Rachel asked:

What is the best method for long term traffic?

This is a simple question with a very long and complicated answer.

But in a nutshell the best way to get long-term traffic is to build a community. Your most important visitors are the ones that keep coming back. They are the ones that will leave comments and give you feedback. They are the ones that will tell you if your website is down or if you had a  misspelling on your website.

Because they keep coming back they are more than just random strangers visiting your site. You end up building a relationship of trust with them and become friends.

It’s your community that will help spread the word about your website and get you traffic.

I’ve received a ton of traffic from stumble upon in the past few months because of my community.

They are the ones who will help you achieve your goal.

If your goal is to sell your product online it will be your return visitors that will buy what you’re selling because they trust you.

If your goal is to raise awareness for a cause it will be your return visitors and the community that you built that will help you spread your message.

This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about in the past few weeks. I’ve even considered writing an e-book about it. It seems that almost everybody has a very short-term perspective on things (including myself). Perhaps what we should be asking is how do I get traffic long-term.

Question

> How do you get traffic to a blog when it is in a difficult “niche” as internet marketing . do you try and use keywords , commenting,or article writting.

Answer

My answers to this relatively simple question has several parts and so I’m dedicating a post to answering this question.

80/20 Rule

There are a lot of websites about Internet marketing. There are tons of them!

But the sad truth is that most of them are crap. They don’t provide valuable information to the reader. They are a glorified sales pages only looking to make a quick buck before you leave the site and never return.

I’m guessing at least 80% of the sites out there in the Internet marketing niche are like this.

The other 20% of sites are just the opposite. They provide valuable information to their visitors, answer their questions, and give visitors a reason to come back.

And here’s the best part: This 20% gets almost all of the traffic!

So if you want to get traffic the first thing you need to do is offer value to your readers and your visitors.

Do that one simple thing and you will be better than 80% of the sites out there.

I covered this topic little bit further here:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/1203_your-biggest-traffic-mistake/

Consider picking a segment

I also suggest you pick a specific sub niche within Internet marketing. For example I picked “How to get traffic” as my sub niche within the Internet marketing realm.

Other sub niches include:

• How to make money with Google adsense
• How to use social media to build your business
• How to use Twitter effectively
• How to write sales copy
• How to build joint ventures

Start with the basics

Once you have a killer website with great content is time to move on to some traffic strategies.

First you want to start with keyword research, search engine optimization, and back link building.

I believe that for the most niches these are the cornerstone of traffic.

I have a post that covers a variety of different ways to get links to your site:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/331_day-5-how-to-create-incoming-links/

Building a list

Building an e-mail list is another great way to interact with visitors and get lots of traffic.

It would be a shame if you worked really hard to get traffic to your website only to how to leave and never return.

Every time I e-mail my list with a link to a new blog post I get lots of traffic.

I also get great ideas on how to improve the content of my site and cater to the needs of my readers.

Use Twitter and other social media

Twitter and stumbled on or also good ways to get traffic to your website. But this only works if you post quality stuff.

Every time I tweet about a new blog post I get traffic within seconds to my blog. Make sure you use this.

Others suggested reading

Submit Your RSS Feeds to RSS Directories
http://nickstraffictricks.com/981_submit-your-rss-feeds-to-rss-directories/

Advanced Article Marketing
http://nickstraffictricks.com/1132_advanced-article-marketing/

5 reasons your website is not getting any traffic
http://nickstraffictricks.com/1064_5-reasons-your-website-is-not-getting-any-traffic/

Do you have a Traffic Question?

Ask me here and I will answer it.

Question

Are keyword rankings the same across all search engines? In other words, if I find a low competition, high search volume for google, will it be the same for yahoo ect too or do i need to research keywords for each search engine and target different pages for each engine?

Answer

This is a tough question and I think it depends a little bit on the keywords.  There are probably cases where they rank pretty much the same in the search engines and there are other times when they don’t.

One of my sites has a collection of famous quotes (http://www.myfamousquotes.com) and gets 15 times as many visitors from Yahoo as it does from Google.

I have a different site that is just the reverse; it gets 20 times as much traffic from Google as anywhere else.

So it kind of depends on the keywords.

