Affiliate Marketing Plan – How to Increase Traffic to Your Website

One affiliate had shared his concern with the fact that he’s got the site but now he doesn’t know how to create traffic to it. Very common issue with a very simple solution. Below you’ll find ways to not only increase your traffic but also things you should not be doing in efforts to increase traffic. Please keep in mind that not all of the following but a lot can be used to increase your blog traffic as well as website traffic.

Link Exchanges

Exchanging links wtih other sites that relate to you can help increase your traffic as well as backlinks. This is a topic that is discussed to death – does it or does it not help increase traffic. Some will say it does – some will say it doesn’t. I’m here saying that anything like this done in moderation can certainly help improve your rankings, backlinks and traffic. So yeah, it doesn’t hurt to find a few that are in relation to your website and exchange links.

Directory Listings

Some of the best advertising available is directory advertising. I’m not talking about submitting your site to search engines. If you properly build a website – the search engines will find you. The directory listings I’m speaking of are those you pay to be listed in for a set amount of time. This may be yearly, monthly, weekly or some you can find for a lifetime. As long as you find quality directories (not FFAs), this is another great way to get those backlinks. This also is another way to increase your ranks in the search engines.

Web Design

Depending on how you build your sites and whether or not you have control over all of these, there are a few things that should be used throughout your entire site. Title Tags – use your targetted keywords or keyword phrases for the title of your pages and titles of your links. Meta Tags – again, you can use your keywords/keyword phrases here to create a description of every single page. Alt Tags – These are titles for graphics. This helps the search engines “read” your graphics as well as serves purpose for those who have their graphics turned off so they don’t see the dreaded red X.

Website Content

You must have content on your site – and a good deal of it if possible. Search engines love text so therefore, they love content. They also love content that is updated regularly which is exactly why blogs are so popular. Don’t forget to include your keywords/keyword phrases within the content. Another thing to keep in mind here is believe it or not, websites are to be built for human readers first and search engines second. Don’t use your keywords/keyword phrases in such an over abundance that it doesn’t make sense when it’s read. Getting traffic to these pages don’t usually do you any good anyway. You get the traffic but your traffic soon leaves because it looks like something that was written by a child.

Article Writing

Yes, you should write articles and get them submitted into various article directories. You want to include your keywords within your articles and make sure you include a resource box at the bottom that includes a link to your website. Write quality articles and you will become the “person in the know” about your particular topic. You will become seen as an expert in your industry. The links in you resource box serve as both a road to your site for those who want to see more of what you offer as well as a backlink to your website. If you absolutely cannot write articles yourself, then you may want to consider either buying PLR or hiring a ghost writer but get those articles written. Click here for a list of article directories.

Social Networking

Utilized properly, social networking can be a great source of traffic too. When I say used properly, I also mean in moderation.

The main idea of social networking is to become friends with others and network with like-minded individuals. It is not what I like to call “Socializing for Dollars” which is all too common. Participate within the network and offer more than simply a link to your website or a link to your current special. Yes, you want to include these things too but don’t forget to socialize and network and share quality information with other members.

So if you’re using social networking properly then you don’t have the time to be a member of more than just a small handful. Most likely (not always) those who are a member of many, many social networks are either stopping by long enough to drop off a link and/or are not becoming valuable active members. If they are a member of many networks and they are participating properly – how do they find the time to put real work into their businesses? Unless they know of something I don’t and have figured out how to put more than 24 hours into one day – then they’re not. When you are a member of too many sites, one of two things are going to suffer: either your business or your social standings, it’s as simple as that.

Here’s a few tips of what not to do:

Do not buy traffic

I don’t mean PPC – that’s a whole other topic. I’m taking about the ones that can “guarantee 100,000 visitors” for one small investment. Then you’ll even find some who will go so far as guarantee you sales. Baloney! That’s impossible! There is noone who can guarantee you a certain amount of sales. Buying traffic is a scam. You just don’t want to go there.

Do not mess with top sites

What a big waste of that precious commoditiy we all refer to as time. Time is money. When you become involved with top sites you can bet your behind everyone else listed there is doing the same very thing you will be doing. This could be clicking on your own link and/or voting for yourself. Or you could be like some others spamming friends, family members and some even go so far as ask their list members to vote for them. Don’t waste your time on things like this. It’s just not worth it.

You don’t need to submit your website

This is a myth. Google themselves will tell you that submitting your website does not increase your traffic and/or rankings. You build a quality website and you will be found by the search engines. The important search engines will index a quality website.

Don’t get involved with web rings

Did you realize that by joining a web ring, you very well could be sending your traffic away? Web rings are set up so that all members are in the same industry. Essentially, you’re giving direct links to your competitors. You need to be concentrating on keeping the traffic you get, selling your product or service and getting them on your mailing lists – not sending them to a competitive website.

Do not spam your websites

Yep, you sure can spam your own website. If you want a surefire way to being banned from the search engines, then by all means do not heed my warnings. One way this is done is by placing a lot of unrelated keywords or keyword phrases in meta tags. Have you even ‘Googled’ something only to end up on a website that had absolutely nothing to do with what you were searching for? That’s one way. Another is to create what’s called ‘invisible text’. This is text that is so tiny that it could be passed off as a period in a sentence. The invisible text of course are usually unrelated keywords/keyword phrases or just an over abundance of them to “trick” the search engines.

Do not participate in link farms

An example of a link farm is where one page of links is generated. To be listed on this page of links, it is a requirement to place this page on your website. A link farm is a list of links created and maintained with only the purpose of constructing links between members of the link farm sites. Don’t hesitate to research and investigate any questionable link pages.

A common explanation of a lot for doing these things you shouldn’t be doing is “It’s free. It won’t hurt me.”

Well you know I’m going to tell you that no, they’re not free because some are a complete waste of your time. (And say it with me, “Time is Money”) For every moment you’re wasting on these worthless “tactics” or “programs” is one less moment you have to work on the right way to increase your traffic.

You could be burning away expensive bandwidth. Some of these “programs” (and I use that word loosely) are built to yes, send you traffic. But, they’ll send masses of un-targeted traffic in hoards. So, you get a jump in your visitors, which in turn jumps your bandwidth use and you end up with nothing more than a bigger bandwidth bill. I’d rather have 100 targeted visitors than 100,000 un-targeted anyday. (Quality over quantity.)

And lastly, some of these tactics very well could get you banned from the search engines. Ouch – that’d hurt, wouldn’t it? Spend your time wisely working on practical and reliable traffic sources that will bring you traffic many times over. You and your site will thank you later!

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing • Affiliate Marketing Plan

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!