Website Promotion&

Traffic Generation

How to let people know you exist and get them to come to

your website!

My Experience and Knowledge On the internet even

before it was public domain!

Several online businesses/websites, of which the two biggest are: LandlordMax.com and FollowSteph.com

3 years & 3 partners – CCE to Symbiotic

Own several hundred domains (Affiliate marketing, Deleted domains, Adsense, co-ventures, etc.)

LandlordMax.com Website Traffic

January February March April May June July

FollowSteph.com Website Traffic

February March April May June July

Resources & Links

All resources and links will be available at:

http://www.LearningCentre.com/webPromotions.html

Goal: to make $$$ on the Internet

1. Get lots of targeted traffic to your site

2. Ensure visitors enjoy your site & find it useful, so they come back & bring their friends.

3. Effectively monetize your traffic without sacrificing goal one or two.

(Concepts: Flowers , Bees , Honey)

The 3 Views

1. Visitors : What do they look for? 2. S.E.O. : Search bots for SERP3. Adsense : Contextual analysis

Adsense View Page content affects

the contextual advertising Keywords

Keywords have wide ranging bid values (BV)

Keywords have wide ranging variations in clicks

S.E.O. (Bot view) Search Bot reads

the site for content and how the content is found used. (T1, H1, link text)

Search Bot reports back its findings to Google to help determine SERP

Visitor View

1. Content Quality & Quantity

2. Flow / Navigation3. Site Aesthetics

Why is the Visitor View Important?

TRAFFIC !!!

Why is Traffic Important?

More traffic = more $$$

How Traffic Affects Revenues Exponential Growth

yourmoney2keep.com40-150% growth/month

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net now makes over $1 million a year!

Why Does Traffic makes more $$$?

In business everything is a multiplier: Product * customer service * sales *

marketing * …

The same is true for websites: SEO * traffic * monetization * …

Traffic Over Time Exponential growth Less time and

energy is needed as traffic increases.

The larger your traffic is the less effort you need to increase it!

How Will Visitors Find You?

SEO = traffic from search engine (search engine optimization) Getting traffic from being found high up in

the search engines results pages (SERP’s) for one or more specific keyword search terms

Most people only look through the first few pages to find what they are looking for

Page rank Link popularity

Why is SEO so Important? Search rank is crucial for traffic

Why is Website Promotion Important?

You need both Multiplier effect Different websites have different traffic

sources

Type of Promotion to Use Determine your website goal to determine

the type of website promotions you will use Free service/product (Easiest to promote!) Blog … Business … Affiliate marketing Spammy Domain parking (hardest to promote!)

Types Of Free Promotions Content Free product, service, ebook, etc. Social Network Sites Linking

In your content Reciprocally One-way links

Commenting News Tips Directories Pinging E-zines

Types Of Paid Promotions Adwords Press Releases Buying domains Buying deleted domains

Quick Test: Which Type of Promotion Works With The Following Websites?

Google.com

CanadianHats.com

Layouts.com

FollowSteph.com

LandlordMax.com

Cnn.com

Reddit.com

ProBlogger.net

PayPal.com

Ebay.com

InfoWorkShop.com

Symbiotic.com

Free Promotional Methods

Free Service/Product - 1 Easiest promotional method

Everyone likes free stuff!!!

Examples: Google.com! Cnn.com SEOChat Internet Explorer (anyone remember

Netscape?) Symbiotic.com

What can YOU Offer for Free? Content!!! Ebooks (Seth Godin) Software (Internet Explorer) Service (Google, LandlordMax Real

Estate Analyzer) Resources (Layouts.com) Etc.

Content!!! Offering FREE VALUABLE content

IS the most effective way to generate traffic

Talking about your dog, cat, the food you ate today, etc. is NOT valuable content

Content

What Makes Good Content? Focused content

Be about something and not about everything

Be an industry leader, an authority on a topic you know well

Talk about things that interest you and others (if it doesn’t interest you it will show in your content)

How Specific Should my Content Be?

Niche Not to specific so you have nothing to

write about (1996 Honda Civic Model LX) Not to broad so that no one knows what

you’re talking about (everything)

You can sometimes (rarely) break these rules successfully (LifeHacker.com)

What Makes Great Content - 1 Talk about a specific topic Great headlines!!!

