10 Fantastic Free Ways To Get Customers to Your Website

Here are ten ways you can get new customers to your website, using the free resources available on the Internet. There are many free Internet sites where you can get in touch with potential customers, if you reach out to them. You’ll be surprised how effective they are. Yes, they’re free. You don’t need big bucks to see big results. 

1. Use Free Social Media to Get Customers

• Use the online social media sites to introduce yourself, your business and your products. Over time you will build brand awareness among people there. Set up your MySpace page, your Twitter account, your LinkedIn, Facebook, Friendster and Hi5 profiles, and link each of them to your website. Facebook offers business pages, too.
• Post pictures of your products at Flickr.com and Photobucket.com, together with your profile, description and a link to the website. When you choose your screen name for these online accounts, you might want to use the domain name of your business site, like JoesHVACDotCom.
• A number of online bookmarking sites offer you an online community of people, such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Ask, Google Bookmarks, Reddit, Blogmarks, Simpy, Delicious, Kaboodle, Blinklist, Live, Slashdot, Magnolia, Spurl, Technorati, myAol, Yahoo Bookmarks, Furl or Newsvine. When you post an article of interest to customers on your website, bookmark the article at some of these sites.

2. Try Free Guerilla Techniques to Get Customers

Explore guerrilla marketing techniques that require only time, energy and imagination. Choose a new promotion, and spread the word about it on your social media sites. Depending on your business, you can offer online seminars, free samples, free consultations, and product video demonstrations. Perhaps it makes sense to give away a free toolbar, screensaver, game or utility, all of which can be branded for your business. Many websites get new customers when they give away free coupons. You can promote the coupons on Twitter and on other social media. Give your customers more service than they expect. If your employees have idle time, offer the customer free product assembly. Use your website to introduce yourself to the customers and share your product expertise with them. 

3. Visit Online Groups to Get Customers

Visit the online groups for more free opportunities to introduce yourself. See if Google Groups or Yahoo Groups has a topic that fits your area of interest. Group members will appreciate your help and advice. Build your reputation as an expert in the field, and group members will turn to you when they are ready to buy. Also, participate in related online forums where your expertise will be useful to customers. 

4. Write Online Articles to Market Yourself

• Write an article about your field of expertise. It could be a helpful "how-to" article about using your product, or an explanation of the benefits of your product. Then submit your article tor one of the many online sites, like ezine.com, that accept free articles. You’ll automatically get a link back to your business website along with free publicity.
• Write a press release and post it online. The topic could be your website expansion, your new product line, a new employee, or a charitable project. Include links to your online website and submit it to the free press release sites online. Check out sites like 24-7PressRelease.com, PRLog.org and 1888PressRelease.com. Email your press release to your local newspapers, too.
• Find your business niche on Wikipedia, WikiTravel, and other wiki sites, and become a contributor. You might be able to link to your business site as a reference. It's one more way to keep your name in front of the online public.

5. Optimize Your WebSite to Get Customers

Use the help of search engines to get more customers to your website. Make your website friendly for search engines. The technique is called search engine optimization. Just by changing the title of your page, its description, or your introductory remarks, you can double the traffic to your site. The traffic sent by search engines is called organic traffic, and it’s free. More traffic gets more new customers to your website. 

6. Take Advantage of Free Business Listings

• Use the Google Local Business Center to create your free listing. When potential customers search Google Maps for local information, they'll find your business: your address, hours of operation, even photos of your storefront or products. It's easy, it’s free, and you don't need a website of your own.
• Proofread your business listing in yellowpages.com.
• Check the local online telephone listing for your business, and correct it if necessary.
• Make sure your Yahoo city listing is up to date.
• Submit your website to The Open Directory Project, dmoz.org. This directory is maintained by humans, and getting in is difficult, but the search engines rank your site higher if dmoz lists it.

7. Use Free Online Blogging to Get Customers to Your Website

• Locate Internet blogs that cover topics related to your business. Leave comments on the blogs, and use your business domain name as your screen name; for example, AngiesCookiesDotCom. Your blog comments provide an additional link to your website. You can pick up free traffic from these links, too.
• Read more blogs. Set up your feed reader with the names of good blogs. A feed reader saves time by letting you skim the headlines of new articles. Whenever you have a spare moment, read something in your field. New ideas are always hatching online.
• If you enjoy writing, set up a blog for yourself. It can be a part of your business website, a page where you write informally about related activities and allow your personality to shine. A business blog is a great tool to build traffic and get customers to your website.

