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[H1150]How To Get Free Groceries

by Ben Levanger, Ben

Using these Social Media sites the right way can bring in large amounts of traffic very quickly to your sites. NOT using them correctly can KILL your business.

First of all, let me explain to you what the 3 most important types of Social Media Sites for your online business are.

1. Communities - These are sites that people go to on a regular basis and hang out. People set up profiles and make them personal by adding photos, writing blog entries on their own pages and making comments on their friends pages. Examples of communities are FaceBook and MySpace.

2. Libraries - These are sites that contain collections of information provided by their users. Examples of libraries are Digg and Technorati.

3. Notice-boards - These are sites where people go to and make recommendations to other sites or make posts to on a regular basis. Examples of these types of notice-boards are Twitter and blogs.

So what is the right way to use these sites?

The best way to use these types of sites is by signing up and creating a profile, read the TOS (Terms of Service) to find out what can and cant be done on the site, spend some time in the site watching what others are doing and then do the same.

The reason why you should do all of this is because if you just sign up and start posting content linking to your site, there is a very strong chance that the site members will see you as a spammer and ban you from the site.

So sign up and take a look around and get a feel for the site. Set up your profiles like the other members are and then do the same as others are doing.

For example, lets say you sign up to Facebook. What are the others doing? Well they are adding photos, "updating their status", posting comments on their friends "Walls"...

... Ah yes, friends "Walls". Before you can post on your friends "Walls", you have to first GET some friends.

FaceBook has a way when youre signing up, that you can import your email address list and find contacts that are part of the FaceBook community. You can then use this to invite people to be your friend. There is also a search function where you can search for friends by name.

After you have invited a friend and if they accept your invitation, then you will be able to communicate to them by posting messages on their wall as well as many other ways.

If you are using FaceBook to make business contacts, you may be thinking that inviting as many friends as possible all at once is the best way to grow your business. You can get a couple hundred people quickly and then you can start pitching to them.

This is NOT a good idea. Think about this for a moment... how would you react if you received a friend invite one day, accepted and then got bombarded with offers from this person right away?

You would probably be annoyed. You might block this person from being able to communicate with you in the future. You might even be really angry and contact FaceBook to complain. If FaceBook believes that you are spamming, then they will remove you from their site. And they have every right to.

So the trick is to spend a good amount of time in ALL of these sites, watch and then do what the other members are doing and then submit some great quality content to these sites slowly.

Now if youre anything like me, you have a lot of tasks to complete on your "to-do" list everyday that will make it difficult to spend all this time in these Social Media sites.

One way you can get quality traffic for free without the assistance of search engines is via ad swapping. Of course the most effortless way to get traffic to your website is to pay for it via advertising but some of us can't afford to pay or simply don't want to. In that case, the solution is ad swapping, or putting someone else's ad on your site in exchange for them doing the same thing.

An ad swap is different from a link exchange because the goal is not to improve search engine rank. The goal of an ad swap is to give your website exposure and increase awareness of your brand. The success of an ad swap is measured by the amount of visitors it attracts to your website.

How to Do a Successful Ad Swap

For an ad swap to be successful and fair for both parties involved, each party must have a website that gets a steady flow of traffic each day. The best ad swaps are done between businesses with an equivalent amount of traffic. The ads must also be displayed in easily viewable areas in order to be successful. Both parties must use equivalent ad formats.

Ad swaps are most successful when the two websites involved are in the same niche. Both websites could take advantage of the trade in visitors since they already have an established interest in the same topic. For the best results, the ad must be relevant to the page where it is placed. If you run a business offering a product or service, you should not do an ad swap with a competitor in the same niche. You should also avoid doing an ad swap with a business that contradicts your brand image.

Most webmasters and bloggers are wary of answering requests for ad swaps since they get so many requests for link trades. Avoid asking people out of the blue if they are interested in swapping ads until you get to know them and they feel comfortable with you. In addition to waiting until you have an established website within your niche, try to network and build relationships with other webmasters/bloggers first before asking to swap ads.

Select Your Swap Partners Carefully

You only have so much ad space to swap with others so be sure to maximize your returns by choosing partners that will bring you quality traffic. If you are familiar with your niche, you can probably already name a few good potential swap partners off the top of your head. If not, search for your target keywords on Google to find them.

Types of Ads You Can Set up

The types of ad you can set up for an ad swap include banners, text links, RSS feed ads, and email newsletter opt-in forms. The success of ad swaps can be measured with tracking links and analytics. That way both parties can measure the amount of traffic they are receiving.

You should avoid sending traffic from an ad swap to a home page or to any other un-optimized page. Create a customized landing page for the swap. You can use the landing page to capture leads by offering a freebie and opt-in for a newsletter or RSS feed. You can also make it a welcome page that includes a brief introduction to your website and links to other relevant pages on your site.

While most bloggers and webmasters do not endorse ad swaps at this time, they can be a very effective traffic-building tactic if used correctly. Internet marketers have been using the ad swap technique for a while and you too can get some free traffic if you are willing to try it out. You have nothing to lose so why not give it a shot?

Article Source : Pg. 91

About Author

Both Ben Levanger & Luca Moretti 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.

Ben Levanger has sinced written about articles on various topics from Keyboard Synthesizer, Home Management and Information Technology. Make Sure To Visit To Finally start making money online! Imagine your success.. Ben Levanger's top article generates over 368000 views. to your Favourites.

Luca Moretti has sinced written about articles on various topics from Web Development, Computers and The Internet and Marketing. I'm the head copywriter for SEOsapien.com . Our and. Luca Moretti's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.