January 31st, 2008 by The Profit Hustler

Today, we are going to look at something that is still relatively new in the Internet Marketing arena: Social Bookmarking. Social Bookmarking is essentially using a social bookmarking service to bookmark your webpages or blog posts, so that other users of the bookmarking site can visit. When you bookmark a site, you tag it with keywords, and people can search for the keywords that reflect their interests at the social bookmarking site.

Does it work? Absolutely! In fact, this is a very fast way to generate really good traffic to your site – for free. Again, you will want to try to get them on your opt-in list, once they arrive at your site, so that you can bring them back again and again. Notice that I said ‘really good traffic.’ This is good traffic because the visitor finds your site by searching for the keywords that you’ve used when you bookmarked it. They are essentially looking for you. For this reason, it is important to use keyword tags, for each page, that are absolutely relevant to the content on that page. Don’t try to use unrelated keywords, this tactic simply won’t work.

There are numerous social bookmarking sites out there, and hitting them all, to bookmark each page of your website, could literally take days, if not weeks. Fortunately, there are social bookmarking services that will send your bookmarks and tags to numerous social bookmarking sites in one fell swoop.

You want a service that targets the best social bookmarking sites, and that service is Only Wire, at OnlyWire.com. Only Wire is free to use (another bonus). Getting set up with OnlyWire.com takes a couple of hours, because you will need to go to each of the social bookmarking sites that it lists, register, and then put your username and password for each site into the list at Only Wire.

Once that is done, you will add the Only Wire icon to your browser toolbar (very easy to do – you just click, hold the mouse button down, and drag and drop it up there). Now, you are all set up. When you are ready to bookmark your pages, first go to the Only Wire site and login. Leave that window open. Open another window (tabbed browsers work great for this), go to your site, go to a page that you want to bookmark, and hit the icon.

You will be taken to the OnlyWire.com add a bookmark page. Here, everything is filled in, except your keyword tags. List the keywords that are associated with the page you are bookmarking, and hit submit. You’re done with that page – move on to the next one. Nothing could be easier, and again, it is very effective.

Homework Assignment: Join OnlyWire.com . Register for each site on the list, and get Only Wire all set up. Add the bookmark icon to your browser toolbar, and go to each page of your website, click the icon, and add it to the social bookmarks and tag each page with keywords.

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January 30th, 2008 by The Profit Hustler

In this, day three of the seven part traffic generation course, we are going to discuss how joint venture giveaways will help you generate traffic to your site. In fact, they do more than generate traffic. Joint venture giveaways will also help you build a large opt-in list, in a very short period of time, and you can bring those visitors back to your site time and time again.

Joining a joint venture giveaway is easy and free. You just need to find a giveaway, and these can be found through joint venture related forums, or through the search engines. Once you’ve found a giveaway, you need a free gift to give away.

This can be something that you create yourself, or have created for you, such as a free report, an audio, a video, or an ebook – or even a piece of software. It can also be a Private Label Rights product that you have. The important thing is that your gift has value to the people that will be downloading it.

You need an autoresponder and a website. Set up an opt-in page, which is often called a squeeze page or a capture page, on your site. Connect it to your autoresponder, and in your autoresponder, set up a list for the giveaway. Create your confirmation email and download for the gift email in your autoresponder.

Determine where the visitor will go, once they hit the submit button on your opt-in page. They can go to the first page of your site. They could be sent to a sales page for an affiliate product that you sell. You could set up a One Time Offer, or OTO, where they have one chance to purchase a product from you, at a special price.

Finally, when you are all set up on your end; submit your information to the host of the joint venture giveaway event. They will typically want the name of your gift, the URL of your opt-in page, a description of that gift, and the link to the graphic that represents your gift, such as a graphical ebook cover or CD cover.

While you will build a nice big list with the joint venture giveaway, remember that your purpose is to generate traffic as well. You don’t want people showing up, getting their gift, and leaving – never to be seen or heard from again. Your list resolves a lot of this, because you can use it to bring them back.

But at the same time, when your visitor is redirected after submitting the form, try to have them redirected to a page on your site that will immediately capture their attention, and keep them there for a while, even after they have been given their free gift.

Homework Assignment: Visit some joint venture related forums, and find at least one joint venture giveaway to participate in. Create your gift, create your opt-in page, and any other pages that you need for the giveaway, and watch the traffic roll in! Here is one site that is a prime example of this that is free to join - EBiz-launchPad.com

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January 29th, 2008 by The Profit Hustler

I have a very special surprise for todays lesson of our course, I have invited a guest author to discuss todays topic. I would like to introduce Chuck Bartok:

You’ve probably heard about Article and Forum Marketing.

In fact, you may even be sick of hearing about it.

But are you doing it?

The reason that you hear so much about these two marketing techniques
is that they work!

Article marketing and forum marketing typically build traffic slowly. But as usual in most business building endeavors the race goes to the Steady and focused. When you build traffic using these methods you are also building your credibility. You are drawing responsive people to your site, and if your site is doing its job as well, and you get those people on your list, you can draw them back time and time again.

And the best RESOURCE or ASSET a successful business has is its repeat Customer Base, built on foundation of positive relationship growth

Note: If you are not collecting email addresses at your website, the traffic that you bring there is essentially wasted. By building an opt-in list, you can bring traffic back to your site over and over again, and this is essential to online businesses. Email addresses and first names should be collected with an opt-in page, or with subscribe boxes located on every single page of your website!

Now, let’s start generating some traffic with articles. The concept is that you write an article, which should be anywhere from 350 to 750 words in length. You include your author’s resource box at the bottom of your article, and your website link is included in that resource box. You submit the article to article directories and Ezine publishers.