You generally have 5-7 seconds to interest your reader

Make the text “scanable” bold points of interest

Have an opinion Short content

More than 2 paragraphs, less than 2-3 pages (this rule can be broken)

What Makes Great Content - 2 It’s not about you Connect with your reader emotionally first

then follow with logic Tell stories Corrret speling n’ gramar Use the active voice Help and Tutorials How to’s Lists

Top 10, Best places, 5 Quickest, …

What Makes Great Content - 3 Original content Timeless content (most valuable) Be real Use “power” words Be courteous Interviews with well-known people Use photos Use diagrams, images, things to attract

the eyes

What Makes Great Content - 4 Create your own identity Assume each day some of your

readers are new (don’t leave them behind)

Link to your other posts Point to amazing resources (especially

unknown ones!) Link to great sites for extra information Don’t be boring!

What Makes BAD Content Dear diary entries

Talking about your dog, daily life, etc. Talking about nothing Extraneous usage of overzealous

utterances and discourse Write so everyone can understand what

you’re saying! Use Bait and Switch in your headlines Regurgitate the same content Copy large amounts of content from

others.

How Often Should Content Be Updated?

Often enough so that people still think your alive but not too much so that you overload them

Once a month is too long between posts, you’ll lose they interest and people will stop checking in with you

10 times a day is too many because people won’t bother keeping up and will feel overwhelmed

Quality runs low as it’s hard to keep up this pace Threatens credibility because of the perceived decrease

in quality Test your particular audience

FollowSteph is about every other day but worked fairly well with once a week

Headlines VERY IMPORTANT 5-7 seconds to get attention 8 out of 10 people read the headline

2 out of 10 read the posts! Example

Exact same article posted on Digg.com First submitter: essentially ignored Second submitter: 300 diggs!

Don’t mimic, understand WHY a headline works

What Makes A Good Headline? Offers something useful Provides a sense of urgency A unique useful benefit Is specific Is credible (quantify – 7% of

readers…) Use swipe files for suggestions

Does Your Headline: Offer the reader a benefit for

reading the article? Can you quantify your headline? Is your headline believable? If not,

can you add specifics to quantify it? Does it provide a strong emotional

trigger? Can you make it more intriguing?

Example Headlines That Work The Secret of [blank]

The Secret of Getting Your Home Loan Approved Little Known Ways to [blank]

Little Known Ways to Save on Your Heating Bill Get Rid of [problem] Once and For All

Get Rid of That Carpet Stain Once and For All Here’s a Quick Way to [solve a problem]

Here’s a Quick Way to Backup Your Hard Drive Now You Can Have [something desirable] [great

circumstance] Now You Can Quit Your Job and Make Even More Money

[Do something] like [world-class example] Buy and Sell Real Estate Like Donald Trump

Social Network Sites

What is a Social Network Site? Sites where people share links Examples:

Digg.com (Technical until recently) Reddit.com (Anything) Del.icio.us (Anything) Furl (Anything)

How do Social Network Sites Work?

People submit content People vote on the content

up/down (Reddit.com) up votes only (Digg.com) number of bookmarks (Del.icio.us)

The most popular content goes to the front page and gets HUGE traffic!

How Much Traffic? MASSIVE SPIKES!!!

Digg.com

Reddit.com

Link Profusely

Why You Should Link Out Profusely

Isn’t this the opposite of SEO? YES!!!

Because people will find you through these links.

How Will People Find Me Through My Links?

Weblogs Search through your weblogs to see

where traffic is coming from

Would you check out who links to you? Especially if they send you lots of

traffic!

Blog & Forum Commenting

Why Comment? SEO Traffic

Percentage of people click on the signatures Even higher percentage click on valuable

links (preferably to your website) within the comment!

Sometimes the bloggers themselves will find out about you and find something newsworthy to mention (HelpSpot)

Google PR may not always be a perfect indicator of which sites will generate you the most traffic.

Which Websites Should I Comment On?

High Google PR (SEO) High traffic (traffic for you) Targeted traffic (sites related to

your topic) A-List bloggers Authority sites (Problogger.net for

professional blogging)

How Not to Comment?

Comment Spam Automated Irrelevant Unrelated Simple Doesn’t bring any value Likely to be removed very quickly A-List Bloggers are now starting to follow

the signature to check for comment spam

How to Comment Be relevant, about the article (on topic) Be specific Offer value, especially for the author Follow the conversation Be courteous Propr spelingn’ grmar Make sure your posts make sense (re-read them) Don’t link profusely unless it’s appropriate Offer a specific compliment to the blogger Respond to responses to your comments, especially

from the blogger (no response might mean the comment gets removed)

News Tips

Why

Why? News is about your article/website Get mentioned Become a source of information for an

industry leader (which will lead to future exposure)

8 Months later:161 Unique visitors from the same article!

Who

Who? A-List bloggers in your industry Relevant and targeted websites News agencies (more details later) Influential people

What to Expect Nothing!

