Genuine Online Opportunities

One of the most important reasons for failure in affiliate marketing in my list of ‘ 5 reasons for failure in affiliate marketing‘ is not getting enough traffic. Traffic is the life and blood of your affiliate business, in fact, any online business. So why some of the sites are always jammed with traffic and some sites are like abandoned roads with no visitors?

In this post I am going to share the techniques that will help you drive traffic to your sites.

1. When you are unknown, socialize
Social networking sites are now hot places to network with like minded people. In the virtual world of World Wide Web, you meet a lot of people from different corners of the world. This social networking sites has the potential to open a lot of subways to your website and drive traffic to your site. This is one of the most effective and economical ways to get visitors. Some of the networking sites you should definitely consider to promote your sites on are:

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Orkut
• hi5
• Stumbleupon
• Ning

2. The long tail Keyword and search engine traffic
There is a lot of targeted traffic waiting for you to be taken free of cost, if you can learn the technique of long tail keyword. Whenever you write an article, ask yourself 3 questions.

• What kind of audience will be interested in the information you are providing in this article?
• What are the possible phrases they may use to search this information in search engines?
• Where these phrases used in the past on major search engines?

The answers to the above will help you find a list of keywords for that particular post/page. Now make sure you have those phrases sprinkled in the article. Make them bold.

Try to have one of your main keyword in the title of the post. If you do this for every article you write, you will soon see your site rank high in the search results for those keywords. And you will see a surge in your traffic from search engines.

3. Stumbling your way to unlimited traffic
Stumbleupon has proved to be a great traffic sender. It helps you connect with friends and share your posts, meet people that have similar interests, and check out what other people are discovering. The more people stumble your site (vote thumbs up), the more traffic you get. Creating a big network of friends can bring a lot of rewarding traffic that can be beyond your expectations.

Stumbleupon users channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon recommends the sites based on user interests and display them those sites which have received more reviews and thumbs up. So the more positive stumbles your web pages receive, the more it will be recommended to StumbleUpon users.

4. Share your views with others in your niche
Search for forums and blogs which are in your niche. Make a list of those sites and keep visiting them regularly. Reply to queries of other members and share your views. Networking with others in your niche will help you gain traffic from those sites and you will also become a known person in your target niche. Make sure the content you post on others blog or forums is worth to read. Also don’t spam. Spamming can have a negative effect and make you less credible.

• If you have written some great articles, email other bloggers in your niche and chances are they will link to it.
• Make sure you have your site url linked to your main keyword in the signature of forum posts.
• Write comments on other blogs
• Write guest posts for other blogs in your niches

5. Write articles in article directories
Article directories are one of the best ways to get back links. Write quality articles and submit them to article directories. The more articles you write the more chances of your articles to be grabbed by other webmasters.

Article directories provide a Bio/Resource box where you can put an active link to your website. Many site owners visit these article directories and publish articles with your credits and links. This will not only help you getting direct referral traffic from these sites but also help you getting higher rank in search engines. The list of major article directories can be found below:

• www.goarticles.com
• www.ezinearticles.com
• www.isnare.com
• www.amazines.com
• www.articlecube.com
• www.articlebiz.com
• www.articlealley.com
• www.articlesfactory.com

6. Serve your audience like they are the king
While I will always argue that quality content is essential in drawing readers to your site I am increasingly convinced that one way to build your readership is to create spaces that people will want to belong to. Build an interactive place, where your readers could participate. Treat them with utmost importance. Give them recognition, post their comments, create spaces for them on your site. Spaces that your readers will promote for you. Let your readers take the lead. They will grow your site and will promote for you.

These readers will become your loyal fans and they are the one who will make your site grow beyond your imagination. They will visit your blog again and again and will advocate your blog to other readers. The more of these fans increases, the more your site grows in value. Remember, the online property you own appreciates in value if you have a loyal readership which is increasing day by day.

Follow the above techniques and you will see a surge in traffic. Do post in comments other sources of free traffic you are using for your site.

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