Site Promotion: Organic Results vs Pay for Traffic:

Having been around websites since 1995, I know the process on how to get traffic to your website. For me it was a fun side business when I first started doing websites online in 1996 and I didn't think much about getting links and building web traffic to my domains. It kind of came naturally since there wasn't that many quality sites to link to back then. I would submit my sites to Yahoo through their URL submit program and a few weeks later they would include my URL in their directory of sites and we would get traffic. Along came Google in about 1998 and many of our sites were also listed with them which meant more FREE site promotion and increased traffic. The idea of paying for leads and web visitors seemed insane to us back then. But as the year 2000 approached there were 1000's of websites going "live" each day and our positions in search results started to drop quite a bit. Also, more people were paying for search result positioning and that further knocked us out of the top ranks.

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I still think "organic search traffic" is the ideal way to grow a website. Having people find your website through a search engine is the best way to get FREE traffic. The real question is how to get specific pages of yours listed when someone searches for a term like "portable GPS". The competition is fierce for certain terms, especially if they are related to consumer products that sell well online. If you aren't in the Top 20 results for any search term, you are probably not going to be seen by those searching the web. Who really has time to look through all 5 million pages that come up when you search for something like "digital cameras" on Google. Times have changed over the last decade and now it's almost mandatory that you pay a fee to get some search traffic. I guess if you could get 50% from search results and pay for the other 50% you may be doing ok if you are trying to run a business online. Most search engines look for sites that have quality content that is unique (not just copied from another site) and they want you to have other sites linking into your webpages. This shows them you are a trustworthy website (as long as those linking to you are not part of some kind of scam linking program). Building content takes time and we will go into that a little further down in this article. I have run over 20 websites over the years and they all get FREE traffic from search engines. Not all of them make that much money, but they do well enough for me not to have to work a real job. Patience is the key to any online business these days, especially if you are not the type of owner that wants to splurge right away on paid advertising to get daily visitors. I set goals each year as to what I wanted my daily traffic figures to be and I was able to hit them pretty solidly. Now, when I talk to young webmasters I realize how much more competitive the arena has become and starting a new website and building web traffic is not easy. I always tell anyone that it will probably take at least 6 months to see any real results and potentially a year before you see steady "organic" search traffic coming to your site. I think that's why most people give up and stop trying. The search algorithms have become so technical and complicated that it's nearly impossible to think you will outsmart the search engines and all of a sudden have 10,000 people a day streaming through your new site.

Building Website Content:

One of the biggest things that all search engines and other webmasters appreciate is a site built around quality content. If you want someone to link to your site it needs to be navigable, well thought out, and provide content that is specific to your area of expertise. Don't try covering cooking and hand tools on the same site or else the content overlaps and it makes for a confusing website. Most of the successful sites we have found over the years stick to one category and do it very well. We found one woodworking website that had about 1500 pages of unique content - product reviews, DIY projects, how to, etc. The guy was showing up in all the major search engines and probably making a lot of $$ on pay per click programs and affiliate networks with sites like Amazon.com. To write a decent page of content for a website, expect it to take at least 2 hours and most likely more. Obviously, the more well versed you are with a particular topic the easier it is to put your thoughts on paper and have it all make sense when it's done. I've tried writing content for topics I have zero experience in and it takes me 6 or 7 hours to produce a single page when everything is said and done. Content takes time to build and we suggest staying away from the content "aggregators" on the web who try to sell you their writings. You never know if it's been plagiarized from some other source and it's not worth doing if that's the case. That's why it's essential to stick to your knowledge base and do 1 page a day if you can to get the site up and running. My wife is a home chef and she has started writing content on how to prepare meals from ingredients, to preparation, to cooking directions, to recipes, and getting to the finished dish. It's slow, but she is moving along after a year now and getting search traffic for FREE.

Backlinks - How much work does it take?:

Lots of people who are novices in the Internet world wonder how search engines find your site. You can submit your site to URL submission places for $$$, but we have never heard of people getting results. The best place to start is at DMOZ.org. Look in this huge online directory for a category that fits your websites content matter. You can hit the "suggest URL" link when you have found an appropriate category that you want your site listed in. Even Google says you should get listed in DMOZ.org if you want to be taken seriously. Other ways to get sites to link to you are by asking via email. There are link exchanges that take place all the time and having sites that are similar to yours in content that link back is huge. Again, this is a time consuming effort and most people don't stick with it. Avoid "link banks" and other untrustworthy services that claim they will get you a Top 10 listing on search results pages. We have heard too many horror stories where SEO companies do get a site listed in the first 10 or 20 results on a search engine but they do it illegally and against the rules and then the site is delisted by the major search engines and never regains those rankings. Your money is gone and the SEO company claims they got you there but can't control for how long.

Getting Sales Through Affiliate Programs:

If your site is not just content based and you actually sell a particular product or group of items, it's worth considering joining an affiliate network wherein other sites send you traffic and you pay them for clicks or sales. Commission Junction is one of the more recognized affiliate programs on the web and you can setup something with them. Essentially, you pay a fee to get a sale. Hopefully you have figured out your ROI (return on investment) so you can determine the right price to pay and still make a profit. Also, you can join either the Yahoo, Google, or MSN search networks and pay on a cost per click basis to have targeted traffic sent to your site. For example, say you sell custom stained glass windows. When someone is searching for a term like "stained glass" on Google you can have your ad appear next to the other results and you will pay a set fee to Google whenever anyone clicks on your ad and comes to your site. It's up to you to sell them your product, but at least you are able to get traffic this way by bidding on keywords that make sense for your what you offer. There are literally 1000's of keywords for any category that you could bid on successfully.

Do you have a quality site or product that belongs in this guide? We are always happy to evaluate or review new products and websites. Feel free to contact us at the email address below and let us know about you. If you have a demo product you'd like us to look at, please contact us before sending anything. Thank you.

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