Three Ways to Generate Targeted Traffic

Negatives. That is what I forgot in one of my PPC campaigns. The traffic was great; the conversions stunk. Zero. Zippo. I couldn’t figure it out until I loaded the campaign … and didn’t see a single negative keyword. To take an analogy from my high-tech corporate background, it was like trying to sell microprocessors at the farmers market. The visitors to the site were completely untargeted because I had forgotten to load negatives to qualify the traffic.Trying to market your business to the huge mass of internet users (1.5B people and growing daily) is a waste of time and money. Targeted traffic consists of people who have a vested interest in your offer, and as a result are much more likely to pursue your opportunity. Here are a few simple and inexpensive methods to reach your target audience (negative keywords being a topic for another time and another article).

Article Marketing – By writing short, professional and informative articles that relate to your business you can attract people who are interested in what you have to offer. Does it work? I don’t know; you tell me; are you reading this article? I know some professional marketers who have a powerful presence and offer real value through articles. Compared to them, I’m a greenie; but I’m a determined greenie!

There are a number of popular databases like EzineArticles and Amazines that collect and distribute thousands of articles. People can search by topic or keywords on the site and you can set your article up with certain keywords to get more readership. These articles will also show up in major search engine results and at the end of each piece you can write a quick blurb about you and your business with a link directing readers back to your site. But do us all a favor: don’t publish articles that are empty of content and that waste our time in the reading. Make it worth the time to read; share something of value for us to take home.

Blogging – Concise and consistent blogging can be valuable. Your blogs can be very similar to your articles, but your blog is a more personal platform. My favorite bloggers are a bit controversial but very well informed. I learn from them. The key to successful blogging (speaking in a marketing sense) is having something of value to contribute and contributing consistently. Wondering how not to fumble the blogging ball? My favorite how-to-blog site is ProBlogger www.problogger.net

Video Marketing – Browsing statistics show that when it comes to holding a visitor’s attention videos rock the house like a multi-sensory concert. Quite simply, and as sad as it is, people prefer watching a video to reading – hence the huge success of video distribution sites like YouTube and Viddler. Go get a high-def point-and-shoot video camera (no, this isn’t an ad for the Flip camera) and create some fun yet professional videos. Then post them to the video distribution sites. Create a profile that helps viewers know who you are and where to find you. Then send links to your videos through your blog and post them on your social networking sites.

None of this is rocket science. But to be effective you have to commit to doing it well, doing is consistently, and sharing something of value for others.