In today's issue...

"My Top 10 Traffic Sources for 2005"

About half-way through each year I like to take a close look at my stats to get a handle on my best traffic sources.

My three busiest websites now receive a total of about 100,000 visitors each month. The sites are...

www.bizweb2000.com
www.make-a-living-online.com
www.ezWebBusinessBuilder.com

But it's not the volume of traffic that supports my business, it is the QUALITY of the traffic.

As a marketer who spends very little on advertising, I pride myself on utilizing only the most effective low-cost and no-cost traffic sources available online, just as I've done since 1996 when I got started online.

Today I'd like to share those traffic sources with you.

I think you'll find this list interesting. And who knows, you may even find a new way to get targeted traffic to your websites...

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1. Affiliates

My number one traffic source again, for the third consecutive year, is my affiliates. In fact, my affiliates send thousands of visitors a day to my sites.

If you have not started an affiliate program for your best products and services, I highly recommend you do so.

Although there are some costs involved with starting your own affiliate program, it is well worth it. Justify the expense by telling yourself that you are hiring thousands of sales people and paying them only when they sell. A web based affiliate program is just that.

A few secrets to success with my affiliate programs include paying decent commission rates (30% - 40%), paying on time every month and offering lots of tools and tips for my affiliates. I also actively seek out potential super-affiliates on a regular basis. Like with any marketing strategy, a pro-active approach works best!
 

2. Repeat Visitors

A perennial, top traffic generator, is "repeat visitors." You know, people coming to my site who have already been there before.

The importance of getting repeat visitors is something you used to hear marketing experts talk about a lot. Lately, it seems that the value of repeat visitors has been overlooked.

Yet repeat visitors are usually the people who end up making purchases at your site. And there are lots of ways to get these valuable repeat visitors.

I get most of mine through my follow-up autoresponders (thank you webbusinesswizard) and also through my free ebook and this BizWeb eGazette newsletter. I suggest you look at these strategies closely and try similar techniques if you are not already getting lots of repeat visitors.


3. A Free Traffic Network

Though I've never been a big fan of start page networks or traffic exchange programs, I'm glad I tried one called TrafficSwarm. It quickly developed into a top traffic source and has remained near the top for years now.

There are lots of traffic networks to choose from on the web, and the few I had tried never impressed me. But TrafficSwarm now delivers hundreds of highly targeted visitors a day to my sites. I now have a PRO account and at just thirty bucks a month it has been a self-propelled traffic (and income) generator. I'd recommend it to any webmaster on a tight budget.


4. Google

In fourth place this year, and still delivering heavy traffic is Google. The web's top search engine really delivers a high quantity of high-quality traffic to my sites. In fact, I've managed to help a growing number of my members grow their google traffic as well.

There are no tricks to it either. It really is as simple as taking the recommendations directly from Google's site at www.google.com/webmasters/ and then making sure your site is properly optimized with the right keywords for your niche. The rest happens by getting good links.

If you are a member of my private site, you'll find a case study of one of my client sites and her google efforts. (Non-members can get a two year membership here.)


5. Links/Content

Getting lots of incoming links to your site is important. Not only will traffic arrive via those links, but a site with lots of incoming links does better in search engines than sites with few links.

The best strategy I've used to get links, starts with content. You write articles based on your niche, post the content at your site AND share the content with other webmasters. You can do this "on-the-fly" by including a short footer after your content that tells webmasters they have permission to reprint your article at their website or in their newsletter. Be sure to let them know that they need to include a live link to your site. You may even want to tell them exactly how to link to your site. (Preferably with a short description of your site and a hyper linked keyword or two. This will help search engines determine that the sites are related and give the link more relevance.)

There are lots of websites in need of decent content. Supply it and you can benefit greatly - your links will grow continually with no effort on your part. And the beauty of this strategy is that only sites in your niche will use your content. This means your links will be high quality links from sites in the right 'neighborhood.' This goes a long way with the search engines.

If you would like to see this content-sharing link growing strategy in action, visit my marketing articles archive. There are lots of other ways to get links into your site, and you need to use your imagination. You'll discover the pro-active version of this strategy, when you get to number 10 below.

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6. Affiliate-showcase.com

Affiliate Showcase makes my top 10 list for the third year in a row. It is a web based affiliate program search engine that is brandable for anyone promoting affiliate programs. It automates the tedious process of affiliate marketing and can generate some great targeted traffic to any site you want.

Since it is viral, it is something you can set up, then let run on auto-pilot. And that's pretty much what I've done. Yet it continues to deliver a steady stream of traffic to my sites. At the very least grab the no-cost version and give it a try.


7. MSN

Yep, MSN.com is finally making a dent in the search engine market, and they are making a concerted effort to expand in that area. In fact, I've already seen traffic to my sites from search.msn.com grow steadily, especially over the past few months. If you have not added your URL to their search engine, take a minute and submit your site for free.
 

8. "Sister" sites

Over the years I've put together a number of "sister" sites offering various Internet marketing information, products and services. These sites include my WebBusinessWizard.com, Work-at-Home-Site.com, JV-Alert.com and a few others.

Naturally, these sites contain references to my main sites. So as the traffic has grown to the sister sites, the traffic to my main sites has grown as well. Putting up additional websites is easy, with discount website templates readily available, and web hosting fees at all-time lows.

So if you are sticking with just one site, it may be time for you to explore a bit of expansion. Just keep costs to a minimum and make sure all your sites complement each other. Before you know it you could have an entire network of sites all helping each other grow!
 

9. Yahoo!

Although this traffic source moved down the list a bit from last year, Yahoo.com still delivers quite a bit of traffic to my websites. But search has changed quite a bit recently at Yahoo, and with those changes comes cost to webmasters. If you have the budget, consider using their SiteMatch service. Or at the very least, use the Free URL Submission Yahoo now offers.
 

10. Article Submissions

I highly recommend this no-cost strategy to other grass-roots web marketers. The traffic you get from this strategy is immediate as well as long-term. And it can go a long way in establishing your expertise on your topic of choice.

If you are not using this strategy, try it! Visit an article directory and submit your best, current articles. Make sure the article is helpful and includes a small footer at the end, about the author.

Here's a short list of article directories:

http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.certificate.net/wwio
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.netterweb.com
http://www.jogena.com
You can and should also submit your articles to ezine editors in your niche. This can expand your reach exponentially. Here's a special report explaining how I automate my article submissions to directories and ezine editors. It's one of my secret marketing weapons.

Well, that's it for today's gazette. Take a few minutes today and try a new strategy or two. You may be surprised at how much traffic you can generate to your site. And it sure beats paying for advertising!!

See ya in a few weeks... Jim Daniels

P.S. Do you enjoy the BizWeb eGazette? If so, you'll LOVE my  Web-based guide to Making a Living Online - it walks you through the exact steps you need to earn your living from the web. Or if time and money are tight, grab my new ezWebBusinessBuilder software. It literally shows you how to build a super-successful income machine on the web.

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