Page Traffic

I don't know how much traffic your site currently gets
but you probably want more. However, there are two
different sorts of traffic: the casual visitor who is not
going to do much, is click/trigger happy and won't hang
around and doesn't come back.

Then there's the keen, genuinely interested, active site
participant. This is the sort of traffic you want to get and keep
because your job is to develop a relationship
with this type of visitor - not a one-night stand.

Why?

Because people who visit your site frequently are going
to be interested in what is on it and this interest will
extend to your AdSense ads - that's what Google
does for you automatically.

Interest = clicks. Clicks = money.

They'll also come back of their own accord and each time
they do, they might see another interesting ad too.


That thinking has helped us define who we want but we now
have two tasks ahead:

1. Getting these people to visit your site the first time.

2. Getting these people engaged in the site so that they
remember it, like it and come back frequently


Let's look at the first of these.

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Getting the first time visitor
******************************

You are going to have to promote your website to people
who you know are likely to be interested in the contents
of your site.

There are 8 standard strategies:

1. Advertise your site offline using postcards, printed
ads, signs on your car etc. BUT GIVE PEOPLE A GOOD
REASON to visit in your ad.

2. Advertise your site online with AdWords and other pay
per click systems such as Overture - but watch you don't
spend more than you earn.

3. Get your site high on search engines (by building
excellent content - that's what they look for).
This is FREE and is the best method although it takes
time for a new site to get noticed. People searching
on a search engine are ACTIVELY looking for stuff
which means they are more likely to become active
visitors, visitors who return and click - if they
like what they find.

4. Promote your site in an ezine about your subject
matter (but make your writing interesting) and send it
to your regular customers or visitors.

5. Enter comments into discussion forums and include a short
link to your site. We did this for FactsAboutAdSense.com
in a brand-marketing forum and started getting visits
almost immediately - for ZERO cost.

6. Use PR techniques to get your site mentioned in the Press.

7. Include your web address in your email signature ALWAYS.
Again, this won't cost you anything but will increase the
visit rate - and it can work very well if you do more than
just put your web address on it - give them a reason to
visit. ("You could get paid by Google. Visit
FactsAboutAdSense.com to learn how" is what I use. It works.)

8. Publish an ebook about your subject and give it away but
include links to your website in it.


******************************
Keeping the relationship going
******************************

How does your site keep people engaged?

You need to give people

a * REASON, and

a * REMINDER,

to * RETURN


How do you do this?

***********
The REASON
***********

Make your site genuinely useful and informative about your
theme, product or service.

************
The REMINDER
************

You can't remind people to visit unless you know who they
are. So you need to get their contact details in return for
permission to keep in touch and an effective way to do this
is to give something away like a tip sheet, a guide, insider
knowledge and so on.

But, again, make sure it is useful and has value.

Now use this contact information to remind people about
your site.

The easiest way to do this is by email, but it is good to
vary the media sometimes and use snail mail too (so make
sure you get address details too.)

If you use email, you are probably going to need to automate
the process, otherwise you'll spend all day at your PC, and
the best way to do this is to use an autoresponder.

What an autoresponder does is send out emails automatically
when it receives new contact details but good ones do much
more than this.

I use one to distribute this AdSense Insider course and
I have programmed it to send out the 5 lessons in the course
automatically in sequence.

Here's some more info about it
http://www.factsaboutadsense.com/autoresponders.htm

Your autoresponder should be easy to use, and provide you
with detailed testing and reporting capabilities as well as,
crucially, a facility that makes it easy for people to opt-
out from your mailing list. You must do this to avoid
being accused of spamming.

This is yet another reason why content is king. Keep
providing information, information, information otherwise
they'll sign off - for good.

************************
Your visitors' behaviour
************************

How do people behave when they visit your site?

First time visitors make an extremely quick judgement about
your site, in fact you typically have just 10 seconds or
so to make a positive impression.

So you have to explain immediately why people should stay.

Don't worry about not catching everyone because you only
want targeted visitors anyway. The low interest types are
not going to help drive up your AdSense revenues.

A great way to do this is to put your number one benefit
statement into the headline on your home page.

Does FactsAboutAdSense.com do this?

You judge.

*******************************
The dreaded Corporate Yawn-fest
*******************************

What doesn't work is a corporate yawn-fest on a web site
that starts off with something like "We've pride ourselves in
providing you, the customer, with excellence in everything
we do..."

Apart from anything else, why would you believe them?

Now IF you get someone to stay on your site, they typically
have a little look round first before delving more deeply
into what you're offering.

Only if they continue to be interested are you likely to
get their attention enough to get their contact details.

And you may well not get them first time, which is why your
site must also give them a reason to return unprompted.

And the reason is

Content - again.

But when they do come back, they'll really have a good look
around and start to engage in the site.

And that is when you'll get the AdSense clicks.

*****************************

It's been quite a long session today and I hope you've taken
it all in. Do check out the Autoresponder info if you
haven't already got one because getting one is essential to
any half-decent web marketing plan.

Tomorrow we are going to look at the format and styles of
AdSense ads - Google offers a surprising degree of control
over ad placement and appearance.