The Most Active and Friendliest
Affiliate Marketing Community Online!

“Propeller”/  MyBid

Need Advice on Getting Some Traffic

djaco99

New Member
I've read so much about the importance of using an autoresponder and building a mailing list that I finally bit the bullet and started using one. I chose AWeber because someone on this site recommended it, and find it very easy to use. I'm using an autoresponder for both my websites, and have created a monthly newsletter as well as a "special report" to give away to those who subscribe to my newsletters. Now I need some traffic/subscribers, and will accept any advice anyone can offer. Here's what I've done so far:

Both of my sites are relatively new and not completely picked up by major search engines yet. I have started exchanging links with other relevant sites, and have submitted my url's to many, many directories and search engines. I have blogs pertaining to both of topics, with links to my sites on each. I try to write a blog post at least once a week and use 2 pinger services to get the word out. I also submit articles on a regular basis to ezinearticles.com, again trying to submit at least one article per week for each topic. My articles are doing fairly well, with a lot of "reads" and several have been picked up for publication on other sites.

Last weekend, I submitted 32 ads to Craigslist and got my first 2 subscribers (yay!) to one newsletter. I was hoping for more, but what do you expect for free, right? My question to you now is: what do you suggest I do next to start driving traffic to my sites? Should I sit back and be patient, try PPC (if so, which program do you recommend - I'm thinking MSN), or something else? I have toyed with the idea of doing some classified ads in newspapers, as well as distributing flyers locally in an effort to do some "offline" PR.

Any suggestions will be much appreciated. I've read way too many affiliate marketing newsletters and reports and although I think I'm headed in the right direction, I'm a bit confused as to what to do next. My gut feeling is to focus on getting more incoming links and sit back and wait awhile for the SE's to do their thing. I'm eager to start some PPC ads, but not sure which program to start out with. :confused:
 
Hi dcaco99,

Before doing any PPC, I would invest in some of the "strong link" directories.
http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php

I have a fitness site and I got into Google in record time (compared to other sites I have) because I paid for a few directory listings: Yahoo, gimpsy.com, goguides.com, etc.

Don't get me wrong, you don't have to pay for a bunch of directory listings to get traffic from the engines, but it did seem to hurry things along a bit. Google can take up to 6 months to a year to rank your site and I found that those listings seemed to speed up the process.

Google is very big on outgoing links and lots of content so if you can work on those two things you can get quite a bit of traffic without PPC. I am not against PPC and I use it now, but if you're just getting started just writing good content will be your best friend.
 
Thanks so much for the advice. I will check out strongestlinks.com right away and see what I can do. Sounds logical to me to invest some money in links right now, as opposed to PPC. You have confirmed my feeling that I should now focus on getting good links and adding content.
 
Yep! When you do it right, content will be your best friend. I actually didn't start investing in PPC advertising until I was making enough money to do so. Content is what got me to the top of Google and Yahoo. It takes a while, but be patient and you'll get there. Good luck!
 
Thanks - you have inspired and motivated me.

Speaking of content, what's your opinion on adding other people's articles to your site? I have added some articles from article sites just to add additional information on certain topics. I've heard that your ranking could get penalized by using articles due to duplicate content, but I've also heard that this is not the case. What's your take on using articles in moderation?
 
Adding a few articles from time to time won't hurt, just make sure they don't make up a large percentage of your site. I rarely use them.

You are right, the search engines are starting to penalize for duplicate content so those pages just get ignored.

I remember reading about a service where you can use other people's articles but you had the rights to re-write parts of them yourself and add your own affiliate links. I can't remember where it was. I may have read about it on associateprograms.com. I think Allan Gardyne reviewed the service in his newsletter.

Perhaps someone else on the forums can recall that service. I know there was a fee involved though but it may be something worth looking into if you have trouble coming up with your own content.
 
Here is a list of services to Ping.

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://fgiasson.com/pings/ping.php#
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
 
You should also sign up at http://onlywire.com to take advantage of social bookmarking (yes, you will need to sign up with every site that they list)

I would also suggest posting at least three quality, original articles per week or at least 600 words each. Make sure they are optimised for particular keywords and get your blogging buddies to link to them with those keywords in the anchor text.

Be sure to submit your best articles to reddit.com and digg.com

I would probably also use PPC AFTER I had done a cost-benefit analysis (ie. how much will one subscriber be worth to you? Then you need to spend less getting that one subscriber.
 
Wow - thanks for the great information! How do you feel about the practice of submitting my articles to more than one article site?

So far, I've mainly been using ezinearticles.com, but would like to "get more bang for my buck" by submitting the same article to several article directories. Do you see anything wrong with this, or should I modify each article a bit for each place I submit to?
 
Just joined so here goes with my first dummy question. lol:) I could probably do a search for it to find out what it is but since I'm here....fugure might as well get the first of my dummy questions out of the way and just ask. lol See it all the time online but don't have a clue as to what it means
So....explanation please:) what is a "ping" ? Hmmm not even sure if there is such a thing as a "ping" or is it the act of "pinging" lol:)
 
I just post in forums for my traffic.

I've found that the best way to get in the engines quickly is to post in forums. I tried for a long time to get in them. Then when I started posting regularly, I was indexed almost instantly. For example, one of my sites rank #6 out of 196,000,000. Not bad. It was free.
 
