Monday, September 10, 2007
Methods Actually Sending Traffic to Websites
Traffic Methods That Actually Send YOUR Traffic to OTHER Websites
Believe it or not, there are many rather popular website promotion
methods that actually drive traffic away from your website. They
usually clutter up your website with a bunch of graphics and do
virtually nothing to improve your bottom line.Here are just a few
examples:
Top Sites ' The premise is that you put a vote button on your
site and people click to vote for you, raising your site up in the list
of 'top sites'. People who visit the top site list see your site near
the top and click on your banner to see what your site is all about.
Things to consider: You have to put a graphic on your site. Of
course, you will make the link open in a new window, so you don?t lose
your visitor, but you have created a distraction for your visitor. You
want your visitor to focus on your sales message, not a graphic that
leads your visitors away from your website.
Let's be serious. If you've participated in a Top Site or visited a top
site page, when's the last time you did any shopping from it?
Realistically, the Top Site List serves to best promote the website
that created the list rather than the individuals on that list. Check
your website stats to see how much traffic you get from this list and
see if anyone buys.
Banner Exchange ' Everyone participating in the exchange places
a banner on his site. This banner rotates throughout the participating
sites every time a page refreshes. The premise is that you get a lot of
exposure by having your banner appear on a number of sites.
Things to Consider: Again, you have to put a distracting graphic
on your site. Usually banner exchanges are made up of like-sites. Why
would you send your visitor to your competitor?! Most banner exchanges
give you one impression of your banner for every two times the banner
exchange appears on your website. Does it seem wise to possibly give
away two visitors for every one visitor you
might get back to your site? As in the Top Site List, the banner
exchange serves best to promote the website that created it. The banner
exchange usually has a link to the creator's site underneath the
banner. This is the one link that doesn't change on the rotation, thus,
giving the creator constant exposure on all sites, but giving you very
little in return.
Web Rings ' A web ring is a graphic placed on a website that
allows visitors to travel from one related website to another. The idea
is that everyone puts the graphic on her home page to create a
continuous 'ring'.
Things to Consider: It's the same old story. You're creating a
distraction for your visitor and potentially sending your traffic to
your competitor. It just doesn't seem like a good idea. These rings are
often broken by members and you never know it.
And even more BAD ideas'
Buying Hits ' It is so sad, but there is an entire industry that
takes advantage of traffichungry website owners. If you see an ad that
says, 'Buy 10,000 targeted hits' or an eBay auction that says, '2
Million Hits to Your Website,' run the other way.
Here's how these programs work: Your entire web page pops-up
while somebody is surfing another website or is using particular
software. Sometimes these hits are delivered within in a day or a few
days and you have no idea where your site is popping up.
You must realize that these aren't bonus fide visitors to your website;
it's just people who may have been annoyed by your website popping up
in their faces.
Let's go back to our conversion rate calculations. We know that a 1%
conversion rate isn't bad. If buying hits was a good idea, we would get
100 sales for every 10,000 hits we bought. We've tested this. It just
doesn't happen. And don't be fooled by people who tell you they can
target your hits by country or industry. There is NOTHING targeted by
forcing someone to view your website without permission.
Surfing for Traffic ' There are all kinds of programs where you
can surf other people's websites in return for other people surfing
yours. These programs are generally free.
Search Engine Submission ' It's big business but is a COMPLETE waste of time and money
' Let us start by saying that you should NEVER pay anyone to submit
your website to search engines. First of all, many of these programs
use auto-submitters, which are against many search engine guidelines.
But the biggest scam of all is that these companies will say things
like:
Submit your site to the top 500 search engines
Your site submitted to 5000 search engines
Let's be serious. There aren't 5000 worthwhile search engines, let
alone 500. There are just a handful of search engines that will bring
you a significant amount of traffic. These include Google, Yahoo, and
MSN. Then you'll probably see some traffic from AOL, Netscape, Ask
Jeeves, EarthLink, DogPile and a few more.
But you know what? You don't actually have to submit to these sites to
get listed. Search engines follow links on the Internet and if you have
websites linking to you, these search engines will find you. So, if you
want to get listed and stay listed, all you need is to acquire a few
links to your website.