A-List bloggers rarely respond, everyone is trying to reach them. Be happy for anything because it’s worth it

Don’t pester Don’t be insulted if they don’t mention

you, it might not be worth it for their particular audience

But be PREPARED for the traffic if it happens!

Reciprocal Links

Why

SEO Until January 2006

Traffic Only if the link page is small and

highly focused

Who

A-List bloggers in your industry Relevant and targeted websites News agencies (more details later) Influential people

Is It Worth the Time? Until January 2006 yes, today it’s

debatable. A-List bloggers rarely use this Most link pages are overloaded,

untargeted, and useless Most link pages generate little to

no traffic

One Way Links High SEO value Easier to get Better quality, more targeted

How To Get One Way Links - 1 Offer new content, news Offer relevant information Only promote information or posts that are of

high quality Although it might be interesting to you, it might not

be of interest to others, so don’t be offended Focus on them, the benefit to them Personalize your email

Give a specific compliment Reference specific material from the website beyond

the current link

How To Get One Way Links - 2 Realize you might not be the only

information source Why it’s important to build relationships

Introduce yourself (very short and sweet)

Keep the email brief, no more than a few lines

Learn what works and doesn’t for different websites/bloggers Do A/B testing on B/C-List websites/bloggers

Offer free tool/software/resource/info

Directories

Why

SEO 80/20 rule

Traffic 80/20 rule again.

Who Money/Benefit (depends on your website). Test! Yahoo Directory ($299/year) Those with Google PR Niche directories with traffic and PR Free directories (lots of lists)

To avoid No Google PR Lots and lots of links Paid with no value Those that directly link your image in their directory (it

significantly inflates the value you think you’re getting from them and makes it almost impossible to gage)

Pinging

Who, What, When, Where, and Why

To tell people you have new content

When you add new content Less useful with time due to

abuses Who

Pingomatic.com Pingoat.com

E-zines

What is an E-zine

Publicly available content that can be republished You’re suppose to give credit to the

author with a link Many services provide this

ezinearticles.com

Benefits If you have a highly valuable article many

people will re-use it generating lots of traffic (author link)

Create authority in your domain SEO (through author links)

Tip 1: To avoid duplicate content penalization from Google publish a different version of the article, or none at all, on your website.

Tip 2: If you do affiliate marketing, a good review article may generate extra revenue.

Free Website Promotional Items NOT To Do!

DO NOT DO Duplicate content (SEO penalization) Content scrapping

SEO penalization and very little traffic Link blogs

Blogs that are only 1-2 line summaries with links to the real content

InfoWorkShop.com http://patrick.net/housing/crash.html

Link all your unrelated websites together Try to fraud Google Only display feeds

Paid Promotional Methods

Google Adwords

What is Google Adwords?

The Advertisers side of Google It’s actually larger and much more

complex than Adsense!

Bid on keywords and pay per click Bid on websites and pay per

impressions Soon to come: Pay per performance

Basic Google Adword Advertiser Goals

Multiple advertisers bid (CPC: Cost Per Click) on a keyword for example “Property Management

Software” Try to attain the highest CTR (Click

Through Rate) by testing multiple ads simultaneously

Try to attain the higher conversion (sale, traffic, etc.) from the ad

Google’s Adwords Goal Make as much money as possible!!!

How? Highest total revenue from a keyword.

How? Highest CPC? Highest Number of Impressions? Highest Number of sales conversions (so advertisers

spend more)? Highest CTR? ???

How Google Achieves Maximum Revenue

CPC * CTR

CPC * CTR Examples

Example 1 (competitor): CPC = $1 CTR = 1% CPC * CTR = $10 (per 1000

impressions)

Example 2 (you): CPC = $0.25 CTR = 10% CPC * CTR = $25 (per 1000

impressions)

What Does This Mean For You? Competitor (CPC $1, CTR 1%)

Less total traffic (10x less) Each click is more expense (4x more : 10 clicks for

$10)

You (CPC $0.25, CTR 10%) More total traffic (10x more) Each click is less expensive (4x less : 40 clicks for $40)

You will also rank higher in the search results!!!