But I think if you find a high-volume keyword in Google then it is probably going to be a high-volume keyword in Yahoo.  And if that keyword has low competition in Google then it’s probably has low competition in Yahoo.

My strategy

Personally, when I am searching for high-traffic and low competition keywords, I usually just pick one search engine like Google to optimize for.  I would recommend working on ranking high in one search engine and focus on that.

Once you’re ranking high in one search engine then you can look at your traffic stats and see if you’re getting traffic from other search engines.

It would be a waste to divide your time trying to rank high in two search engines and end up not ranking very well in either one.

Do you have a Traffic Question?

Ask me here and I will answer it.

Question

Hi Nick, I have 200 unique visitors a day. I want to know how could I convert my visitors to buyers. There seems to be a ingredient that I have been missing. rgds Jasmine

Answer

This is a good question and I know a lot of people struggle with this.

You really need to do two things to increase your conversions.

Targeted traffic

The first thing you need to do is make sure that you’re getting targeted traffic to your website.

You want to get people who are interested in your particular product and are also ready to buy.  These are the kind of people that convert.

So make sure you get traffic from targeted sources.

For example if I am selling something related to dogs, then a good place for me to get traffic from would be dog forums and blogs about dogs.

Getting traffic from websites that had nothing to do with dogs would be a waste of my time.

I have a post that talks about how to get targeted traffic:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/1005_how-to-use-the-right-trigger-words-for-targeted-traffic/

Convert visitors into buyers

Once you have targeted traffic to your site you need to make it easy for your visitors to become buyers.

Here are a few ways to help visitors become buyers:

• Have a really good headline at the top of your page that makes it crystal clear what you are offering
• Have testimonials from other buyers
• Don’t have any links or distractions on your sales page.  You worked hard to get the visitor there and you don’t want that person leaving without buying.
• Have some sort of moneyback guarantee
• Make the order button impossible to miss.  I have a quick video that shows an example of an effective order button:
  http://nickstraffictricks.com/1197_video-highly-optimized-buy-now-button/

These are things that would help pretty much any sales page improve its conversion rate.

I would be happy to offer more specific advice if I only knew what your website was.

Do you have a Traffic Question?

Ask me here and I will answer it.

Question

I would like to know how to rank good for competitive keywords easily… is there some kind of a shortcut?

Answer

The simple answer is that there is no easy shortcut that you can take.

If there was a shortcut I imagine everyone would take it.

With that said, there are several things you can do to rank for competitive keyword and not everyone does them.

The first thing you need to do is make sure your site is optimized for the search engine.  I have a basic guide to search engine optimization which you can read here:
http://www.nickstraffictricks.com/search-engine-optimization-and-keywords/

Once you’ve optimized your website for the search engines you need to make sure you get enough links pointing to your website from different sites on the Internet.  I have a guide to getting links which you can read here:
http://www.nickstraffictricks.com/day-5-how-to-create-incoming-links/

Also consider using RSS and social marketing to get traffic.  Doing this will also help you get more links and ranked higher in the search engines.  I made a video for another reader covering this topic:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/1226_question-box-how-do-i-get-traffic-with-rss-and-social-marketing/

I hope that helps.

If you have any more questions I would be happy to answer them.

Do you have a Traffic Question?

Ask me here and I will answer it.

Question

My Google ranking usually good, but how do I do search engine optimization MSN and Yahoo?

Answer

The things that make you rank high in Google will also help you rank high in other search engines.

So if you rank high in Google you should be ranking high in other search engines.

One thing to note is that Google crawls and indexes more pages than other search engines. So if you have built lots of links from other websites it is possible that Google crawled those other websites and found those links that point to you, but the other search engines have not crawled those websites that have links to you.

So you want to make sure that the other search engines have crawled sites that link to you. Does this make sense?

You should also consider using some sort of stat tracking software. This will help you to know how much traffic you’re getting from different search engines.

I recommend using Google analytics because it’s free and does great job, but you can use whatever you would like.

I would also recommend reading the following article:
The Top 16 SEO Tips From A Yahoo Insider

Do you have a Traffic Question?

Ask me here and I will answer it.

How can you write so much?

Writing is a skill it takes time and patience and effort to develop. And the more you do it the easier it becomes.

