Referral Networks – Page 27 – TP Javeton WebNet

Do you believe in the principle that you’ve got to give before you get? If so, you probably already know the answer to this question: What is the most frequently used word that people type in a search box on the internet? If you don’t already know the answer, I can assure you that learning what this simple word is and using it to it’s fullest extent can literally explode your sales if you’re an entrepreneur running a Web business. Let me explain.

The all important word is FREE!

The word that is used in searches on the Web more than any other is FREE. Everyone loves something for nothing. No one wants to pay for something if they can get it for free. You don’t – and I certainly don’t – if the item is of a quality comparable to paid-for items.

Think about all the times you searched for something on the Web. Weather it was for information, a service, a product, anything. Did you just type in the description, a keyword or phrase, or did you put ‘free’ first? Even if you obmitted the word free, when the search engines generated the results, I can almost guarantee that it gave you a list of ‘related searches’ containing the keywords you used with ‘free’ in front of them.

The benefits entrepreneurs derive from giving something for free.

As a Web business entrepreneur, if you offer a product, service or some other information for free, it can have great returns. First of all it boosts your search engine rankings. As the word is typed into a search box more than any other, so having it optimized on your website will pay amazing dividends.

Once a customer has found you in their search results, further use of the word free will draw them in even more. Giving them something for nothing if they visit your site is a big attraction. In fact it is such a huge attraction that I can’t emphisize how important it is, especially if you’re just starting out as a new entrepreneur.

Can giving something for free can make you money?

When someone visits your site to claim their freebie, several things can happen. In order to get their free product, they have to give you their name and email address. This is standard operating procedure in the Web marketing business arena. In fact, it’s the #1 reason for offering the free item(s) to them in the first place.

It is highly unlikely that someone will buy something on their first visit to your website, or any other site; and unless there is an excellent reason for them to return, they may never visit again. By having their email address, you can contact them and remind them to revisit your site. You can offer them ‘special offers’ and affiliate sales through your correspondence emails.

It is a well known fact that you have to make an average of 7 contacts (sales pitches, remind revisits, offers ect…) with a potential customer before they will actually buy something and become a real customer. The reasons for this are quite lengthy and will take a complete article to discuss, so lets stick to the matter at hand.

One of the most important/valuable things you can own as a Web marketing entrepreneur is a LIST of contacts/potential customers that you can send your product promotions to on a regular basis. Being able to have that all-important contact with your customers, improves your chances of them making a purchase significantly.

They learn to ‘trust you’, you become familiar to them and that is what often clinches the deal. You gain the know, like and trust from your customers and then they feel comfortable enough to buy what you recommend.

So, that’s a brief explanation of how you, the budding entrepreneur, make money from giving away something for free.

The quality of free

The item that you offer, weather it be a subscription to an ezine, an ebook, report or software, MUST be of good quality. If the prospect receives their freebie and the quality is poor, they will not come back to your website and buy anything. Even if you are the best website in your niche, offering the best deals, they will never find out, because they just won’t come back.

On the other hand, if they are impressed by the free gift from you, they are more than likely to visit your website again and again. High quality, useful products are an essential if you want the ‘freeie offer’ to work for you.

How you can drive traffic to your website using ‘free’

Classified ads are a fantastic way to drive traffic to your website. The headline and description should be centered around the infamous “what’s in it for me”. That is offering them a freebie. This will entice them to click the link and visit your website. You can post classifieds for free. Just type ‘free classifieds’ into the search box and choose from the 1000’s of results that the search engines produce. Submit your ads often and the traffic will keep coming.

Simply use it anywhere your ads appear. If you publish articles, reports or ebooks, put your offer in your resource box. If you use pay-per-click, use the offer as your ad copy. Advertising in ezines, weather its your own, an affiliate’s or bought advertising, again use the free offer in your resource box.

Choose carefully

When deciding on what it is that you will give way, there is one piece of advice that is vital. Make the free item appropriate to your audience. Whatever niche you operate it, stick with the theme. If you offer an ebook on ‘how to create a website’ and your business sells musical instruments, you’re really asking for problems.

The customer will visit your website to get their ebook. They will download it and probably be very pleased if it contains high quality information on ‘how to create a website’. When you contact them via email with for example a ‘special offer on violin strings’, unless by some highly unlikely coincidence that they play the violin, they will not visit your website again. So be mindful of what your own niche actually wants and give it to them.

