Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Low Cost Ways for Traffic to Your Website

Website traffic is not something that is easy to get. In today's busy Internet marketplace, nearly everyone who has an Internet connection, computer, and some sense on how to work the keyboard and the mouse can make a website. Nearly everyone who has a website, some monetary and moneymaking sense, and web design savvy can earn from a website.

This can make traffic gathering an extremely difficult enterprise, which has made some people resort to high-cost marketing techniques; on the other hand, some marketers have resorted to sleazy techniques that are more annoying than fruitful.

Having traffic is one thing, but keeping it coming is another. This means that your job as a marketer is two-fold: you need to get people to notice your site, and you need to get them to keep on coming back as well. Believe it or not, there are ways to do this that do not entail you having to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars in order to be successful. You only need to know your market well enough, and know how to please people constantly without over-indulging them.

First, you need to know what your market is like. You should have a marketing scheme ready by this time. What is your target markets average age? Does your target market have any other interests? Is your target market most likely Internet savvy? This can help you look for your target market through social networks online.

Thanks to the paradigm of Web 2.0, more people are online and are aware of the Internets ability to connect people. You can exploit this by joining social networks and posting your URL, then looking for friends amongst people who have common interests.

Another more precise way of getting into Web 2.0 is through harnessing the power of forums and online groups. Join such places and simply post your URL, but do not advertise your site explicitly or sell any products and services just yet. Instead, help people out with their problems, offer advice, and present your opinions.

As your reputation builds up, start being more up front about your website: when people ask questions, direct them to a place in your URL, or say that you offer more things online. A forum or an online group is a great way to get more people to notice you, and to spread the word about your websites, products, and services.

Supplement your potential income by enrolling in an affiliate program, and by posting advertisements on your site. You can get commissions through clicks on these advertisements, thanks to programs such as Widget Bucks or Google AdSense. Although the money will trickle in, you can at least have some residual income to add to your profits.

Make sure that the ads that you post are relevant not only to your site content, but to the needs of your target market. When people see that your site is not only useful, but is giving them useful links, then you will be able to get more traffic to your site.
These are only a few tips on how you can get more traffic to your site of the Internet universe, and without spending too much. Sometimes, without spending anything at all! As long as you know how to market your site, products, and services, and as long as you know the behavior of your target market without appearing like a creep or a stalker, you will be able to get traffic to your website and have it rise in the ranks of the online elite.

Monday, November 3, 2008

How to Choose a Domain Name that will Drive MORE Traffic to a Website

Creating a website can be tricky, but choosing the right domain name is even trickier. A good domain name can drive more traffic to your website, and a not so good domain name may cause a stagnant website. The concept of having your own website is that it should effectively represent your purpose, whether it will be for personal or business use. Once you create your website, it follows that you should and must register your own domain name.

So what is a domain name? It is a unique alphanumeric name that gives identity to a website on the World Wide Web. A domain name has a maximum length of 67 characters, this includes the 0 to 9 numbers, English alphabet composed of 26 letters, and the hyphens. Hyphens in a domain name can only be used within and not at the beginning or the ending of the name.

Domain names have suffixes, and they are called Top Level Domain (TLD). Domain name TLD's are based on the category of organization that they are related to. The following are several of the most popular TLD's:

1. .gov for government agency
2. .edu for educational institution
3. .org for nonprofit organizations
4. .net for commercial network
5. .com for commercial business domain

Since domain names gives identity to a website, it follows that choosing the right one can be a bit complicated. Your objective is to opt for a name that is easy to remember, search engine optimization friendly, and more importantly a domain name that mirrors the content, and/or products and services that your website provides. At the end of the day your chosen domain name can make or break you.

Do's and Don'ts in choosing a Domain Name

Obviously, a domain name should be related to your websites content. If you're selling shirts then do not choose a name such as pants.com. Choosing unrelated names will confuse site visitors and frankly it doesn't make any sense at all.

A domain name as discussed earlier should be easy to remember. So choosing too long of a name is a No-No. Which is better yourshirts.com or your-shirts-in-different-styles-and-colors.com?

However, a short name is also not advisable, because a short name will not have much impact in driving traffic to your website. Try to purchase a domain name with few keywords with relevance to the content of your website. Which is better yourshirts.com or shirt.com? Integrating keywords in choosing a domain name will help, because it will result in a higher ranking on search engines. Which is better yourshirts.com or yoursite.com? With yourshirts.com you can immediately identify that the website is about shirts as opposed to yoursite.com wherein you are at lost as to what the website is all about, you will loose potential website traffic if you do it that way.