Thanks to you - I now have PR3!

5PillarManager said:
Hi dcaco99,

Before doing any PPC, I would invest in some of the "strong link" directories.
http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php

I have a fitness site and I got into Google in record time (compared to other sites I have) because I paid for a few directory listings: Yahoo, gimpsy.com, goguides.com, etc.

Don't get me wrong, you don't have to pay for a bunch of directory listings to get traffic from the engines, but it did seem to hurry things along a bit. Google can take up to 6 months to a year to rank your site and I found that those listings seemed to speed up the process.

Google is very big on outgoing links and lots of content so if you can work on those two things you can get quite a bit of traffic without PPC. I am not against PPC and I use it now, but if you're just getting started just writing good content will be your best friend.

I just wanted to thank you for the advice and to let you know how much it has halped me. Since you told me about the strongestlinks site, I have been working daily on exchanging links, buying a few links, and getting some free links. My two new sites and my new blog had no page rank, but I checked last night and now have PR3 on all of them! This is proof to me that all the hard work is starting to pay off. I'm not even through 1/4 of the directories on strongestlinks yet, and am now even more inspired to keep submitting away!!!

Thanks so much for the advice. Now maybe pretty soon I'll see some commissions and/or newsletter subscribers! :)
 
You should submit your articles to as many directories as you can. I use iSnare for that and they are good.

A "Ping" is just an electronic signal that a site (blog) sends to another site to let that other site know that there is new content that should be crawled and indexed.
 
very informative.

Thanks, this is actually quite informative I appreciate all the sharing youse are doing.
I find viral traffic methods are great, lists that make lists, lead systems tha tincrease leads etc.
I think every facet of the net would be impossible to do all at once, it is all a matter of adding pieces as we can, nowadays the more often we can the better. (Rss offers alot in this regards too to keep updated information of interest posted regularily).

have a Great Day

Ground Light...Send Love...*Shine*...
 
See, I may be "the Lone Wolf" here (LOL!!) But Personally, I love PPC advertising, especially when you have a new website, ect. Why? You get INSTANT traffic(unlike seo or linking or articles or blogging, ect.) and you know right away if you have a dud or not. After 100 clicks, if you don't have any sales (or whatever you're trying to do on your site) usually after 100 clicks, you have a pretty good idea, one way or the other... :D
 
A "Ping" is just an electronic signal that a site (blog) sends to another site to let that other site know that there is new content that should be crawled and indexed.[/QUOTE]

Would a ping be limited to just blogs or are they for any site? Dummy question lol but would that mean that you could "ping" google so they would know about the new content, etc. Would it be any different than the "revisit after 1 day or whatever" meta tag you could include on your site or is the "ping" taken more seriously than that and acted on quicker?
 
i concur with ppc, if you have the funds.

I have to totally agree that ppc is a sure fire way to go, and it definately shows if you have a winner or not, though it is the next stage up the ladder to many, not everyone has funds to do things, some of us are earning our way as we go, though there are oft times new ppc engines that will give out free startup or trial funds to try their services, this can amount to a serious amount of traffic too if don eright i believe.

Thanks for the sharings all, have a great day
 
Yeah right,

Article marketing is gr8,It's was 2nd on my list of marketing strategies.All you need is PLR articles which you then submit to at least 10 article directories to start with!You don't have to modify the articles to submit to other article directories.
Also,I think you should place ppc advertising above SEO for now,the reason being that SEO is a long term traffic strategy while with ppc you get your traffic almost immediately.
The secret with ppc advertising is targeting high demand keyword with low competition.
Another secret of mine which I will share with you is to focus more on ppc search engines other than google,the reason being that(this is my secret)you can get paid listings for as little as $0.03-$0.10 for some high demand key words or key phrase while you have to pay between $0.50-$7.00 for the same key words on google or yahoo.THIS IS A FACT I CAN PROVE!
Yes you heard me right $7 on yahoo/overture for a particlar keyword I am researching while I can get paid listing for the same key work on a particle search engine for 0.03c because I will be the only one listed for that keyword!The ONLY difference is that these ppc search engines have low Alexa (traffic) rankings compared to google.you will still get traffic perhaps not as much as google.It's up to you to do the maths and decide what pays you.
There are also ways to capture the email address of those that click on your affiliate links for futher follow up later(you get my drift)?!
So much information to digest and assimilate.(lol)It's called INFORMATION OVERLOAD!
 
djaco99 said:
I just wanted to thank you for the advice and to let you know how much it has halped me. Since you told me about the strongestlinks site, I have been working daily on exchanging links, buying a few links, and getting some free links. My two new sites and my new blog had no page rank, but I checked last night and now have PR3 on all of them! This is proof to me that all the hard work is starting to pay off. I'm not even through 1/4 of the directories on strongestlinks yet, and am now even more inspired to keep submitting away!!!

Thanks so much for the advice. Now maybe pretty soon I'll see some commissions and/or newsletter subscribers! :)

Please tell me more about thedirectery thing. I have not experimenting with this method. I am always open to learning new things. So, here are some questions;

What is the highest price you will pay to be listed?
What do you write content about? Do you write things as you would an article? Or, should you write things about other's products?
Is this similar to link exchange or link swaps?
What are some sites you can visit to do this?

I am anxious to hear your reply and experiment with this. Thanks.
 
banners
Back