Does This Affect The Adsense Keyword Value? Yes. Absolutely! But in a good way. Like Google, you will get the BEST

performing ads, NOT the highest. Assuming 50% payout:

Competitor ($10) = $5 to you as an Adsense Publisher

You ($25) = $12.50 to you as an Adsense Publisher

This is also why it’s important to have market depth, more than 20 advertisers

Ok, So What’s a Good High CTR?

Depends on the industry Range from 1% - 20%

Depends on the keyword Specific: “property management

software” Generic: “real estate”

5% or higher is generally exceptional

How Can I Increase My CTR?

A/B Testing Google offers A/B testing directly in

Adwords Allows you to run more than 2 different ads

at the same time for the same keyword Gives preference to the better performing

one Small text difference have huge

performance impacts

Example of A/B Testing

0.44%

0.77%

0.88%

0.92%

0.97%

1.14%

1.19%

1.48%

1.62%

1.62% (higher sales conversion!)

Always Try to Beat Your Baseline!

Never be satisfied, always try to beat your baseline

Even 1 single word can make a significant difference

Tricks to Help You Get a Higher CTR

Ads generally composed with the following format work better:

KeywordBenefitFeature/ActionURL (doesn’t have to be your home page!)

Example:

General Adwords Tips Look at what works for your competitors Bid on your competitors names Upper Case the Different Words in your URL

http://www.landlordmax.com versus http://www.LandlordMax.com

Test outside of the Content Network (Google only) first until you figure out what works

Being first is not always the best for Adwords (in terms of sales conversion)

Look for alternative keywords (the same research as the Adsense keyword search)

Determine your goal/object (sales, lead, view, etc.) then target accordingly

Test Test Test!!!

CPC And Adword Minimum Bids Up until 2006, if you didn’t get a minimum

amount of traffic the keyword you bid for was banned for life

Now (2006+), if you don’t get a minimum amount of traffic for the keyword the minimum bid keeps going up indefinitely!

You don’t lose it but it becomes uneconomical to bid on You can bid as high as you want Google suggests that it tries to get you the best

price for your bids which should generally be lower than your Max CPC. I’ve found this to be true.

Adwords Account Manager

Managing Your Adwords Account

Each keyword as it’s won Campaign

Test different daily budgets Test different CPC’s Monitor your conversions

So I do I Start?

Bid high initially to get listed and get some test traffic to test with Remember CPC * CTR so if you have little to

no CTR than increase your CPC until CTR decreases!

Slowly lower your bid as your CTR increases

Have a higher initial daily budget to get faster metrics because Google tries to spread your budget throughout the day

Couldn’t I Make Money Bidding on a Low Keyword And Up selling it?

Yes. But it’s very difficult (generally small margins) and time consuming

This is not passive income. You need to be on top of it all the time and you can very quickly lose money rather than just not make any money at all.

If you do, pay per impressions is probably the most effective way

What About Using Adwords For Affiliate Marketing

Yes you can and it’s a little easier since the margins are higher, but it’s still active income and time consuming.

Google has in essence stopped Affiliate Adwords (having the ad directly link to your affiliate product) because it devalued the searches

What the Deal With the Google Checkout And Adwords?

VERY NEW! Google is essentially offering up to

a 20% discount on Adwords to websites using Google Checkout

The information is out but the results of how effective this is are still to be determined

Adwords Potpourri and Conclusion

Sales conversions are only tracked for up to 30 days

Test Test Test!!! This could be offered as a full week

course and still barely touch the surface!

Press Releases

Who Should Use Press Releases?

Sites that have something newsworthy to tell

Sites that can make more money then they spend sending the press release

How Much Does it Cost?

Press release can range from Free to thousands!

For free don’t expect much For thousands expect a lot

(assuming newsworthiness) A decent press release can cost as

little as $100!

What Services Should I Use?

3 main services I suggest: PRWeb.com

Free to several hundreds Mainly focused online Decent readership Helps with SEO

PR News Wire / Business Wire Major services Mainly offline media (tv, newspapers, magazines,

etc.) Very expensive (PR News Wire: $125/year + $500

average press release)

Which is Better?

Depends on your budget and conversions (sales, Adsense, affiliate, etc.)