Your ability to write is just like a muscle. When you first start out you feel weak and flabby. But the more you work that muscle the easier it becomes.

If you have never written anything outside of a school assignment then you’re writing muscle is going to be very weak.

So use it or lose it.

There are a couple things that I have discovered that also help with the writing process.

Use voice recognition software

I use Dragon Speak voice dictation software. I think I paid $50 for a couple years ago on Amazon. It allows me to type at between 40 and 70 words a minute, depending on the content.

Learn more

The more you know about a subject the easier it will be to write about some aspect of it. If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas then perhaps you need to learn more about the subject.

Keep notes

When I come across some good idea I write it down. Sometimes I have great ideas when I’m in the shower and sometimes I come across great ideas when reading other people’s blogs. When I sit down to write an article I look through my notes.

Bookmark stuff

In addition to keeping notes I like to bookmark anything that has interesting information about a particular subject.

I have hundreds of bookmarks on all sorts of topics and this makes it easy to find information I need when I’m writing.

Unfortunately in the past when my computer died, my bookmarks were gone.

I have since discovered by bookmarking utility for Firefox that essentially backs up my bookmarks and allows me to access them on any computer I want.

You can get that utility here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2410

How can I FINISH what I start? I always get distracted by some new idea

This is certainly a problem for a lot of people.

It seems that there is always something new that looks interesting and demands our attention.

Unfortunately this causes us to drop what were doing to go chase after this new shiny thing. This leaves you with many projects that you started and very few that are finished. And it’s usually the finished projects that will make you the most money.

So in effect you are sabotaging your own success by never completing anything.

In the end you need to have a little discipline and finish what you start.

Here are a couple things that can help you:

Avoid distractions

Identify the things that you do and the places that you go that are the most distracting.

For me, checking my e-mail every five minutes and reading about some new thing was a huge distraction from my current projects.

So my solution was to unsubscribe to over 20 e-mail lists that were constantly sending me information on new projects I could start. My other solution was to only check my e-mail a couple times a day.

I was surprised by the amount of time this freed up for me to complete current projects.

These same rules apply to reading forums. While there are a great place to learn new ideas and share information with people, they can be a massive distraction and prevent you from completing things.

Pick projects wisely

If you quickly lose enthusiasm for a project then perhaps you should spend more time deciding what project you’re going to do before you dive in.

Ask yourself if you believe you’re really willing to complete this project and if it’s really going to give you results that you desire.

Photo by -bast-.

Anyone still use any mass traffic generators?

Google and other search engines are getting better at detecting how long the average visitor stays at a site and incorporates this into their rankings.  

Obviously the longer people stay at a site the better.

Pages that are created by automated programs are not very “sticky” meaning they do not entice your visitors to stay, look around, and visit more pages on the site.

Automated web page generators, like Traffic Equalizer, were all the rage a few years back.  

Now they’re old hat and may actually hurt your site’s overall ranking.

Instead, focus on giving your visitors the best info available!

Photo by -bast-.

I recently came across a question that I have seen many times before.  

The question goes something like:

I have a blog that ranks high in Google for some keyword and how do I monetize (make money from) my blog.

My answer to this question is not a simple answer but rather a list questions.

How much traffic does you site get?  

Just because your site ranks high for a given keyword doesn’t mean it’s getting loads of traffic.

I currently rank #1 in Google for “Biggest Absolute Failure” but I get almost no traffic from it.

Get some analytics going.  

Analytics will tell you what keywords you are getting traffic for and what sites are sending you traffic.  

It will also tell you what pages get the most traffic, how long people stay, etc.

Read more on Tracking Website Visitors

Knowing everything you can about visitors will help you make better decisions about how to monetize your site.

Build an email list.

Not too long ago I wrote about the benefits of Building an Email List to get traffic.  The same rules apply to making money on your site.

Throw some AdSense on there.  

AdSense is a great way to make money everytime someone clicks an ad.

Checkout my post on AdSense Placement:
http://www.nickstraffictricks.com/google-adsense-placement/

Don’t re-invent the wheel:

You should also take a look at sites competing for your keywords and see what they do to monetize their site.

Read more about Don’t re-invent the wheel!

Your thoughts?

What are your thoughts on how to monetize a top ranking site?