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Introduction

A key aspect of Internet marketing that many Internet marketers overlook is how important traffic is to one’s business. Without traffic coming to your website, you have no chance to make sales.

Yet, many Internet marketers are so focused on their individual product offers, offers they are promoting as affiliates, or joint ventures they are involved in that they forget to put a proper amount of attention on traffic. The old saying, “Build it, and they will come,” does NOT apply to Internet marketing. People aren’t just going to come to your website and your offer because you put it online- you have to get people to come, see it, and consider it. This is the traffic part of the equation, and that’s what this ebook will focus on.

In this ebook, you will learn about various methods of free and paid traffic. You will learn the difference between quantity and quality of traffic. You will learn about the importance of quality content and the power of search engine optimization (SEO), viral marketing, and social media marketing. You will also learn about how Google Analytics can help you learn more about the traffic that is coming to your site.
There are many avenues of traffic on the World Wide Web, and there are potentially billions of people out there that you can reach from all across the world. If you know how to tap into quality traffic and can convince them that your offer is worthwhile, you have the chance to have a very profitable online business.

Zero Traffic Equals Zero Sales

Many Internet marketers, whether they are promoting their own products or offers of others as an affiliate, overlook the fact that traffic is essential to getting sales. If you have no traffic to your own product page or the page of an offer you are an affiliate of, you will get NO sales. In other words, you will make NO money from your affiliate marketing efforts. Therefore, it is important to not forget the traffic.

Note that not all traffic is equal. One may think that getting a high amount of traffic to an offer is better than getting a low amount of traffic to the same offer, but if the lower amount of traffic is more highly targeted (i.e. matches up better with the offer you are promoting), you are likelier to make more affiliate sales with the lower amount of traffic than with the higher amount of traffic.

With any Internet marketing, including affiliate marketing, the offer you promote must match up well with your target audience or market- if it doesn’t, no matter how great the offer is and how many people you send to it, you’ll make fewer or even no sales. Therefore, it’s important to keep in mind the product offer you are promoting, the target market for that offer, and getting members of that target market to see the offer.

Therefore, it is key to getting high-quality traffic to your website or affiliate promotion so that you have a chance to make sales. Then, of course, it will depend on whether that traffic is really interested in your offer or not, your sales copy, and good follow-up email marketing to turn that traffic into sales.

Fortunately, there are several ways to get quality traffic to your site, both free and paid types. We will explore many free and paid traffic strategies in the next chapter.

Free Traffic Vs Paid Traffic

There are many ways to get traffic to your website. Some of them are free methods, others are paid methods. Generally, paid ways of getting traffic will get results (i.e. traffic and turning traffic into sales) faster than free ways of getting traffic, but paid ways can get costly, especially if you are inexperienced in the paid traffic method or are involved in a method with more experienced and better-financed competitors (such as pay-per-click ads on Google, etc.).

Many Internet marketers will often start out with free ways of getting traffic and build their businesses up over time, then utilizing paid methods to help boost the traffic they get to their sites and increase the number of sales they get over a shorter period of time, especially when they discover they have a popular offer that people want.

Thus, it makes sense to use both ways of getting traffic - free and paid – to build and grow your business. We will address more on how you should get started in the following chapters. For now, let’s go over a number of traffic methods to give you an overview of several of the options you have to get quality traffic to your site. (Note that this list is not exhaustive- there are even more methods you can consider and use, but we will attempt to provide the most effective and popular ones here).

On-Site/Off-Site Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is where you modify your site according to the search engine’s preferred algorithms to rank highly in their search results. There are both on-site and off-site free methods you can use to help boost your site’s rankings in the search engines.

On-site SEO involves putting quality content that your target market is looking for on your site, using a good combination of keywords in your meta tags (part of the HTML code that makes up your site), making sure none of the pages of your site have broken links or displaying incorrectly, ensuring your pages display correctly on mobile devices, and not putting large pop-up windows over the content of your site.
Off-site SEO involves ways to help your site rise in the search engine rankings away from your site. This includes getting follow-back links on high-ranking and high-quality websites, especially those that are pertinent in your industry. Off-site SEO also includes the following methods.

