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If you're mainly interested in your hit counter, you can sign up with any old autosurf program and you'll soon be happy. However, if quality counts for you, then here are 5 methods of getting genuine, interested and ready to buy visitors to your site:
1. Testimonials.
2. Writing Articles.
3. Forums.
4. Press Releases.
5. Your Newsletter.
1.Testimonials
Sometimes it really is better to give than receive. Internet marketers are always on the lookout for testimonials – it lends them credibility. The next time you use a product or service that you genuinely like send the supplier a testimonial. Include a link to your website and, if they use your testimonial, they will almost certainly include the link – so that their customers can verify that you're a real person.
Depending on the product and the type of website that you have, you could even host a review on your site. You would be highly likely to get a link using this method. You will get traffic using this method and, since the supplier of the product is likely to be promoting his site quite extensively, you could get a very high quality back link - which will help your search engine rankings as well.
Only endorse products that you are genuinely happy with. Remember, your name will be associated with it, so make sure it's a good one.
2. Writing Articles
This is a great way to promote both yourself and your site. All you have to do is submit articles on your chosen topic to one or more of the free article banks available and content hungry webmasters will use your work on their sites and in their newsletters. It's amazing how quickly these can be distributed around the internet.
Put a link to your site in your signature file, along with a few words of explanation on the content and purpose of your site. The visitors that you get in this manner have already read your work and know about your site – so they are highly targeted.
Three of the best article banks on the net are listed below – but just type “free articles” into google and you'll soon find plenty more places to submit your purple prose.
http://ezinearticles.com/
http://www.isnare.com/
http://www.goarticles.com/
Don't worry if you don't consider yourself to be a great writer. You can submit a list of 10 or 20 things to do in order to ....... whatever.
3. Forums
These can be a really good way to get your name in front of people. Put your website's URL in your signature - you'll be surprised at how many visitors you attract by this method. The good thing is that, as with the articles, they already "know" you from your posts – so you can consider them to be "targeted" visitors.
4. Press Releases
Press releases can be an amazingly powerful way to market your website. You can pay for these but it is possible to get them for free.
Don't worry that you know what to say - a couple of paragraphs is all that's required. Visit the site below and have a look at some of the live releases available - you'll soon get the hang of it.
http://www.prleap.com
Prleap is free and has good statistical reporting so you can keep track of how many views your release gets and which of the search engine robots have indexed it.
5. Your Newsletter or Ezine
You should have your own opt-in list and be in communication with your subscribers on a regular basis. Some webmasters send out a full e-mail newsletter, with the contents in the newsletter. Others just send a notification that the newsletter is available to read online.
Whichever method you use, make sure that your newsletter contains plenty links to your main site.
All of the above methods will provide you with very high quality traffic. It may take time to implement them but it's well worth investing a little time and effort.
Any advantage that you can get to help get your resume to the top of the pile is worth looking at. I have some employment agency contacts that I asked about what people can do to put them to the front of the line when the jobs are being handed out. I've put together their replies. These tips apply to whether your going for a permanent or contract position.
1. As in every business, personal relationships are crucial. If you have any agents with whom you have a good relationship, keep in touch with them, especially if you have done a good job for them in the past
2. Send your resume out to as many agencies as possible. It does no harm, and they take most notice of you when your resume first arrives. Often it is sent around to all the sales people at the company. Send out a certain amount each week, e.g. ten, to keep you in the mind's eye of at least some agents
3. Make sure that your resume is presentable and easily readable. Make sure that your best skills are right at the front. Don't clutter up your resume with old skills and ones that you don't have much experience in – unless they're very marketable
4. Keep calling agencies even though it is soul-destroying. Keep yourself in the front of their minds. The right job might have just come in and you'll be at the front of the line. Out of sight, out of mind. If you haven't been in touch for a while, they'll probably assume that you're off the market for whatever reason. Have a list of agencies that you call every two weeks, calling a selection of them every day
5. Always, always, always adapt your resume for each job that you are applying for rather than just sending out your standard resume. It's not the job of the agent or the employer to find the skills that they are looking for. It's up to you to bring it to their attention. They may have dozens of resumes in front of them (or even hundreds) and they aren't going to give your resume more than thirty seconds in the first crawl through to cut the possible candidates down to a more manageable number
6. Be friendly and alert when an agent calls out of the blue rather than surly and suspicious. He may be one of those reference spammers, but he also may be the genuine article and could be put off by your response
7. Send scanned references along with the resume when applying off any of the job boards with managers contact names blanked out so that agents don't mine them for leads. It always looks good and impresses agencies to no end. If you send them and others don't, then you've gained a little competitive advantage on them – and that's crucial in the current climate
8. Follow up the resume with a friendly, positive call. Agents are human, too, and react positively to a friendly approach.
9. One contractor that I've heard of actually told the consultants at one agency that he would pay whichever recruitment consultant got him a job a personal bonus of $3,000. According to the guy who owned the agency, this put the contractor right to the front of the line.
10. When you do get an interview, do some research on the company so that when you're asked the inevitable “Do you know anything about us” you don't end up saying “I think I've heard of you”.
Preparation, hard work and a friendly demeanor are crucial to getting your resume to the top of the hiring manager's pile. Try these ten tips today and see what will come of your job or contract search.