8. Use Free Internet Tools to Get Customers to Your Website

• Set up and verify a Webmaster Central Account at Google.
• Submit a product to Google Base. Google Base lets you submit pictures and describe your items with detailed information called attributes, which will help customers find your content more easily. You don’t even need a website to take advantage of Google Base.
• Install Google Analytics on your site, if you don't already have it. Google Analytics is helpful and free. You’ll learn more about customer behavior when they get to your website.
• Set up a CrazyEgg heat mapping test for your most important pages, to analyze what part of the page a customer looks at and clicks on. The results will help you rearrange items on your pages to maximize visibility.
• Show your customers how to find your physical store by adding a link to Google Maps on your website.
• Set up a MyBlogLog account for your blog or your website. When you put the MyBlogLog widget on your website, your customers can see avatars (small photos) of each other. The use of avatars helps build a sense of community among your customers. There are many such widgets available free online.

9. Create a Video to Get Customers

Convert a slideshow of your products into a video and upload it to Youtube or MetaCafe. Be sure to optimize your title and descriptions to get the most traffic from search engines. Set up your own channel on Youtube. With YouTube hosting your video and supplying the bandwidth, embed the video into your website. The link from YouTube will get more customers to your website. 

10. Try Pay Per Click Advertising to Get Customers to Your Website

No, Pay Per Click advertising is not free, but it can be very inexpensive. Signup is free. When people search for the products you sell, your PPC business ad will appear on the search engine report. With PPC, you only pay when a customer clicks on your ad and comes to your website. Each customer who comes to your website costs you only a few pennies. You can set your advertising budget as low as $1 per day, and turn your ad campaign off and on whenever you wish. You can easily track your Pay Per Click customers to see if PPC brings you more sales. The largest PPC advertising networks are those with the most popular search engines: Microsoft Ad Center, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Google Adwords. 

I hope life brings you much success.
I wish you a very happy day. 

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3 Improved Ways to Reach the Modern Target Audience

In one of my previous marketing class, I had to draft up an individual profile that would be representative of a certain brand's target audience. I had to include the age-range of this consumer, where he lives, what he likes to do, what his profession is, and include a picture of what this consumer would look like.

This detailed description can provide your inbound marketing team with a clear vision of its target customers. In the practice of traditional marketing, this target audience was commonly reached by deciding what TV shows they watched to determine where to place TV advertisement, figuring out what kind of music they listened to determine which radio stations to focus radio commercials, and knowing what they enjoyed reading so print ads were published in the right newspapers or magazines. 

But haven’t you heard? These techniques are outbound, ineffective, and immeasurable! People are recording their favorite TV shows and fast-forwarding through commercials, jamming to their favorite music on ad-free iPods, and reading content online. It’s crazy town—but as a marketer, you have to be a part of it.

So let’s take a look at these 3 distinct differences between how marketers used to reach their target audiences, and how they must reach them today.

1. Find Them Online

Then: Conventional efforts to reach your audience included knowing where these consumers resided so that you could reach them geographically. That way, you knew if you should be paying for a suburban newspaper ad or an urban newspaper ad. 

Now: Marketers must find where these people are online. Perhaps your audience flocks more toFacebook than Twitter, or maybe they are more concentrated in an industry-specific social network. As a marketer, the time and effort you spend on these networks should reflect that. Be present and participate where your audience is participating. Use analytics to guide you: take advantage of Facebook Insights, use Twitter analytics like Bit.ly, and implement other tracking tools to monitor traffic and leads from these sites to determine what is effective and how you should be allocating your time.

2. Be Part of the Conversation

Then: When you talk about customer service before the internet and social media, people would wait in long lines, sit on the phone for hours, or fill out complaint forms. You would then give them a muddled response or sometimes just blow them off because hey, it’s only one person, right?

Now: Wrong. Anything negative about your company is now easily transmittable through Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other social networks. Businesses must not only monitor their brand and be prepared to respond at any moment to these complaints and clear the virtual air, but also be engaging with prospects and customers online in general. Join groups and discussions on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other online sites where people are discussing a topic relating to your product or service. Use Google Alerts and social media monitoring software to monitor conversations about your brand. Participating in these dialogues by sharing your opinion and providing answers to questions will show your audience that you care.

3. Change the Way You Communicate

Then: The marketing world used to solely be a one-way communication-based industry. As a campaign was executed, some PR or media relations specialist would take the story your brand described and pitch it to traditional media outlets in your target market. The hope would be that it would get picked up and covered in the media so your target audience could see what you were all about. What people thought, or how many people even the read story, was left to circulation numbers—which isn’t the best method of measuring your reach. Let's face it: not everyone who purchased that magazine or watched that broadcast necessarily paid attention to that particular story.

Now: Communication is now two-way and asymmetrical. Brands are engaging with prospects and customers through social media and telling their stories through business blogging. Getting media attention is still important, though many articles and broadcasts are now posted online. This allows marketers to clearly analyze and better understand what their audience's reactions are with online marketing analytics that report on comments, traffic, inbound links, leads, etc.

