Your profit is directly related to the amount of sales you
generate. Your sales are directly related to the number of
visitors you get to your website. Your visitor traffic is
directly related to your web presence. Your web presence is the
quantity and quality of paths that lead to your website.
Therefore, the most important thing you can do to increase your
profit is to increase the quantity and quality of paths to your
website. It is as simple as that.
Here are five good ways to build new paths starting today. All
of these methods take time, but the time spent is a good
investment. Our clients pay us to improve their web presence and
these are the methods we use for our clients and for ourselves.
1. Link Exchange
If you don't already have a link directory on your site, create
one today. This is one of the easiest and most effective methods
of improving your web presence and building new paths to your
website. You simply find sites similar in topic to your own and
offer to trade links with the webmaster of these sites. This is
one of the oldest and most effective methods of building new
paths to your site.
2. Publish Your Own Newsletter
If you don't have your own newsletter, start one today. Have
several links in your newsletter to different pages on your site
including: your archive of past articles, a page to subscribe to
your newsletter (for those who receive it from a friend), a page
to unsubscribe, a page to submit articles, etc.
When you send out your newsletter, you will be reminding past
visitors to visit again. You will also be providing them an easy
path back to your site with the links in your newsletter.
You should also make a note in your newsletter that your
articles are available to be printed in another newsletter or on
another website for free as long as a link is included to your
website (another path).
3. Submit Articles To Other Newsletters
You are already publishing your own newsletter; right? Why not
write an extra article and submit it to other newsletters with
the same topic as your own? Most will include a link to your
site in their newsletter (another path). Many will also publish
your article on their site along with a link to your site (yet
another path).
4. Participate in Online Discussion Forums
Join all of the online discussion forums, newsgroups, and
mailing lists you can find in your topic area. Never discuss
your product/service on the discussion forum. This is considered
very bad taste in many forums and outright spam in other forums.
However, if you participate in these forums by answering
questions and being genuinely helpful, you will be noticed.
Include a link to your site in your signature so that those who
like your advice can drop by for a visit. The simple link in
your signature becomes a new path to your site every time you
help someonw by answering a question.
5. Syndicate Free Content
When you are building content for your site, always offer it for
use on other sites. Simply include a note at the bottom of your
page saying that webmasters are welcome to copy anything in
return for a link to your site.
This might include articles, pictures, scripts, etc. Encourage
others to copy your site as long as they provide another path to
your site.
Be sure to do a little of each of these methods every week and
your site will soon be among the most visited sites in your
topic area.
Someone once said "If you build it, they will come." I believe
that statement to be true. But you can't just build the best
website in the world and expect everyone to visit tomorrow. You
also have to build the paths to get to that website.
If you build those paths, they will come!
About the author:
James D. Brausch, is the Vice President of Marketing for Target
Blaster, Inc., an Internet Marketing firm specializing in
targeted traffic. http://www.TargetBlaster.com