Guest Post Blogging

Guest post blogging involves you being a guest poster on another person’s blog. Usually, you will be invited to do a guest post on a blog that is either in the same or complementary industry as your site. For instance, if you are into social media marketing and the guest site is into SEO, the owner of that site may ask you to write a guest post on how social media can influence off-site SEO and help a site rank higher in the search engines.

In fact, this is how guest post blogging can help you to gain more traffic to your site. When people of a prominent site see your post and your signature link (i.e. a small section at the end of the article that tells about you, your experience, and your business with a link back to your site), they will likely click over to your site to see what you are all about, especially if they liked your post. They’ll figure that if you provided great information for free on a guest blog, what information do you provide for free on your own and in paid products.

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Introduction

If you have been around for any length of time online, you have probably heard the phrase, “the money is in the list.” This refers to the idea that the key to profitability with email marketing is having your own subscriber list that buys from you. With your own list, you can email to them regularly and have them purchase your offers, whether they are your own products or products you are an affiliate of.

Of course, having success with email marketing involves more than just emailing your list repeatedly with offers- in fact, that’s a good way to get them to unsubscribe from your list and possibly even file complaints with your Internet service provider (ISP), which can lead to greater restrictions on your ability to email your list.

Thus, there are certain rules and guidelines you should follow if you plan on being successful with email marketing. Done properly, email marketing can be a very lucrative marketing vehicle for your business, your brand, and your reputation. This ebook will show you the proper way to begin building your list, forming a relationship with them, and getting them to trust you so that they will be likelier to purchase products and services you recommend to them. It will also show you what you should avoid so that you don’t damage your reputation with them and make them want to leave your list and even complain to your ISP.

Begin With The End In Mind

A key mistake many beginner and intermediate Internet marketers make when they dive into email marketing is that they go in with the wrong mindset. The mindset many of them will go in with is, “I’ll email my list repeatedly and make plenty of sales.” It’s likely they have subscribed to some email marketers’ lists who spread this way of thinking in order for their subscribers to purchase from them.

Truth be told, if you go into email marketing with the mindset that you can repeatedly email your list numerous times over the course of a few days or even hours, you are essentially dooming yourself to failure in email marketing before you even start. Despite what you may have heard or even seen from some Internet marketers, repeatedly emailing your list the same offers over and over again is only going to lead to them NOT buying from you, unsubscribing from your list, and even potentially reporting you to your ISP for harassment and abuse of email. That will certainly damage your business, brand, and reputation, and it will not be easy to recover from such damage, if it’s even possible. Thus, it’s best you NEVER have that mindset to begin with.

The mindset you should have when it comes to email marketing is not the profitability you can gain from it, but rather the value you can bring to your subscribers. This includes the ability to know them and help them wherever possible.

A popular word that is being spread in the business world today is “engagement.” Engagement is the connection you make with your subscribers and customers, showing that you understand them and providing them with what they need and want to buy. Engagement is a big key to being successful with email marketing because your subscribers have to learn more about who you are, what you stand for, and why they should learn to trust you and your recommendations so that they will purchase from you.

Virtually no one is going to buy from a shady dealer, retailer, or business. This also holds true in online marketing as well. If people can’t learn to trust you because of shady business practices, your email marketing efforts will go for naught, leading to little to no profit and a negative reputation.

This is why your mindset from the very beginning of your email marketing career has to be what you can do for your subscribers and customers, NOT how much profit you can get from them and relentlessly emailing them in order to obtain that profit. Have the right mindset from the beginning, and you can certainly earn a great deal from email marketing in the long term, not to mention create a positive reputation for your brand, your business, and yourself.