Use Google's Keyword Tool (or if you’re a HubSpot customer, our Keyword Grader tool) to conduct keyword research and unveil what your target audience is searching for in relation to your product or service. Then, talk about it. Create blog posts that contain content your target audience wants, and don’t feel the need to limit it to just text. If your audience hates to read but sits on YouTube all day, then you should have a series of videos for them to watch that answers their questions and keeps them engaged. If your audience has an even shorter attention span, perhaps a quick infographic or cartoon that catches their eye is what you should be producing.

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Get Free Targeted Traffic To Your Site

I mentioned in my last post that my traffic is all organic, and highly targeted... and that my traffic continues to climb at a steady rate.

If you missed that post see 2012 Advertising Rates which shares my 2011 traffic stats.

Would you like to get that same kind of free targeted traffic to your site?

I'm sure you would! So follow along - I'm going to outline exactly what I do, what Idon't do, and how you can duplicate my results for yourself. 

If you looked at my stats, then you can tell my site obviously wasn't affected by theGoogle Panda update. Click that link and read that article (again, if you already have) as it gives you a basic blueprint for post-panda site success.

How To Achieve Massive Traffic Growth

First, let's talk about what I didn't do last year to get well over half a million unique visitors (666,014) to this blog alone - not including any of my other properties.

I did not do any major article marketing, outsourcing or link building.

I also did zero PPC campaigns or paid advertising.

Those are all good marketing strategies to consider, especially when your site or blog is newer and you're just starting out. I'm simply pointing out that I did not actively engage in any of those things during 2011 myself...

How I DID Get So Much FREE Targeted Traffic

It's important to note that as of March 2012, I have been blogging for 6 full years on this domain. Prior to that it was on blogger, so I've been blogging consistently for almost 8 years now.

This affects traffic in two ways: 1) the search engines consider you an authority on your topic and/or your domain gets well established in the major search engines, and 2) you build up a readership, a mailing list and a loyal following over time.

Success is not going to happen overnight, no matter what those big red headlines promised you. Be ready to invest in your online business long-term.

Here are the specific things I did to increase my traffic dramatically:

• Blog Consistently
• Proper Web Page Optimization for every page/post
• Some Guest Blogging - when I had time 
• Creating Solid Content That Gets Shared
• Engaging With My Readers
• Active on Social Media Channels
• Add Social Media Share Buttons so readers can share content

Is It Really That Simple? Yes.

I know you probably expected a detailed blueprint giving you a million things to add to your task list. It's really not that complicated. The key to getting free targeted traffic to your site is really as simple as this:

Write great content. Address your market's needs & wants (via keywords & responses). ENGAGE with them. Make it easy for your readers to share your content (for you!). And be consistent until your readership is solid and your site/blog is well established in the search engines.

That pretty much sums it up...

These are the same marketing strategies I am using on my two newer blogs (my video blog and my low carb blog) to get free targeted traffic, including the strategies I listed earlier that I didn't actively do for ClickNewz last year.

I hope that proves inspiring and helpful. 

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How to Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website

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   Publish articles around your keywords on as many sites as possible. There are quite a few article sites that have articles you can use or edit for your needs. Then there are article submitters that will place your article on a bunch of sites at once for you.
   Ad
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   Consider starting a 'webzine'. There are also webzines,(online-magazines), that specialize in articles, and have large memberships that will possibly read your article and hopefully follow a link to your site that you place with the article. Using this method causes links to your site from the sites you've put it on and results in more traffic.
   • Be wary of content farms. Google search is not nice to them.
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   Another great way to get traffic is to join the social sites. They are popping up at an ever-increasing rate. By socializing with others on the net through these sites, everything you join or participate in gives you more people to see your site. And, if you're selling stuff from your site, you'll want to go to the places (interest groups) on the social site where people are interested in what you're selling.
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   Distribute an E-book all over the Internet with your links in it. These can be made quite easily with software you can get by searching on Google or by checking at the bottom of this article for a link. These can also be put on social sites and webzines for them. Again, wherever you put them causes a link back to your site.
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   Set up a blog. These are a very good method for getting traffic to your site and they are free. You can start one at one of many free blog sites. Then you set up a feed for content and then go to other blogs with the same topics or fields of interests and read and comment on their articles. As well a lot allow you to post your article which gives you more traffic.
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   Have a Press Release. There are sites that will send a news type story about your new product or info on your site to a lot of other sites. Some of these are pay sites though, so you have to watch out.
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   Use Google. Google Adwords is the most popular method for traffic. Since they are the top search engine right now it make sense to advertise there if you can afford it. You bid on keywords to get your site at the top of the search when your keyword comes up. There is more involved but it's all laid out at Google. There are a lot of other sites that use this advertising strategy called pay per click or PPC.
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   Submit your site to search engines. Another popular way of getting traffic is with a search engine submitter, where a site will send your link to many search engines at once for a price. The more search engines you want to be on, the higher the price. There are a few free programs you can use but they usually don't submit to too many at once.
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   Buy leads from a lead selling site. These are supposed to be email addresses of people that have signed up to receive offers. You just have to watch that they have good fresh "double opting" leads of people who requested more information about your particular field or you could be marked as a spammer. Some of these sites will email them for you with your own email or you can buy separate leads and use a separate email site for the mailing. There are email programs you can use but then you have a problem that Internet providers usually only allow up to 500 emails per day, and if you're doing it every day they might (rightfully) accuse you of spamming and shut down your connection.
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How to attract new and repeat visitors to your blog

