You know you want it. But how?

There are many, many ways to get traffic on the internet.  But unless it’s targeted and relevant, it’s usually of little use.  Your blog, just as any website, needs targeted traffic.

The great thing about blogs is that they can, if properly structured and written, “self-target”.  Remembering the basics of blog traffic which we’ve written about before, we focus on the deeper and most important principles of this topic.

To Pay Or Not To Pay

There are a variety of ways you can pay to attract targeted visitors through a variety of services.  We pick up on some of these, below.

Like everything else, you need to consider your ROI (Return On Investment) carefully.  Whilst you may get the traffic, will it ‘convert’ and so is it useful.  It depends entirely what you want to achieve.  For example: are you interested in achieving sales or, perhaps, just interested in providing good, widely-read content.

Look at your endgame and work “backwards”.  It will quite quickly become apparent whether or not spending your budget on targeted traffic is worth it, even if it is viable.

Free Traffic

Well, there is such a thing as a free lunch on the internet  :)

No, we don’t mean the slick products which promise the earth and don’t deliver.  We mean focusing on properly optimizing your website and letting the search engines, particularly Google, deliver your targeted traffic.

Think back to all we’ve discussed before:  good quality, relevant information is what people want.  Or good quality, effective services which are relevant to their need.  Or good quality, relevant goods.  There’s a theme, here In many ways, the “new economy” on the ‘net is exactly the same as the old one: you deliver properly, well and on-time and you succeed.  You “over-deliver” (providing more than expected, perhaps before expected) and you produce repeat visitors/customers.

It’s not rocket science, but it’s missed time and time again and only a (very) small minority put this into practice.  If you don’t believe us, or you just don’t fully understand where we’re coming from, there are few better than Ken Evoy on this topic. And when it comes to building websites, and blogs, which get real, targeted, visitors, Ken talks about strategies he and his many associates employ to do just that. Whilst he does offer good quality tools to do it (don’t click on this link if you’re after ‘get rich quick’ – he doesn’t even go there, quite rightly), he also gives a really great lesson on targeted traffic and getting to the point.

Paid Traffic

Be careful.  There are a plethora of ‘wonder services’ out there which just don’t cut it.  They are often over-priced.  Worse, they can damage your rankings.

But there are some decent products and there is some good advice if you look and think carefully.  It takes time and experience to work through this – there is no immediate advice on offer.

Whatever happens, don’t risk your relationship with the search engines.  They are your lifeline for traffic: don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

It is worth looking at directories and forums as a way of finding like-minded individuals who want a particular service or type of information.  Makes sense, doesn’t it.  And, generally, they don’t charge more than nominal fees.  We won’t provide particular recommendations, but take a look.

Speak soon.