Choose Your Autoresponder Service

An autoresponder is a type of computer program that automatically answers emails that are sent to it. Internet marketers will use these to send out pre-set email messages when an Internet user inputs their contact information, including their email address, into an opt-in form on the marketer’s website. When the user does this, he/she will get pre-set email messages welcoming the user to the marketer’s opt-in list, providing a link to a free gift or an attached file of the gift itself, and information on what the user can expect to receive from the marketer in terms of future email messages sent to the user’s email address.
You can see why an autoresponder is so important to an email marketer. If the marketer had to manually contact every person who signs up for his/her list, the marketer would have to be at his/her computer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, just to ensure he/she sent out welcome messages and gifts to every user who opted onto his/her list. Obviously, the marketer would not get anything else done, and his/her business would fail.

As for getting an autoresponder, there are two ways to accomplish this. The first way is to host the autoresponder on one’s own server and use his/her Web hosting provider to send the messages. This is often done via a WordPress plugin or some other software program or script that allows you to run your own autoresponder on your own Web hosting server.

This method can be done, but it’s not always easy to install the plugin or script needed to make it run correctly. Thus, only those who are versed in installing scripts and/or plugins should even consider this option.

Even if you can correctly install the script or plugin onto your server, this is often not the best way to have your own autoresponder, as there are pitfalls with this method. One pitfall is that if you send out too many emails at one time, your Web hosting provider may throttle your loading page speed and may even flag your Web hosting account because you are using too many of their hosting sources to send out the messages. Thus, you can only send out so many emails in a specific period of time, which can be detrimental if you have a large email list and/or gain a large number of subscribers in a short period of time.
The other major pitfall with having your own autoresponder via script or plugin on your own server is that you often can’t do double opt-in confirmation. Double opt-in confirmation essentially means double-checking that your subscriber really wants to be on your list and wasn’t subscribed by accident or without his/her consent- more on this will be discussed in a later chapter.

With these pitfalls, most Internet marketers prefer to sign up to an autoresponder service with the resources to ensure that they can send out multiple messages to multiple subscribers at one time without getting their loading speed throttled or their account flagged. These autoresponder services also enable double opt-ins (in fact, many service now require double opt-ins for compliance with various laws, such as the CAN-SPAM act).

Suffice it to say, having a good autoresponder service is essential to building a responsive email list and being successful at email marketing. Fortunately, there are many quality autoresponder services available for you to choose from. We will go over some of your options below.

AWeber

AWeber was one of the earliest email autoresponder companies, getting its start back in 1998. They serve over 100,000 small businesses and entrepreneurs in their email marketing campaigns. They offer pricing plans from as low as $19 per month for up to 500 email subscribers up to a select price quote for email marketing lists larger than 25,000 subscribers. You can try a 30-day free trial and get all of their features, including unlimited emails, automation, segmentation, and more from day one.

GetResponse

GetResponse was another early email autoresponder company, having been in business for over 15 years. The company serves over 350,000 customers in 21 different languages. They have offices in the US, Canada, Malaysia, Poland, India, and Russia, employing more than 300 professionals.

They have four main plans, beginning with their Email plan that allows for an email marketing list of up to 1,000 subscribers that you can send unlimited emails to for $15 per month. Their highest plan is their Enterprise plan that allows for an email marketing list of over 10,000-100,000+ subscribers that you can send unlimited emails to beginning at $999 per month. If you pay upfront for 12 months, you can save 15% off of the monthly rate; if you pay upfront for 36 months, you can save 30% off of the monthly rate. You can also sign up for a 1-month trial to give them a test drive to find out if GetResponse is your best choice.

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Introduction

Do you want to make money in the world of profitable blogging? Are you itching to become one of those 6-figure bloggers that you’ve heard so much about?

If so, you’ll want to read every single word in this special report because I’m going to show you exactly how you can join the ranks of those who have cultivated a following of regular buyers through a network of highly-targeted blogs.

I’ve eliminated the clutter and time-consuming work-around so that I can take you deep into the heart of successful blogging without overcomplicating the process, or forcing you through a long, drawn out learning curve.