logging is an essential part of a business platform, especially for a writer, because it showcases your work and is an essential part of the branding and marketing process. The problem that writers run into is how to create a blog that consistently attracts readers—both new and repeat. The key is to learn what makes a blog successful, so you can put it to work for your writing business.

Characteristics of a Successful Blog

When you have a blog for your writing business, you have taken the first step to building a business and marketing platform to display your writing expertise. Maintaining a blog allows you to share your knowledge—either in writing or your topic of expertise. Simply starting a blog, however, is not enough. As successful writers have certain characteristics, successful blogs also possess characteristics.

Purpose or Focus

The first characteristic of a successful blog is it has to have a focus. The focus may be on writing itself, or it may be on a niche for which you write. The primary purpose of your blog is to be able to illustrate your skill in writing on the topic. To identify the purpose of your blog, first identify the audience you are writing to attract.
For example, if you are a fiction writer, your blog could cover various topics that revolve around this genre of writing, including industry news, news about you as a writer, your fiction writing business, tips and advice, how-to articles, and book reviews. If the purpose of the blog is to showcase your personal finance knowledge, then you may cover topics such as mortgages, loans, credit cards, and budgeting. The topic categories may still be the same: industry news, news about you as a writer, your personal finance writing business, tips and advice, how-to articles, and even book reviews.
Consider “blog wrangler” and social media expert Anne-Marie Nichols. She manages two separate blogs: The Write Spot and This Mama Cooks. The reason, of course, is that each of her blogs focuses on a different topic and has different audiences. The Write Spot shares information on writing, promotions for authors and writers, and how-tos on using social media and other marketing tools to promote a writing business. The This Mama Cooks blog still focuses on Anne-Marie’s writing, but from the perspective of a “foodie.” While there is some overlap in her audience, it is best for Anne-Marie to keep the two separate blogs, so each can focus on the respective subjects and audiences.

“Blogging is a platform for opening up conversations...”

A Title with Meaning

Start by giving your blog a meaningful name. While you can certainly weave your name or business name into the title, you can also use the creativity you have as a writer to put some thought into naming your blog. For example, writer Brian Clark named his blog Copyblogger. Tom Chandler named his blogCopywriter Underground, while Anne Wayman’s blog is coined The Golden Pencil.

Regular Updates

Successful blogs have fresh content on an ongoing basis. This means, you have to post to your blog at least two to three times per week. Fresh content is the foundation on which blogs are built, so you have to commit to regularly updating your blog in order to keep visitors constantly coming back for more.

About Section

Your blog should contain a page or block of information about you and your business. The about section of your blog adds credibility because it tells readers why you are the expert sharing the information with them.

Comments

Blogging is a platform for opening up conversations, where you share information; but readers share with comments, feedback, or posing questions. These comments may be in response to your post or allow your audience to start their own conversations—using your blog as the platform. Since comments and feedback are readable by all, other visitors to the site can also join in on the conversation.

Rich Site Summary (RSS) Feed

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary. Essentially, a feed is an online subscription tool. When a reader subscribes to the RSS feed of your blog, they receive an automatic alert when fresh content is posted to the blog. This puts your updates on autopilot, so interested parties know when you have something new to share. RSS feeds tend to get picked up by news websites such as Yahoo! News, which can provide exposure you could never put a price tag on.

Categories

Create categories for your blog posts. Each time you write a blog post, choose the appropriate category or categories. Categories are a necessity because it allows visitors to easily find blog posts that cover topics of interest to them. An organized and easy-to-use blog is a valuable resource.

Archives

Your blog should also archive your old articles, either weekly, monthly, or annually. This helps to make your blog posts available to readers no matter how old the posts are. Archives are also searchable by the search engines, so archiving helps boost your rankings in the search engines, which gets your blog in front of the people who are seeking the information you provide.

Contact

Your contact information should be available on every page of your blog. Typically, the contact information is in a sidebar, header, or footer on the pages. Unless you are Gossip Girl, you want people reading your blog to know whom you are and how they contact you, if and when they need your writing services.

