6 Steps to Generating High-value Traffic
To Your Website

Effective website promotion is really very similar to effective Public Relations. Your goal is to attract customers to your website, but you are not really in the business of reaching out to the “Public” directly.

Instead you focus on the “Influentials” – those people who are trusted by large segments of your target demographic. In Public Relations, PR Firms will focus their efforts on journalists and editors of large publications. After all, if they can sell the journalist on their product, then the journalist can sell the many thousands of readers he or she “influences”.

The Internet is a bit messier than the established world of traditional journalism. There is no code of “ethics” online, and nobody is going to lose their credentials if they lie about who they are, who they work for, or whether what they are saying is true.

That may sound a bit cynical, but facts are facts and consumers are well aware that what they read online may not be vetted for accuracy in the same way a newspaper or broadcast news story would be; and they know that nothing is “impartial”.

That is why personalities online are so important. Once an online personality has established a trusting relationship with his or her site visitors, he or she becomes incredibly influential over that constituency.

I recently had dinner with the owner of a successful website that caters to one of my clients' target demographics. She was very candid when she said, “Hey, we have over 75,000 subscribers who buy whatever I tell them to buy.”

She wasn’t kidding; we have since sold many thousands of dollars worth of product through her website. We got what we wanted out of the deal, and she made a lot of money in the process. That’s the power of a trusted and influential personality.

So, how do you identify the personalities you need to target, and most importantly, how do you go about getting them to point traffic toward your website?

1. Identify your target demographic – This may sound obvious, but you would be amazed at how many times business owners can’t give a concise answer about who their best customer is. Take a look at your website’s traffic referral sources to get some ideas, or even better, run surveys on your website to determine which customers are the most valuable to you.
2. Find out where they hide – Once you know who your target is, you can then take the next step and figure out where they are on the Internet. Some markets are more active online than others. Typically demographic groups that tend to be more computer savvy will tend to have the most active online communities. These are the online infrastructures you want to focus your efforts on. If your target market doesn’t participate in online communities, perhaps your efforts are better spent offline. Be honest with yourself about the prospects of working with one group over another on the Internet.
3. Identify the “Influencers” – in any given market there are going to be a dozen or so important online publications and websites. Discussion forums are a great place to start because they are so open to participation from anyone (including you). Blogs are another great resource. You need to be careful with blogs, many do not get much traffic so you want to focus on those that actually get some traction. Online newsletters are another great place. There are hundreds of thousands of online newsletters covering just about every topic imaginable – find the ones that are most important in your market.
4. Get Personal and creative – when you contact a website owner, it’s good to have an idea you want to “pitch” to them. Make sure you know something about their site and what might be attractive to them. Do NOT simply send out a form letter to every email address you can find. No serious contact would respond to that, and you just might burn a valuable contact. Remember, you are in sales, and these people are giving you exposure to their community, so make the relationship enticing.
5. Help them help you – You will find that many people who operate successful online communities also have day-jobs. They don’t have time to make up a bunch of stuff for you. Do their work for them. Create the contest page, write an email for them to send to their subscribers, make it as easy as possible for them to help you out, and many times they will!
6. Follow up – My experience is that many times just because someone says they are going to post something on their website, doesn’t mean they actually will. It helps to stay organized, and follow-up to make sure people go through with the plans they have. Again, people are busy, and your website is not the most important thing to them. Remember to be persistent (and sweet). Most people want to live up to other’s expectations.

Sometimes you will run across a website owner who will be willing to help you promote your website for a fee. This is a form of advertising, and you should give it the same consideration you would any other form of advertising.

If you are considering paying for coverage, make sure you understand how many people will receive your message, ask for open-rates for email newsletters, and page-views for website pages. Make sure you get what you pay for, and always measure the results of the traffic that comes in to your own website before you reinvest.

Trust and personality are important online. When you are marketing a website it is important to work with the most influential personalities in your market. The trust their subscribers and visitors place on them is one of the most powerful forces that can affect your website’s success.

The same skills that are required to do effective Public Relations are also necessary for website promotion. It involves working with the most influential people in a market, and making sure that each one of them turns into an evangelist of your website and it’s products.

About The Author

Matthew Coers is an Internet marketing consultant. His website, ProfitChoice.com contains everything an entreprenuer needs to build a website and make money online. Visit ProfitChoice.com to access his FREE online course, "7 Days to Website Success".