Because the truth is; it doesn’t have to be so complicated. Making money with carefully crafted niche blogs isn’t all that difficult to do. In fact, if you are looking for a fast and easy way to set up shop so Six Figure Blogging: Special Report that you can start to make money online without a great investment, blogging is the way to go.

Creating high-quality blogs in your niche or industry that generate traffic, and provide valuable content and information to your market is also one of the most effective methods of building a presence of authority and establishing yourself within your industry so incredible profit margins aside; blogging puts you in a great position within your market.

And guess what? The best part about this strategy is that it’s also exceptionally easy to do and is very cost effective. It doesn’t cost a lot of money to set up a blog. In fact, the majority of work will involve your time – not your dollars.

So, without further delay – let’s jump right in!

The Truth About Blogging

Here’s the truth about 6-figure blogging: While blogging can be automated (eventually), you shouldn’t expect income to be passive from the get-go. You’ll have to work at it, especially when you are launching your blog and building a platform that you want to be recognized in your market.

When I first started blogging I was spending 30-50 hours a month creating content, converting visitors into email subscribers, and selling products and services (none of which I created myself – I focused entirely on affiliate marketing. More on that later).

While I eventually outsourced most of my content to skilled writers, I still spend time evaluating advertising options, reviewing products that I can promote, building my mailing list and creating ad campaigns to boost traffic and keep my blogs in the forefront.

While you can delegate many tasks to a team, such as content creation and even marketing, you will want to be directly involved in the initial building phase. This is your brand, after all. You need to make sure every piece of content has your voice, carries your message and represents your business in the best possible way.

No one will ever be as careful and professional with building your blog as you will be, right? So, dig your heels in and commit to spending the first few months building your blog from the ground floor up. Then, and only then, should you begin to create a team that will help you manage your blog and eventually, expand into other avenues with other nichebased blogs (if you choose to do that).

Again, in no way is blogging a hands-free method of making money during the INITIAL stages. You must be prepared to put in some time and effort if you truly want to succeed.

But the good news? Your hard work will pay off.

The 5-Step Formula

While there are countless reports and articles that overcomplicated the process of making money with blogging, here’s a basic overview of how it’s done:

1: Create a blog and register a memorable domain. Avoid remotely hosted options. You need to be in full control of your website so you can take advantage of all the different revenue options with no limitations (or other people’s advertisements).

2: Write (or outsource) killer content that will generate traffic and drive visitors in. This content needs to be extremely high-quality, targeted and informative. All meat, no veggies.

3: Convert your visitors into email subscribers so you can build your list. A newsletter is key in building a successful blog online. Scratch that; a newsletter is essential to be successful in nearly ANY market online. You will never make as much money without one.

4: Communicate with those subscribers regularly so your lists don’t run cold. Build rapport and trust. Nurture relationships with your market. This is where you can build a recognized brand as an authority in your market and set yourself apart from the competition (especially those bloggers who aren’t doing this!).

5: Sell products and services to your audience via your blog and through your newly cultivated newsletter.

Sounds easy enough, right? It is. But it will take time. Let’s dig into each of these steps a bit deeper so you better understand how it works.

CREATING YOUR BLOG

This report is focused on how to make money with your blog, so I won’t go into detail about building the platform. Just know that you should always choose a memorable domain that is targeted to your market and that you set up a professional hosting account that houses your blog. Don’t use a free host or a remotely hosted option like Blogger.

CREATING CONTENT FOR YOUR BLOG

The type of content you create will depend on your target audience, but every piece of content should always be informative and the juiciest, most relevant topic you can come up with.

Your content will be what drives in traffic and keeps visitors returning to your blog. It needs to establish your blog as an informative source of content in your market so make sure you spend extra time crafting compelling content (or outsource to experienced writers who know your market inside and out).

Insider Tip: An easy way to provide extra value on your website is by using a plugin like www.PostGopher.com that will turn your article content into PDF files that your visitors can save to their computers. This lets them read it at a later time, keeping their attention and increasing your chances that they will digest your content.