Permalinks

Each blog post receives a permalink of its own, which allows readers to go straight to each individual blog post, even as the posts get pushed down off the front page. Essentially, the permalink creates an individual page for each blog post, so it also helps to get each page of the blog listed in the search engines—ultimately increasing the exposure your blog receives.

Trackbacks

A trackback is another type of notification tool. A trackback sends you a message when another website or blog includes a link to your blog. Trackbacks work in the other direction, too, which is to alert a website owner or blogger when you link to or mention their site on your blog. Again, this helps with the whole linking situation, which can boost you in the search engines.

“When you provide relevant and useful information, you are positioning yourself and your blog as the resource.”

Ways to Attract More Visitors

With more than 100 million blogs to choose from, you really have to work to make your blog stand apart from the rest. While you may share useful and relevant content, if your readers do not see the value in your blog, you will have little chance of reeling them in and keeping them coming back for more. Fortunately, you can take three steps to be proactive about drawing in your crowd.

Become Your Audience

Put aside your writing hat for a moment, and put on the hat of the readers you are trying to reach. If you were sitting on the other side of the desk, what kind of information would you seek from an expert like you? When you provide relevant and useful information, you are positioning yourself and your blog asthe resource.
Consider blogger Susan Johnston and her blog, The Urban Muse. As a writer herself, who knows better about the trials and tribulation of a writer than another writer? From how to get referrals from existing clients to how to write your Twitter bio as a writer and author, The Urban Muse shares articles that pertain specifically to writers. And coming from a fellow writer adds credibility to what Susan shares on the blog.

Stay Engaged

Engagement is a necessity for a successful blog. Not only should you be sharing valuable information with your readers, but you should also commit to responding to comments, questions, and feedback from your readers. If your readers seek information you are not qualified to write on, but is relevant to your blog and your audience, seek out a guest blogger that can compose one or more blog posts to fulfill the need.

Integrate Technology

A blog should not be an island or standalone piece of your marketing and promotion efforts. Integrate your blog with your website. Include a link to your blog on your social media profiles. Invite the people you e-mail to visit your blog by adding a link to your e-mail signature. Use an all-in-one update tool such asHootsuite or Ping to send out alerts when you post a new article to your blog with a link to the blog post. As technology changes, adapt your blog to embrace it.

Contribute to Other Blogs

Find blogs that relate to your own blog. Write blog posts or contribute articles to other relevant blogs to draw readers to your own blog. In the author box or bio portion, typically at the bottom of the article, include information about you as a writer and the topics your blog covers. Include a link back to your own blog.
Thursday Bram shares her knowledge by guest blogging for other blogs. While Thursday maintains her own blog, sharing information that novice and veteran writers can use to boost their writing business, she also spreads her knowledge to other blogs. She has guest blog posts on blogs, including Distracted Enterprise, Giagom, and All Freelance Writing.

Comment on Blog Posts

Proactively go to other blogs that are related to your own blog. Read the blog posts and leave meaningful comments or pose questions. Interacting with other bloggers helps provide exposure for your blog as well. When you leave useful and insightful comments, it intrigues people enough to go over and check out your blog.

Offline Marketing

You should find ways to promote your blog offline as well as online. Add your blog address to your business cards and other marketing materials. Speak at meetings and other places on your area of expertise, and talk about your blog. When someone asks you a question, hand over the link to your blog, where an article sits on the topic or a post holds an answer to their question.

“Each blog post should contain one or two links where appropriate. The links should link keywords or phrases to areas on your website or blog...”

Anatomy of a Blog Post

After you get your blog up and running, you have to continue to deliver what you promise with the quality of your blog posts. Since the information you share is so important, you should learn the anatomy of a blog post.

Posts with a Purpose

Each post you write should have a purpose or focus. When you decide to write a blog post, keep the focus of the post in mind as you write it—from beginning to end.

A Title with Meaning

The title of your blog post should contain a headline that makes the reader want to read more. Make sure the headline is meaningful enough to provide a glimpse of what the post is about. Use your creativity to give it a name that truly shines. If your headline or title doesn’t rock, it may prohibit it from being read no matter how great the information it contains.

Links

Each blog post should contain one or two links where appropriate. The links should link keywords or phrases to areas on your website or blog, where readers can obtain additional information or to outside sources to obtain information or buy a related product or service. Links are valuable because search engines love links, so it can boost the search engine rankings of your blog. In addition, linking to products and services can help you to boost sales, and your readers to continue to see you as a valuable source for what they need.

