So, like all other new e-business owners, you must be stressing over ways to get, not JUST traffic to your website, but TARGETTED TRAFFIC! Really, it is simpler and cheaper than you think! The key is to FOCUS your efforts. Don’t try and do everything at once. Take one step at a time. This way you will get BETTER results.

METHOD 1: Advertise in Newsletters and E-Zines

Carefully choose which newsletters and e-zines you wish to purchase your ad space with. Choose ones that have subscribers that match or almost match your target market. They must be people who could potentially be your customers. Choose ones with a medium to large subscriber-base. This way you will get you investments worth. Take note of where your ad will be placed. It could be at the top, middle, bottom…anywhere in the newsletter. The best spots are at the top of the newsletter and on a page where readers are most likely to spend most of their time at. Also take note of other ads that might be surrounding yours. You don’t want to place your ad next to a competitor’s. This will lessen your chances of potential clicks. The size of your ad also influences the location of your ad.

METHOD 2: Use Keywords and a Crawler Page to Secure that Top Spot in Search Engines

Your target market will NEVER find your web site if you have been using the WRONG keywords! Search engines look for them in your Title Tags, Meta Tags, and the body of your text when ranking and categorising your web site.

When choosing keywords, be sure not to choose words that are highly competitive like business, books, software. These are too generic and will make it super difficult for you to secure that top spot! In order to find TARGETED keywords that are suitable for YOUR web site, sit down and have a good and long think of what someone looking for your site might type into the search engines. Remember, no one knows your business more than YOU! Ask around; ask your family and friends what THEY might type when looking for your product or service. Be SPECIFIC yet GENERAL. For example if your site offers services to help businesses go online, you might use the following keywords: online business, online businesses, start online business, online business help, online business services etc. Use as many variations of your keywords as possible and include your company name and region if applicable. Also, study what keywords your competitors are using on their web sites.

Most search engines like Alta Vista and Yahoo ask that you submit just one URL and that they will follow all the links and find the rest of the pages in your web site. You can make it easier for them by creating a page called a CRAWLER PAGE with links to all of the most important parts of your site and submit that instead. Thus, ensuring that the right pages will be noticed.

To create a Crawler Page in Internet Explorer: 1. Choose Favourites > Organise Favourite A dialog box appears. 2. CLICK on Create Folder and give your folder a name e.g. “Site Crawler Page” 3. CLOSE the dialog box. 4. Go to the pages on your site that you want to be sure the site engine finds. 5. Choose Favourites > Add to Favourites A dialog box appears. 6. Click on Create in<< and choose your crawler folder e.g. "Site Crawler Page". 7. Click OK. 8. When you have finished adding all the pages you want, choose File >Import and Export. 9. An Import/Export Wizard will appear. Use it to create an HTML file of your crawler page favourites folder. 10. Upload the page to your server and submit it to the search engines you want to be listed on.

You might want to register your site with a search engine that specialises in your particular topic. Yahoo has a very complete list of specific category search engines. Wordtracker is a powerful free service that can help you find out which keywords will skyrocket your traffic and boost your ranking in search engines. Visit http://www.wordtracker.com/ for more information on Wordtracker.

METHOD 3: Place Links in Related Web Sites

Persuading other related sites in your industry to link to YOU is another effective way of directing highly targeted traffic to your web site. Many marketing gurus will agree that it is carries the same effect as a personal recommendation. A link from another highly respected source creates your credibility even BEFORE the visitor reaches your web site, hence increasing their potential to become your customer!

Make sure you do your RESEARCH and when you have found the web sites that deal directly with your target market, don’t forget to record down the contact information for the web site owners. When you contact them, show them how your web site will benefit THEM and THEIR visitors. Don’t talk about how you will benefit and how fantastic your web site is. Explain WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM!

So there you go! 3 simple ways to get that targeted traffic to your web site! You already have the killer web site and the product/ service that people want AND you can get the targeted TRAFFIC to your web site and covert your visitors to paying customers!

Now you can start growing your own opt-in email list and advance to affiliate programs!

But why is the measuring of inbound links important? Well, even the best designed website isn’t worth much when no one is visiting… So, after building a website it is important it appear high in search engine rankings. The most popular search engines use link popularity in their ranking algorithms (how sites are evaluated). Improving link popularity moves sites up in the ranking and a high position in search results is the goal of most webmasters.

Link Popularity – In the Beginning

As always, you should start increasing your link popularity from the moment you begin preparing the site itself. Make sure your pages look professional. Your site’s content should be well prepared and navigation thorough the site must be as easy as possible.

Carefully check for spelling errors, validate HTML code and outbound links, be sure your pages load quickly. People won’t wait more than 3 for 4 seconds to see your page.

If you don’t pay careful attention to all the details of your site you just won’t have a chance to score above average link popularity. Search engines down grade sites with many misspelled words and broken hyperlinks.

If you submit a carelessly constructed web site to a web directory you will find that your site is soon removed from the directory.

Lind Popularity – A Never-Ending Story

Increasing link popularity is a full-time job. Just after starting your site spend a set amount of time each week on link building. The most important link you can have is a one way link. That means you are not trading links to get links. Reciprocal linking strategies have far less value than they once did. Your time will be much better spent getting incoming, one way links.

The most efficient ways to get one way links is by constantly submitting articles to article directories and ezines. In most cases you are allowed to put one to three links into each of your articles. If your articles are well written they will be widely distributed. That means you will be building scores of one way links.

Patience, patience and even more patience are the most important part in building link popularity.

Link Popularity – No Link Farms

There are some sites that you just don’t want linking to your site, so be sure you don’t ask for links from them, or accept their offer to trade links. Link farms are link poison. They exist only for linking. They add no value to the internet. Search engines hate them. Never submit your site to a link farm.

Never accept an offer to exchange links with a gambling. They will kill your chances for link popularity.

Finally… the very best link is one that comes from a site whose theme is related to yours. A link from a health site to your health site, a link from a sports site to your sports site… those are top quality links. Those are called “relevant links”, they are the highest quality links and will go a long way to building your link popularity.

Keep thinking linking!