If you're an online marketer and own a website, you know the key to making sales is getting more traffic to your website. You also know all web site traffic is not created equal. You not only need lots of web traffic, you need lots of targeted traffic. That's the key and once you have it, your sales will increase exponentially.
The best way to get targeted website traffic is to use Pay-per-Click (PPC) services such as Google AdWords, or Yahoo or a host of other pay services. You also need to know what you're doing or you could find yourself spending lots of money, getting poor results and losing money very quickly. Also, when you're first starting out, you have a limited budget, and starting with PPC campaigns may not even be an option for you at this point in time.
That's where free traffic exchanges come in. Free traffic exchanges can be a great way to get traffic to your website. You should also know there's really no such thing as free because you must spend your time surfing through other websites to earn credits. Free traffic exchanges are a great way to get lots of visitors to your site however, so spending an hour a day surfing, is not a lot to ask if you're making sales from your efforts. And isn't this why you're in this business to begin with?
Free traffic exchanges are a great marketing tool for a many reasons. The best reason is that you get lots of people looking, and hopefully clicking on your website or promotional pages. But there are hidden benefits to free traffic exchanges you may not have even considered.
Search engines love free traffic exchanges because of all the incoming and outgoing links they generate. Plus the rapidly changing content is another reason the search engines love traffic exchanges. Exchanges that have more content also generate a higher page rank, and therefore more traffic, and increased memberships. The key is to find exchanges that are very active and have lots of members. The more members they have, the more potential customers you get looking at your offer and your chances for sales conversions are that much better. But bigger isn't always better.
Some free traffic exchanges may do very well for one marketer, and be a complete waste of time for another. If everyone were promoting the same website or affiliate program in the same traffic exchange for example, then chances are you would not make many sales. Even if you were promoting the best product or service on the internet, if everyone promoted the same thing, your chances of someone purchasing through your website or links, are slim to none. Also, when people see the same ad over and over again, they get desensitized to it. Don't fall into this trap. It's one thing to try and sell a very popular product/service/eBook etc, but it's another thing when a million other people are trying to do it too. Competition is a good thing, because it validates your market, but too much competition is tough and it's time to move on to something else.
We all know clicking on ads in a free traffic exchange can be very boring, monotonous and can take a lot of time. That's why you need to make the best of your opportunity or you will just be wasting a lot of your time and effort on something that just isn't working. If you have your own niche website, then you already differentiated yourself from the pack. If you are an affiliate marketer, then you need to find products/services that everyone else isn't promoting, especially within that particular traffic exchange.
One way to use free traffic exchanges to your advantage is to join a few at first, and see if your sales pick up. If your sales aren't doing well, then test out a few more. When you do find a few traffic exchanges that appear to be generating sales for you, then narrow those down until you find the one, or two that are working. Now concentrate your efforts on those because they're the ones you want. At least for now anyway. Things may change, so keep an eye on your campaigns and if sales seem to be falling off, then it might be time to change your offer or find another traffic exchange that could pick your profits up again.
As I mentioned, your individual promotion is everything. If you're trying to promote something everyone else is, I don't care what traffic exchange service you're using, your sales conversions are going to be very low, or nothing at all. You cannot always blame the exchange. Sometimes you have to look at yourself and think if you're doing all you can to make sales.
If you're going to use multiple free traffic exchanges, and I recommend that you do, you should get yourself a multi-tab web browser. Many of these browsers are free and run on PCs and MACs. The tabs feature allows you to have one web browser open with multiple tabs each going to a separate website. You could easily put 5 or 6 of your free exchange sites in these tabs, and earn credits for all of them at the same time. So instead of surfing for 1/2 an hour or an hour earning 200 hits for one exchange, you could earn 200 hits for 5 exchanges in the same amount of time. This is a huge time saver and multiplies your earned hits by 5X or 6X.
Getting free traffic to your website can be a lot of work. If you don't have the money to spend on full blown PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns like Google AdWords or Yahoo, free traffic exchanges are a great way to get the traffic you need, for Free!
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One of the most important things to remember for most small business owners is NOT to sell your product/service at the meeting. You're selling the appointment! For example, I give a fr'ee coaching session ? that's what I focus on selling at the meeting. If you have a Mary Kay business, you are selling the fr'ee facial. Perhaps you are trying to build your list for your email newsletter, in which case you are selling the fr'ee newsletter. Find a way for people to sample your product, and ?sell' the sales meeting ? whatever form that takes.
Before you even enter the room, set an intention. What do you expect to gain at this meeting? Collect business cards from 4 potential strategic alliance partners, make 2 sales meeting appointments, give out samples to 12 potential clients, collect 6 email addresses ? these are only a few possible examples of clear intentions.
Many networkers have been trained to network further with others by meeting for coffee or lunch to build a closer relationship. This activity is great ? in concept. In reality, you mostly waste a lot of time meeting with people who never hire you or refer business to you. A better use of your time is to get together with 2 or 3 strategically selected people for coffee or lunch.
Two groups in my area regularly set up these meetings, and they have been extremely fruitful to me. There are rules to these meetings, however, and following these rules will yield far better results. Here are the rules as I see them:
1. Don't say you are interested in the meeting if you really don't want to go.
2. Be on time.
3. Have a thorough understanding of your business and be dedicated to making a profit. If your business is merely a hobby, that's fine, but this isn't the meeting for you.
4. Listen. Nobody wants you to monopolize the conversation ? give everyone her fair share of the time.
5. Focus on business. Spend 5-10 minutes bonding and connecting by discussing food, kids or sports, then move right into business.
6. Have some idea of who your target market is. It will be very difficult for the other participants to refer business to you if you don't tell them who you want.
One more thing that will make your investment in networking go further is to keep showing up! The reason networking works for so many people is that they build relationships, and because of the trust built in these relationships, the referrals flow. You may know about leads groups like LeTip and BNI ? they work because the members get to know each other very well through repeated exposure at weekly meetings.
Bottom line: Don't push your product at networking meetings, have reasonable, clear expectations and build relationships.
Both Deepak Singh & Audrey Burton are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Deepak Singh has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet. . Deepak Singh's top article generates over 480 views. to your Favourites.
Audrey Burton has sinced written about articles on various topics from Small Business, Work Life Balance and Credit Loans. Audrey Burton, Small Business Coach, is ?The Tigress?. Get her FREE Special Report, ?Closing the Sale is Not Complicated!? and her FREE monthly email newsletter at
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