Visuals

As a writer, you already have a love affair with words, but you are not the only one who loves words. Search engines and readers love words, but do not like to be overwhelmed with too many words. Break up the writing in your blog posts by using visuals where appropriate. Visuals may be a picture, photograph, chart, graph, or video. Visuals add meaning to your words and resonate with your readers. Websites such as Morgue File and Flickr are sources for pictures you can use free of charge, as long as they are have a Creative Commons license and you credit the photographers.
Blogging is an essential part of a business platform as a writer and part of the branding and marketing process. Now that you know how to create a successful blog and write amazing blog posts, you can hurdle the obstacle of consistently attracting new and repeat readers.

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Content is Only as Good as Its Shareability

Most of us can remember a day when the pinnacle of communication revolved around our beeper and a pay phone. This best effort at mass communication was unfortunately tied down to a newspaper, magazine, TV, radio, billboard, and word-of-mouth. Content shareability and “viral” content was strictly reserved for the global enterprises that could afford TV ads and national billboard campaigns. And even if a brand had a great national campaign, it might take weeks or months to attract the majority of their target segment, and by that time, they’ve most likely progressed to something else. In the 1970s, if a very good friend that lived in a different city had a baby, it may take days or weeks for you to even see a picture of this new bundle of joy. Fast forward to today, we see pictures instantaneously of people on different continents just seconds after a photo is taken, thanks to advances in social media. Let’s venture even further into the past, shall we? “Gold was discovered in California in January 1848, but the gold rush did not really start until an article appeared in the New York Herald on August 19, 1848.” (History House) You catch the drift. Good content begs to be shared, and its success is only as good as its shareability.

It’s no secret that inbound marketing has become exceedingly popular over the past several years. “78% of chief marketing officers think custom content is the future of marketing.” (Hanley-Wood Business Media) What makes this so interesting is that the increase in demand for superior content relies on one factor exclusively; social media. Without social media, content marketing would still be in the dark ages, wondering where it should go after it gets published. Twitter? No. Facebook? No. A blog? No. It would just sit in one spot, hoping someone might talk about it. Although, even if they did talk about it, that brand would never have any way of ever knowing. Physical conversation is immeasurable (and should stay that way). Content marketing relies directly on social media. Why? Shareability.

Shareability is the driving force for all content creators and inbound marketing strategies. “B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not blog.” (Social Media B2B) Most, if not all, of the readers visiting these blogs didn’t just happen to stumble upon them (unless they were using StumbleUpon). More than likely, readers found the content posted by a trusted friend or follower on a social site, with a link to the blog, which they then converted to. And this behavior is ubiquitous across B2B and B2C platforms. “82% of consumers like reading content from brands when it’s relevant.” (The CMA) People like good content and more importantly, people like to share good content.

So you probably already knew that people like to share good content, but it’s important to understand why they share it. According to psychologists, Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius, every individual has two psychological selves. The first self is the “now” self and the second self is the “possible” self. Assuming these two ideas are clear by definition, we’ll move on. “The illusion of our ‘possible self’ is the main motivation when it comes to sharing online, and it is this narcissism that marketers should attempt to appeal to in order to gain traction with creative campaigns.” (Business2Community) The beauty in people sharing your content is once they share it, they feel an emotional ownership and loyalty to that content, because it has helped enhance others’ illusion of their “possible” self. Their loyalty to a brand’s content generally mirrors their loyalty to that brand. This is the foundational idea that inspires CMO’s to be forward thinking in their content strategy.

Because people have an innate desire to engage, share, and take ownership of a brand’s content, it is imperative to understand the influence that content is having on the user to, not only, engage in the content and recycle it on social media, but to ultimately convert to your brand, and influence others to convert to your brand. Across the board, in all industries of all shapes and sizes, the goal for C-level executives is to define how marketing efforts drive conversions and a return on investment back to the brand. When it comes to defining the value of content marketing and shareability as it relates to conversions for the brand, sign up for SocialRest, a tool that is able to monitor how users engage with your content on social media, how they influence others to engage in the content on social, then track a user’s behavior as they move from your social sites to your website or blog, and ultimately define how a user converted to your brand because of the shared content. This ties the entire package together, from content creation to exact measurement of success.

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10 Ways to Generate Traffic to Your Site for Free

Most businesses now count on a web presence as a big part of their marketing campaign. Whether it is a small start-up or a major corporation, Internet marketing is absolutely necessary for businesses that want to reach the biggest audience. Luckily for those just starting out, there are a number of ways to drive traffic to your website for free. Here are ten free ways to get people to your site.

1. Social Media

One of the best free ways to start getting clicks on your webpage is by starting with your friends and family. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have become one of the best free ways to reach people you already know and to broaden your audience with people that you do not. Every time you put a link on Facebook or Twitter there is a chance someone will click on it from your network and then pass it along to a friend and so on. You can even try to get your link on the page of a competitor or a celebrity that can broadcast it to a larger audience.

