Click advertising. Change one word, add a comma, include a value proposition. . .just make sure you only change one thing for each split or you won't know which variable it was that made the difference! You'll find out right away that this is a great way to optimize your click-through rates - just don't forget that clicks aren't everything!

10) Don't focus too heavily on CTRs.

Getting tons of clicks isn't always the name of the game. In fact, if you aren't using proper techniques to ensure that you're getting targeted traffic and sending it to well-optimized landing pages you can blow through your advertising budget in no time flat. Remember that the success of any advertisement is getting back more than you put in. It's an investment, not a cost - so do all that you can to better your rate of return!

11) Don't pigeonhole yourself.

We all know that Google AdWords is the most popular Pay-Per-Click service out there. Your competitors know it, your users know it - even your grandma might know it. It would be foolish to ignore Google as a venue for advertising, but don't forget that there are other search engines out there who offer similar services. Yahoo!'s new Panama search system is catching on, and Microsoft's adCenter is nothing to sneeze at either. Both companies are currently offering sweet promotional deals to new Pay-Per-Click advertisers to stay competitive so take advantage and diversify!

Well that's all for now, good luck.

The Best Performing Online Advertising Survey

According to a survey from MarketingSherpa.com, which I have found interesting, the best performing online advertising (great ROI) tactics of 2006 were:

1. Paid search ads
2. E-mail lists (in house)
3. Search engine optimization

Full study at eMarketer.

I would say that one should use as only the advertising campaigns that you can qualify as covering a good ROI rather than just to get better hold on the Internet.

How will PPA effect adsense publishers and will it mean reduced revenuein Tourism sites?

The PPA adverts will be shown ONLY on the content network and not the search network so this will amplify any effect in this area.

The PPA program isnt exactly a new model and is basically the same as most affiliate programs that only pay for purchases or signups. Unlike normal adsense ads that analyse the content of a web site to determine relevent ads to show on the site adwords PPA allows the publisher to choose which ads to show on their site.

For publishers that don't wish to trawl through directories of adverts there will be an option to let Google choose the highest paying relevant ads from various topic areas. Revenue earned will most likely be comparable to PPC revenues for sites though but earned through a low volume of sales as compared to a higher volume of clicks.

It impossible top predict what will happen but it certainly will be interesting to see how things pan out. Google is a pretty savvy operator in this field so will probably have its plans well founded and make their latest product a big player in this area very quickly. They will need to ensure that the publishers can earn as much or more than the PPC network using PPA though or no publishers will sign up for the program. If there are no publishers , and remember this relies purely on publishers as it is on the content network only, then there will be no advertisers.

Google will surely realize this and most experts expect when the program comes out of beta then there will be plenty of incentives for publishers to sign up.

For publishers that dont put the work in with the new program and choose adverts that aren’t very relevant for their readers then they will most likely not have much success with PPA.Those that know their markets or have very niche focused sites could make good profits. Expect to see lots of new sites starting up to focus purely on google PPA topic areas also.

More info on googles PPA program can be found here : Google Pay Per Action

So Why Did Google Launch Pay-Per-Action PPA?

So why is Google launching a new Pay-Per-Action PPA product if the PPC click is working so well? Will it eventually move completely away from the PPC model that redefined online advertising and offer just PPA advertising?

Most likely Google will wait and see how the markets change before making any decisions. Are advertisers concerned enough about click fraud to jump ship altogether or will they see PPA as an addition rather than a replacement? Most likely both will remain side by side although most experts expect many advertisers to move away from PPC to PPA.

For some tourism advertisers the PPA action model will definitely be a better option. Resort and cruise tourism operators with online booking facilities will mostly benefit as they can run a campaign that they will only pay fees whenever they make an actual online sale so they are guaranteed to make profit or not pay any advertising fees if they get no conversions. It eliminates the risk for operators and will probably attract new customers that have previously stayed away from PPC which can be costly and ineffective if the conversions are low.