Examples of what to expect:

PRWeb.com

3 Tips to Increase a Website's Revenue From Google Adsense

How Interest Rates Can Drastically Affect Real Estate Prices

PR News Wire

LandlordMax Free Real Estate Analyzer Press Release

What’s Newsworthy? A new competing product is NOT newsworthy unless its from

someone big like Google A new unique product IS newsworthy A different angle on something An event Free stuff is often newsworthy

Free gas to the first 200 customers when we open Results from research Awards and recognitions Human interest stories People and interesting characters

Something the media can get interest from so that they can sell their products (newspaper, etc.)

How to Write a Press Release

Most of the same rules as writing an article apply Great headline (2 of 10 readers get

past it) Active voice Interesting information Unique information Interesting angle

Flow of a Press Release

Sub lead / first paragraph is a teaser that reveals something exciting without going into detail, the hook

Second paragraph explains why the news in the first paragraph is important and why it’s beneficial to the reader

Third paragraph should include quotes from powerful industry leaders, well known characters, etc.

Fourth paragraph is the wrap up

Are Press Releases Actually Worth It?

Depending on your type of website you have they can be

It’s generally a hit or miss, but a hit is phenomenal!

1 hit can pay itself many many many times over Imagine the traffic from being on the

first page of Cnn.com for 1 full day

Buying Domains and Deleted Domains

Why Would I Buy a Domain? - 1

You are buying/leasing traffic without having to work for it

Accelerates the growth process Buy type in traffic

Core word Typo Relevant search term (people will type in their

search terms in the URL) Many domains can point to your core

domain LandlordMax has over 50 different related

domains pointing to it right now

Why Would I Buy a Domain? - 2

Based on the ROI Important Tip:

Which would you rather do: Spend $500 on Google Adwords EACH

year for 500 clicks a year Spend $500 ONCE for a targeted domain

that generates 500 clicks a year for infinity!

How Do I Buy Domains? Find them online

Digital Point.com DNForum.com Sedo.com DomainParking.com

Contact the owner directly

Things to look out for: Faked traffic Trend based traffic (short lived traffic)

Pet Rock, short-lived tv show, etc. Trademarks

What’s a Deleted Domain?

Deleted Domains are domains that have expired and not been renewed

Why? Company is bankrupt People forget (I’ve lost many myself) People don’t bother Accidents

Legend has it that Hotmail was accidentally lost for 1 day until it was given back freely

How Can I Tell Which Are Good?

That’s the hard part! Most people can’t You can guess-estimate how much traffic it gets

Is it a core dictionary word? Is it something popular? Is it a future technology? Is it future term? Are there many links to it right now?

Tip: avoid domains that have been banned or used for spam purposes

Are Deleted Domains the Same Price As Regular Domains?

Yes and No Yes if:

No one is interested and you’re willing to wait until they’re expired and are on the free market

No if: If there is competition to buy it

How Are Key Deleted Domains Sold?

They are released at a specific time. First Registrar to buy it gets it

How can you guarantee your registrar will get it first? You can’t!

Deleted domain services (many registrars work together as one trying continually, many times a second)

Delete domain services auction off domains that are purchased to the highest bidder

These start at $40 and can easily go into the thousands Deleted domain services include:

Pool.com NameWinner.com

Tip: avoid using normal registrars as the probabilities are extremely low

Promotional Potpourri

Small Promotional Tips

Always sign your emails with your URL Well written testimonials of products you

believe in can generate lots of traffic Property management company gives a testimonial

to LandlordMax Reviewing competing products can sometimes

have the same affect if you let the company know about it

Example: Customer service system Google Sandboxing

2-9 months to be indexed Buy your domain now and get it live Put up at least 5 pages of content now

RSS

Great to increase readership and keep people coming back

Other Sources of Revenues

Affiliate programs Amazon.com everytime you reference

a product/book Direct affiliate programs from

companies (some pay double-digit percentages)

For example LandlordMax CJ.com for large companies

Wal-mart, etc.

Soldier Sites

What is a soldier site? A site that promotes another site

for example: FollowSteph.com is a soldier site to LandlordMax.com

Often used by companies Blog from key company members Behind the scenes of the company New and upcoming information Industry/domain expert Industry news and information

Can be used with multiple blogs

Conclusion

Compatibilities and Incompatibilities

Website promotion is often in conflict with SEO and Adsense monetization however the more you grow it the higher the total $$$ you will earn.

You need to determine the goal and strategy of your particular website to decide which balance you want “Sell to the classes dine with the masses” “Sell to the masses dine with the classes”