Home Business Is a Whole New World!

If you want to make money online, there’s no way around it:  You need to get as much traffic to your website as possible.

Paying for traffic via online advertising is a good idea, but some people just can’t afford to shell out the money to do so.

In this case, you need to focus on getting free traffic by helping your site listed in the search engines and ranked for important keywords and terms.

Only by getting your site indexed and ranked will you be able to recieve the free traffic you want.

The problem with free traffic, however, is that its not fast.  Indeed, it can take a good amount of time for search engines to list your content within the first ten results.

Here are some tips you can use to help you get listed in the search engines for the free traffic you want…

Tip #1:  Get Your Site Indexed

Getting you website indexed is relatively simple.  You can go to Google, yahoo, and MSN directly and submit your site to their serch engines, and eventually, thei “spiders” will come, crawl your website, and list it in their search results.  You probably won’t be ranked very high for any keyword terms just yet, but at least you’ll be in there.

Another way is to bookmark your website on a social bookarking service, such as Del.icio.us or Digg.  The easiest way to do this is create an account for yourself on one of these services and bookmark your own website.

These websites help rank online news stories and web pages based on user votes, which the search engines place a lot of importance on, so the sites listed in these services get crawled very rapidly.  If you bookmark your own website, it can be indexed in all three major search engines in three days time.

Tip #2:  Create A Sitemap

Creating a webpage that lists all the pages on your site in a way that’s easy for the search engines to see everything you have to offer is a great way to get your pages ranked.  These pages are called Sitemaps.

Google has their own standard for sitemaps, so if you can create a google-compliant sitemap, you can be sure to optomize your chances that every single page on your site winds up being listed in the Google Search Engine.

Tip #3:  Optimize Your Pages For Specific Keywords

The more you can gear specific webpages on your site towards certain keyword terms, the more likely you’ll be able to get them to rank for those terms.

To do this, you must make your page title, meta description, meta keywords list, and body content geared towards the keyword you want to be ranked for.

The key here is not to load each one of these factors with the keyword you’re targeting, rather, to use related keywords and themes so as to prove to the search engines that your page is relevant to someone who’s searching for the keyword you are targeting.

Tip #4:  Submit Your Website To Directories

There are a great number of internet directories which try and catalogue websites out there, and submitting your website to be listed in as many of them as you can will be beneficial to getting free traffic.

Not all of these directories will send you traffic directly, but they will add weight and authority through backlinks to your website, which Google and Yahoo will definitely notice.

Tip #5:  Get Backlinks To Your Website

Search engines place a heavy importance on links directed at your website from other websites.  The more websites you can get linking back to you, the more important the search engines assume your website is.

If you can get other websites linking back to you using specific keywords in the link text, the search engines will assume your site is relevant for those keyword terms and rank you higher in their results listings for those terms.

You can do this by offering to exchange links with other website owners, submitting your site to link directories, participating in blog and forum discussions, and submitting articles to related websites.

Just remember that free traffic is all about being ranked in the search engine results listings.  The more pages you can get listed in the top 10 results, the more free traffic you’ll get.

Starting up a website for the purposes of making money can be a very exciting prospect.  After all, it’s easy right?  You put up a website, send some traffic, and BOOM!  You’re supposed to start making money right away, aren’t you?

Well, let’s face it - if that was really the case, EVERYBODY would be making money on the internet.

Understand that putting up a website is just part of the equation of starting a successful internet business.

If you were to start a real brick-and-mortar businesses, opening your store would only be the first step.  Once the store is open, you need to attract people to come inside the store, and then once they are there, they must BUY.

If you are doing any type of selling on the internet - especially if you’re an affiliate - you need to convince people that buying through your website - and your website alone - is the way to go.

The best way to do this is through a process known as “preselling.”

This is where you, as an affiliate, attract a prospect to your website, and convince them that the products you are reviewing are the ones that they’ll want to spend their hard earned cash on.

