Five Secrets to Explosive Web Traffic

TECHNOLOGY
DEBRA COHEN

According to the goto.com search engine, in the month of September, 1999, alone, 51,103 people at their site searched using the keyword "free." The related term "free stuff" was typed in by 33,556 visitors. Getting something for nothing is a universal passion and giving something for nothing is one of the best, easiest ways to increase the number of people who visit your site -- potential new customers. The following are several popular ideas that will draw people to your site and keep them returning:

1) Through the magic of javascript, you can have daily quotes, weather and the time around the world in a little box on your site. The beauty of this is that people do not click off your website. They can stay at your site and still see your services and opportunities. Since quotes and weather are very popular search items, consider adding this feature to your site. This is a free service offered by http://www.onyoursite.com

2) The latest craze is to give away e-books from your website. E-books are small books either in exe files or zip files that usually educate people on topics such as press releases, marketing, or even how to compile an e-book. If you are interested in compiling your own e-book, whether about your business, Network Marketing, or your products, www.neosoftware.com may be helpful, and you can search an index page which hosts a number of e-books at www.bizwebsolutions.com/download/downloads.html. If you do write your own e-book, be sure to have it listed at the many websites that have e-book libraries for their visitors. Each person who downloads your e-book will be getting the url to your website within the book and can click to your site while reading it.

3) It is easy to start an online newsletter (also called "ezine") at http://www.listbot.com. Then, list it at the following free directories:

A good resource to use to brainstorm for topics you can list under that catch people's attention is at http://www.goto.com/d/top100/. For example, the word "Jokes" is a very popular search term. "Joke of the Day " newsletter has over 180,000 subscribers. Look at the top 100 popular search terms. Some of the top clickthrough terms are "travel," "health," "recipe," and "web design." Once you have a number of subscribers, you can trade ads with other ezines and/or sell ad space.

4) Free mousepads are a favorite give-away. If you're interested in this possibility, visit: http://www.freemousepads.com. The company will put your url on as many mousepads as you can give to others.

5) Offer a contest customized to your business and have people fill out an entry form. When you receive the entries, you can e-mail those who submitted entries in order to announce the winners. You can list in that e-mail some additional items of interest about your services and opportunities in this e-mail. Don't forget to advertise your contest on sites that list sweepstakes and contests. Do a search on Altavista or Yahoo for "Contests," "Sweepstakes," and "Free Stuff." E-mail the webmaster if there isn't a form to fill out on the site. Take advantage of free publicity for your website that is available to you using press releases and announcements. Check your newspaper and find "Community News," "New Products," "Local Announcements" and other areas that might list your contest information.

Giving something away for free is a powerful traffic generator as well as a way build your visitors' trust in you. Offer something of substance and your customer base, along with their confidence in your services, will increase significantly.

DEBRA COHEN, LCSW is a licensed social worker and an online entrepreneur. Updated free offers are at her website "Win and Earn on the Web" at http://www.freeyellow.com/members7/innerfreedom/. Send for free report "The 10 top freebies on the Net" by e-mail to debrc@ix.netcom.com.

Reprinted with permission from Upline, Technology - January 2000, 888-UPLINE-1, http://www.upline.com

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