In conclusion, the more you offer free stuff of high quality, the more money you will make and the more successful you will become in your Web entrepreneurial business experience. It is one of the best traffic drivers and is a straight forward concept. Now that you have this little golden nugget of valuable information, get to work. Plan what you could offer, to whom, when and where.

Decide on a product that you can legally give away (be careful of copyright infringement). Make it something that is useful to your own niche market. Advertise it everywhere you can and your opt-in-list will grow very quickly. After all ‘the money is in the list’, right? That’s also a topic for another article. Below is a perfect example of the ‘free’ offer. I didn’t make it up, it’s for real and it works.

Google Adwords and similar resources

The continuation of Traffic Creation Tips For Your Website begins with another method of generating traffic, albeit a paid method. Google AdWords.

Another method of traffic generation is to buy it. Yahoo, Google, Bing, Overture and similar paid traffic sourses, sell advertising space. In the case of Google adwords you can pay to have you site on the first page but this can be an expensive proposition, $1 or more per click, to mere pennies. Why do people choose this method. First, it brings targetted traffic to your site. The advantage of targetted traffic is, the folks who come to your site are looking for your exact topic and thus are more likely to stay on your site, which results in higher conversion rates.

The problem is although Google says it rewards content rich sites with lower click costs the truth is the better ad wins, not necessarily the better or most relevant site. To explain this further, Google will lower the cost of your clicks and even raise you in the list if more people are clicking through. The truth though is, you’re being rewarded for having a great ad that people want to click on.

The advantage of this method is you are guaranteed traffic. The disadvantage is the costs and the time it takes to tweek your ads so they work at maximum efficiency. However I do know of businesses that survive on Google Adwords alone for advertising and make a very good turnover on their business products, so it works well for them. But again the greater demand for the keyword, the greater the number of competitors there are.

Bang for your buck! Surfing programs!

There is one way to reduce or eliminate the cost disadvantage. Simply choose to limit your target audience to a particular country, region or even city. Obviously the target audience is further limited by language. Not much point in advertising your English content site in Bulgaria because first, it’s not an English-speaking country and second, they may not have access to the Web. If you’re paying money for advertising on the Web make sure you are reaching the right audience for your ad(s).

Another way to generate hits to your site is to join numerous surfing and traffic exchange programs that will create site activity. These exchanges will generate “hits” to your site so the traffic is not targeted as in paid traffic sources. In fact you can buy thousands of hits and get them in a very short space of time but although normally cheap e.g. $9 for 1000 hits, it has a myriad of disadvantages.

First, you are only advertising to other exchange and surf members, many of them are competitors, already in the same programs as you, not really interest in your ad. I’ve found that you can build a down-line and contact list from surfing and exchange programs, however keep the ad or website display very basic. With a 15-30 second counter on most programs, people just aren’t going to read a Hollywood movie script even if its glowingly good, they are going to scan and then click the required button to move on to the next site. It that 15 seconds you’ve got to grab there interest.

The best type of ads to use in TEs and surfing programs are free offers, appealing to their needs or wants. Often in this case a single page with an e-mail enrollment form is the best bet for getting results. One distinct advantage of most of these programs though is, if you build a downline with them the amount of free traffic you get increases.

You can surf for traffic at your leisure if you can’t afford to pay for it, you might even find a program that perks your interest. Also in this category you can nclude banners, banner exchanges, text links, videos, etc., which work on the same principle of one hand washes the other. If you are interested in surfing programs the link below to free traffic hits is one suggestion.

Longer term methods.

I refer to these techniques as longer term methods because they require a greater work output on your part, but they can result in great traffic results. One such longer term method is article writing. Articles submitted to articles directories like Goarticles, Article Fever, Isnare, etc., act as a magnet for search engines. Content rich and quality controlled, if you get an article listed in one of these forums/libraries you have the ability to have a constant stream of traffic through attached links.

Another long term method is to contact and link to other similar sites. You can do this by requesting other webmasters to do this or create you own sites and link them to one another. Another long term method is to create an op-in e-mail list and encourage people from your list to visit your ‘great’ site with your ‘unbelievable’ offer.

Of course, creating a blog with interesting and fresh content doesn’t hurt either. In conclusion, I don’t recommend any method over the other. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. It depends only on what you are advertising and what fits best for your campaign. On the whole I don’t think you can go wrong if you do all the above methods as an encompassing Web marketing strategy. If you do, over time your internet presence will increase as will your total traffic.