The following are some tips you can use to become an effective “preseller,” and get people to buy products through your website…

Preselling Tip #1:  Establish Authority

People respond well to authority.  Policement, judges, doctors, and politicians are all example sof people who can get others to follow their instructions based around the “status” of their authority.

So the best way for people to do what you want them to is to come off as an authority figure on the subject you are talking about.

For instance, telling people they should buy one product over another doesn’t carry any weight.  But when you come off as an authority on the subject, people are more willing to accept your evaluation.

Saying something like:

“I have been golfing since 1998 and have competed in 12 professional golf tours…”

Is much more effective than saying:

“I’m really passionate about golf.”

In one instance, you are stating why you are qualified to be an authority on the subject, and in another instance, you are just talking about your affinity for the subject.

Keep in mind - you don’t ACTUALLY have to be an authority on the subject to establish your authority.  Saying things like “I know what I’m talking about” and “I’ve done my homework” can go a long way.

Preselling Tip #2:  Provide Contrast

When people are searching for information on a specific product or service, what they are doing is looking for reasons why they should or should not buy one product over another.

For instance:  Is an XBox 360 better than a Playstation 3?

If someone is wondering which game console they should purchase, giving them a review that contrasts the two products is much more effective than offering them a review of the consoles on their own.

Let’s say that you, as an affiliate, get a better commission selling an XBox 360 than you do selling a Playstation 3.

What you’ll want to do in your review is state the reasons why you feel the XBox is better than the Playstation 3, AND why the Playstation 3 isn’t worth buying.

The key here is to never be overly-critical of the product you don’t want people to purchase.  When contrasting products, a balances review is always more believable than a lop-sided one.

If you’re in a market where you have many products to compare and contrast, choose the top products in your market - the ones people are most likely to buy - and break down their pros and cons.

People will feel they are getting great insight for their purchase if they know all the reasons why they should buy one product over another.

Preselling Tip #3:  Offer Personal Experience

Personal experience with a product or service is always far more powerful than a “general” review.  So telling your prospect a story about your experience with the product you are selling is very powerful.

For instance, let’s say you were selling a book on how to lose weight.  In your review, you talk about how you went on the diet the book recommends, what you felt like while you were on the diet, how much weight you loss, and how good it felt to finally find a diet that actually works.

As you can see, reading about someone’s personal experience is a much better selling point than saying:

“By following this diet, you’ll lose weight and feel good doing it.”

People respond well to stories, and they want to see proof that something works, or does what they need it to do, before they commit to buying it.

If you can show them personal examples, experiences, and results you yourself achieved, they will more readily believe your recommendation to buy.

Preselling Tip #4:  Relate To Your Reader

It’s a well known fact that people are more willing to buy from someone they know than from a complete stranger.

The more you can make your reader identify with you and relate to you, the more comfortable they’ll feel buying from you.  So you should always make an effort to relate to your typical website visitor.

For instance, let’s say your a single mother working from home, and you’re site is all about teaching other single mothers how to work from home as well.

Talk about dealing with the kids, doing laundry, having lunch with the girls, finding a babysitter for the night, and any other thing that single moms can relate to.

But also talk about common problems you experienced before you found the solution to them.

For instance, a big problem with single mothers is making enough money to support their family, and still having time to take care of their kids.

In this instance, you can talk about being worried about making enough money to support your family, and being too tired to take care of your kids the way you wanted to, until you discovered a method that allowed you to work from home, make good money, and spend time with your family.

Every single mom can relate to that problem, and once they relate to it, they will gladly accept the solution you offer them.

Preselling Tip #5:  Give A Reason To Buy Through Your Site

Too often, affiliate marketers will simply post a review with their affiliate link in it, and that’s it.

But you always want to offer your readers reasons WHY they should buy now, and buy through you.

Actually telling people to click your link is a good start.  Don’t just have a link to the product that says “Click Here To Buy Now,” have a link that says “Click Here Now To Quit Smoking Just Like I Did.”

Tell your reader about special offers the merchant is giving away, and make them think that buying through your website will give them access to them.

