When building websites there are two main options: large content site or small mini-sites. Large content sites normally focus more on providing "information". Mini-sites, however, normally have one purpose only, to sell.
Given what search engines want, large content sites are much better for getting search engine traffic. Most of the time (unless you're excellent at optimizing) it's hard to get mini-sites to rank well for competitive keywords.
This is why most do NOT rely on search engines for traffic to their mini-sites.
In all honesty, the best strategy is to combine the two types of sites by having a large content site to rank well with search engines that feeds traffic to your mini-sites.
However, not all of us have the time or know-how to easily build large sites that do well with search engines. Most of us just want to put up a small site and start making money.
Here are the 3 traffic generating techniques I use everyday for traffic to mini-sites.
#1: Forums/Discussion Boards
I have made more than $6,000 from one mini-site just by targeting it to the right forum in my signature file. All I did was leave a nice statement in my signature file; in 1 month I attracted over 5,000 targeted visitors that converted to over $6,000 for me.
The basic strategy here is that you need to find related forums and become active in them. Get yourself known, find out what those members talk about and find an affiliate product to fit their demand.
Then, make a nice, simple, yet captive site with a great headline followed by a review of the product. Test it and if it pulls well, you have a winner. If not, choose another product.
#2: E-zine Advertising
I would rate e-zine advertising at the second best way to gather traffic to your mini-sites only because this technique can cost some money. Forum promotions have no cost (typically). However, e-zine advertising can provide much better results.
Forum marketing requires you taking the time to make sensible responses or asking good questions. With e-zine advertising, however, you just write a good promotion and let the publisher send it out.
An advantage of e-zine advertising is that you know before you promote that you have a targeted audience that has already expressed an interest in your topic.
Also, the subscriber and the publisher most likely have a good relationship (considering the subscriber has not left) and so your promotion comes with credibility and may get more attention.
One of the keys to doing well with e-zine advertising (for me) has been repeated ads in the same e-zine. I have found that my results are best in the second of third promotion. However, if I get no results on my first mailing, I do not repeat that e-zine again.
Warning: Not all e-zines are the same. Some will be major winners and others will be major flops.
#3: Directory Sites
Alright, here is the controversial technique that I use very successfully. I know some of you will think that it is "wrong" - but in the end, my job is to teach you how I get my traffic; that is exactly what I am going to do.
Directory sites are sites created by software that automatically build you a site which is 500 or more pages. These sites are just simply uploaded to a domain name. Most (if done right) tend to do well with search engines. That traffic is then forwarded to your mini-sites.
As you can see, we're holding fast to our policy of building a funnel system where we use the large sites to bring in the "no cost" search engine traffic (which is also highly targeted). However, all the "selling" takes place on our mini-sites.
Large sites = Traffic Gathering Mini sites = Conversion Into Sales
Obviously there are many more techniques to use to attract traffic to your mini-sites such as banners, pay per click, link exchanging, etc... I just wanted to discuss the top 3 that are the easiest to implement and require the least learning curve (in my opinion).
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