2. Writing a Guest Blog

Many sites will allow you to write blogs for their site in exchange for putting a backlink to your page. This can be a great way to generate focused traffic, as the people on that click on your link will have already shown some interest in the topic. Try to find a blog in your niche that welcomes guest bloggers and then write something interesting for them. You can reach out to them via email. You should write the email and don't copy and paste your outreach emails to these prospecting clients.

3. Participate in Forums

Another great free way to get your website some traffic is by participating in forums that relate to your website, product or service. If you are promoting your sports blog then you could participate in sports related forums. You shouldn’t just keep putting your link on the forum, however, as it will make you look like spam. Instead, makeinteresting comments and participate in debates and then use a link to your site im your signature. This is an effective way to get your link in front of people that are interested in the topic, which will send more focused, qualified customers to your site.

4. Comment on Blogs

This is similar to #3, as you will essentially be trying to get your name or website in front of people that are already interested in the topic. If you know of a blog that is in your niche you should go there and make some comments. They might ask you to write a guest blog for their site, but even if they don’t you will at least be getting your name in front of the people that read the blog. You can try commenting on several blogs in your niche, which will increase the chances that you get some traffic.

5. Write an Article

Another free way to get traffic to your site it by writing an article about a related topic and then linking your page to it. You should try to write an article that has some helpful information that people are actually searching for. You should do some keyword research in your niche and try to come up with article subjects and titles that are related to popular searches. “How to” articles and “Top 10” type articles are always popular and could generate a lot of free traffic for your site.

6. Interview Someone in Your Field

This is probably best for bloggers and websites that already get some traffic, but an interview with someone in your niche or field could generate a lot of free traffic. This is because you will not only get traffic from people searching for the topic, but also people that are searching for the person you interviewed. If you are lucky enough to interview someone that is famous then this can be a huge boost to your traffic.

7. Make a Video

People are increasingly turning to video over text. To take advantage you can make a “How to” video or tutorial about your topic. Just be sure to make it interesting or informative and to put your link in the description as well as in the video. The other main key about video that YouTube is the #2 search engine, therefore, you be able to searched via Google search and YT search. Youtube is also a good source to drive mobile traffic to your site.

8. Do a Podcast

Podcasts are extremely popular. You can make one that deals with your specific topic or niche. You can mention your website many times during the podcast, which will help generate free traffic for your site. Many individuals interview people in their niche that give tips or advice to their community. For instance, if your site is about french food try to outreach to the top french cooks in the country. 

9. Use Proper SEO

This could be an entire article unto itself. The best way to get the most out of search engine optimization is by hiring a qualified SEO consultant. They will know the latest ways to help get your site to the top of search engines. A good rule of thumbs in SEO is that content is king. If you generate good content on a consistent basis you will increase the links and audience of your site.

10. Keep at it

You should not expect to see results in the first day or even the first month. If you keep plugging away and use a variety of these free techniques, you can drive traffic to your site without spending a dime. The hardest part about this expression is it takes a lot of work. Nothing comes easy, and those who spend the time and put in the work will generate results. 

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7 Tips for Driving Targeted Traffic With Twitter

Social media has many uses—from making contacts to performing customer service—but driving quality traffic to your site is Twitter’s secret weapon.  The big question is this: How can we get more of that lovely attention we crave?

As my recent poll shows, generating incoming traffic is the number-one need that people have right now, and for good reason. Traffic translates into:

• Attention, engagement, conversation and recognition
• Spreading your message far and wide
• Prospects and subscriber opt-ins
• Customers, increased sales and leads
• Media and interviews, which lead to more attention

… and last but not least, an ego boost.

In a previous article here I mentioned the many benefits of Twitter for your business. Now here are seven key points you need to know if you want to get more targeted traffic from Twitter:

#1: Know your audience

Growing your traffic always starts with your audience if you want to do it right.Untargeted, uninterested “hits” are a waste of time and resources at worst, and at best just pure vanity.

• What does your audience want and need?
• How do they like it delivered?
• Which topics are on their minds right now?
• Are there trends that are growing in popularity?
• How do these folks speak? What words and phrases do they use?

This means that driving traffic starts with listening and observing. Get to know your target so you can most efficiently engage them.

Twitter has a tool for this. Use search.twitter.com to find what people in your niche are talking about and follow some of their conversations.

Once you get an idea of what people are interested in, join in those conversations and talk to people.

#2: Get the “right” followers

So much rubbish is thrown around about how to grow your follower count that it makes it seem that the number is all that matters. Wrong!