Other operators that sell lower value products and services or don't have credit card booking facilities online, such as small dive centres and tour operators, though may be forced to remain with PPC as PPA might cost more than their profit margins as competition for keywords pushes prices up.

For Google however there isn't really much risk launching PPA. It will most likely attract some new customers and if customers leave PPC to use PPA then they have kept those customers happy by offering them another option and maybe retaining customers they would have lost to other affiliate schemes. Its one more string to Google's bow and again places them at the fore-front of online advertising options.

Microsoft adCenter

Your ideal audience is among the millions. PPC helps find them for you.

MSN reaches nearly two out of three Web customers, and Live Search reaches over 40 million a month.¹ Reach the right customers with search ads targeted at the audience you want.

How does search advertising work?

• Pay only when people click your ads.
• Set your own price per click.
• See when your clicks lead to sales.
• Target your ads to the times, places, and customers you want the most.
• Use built-in tools to get keyword ideas, audience information, and detailed reports on your ads.

¹ Nielsen/NetRatings, Competitive Site Reports, November 2004

So what exactly is Pay Per Action (PPA)?

The Google AdWords (for advertisers) and AdSense (for publishers) programs currently charge/pay each time an advert is clicked on and this is open to abuse by fraud publishers clicking on their own adverts or using automated click-bots to gain revenue.

Google is oh so very aware of this and some sites are quoting figures of up to 30% of all clicks could be considered fraudulent.This is a hell of a lot of profit for the fraud-gangsters and a huge cost for advertisers even if only a small percentage of this is undetected.

Despite the click fraud problem the advertising model does work really well and continues to attract both advertisers and publishers. This just shows how effective online ad campaigns really are!

Google Pay Per Action PPA

Google announced recently that they will be offering Pay Per Action (PPA) advertising in addition to their well established Pay Per Click (PPC) program.Currently in beta, and only available to US based subscribers, will this new program make huge waves in the affiliate advertising community?

See the Google website here...

Here's what Google say themselves:

"Increase your advertising reach while paying only for actions that you define. First, you'll create an ad and define the action that you want a user to perform when they visit your site, such as signing up for your newsletter or purchasing a product. Then you'll set the amount that you're willing to pay when this action is completed. Finally, you'll install conversion tracking code on your website so that we can verify when an action has been completed.

Once you've completed these steps, publishers in the Google content network can choose to place your ads on their website. You'll only pay when a user clicks on your ad, visits your site, and completes your desired action.

Pay-per-action ads complement your current campaigns by providing a new pricing model that extends your reach and allows you to pay only when a defined action is completed on your site. This beta feature is currently available to AdWords advertisers in the United States on a limited basis as part of our beta test."

In the next few days I will answer some of the obvious questions in regards to this enw program which holds a lot of promise for the SME Tourism Products out there.

How to avoid Click Fraud

Click fraud is a type of internet crime that occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script, or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad's link. Click fraud is the subject of some controversy and increasing litigation due to the advertising networks being a key beneficiary of the fraud.

Click fraud occurs in a number of ways:

1. A rival decides to have fun clicking your links in order to drive your costs up

2. a Web site that does context ads for one of the search engines, and who therefore gets paid when a visitor to their site clicks on your ad, generates fake clicks to earn a few bucks extra.

Google and other SE's perform ongoing analysis in order to catch it, and when they find patterns of click fraud, they automatically deduct the wrong charges from your account. In addition, if you think you have found evidence of click fraud in your reports, you can complain and they'll check for you.

Click fraud is an annoyance, but for most tourism advertisers it's a fairly minor one. You can find out more by searching the Web for articles on click fraud, there are thousands. You'll also find numerous vendors ready to sell you services to analyze your log files if you feel you are being victimized by click fraud.

More useful to most beginning advertisers is this warning:

Resist another kind of fraud altogether: people who claim they can "get your site into the top 10!" of search-engine results, or conjure any other dramatic results for you, for a fee. You might get this in the form of phone calls from salespeople. Hang up on them. Nobody can really sell you position on the main search engine results pages.

There is no real short cut!