If you don't believe us, take it from Google
Believe it or not, there are many rather popular website promotion
methods that actually drive traffic away from your website. They
usually clutter up your website with a bunch of graphics and do
virtually nothing to improve your bottom line.Here are just a few
examples:
Top Sites ' The premise is that you put a vote button on your
site and people click to vote for you, raising your site up in the list
of 'top sites'. People who visit the top site list see your site near
the top and click on your banner to see what your site is all about.
Things to consider: You have to put a graphic on your site. Of
course, you will make the link open in a new window, so you don?t lose
your visitor, but you have created a distraction for your visitor. You
want your visitor to focus on your sales message, not a graphic that
leads your visitors away from your website.
Let's be serious. If you've participated in a Top Site or visited a top
site page, when's the last time you did any shopping from it?
Realistically, the Top Site List serves to best promote the website
that created the list rather than the individuals on that list. Check
your website stats to see how much traffic you get from this list and
see if anyone buys.
Banner Exchange ' Everyone participating in the exchange places
a banner on his site. This banner rotates throughout the participating
sites every time a page refreshes. The premise is that you get a lot of
exposure by having your banner appear on a number of sites.
Things to Consider: Again, you have to put a distracting graphic
on your site. Usually banner exchanges are made up of like-sites. Why
would you send your visitor to your competitor?! Most banner exchanges
give you one impression of your banner for every two times the banner
exchange appears on your website. Does it seem wise to possibly give
away two visitors for every one visitor you
might get back to your site? As in the Top Site List, the banner
exchange serves best to promote the website that created it. The banner
exchange usually has a link to the creator's site underneath the
banner. This is the one link that doesn't change on the rotation, thus,
giving the creator constant exposure on all sites, but giving you very
little in return.
Web Rings ' A web ring is a graphic placed on a website that
allows visitors to travel from one related website to another. The idea
is that everyone puts the graphic on her home page to create a
continuous 'ring'.
Things to Consider: It's the same old story. You're creating a
distraction for your visitor and potentially sending your traffic to
your competitor. It just doesn't seem like a good idea. These rings are
often broken by members and you never know it.
And even more BAD ideas'
Buying Hits ' It is so sad, but there is an entire industry that
takes advantage of traffichungry website owners. If you see an ad that
says, 'Buy 10,000 targeted hits' or an eBay auction that says, '2
Million Hits to Your Website,' run the other way.
Here's how these programs work: Your entire web page pops-up
while somebody is surfing another website or is using particular
software. Sometimes these hits are delivered within in a day or a few
days and you have no idea where your site is popping up.
You must realize that these aren't bonus fide visitors to your website;
it's just people who may have been annoyed by your website popping up
in their faces.
Let's go back to our conversion rate calculations. We know that a 1%
conversion rate isn't bad. If buying hits was a good idea, we would get
100 sales for every 10,000 hits we bought. We've tested this. It just
doesn't happen. And don't be fooled by people who tell you they can
target your hits by country or industry. There is NOTHING targeted by
forcing someone to view your website without permission.
Surfing for Traffic ' There are all kinds of programs where you
can surf other people's websites in return for other people surfing
yours. These programs are generally free.
Search Engine Submission ' It's big business but is a COMPLETE waste of time and money
' Let us start by saying that you should NEVER pay anyone to submit
your website to search engines. First of all, many of these programs
use auto-submitters, which are against many search engine guidelines.
But the biggest scam of all is that these companies will say things
like:
Submit your site to the top 500 search engines
Your site submitted to 5000 search engines
Let's be serious. There aren't 5000 worthwhile search engines, let
alone 500. There are just a handful of search engines that will bring
you a significant amount of traffic. These include Google, Yahoo, and
MSN. Then you'll probably see some traffic from AOL, Netscape, Ask
Jeeves, EarthLink, DogPile and a few more.
But you know what? You don't actually have to submit to these sites to
get listed. Search engines follow links on the Internet and if you have
websites linking to you, these search engines will find you. So, if you
want to get listed and stay listed, all you need is to acquire a few
links to your website.
If you don't believe us, take it from Google
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