If you can’t write, you can get article written for less than $10 each by a ghostwriter. If you don’t have the time it takes to submit articles, you can hire a service to do that for you as well. It is essential that you do article marketing, because it is viral. Your articles will be used on other people’s websites, blogs, and in their Ezines – spreading the word about your site.

Forum Marketing is also important. To do forum marketing, you find good, well populated forums that relate to your niche. You simply participate in those forums, and include a signature file at the bottom of all of your posts, that lead people to your website.

It is crucial to understand that you post be relevant to the discussion and not off-the wall solicitation. Another no-no is the quick, “what a good idea I agree etc”
It won’t take long for people to realize why you are there, just to take. As in any relationship building, always arrive with your Palms stretched DOWN willing to GIVE.

Forum Marketing does not take much time at all, once you’ve found the forums in which you wish to participate. But you should discipline yourself to Forum marketing Minimum 3 times weekly. I usually set aside ½ hour and try to visit my Forums Minimally once a week.

The other important element is your Signature. State it clearly if you attach any titles and your website is best presented if it is your name or carries the Key Words of you Niche.
And I always include a Phone number

Again, these are slow, but effective (and free) ways to generate traffic. But no matter how slow they are, they are essential to your overall online business because of the virility of these techniques, and the credibility that it gives you.

Homework Assignment: Write and submit one article, each week. Participate in your niche forums on a daily basis, posting one message in each forum per day, using a signature file that brings people to your website.

*****************************************************************************************
Chuck Bartok, Marketing Consultant, On-line and Off-line. Chuck has just opened Beginners Marketing Class, a RESOURCE Membership Community, offering Multi-media Training for anyone seriously interested in Creating, Planning and Implementing a Self-directed Business. Visit BeginnersMarketingClass.com and the corresponding Blog.

530-798-0245

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January 28th, 2008 by The Profit Hustler

Welcome to the first installment of the seven part series Traffic Generation Course. Today, I want to discuss the various things that you need to check to ensure that your site is ready to receive traffic.

Think of this: If you were expecting company at your home, there are certain things you might do in advance. You would make sure your home was clean, that there was fresh soap and clean hand towels in the bathroom, and you might prepare some snacks, or even an entire meal.

Preparing your website follows the same concept. You want to make sure that things are neat and tidy. Make sure that your navigation follows a logical sequence. Make sure that you have plenty of good content, and that everything is spelled correctly.

You also want your visitors to be able to participate in your site – to take action. Look at each page, and determine what type of action your visitors can take. Do you have a forum or blog? Do you conduct polls or surveys? Do you have a subscribe box for your opt-in list on every page of your site? Make absolutely sure that your website is ready for company! Also make sure that your pages lead your visitors to take the action that you want them to take, no matter what that action may be.

That is the first and most essential step of traffic generation. If your site isn’t pleasing and welcoming, any traffic generation activities you do from this point on are wasted! Take the time, and put forth the effort to make your site as good as possible – and learn to look at it from your visitor’s point of view! Consider the services of a professional artist to help you create that great first impression that you need when someone visits your site. One of my personal graphic artists that I go to when I need work done is Justin Levina of SharkStudio.com, I urge you to check his work if your in need of cleaning up the look and feel of your website.

After you do this, make sure that you are using all of the best known Search Engine Optimization techniques, such as making sure that you have clean HTML code, that you’ve used your keyword effectively, that you have keyword rich text links and alt tags, and that the title of your website, in your HTML code, has your main keyword or phrase as well. Take some time to explore SEO techniques, so that you can draw natural search traffic as well.

Once your website is ready for company, you are ready to start inviting that company. You do not need any special tools for traffic generation. What you need is your computer, an Internet connection, your mind, a willingness to do the work, and knowledge. That’s all it takes.

Homework Assignment: Make absolutely sure that your website is ready to receive traffic. Do you have an opt-in page? Do you have a subscribe box on every page of your site? Look at each page, and determine whether there is enough content, and if there is an action for your visitors to take on each page. Make sure that your site is optimized for the search engines.

If you don’t happen to own a website then you can visit Robert Puddy’s InstantSqueezePageGenerator.com to create a great squeeze page to start building your list.

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January 27th, 2008 by The Profit Hustler

Hey guys, I really want to thank all of the people who subscribed yesterday. I am certain you will enjoy this course and I look forward to sharing and discussing with you over the next week. If your one of the few sitting on the fence about this, keep in mind that this will cost you absolutely nothing to take part in and you can participate without posting your results or sharing your thoughts. Although do be sure to subscribe to this blog so that you can be updated when the new post of each day goes up.

The course will start first thing tomorrow on day 1!

Until Next Time…

Keep Hustlin,
The Profit Hustler

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January 26th, 2008 by The Profit Hustler

I am really excited to be announcing a free interactive web traffic course that will take place starting Jan 28th on Monday. I have planned for us a full 7 day course on how to generate traffic to your website. I plan on taking you step by step to traffic building success.

Ok John, how much will this cost?
Nothing! all you will have to do is subscribe to my blog so you will be notified when each part of the course on each day is posted.

What will you get out of this?
I have set up a full 7 day course with tips, tricks, advice that IF you follow to a T, will have you in traffic heaven in just a short period. I will also be including steps you must take after each lesson of the course to assure you will see results. Plus, because this is being blogged you have an opportunity to post your results, ask questions, and see other peoples results each day of the course.

I think this will be a lot of fun and I am excited to get this started. If this sounds like something your interested in being a part of the make sure you use the link below to subscribe to this blog.

Until Next Time…

Keep Hustlin,
The Profit Huster

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