If you don't have a plan for generating more traffic and sales in 2006, now is the time to create one. With Christmas just around the corner, business is slow for most business owners who sell to other businesses. However, in January, this will all change when Christmas shoppers start looking for extra ways to make cash to pay off Christmas bills. Below are three of my best tips for planning your promotion now. 1. Write articles If I've said it once, I've said it at least 1000 times. Writing articles is an excellent way to increase your traffic and sales. After I first started writing articles, I noticed a dramatic increase in both my traffic and sales. When I checked my search engine listings with Google and Yahoo, I was blown away. Last January, my sites were listed in Google about 1,200 times. My sites are now listed in Google over 46,000+ times, and my site is listed in Yahoo 31,000+ times. Since most of your traffic will come from the search engines, you want to be included as many times as possible. This is not only free traffic, but it's targeted traffic. 2. Post on forums I'll be the first to admit that I don't do this nearly enough. However, I've found that this is by far the best technique for finding other business partners, new customers, and building my linking strategy. The keyword here is leverage. The more connections you make, the more opportunity you have to build business relationships, build your affiliate force, and spread your products and services over a larger area. New partners can help you break into new markets without any additional work. 3. Build and monetize a content rich website The purpose of building a content rich website is to keep site visitors on your site longer. By keeping your visitors on your site longer, they're more likely to sign up for your ezine as well as buy your products and services. Build a site that has lots of content but not just any content. Give your site visitors content that offers value. Content that they can use to answer their questions. Although making money is a primary part of business, you should also consider that by providing extra value to potential customers, you're also creating your own unique selling proposition. You're making yourself different. You're giving potential customers a reason to want to choose you over your competitor. Potential customers are lookning for a way to solve their problems. You can use your products/services to do just that. You have lots of choices when monetizing your website. This can generate a passive, residual income for you in addition to selling your products/services. Choices include: Google Adsense - http://www.google.com
Chitika - http://www.chitika.com
Virtual Portals - http://www.virtual-portals.com There are many others, but these will give you some ideas. Although there are many ways to promote your business online, the same rules offline don't always apply online. Get your name out there, provide extra value to current and potential customers, and you'll see your traffic and sales multiply exponentially. January is just a few weeks away. Are you ready? |