For instance, let’s say the merchant you’re an affiliate for is offering five special bonuses to anyone who buys his product.  On your page, you can say:

“By clicking this link now, you’ll get access to 5 special bonuses.”

Even though these bonuses are accessable to everyone who visits the merchant’s site, saying they’ll get access for clicking the link on YOUR site makes it far more appealing.

You can also appeal to someone’s generosity to get them to buy through your site.  Saying something like “If this review helped you, please be courteous and purchase your course through this link to show your support for my efforts.”

After all, if you’ve given them good information, they should feel compelled to return the favor if you ask them to.

Finally, if you’re really ambitious, you can offer your own bonus for people who buy through your website.  This can be something simple like offering a Public Label Rights ebook, or as extravagant as an amazon gift certificate.

Just let people know that if they buy through your website and send you their reciept, you’ll give them something special in return.

Remember - preselling is all about making people WANT to buy, so that by the time they click on your affiliate link, they’ve already made the decision in their mind to make a purchase.

Trying to make money on the internet can be an exciting task, but too often, affiliate marketers make some major mistakes when they are first starting out that can affect their ability to pull in that coveted internet income.

If you can learn to avoid these common mistakes beginners make, you’ll find your affiliate efforts will be much more profitable.

Mistake #1:  Trying To Do Too Much At Once

New affiliates can be so motivated to start making money on the internet, they’ll jump from one tactic to the next, trying anything they can to get massive amounts of new traffic to their website.

But while they’re trying every new traffic tactic under the sun, they are neglecting the fundamentals of pre-selling and offering valuable content to their users.

Not only that, but never taking the time to focus on one type of traffic source means that nothing they do will ever be extremely effective.

It is best to focus on the fundamentals of making your site a valuable resource, and mastering one avenue of traffic generation, before focusing your efforts on something else.

Mistake #2:  Selling Too Hard

In their desire to make money, many new affiliates try and push the products they are offering on their site far harder than they should be.

The affiliate begins making a sales pitch to his site visitor rather than offer anything of value.  Because of this, fewer people will tend to buy through the affiliate’s website.

Good pre-selling techniques involve offering a fair and balanced review of products and services, and sharing with the site visitor why the affiliate feels one product or service is worth buying over the others.

But more importantly than that, it’s about convincing the site visitor that the affiliate knows what he’s talking about, and that the site visitor should listen to the affiliate.  This is far more important that “pitching” whatever products you have chosen to promote.

Mistake #3:  Not Tracking Sales

Lots of affiliates just throw up websites and don’t bother to find out where their sales are coming from.

But if you take the time to figure out what advertising is making you money, and what keyword terms are bringing you the most traffic, and what affiliate programs convert the best - you are then better able to optimize your website to make you the most money possible.

When you ignore these factors, not only do you miss out on potential sales, but you could also be wasting valuable time and money on efforts that won’t bear fruit.

Mistake #4:  Promoting Products That Have Nothing To Do With Your Site

Some new affiliates will try and cater to every possible type of consumer on the internet by offering any product they think would appeal to people.

What most affiliates don’t realize is that a website geared towards a specialized niche is far more effective than a website that tries to be everything to everybody.

For instance, a website geared entirely towards Golf is far more effective that a website geared towards Golf, Cooking, Tattoos, and Sausage Making.

Keep your website tightly focused, and don’t stray from your market by offering new affiliate programs that have nothing to do with your website.

Mistake #5:  Promoting Too Many Products

Some affiliate are so desperate for money, they’ll sign up for as many affiliate programs as possible in an attempt to find something that will make them some cash.

However, by signing up for a lot of programs, they are actually doing the opposite.

If a website overwhelms its visitors with too many choices, they just won’t buy anything.  Affiliate sites that focus on one to three programs at the most are the ones that are effective in getting people to buy.

Narrow your focus and sell only the products you feel offer the most value to your site visitor, and you’ll find your conversions will increase dramatically.

The longer you work at being an affiliate marketer, the more you’ll realize what mistakes to avoid.  Don’t be afraid to try new things - even if they may not work - but always realize when it’s time to cut your losses and move on.