You need people to want to hear what you have to say. This means you do NOT want people who auto-follow because they are either:

1. Robots and not real human beings (e.g., spam software, people trying to inflate their follower count, scrapers)
2. Not actually reading your tweets and just following to allow you to DM them

The followers you most want are those who follow you because they are interested and think they will get value from your tweets. These people are most likely to find you via:

• People retweeting your stuff, either within Twitter or using a TweetMeme button
• Referrals from other Twitter users
• Your blog; for example, your articles that say “Follow me on Twitter at @chrisgarrett and tell me what you think,” or your sidebar Follow Me button
• Other people’s blogs, when you guest post or comment
• Clicking your forum signature when you participate in discussions, or your email signature

Unfortunately Twitter closed off a really nice way that people used to get targeted Twitter followers. It used to be that we could “listen in” to conversations that people we followed were having, but now you have to be following both parties. This means we can’t discover new people that way. If someone puts something before they mention your @name it can still work, and I still occasionally get followers through that.

Essentially the advice is, put your Twitter name where it will be seen and encourage people to share it!

#3: Build engagement

Talk to people.

Engage your followers. Don’t just see them as a passive list of eyeballs! Treat folks as human beings and you will do much better at this stuff. It is called social media for a reason.

• Ask questions
• Hold conversations
• Dip into others’ conversations
• Encourage feedback

#4: Get clicks

So now your followers are seeing you as an interesting person and not a robotic “feed,” which means they are more likely to take notice when you tweet out a link.

Tweet Valuable Links

Whatever you do, don’t just tweet your own stuff. That is both selfish and boring!

Get into the habit of sharing anything cool, regardless of who created it. Retweet good stuff and other people are going to be more willing to retweet yours. Tweet out fun and useful links your friends send you in email or from the news. Be known as a person who tweets good stuff.

Timing

Not everyone is online at the same time. There is a whole world outside of your timezone, plus people have a different schedule than you. You know the feeling of confusion when you land in a foreign country. Not only have you got to adjust to local time, but also people seem to have their meals at a different time of day, shops open and close at strange hours, and business meetings seem to be held randomly. Twitter is like that, you can’t just look at a time zone converter and think people will be at their desk at a certain time.

1. Tweet the same thing a few times, a few hours apart, to give your message several chances to be seen.
2. Vary the times of day you tweet and monitor response.
3. Watch for the peaks and troughs of activity in YOUR stream (not just what works for others).

I tend to aim to catch the peak times for Aussies, the EU/Brits, East Coast USA, and West Coast USA, but it is far from an exact science!

Headlines

There are two main driving factors that affect your chances of getting a click:

1. Your reputation
2. The headline

Hopefully at this point #1 is taken care of, but #2 takes some work.

First of all, use my free download 102 Proven Headline Formulas as a starting point. There are 102 fill-in-the-blank templates which ought to give you a head start on writing a compelling caption.

If you use an interesting title and it matches your audience’s wants and needs, then you are going to get clicks.

Split test

You might not get it right the first time, so try another variation:

• Phrase it as a question
• Make it into a “How To” headline
• Use curiosity versus just the facts

A lot of this is about learning what your audience reacts to best.

#5: Measure performance

When you use a link-shortener with a built-in click-tracker such as bit.ly, you can see how well any of your links perform. This is useful for improving over time and to see which links get picked up virally.  As they say, what you measure you get more of!

With Twitter it’s not just the link clicks that YOU get, but the retweets and shares that really drive the real traffic. TweetMeme and bit.ly can give you vital reporting about how well you do, as well as your Google Analytics.

#6: Do more of what works, but test, test, test

When you find what works for you, do more of that. Keep in mind though that if you only do the same things you will either get the same results and not improve, or you will wear out that technique. Experiment, learn and mix it up.

Trends change, techniques improve, fads go out of fashion. Do not get stuck on rails, move and flow with your audience.

#7: Encourage sharing

Once you have your initial click, your job is not done!

Make sure your article has a TweetMeme button so that anyone who likes what you shared can easily share it too.

If you want to get really fancy, give people an incentive to share, such as a random prize drawing for anyone who tweets your message. Of course, the message will contain a link back to you …

Once in a while it doesn’t hurt to actually ask for retweets. Just don’t overdo it, as you will only annoy your followers. This will make them less responsive, rather than more.

Does it really work?

Here is a case study for you. For the last Social Media Success Summit in 2009, Mike Stelzner and I ran a competition on chrisg.com using all the advice mentioned here in this article.

The competition post was retweeted over 1,000 times

Using TweetMeme we can see that the competition post was retweeted over 1,000 times before it stopped tracking.

Social Media Success Summit 2009 Competition Clicks

Just the cli.gs link alone was clicked 12,753 times.

So yes, it does work.

Bottom line:

• Gather the correct audience
• Be awesome
• Share cool stuff
• Encourage other people to share it too

Does Twitter work to generate traffic for your stuff? Got any tips to share? Anything people do that annoys you? Please share—go ahead and comment below right now! 

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