Allan Tan’s Internet Marketing Resource Centre

Once you have a blog set up and running, you may wonder how to make the most of its potential. One such way is through the use of blogroll additions. Though admittedly not as popular as they once were, blogrolls are essentially a list you keep on the sidebar of your blog. It contains individual links to other blogs that are in a niche related to your own blog.

It?s called ?link love? and you swap your URL with another blog owner?s. Basically you are mutually agreeing to ?advertise? each other?s blogs on your sites. The advantage of this is that you are gaining incoming links to your site. Also, by swapping URLs with people who have blogs on a topic similar to your own, you guarantee that the readers are already interested in your niche.

One disadvantage to blogroll additions is that it became abused by many blog owners. Not only could blogrolls become too long, but often the links became outdated or filled with spam material. Visitors to a blog with spam blogroll links quickly become tired of clicking on useless links, and altogether may give up.

While blogrolls are still used as an effective tool to create links to your site, you may need to have several hundred out there to see a considerable increase in traffic.

The power of the Internet is at times unbelievable.
We can now reach potential readers and customers
through so many various means that it would be
possible to spend all day at the computer networking.
You may even do just that! However, with the increased
use of instant communication through social networking,
those who are new to the internet are still using the
slower and steady forms of marketing.

Blog posts, forum participation, and professional
networking are all great ways to reach potential
visitors to your site–and it all happens behind
the scenes while you?re offline.

Blog posts with links to your site are a great tool
for drawing in free traffic. The posts stay up as
long as you want them to, and direct links to them
can also be shared via social networking indefinitely,
with the use of permalinks.

Participating in forums is also a great way to make
contacts who are truly interested in what you might
have to offer. Gaining trust is important here, so you
may need to be a forum member for quite some time before
you will see a big return on leaving a link in your
signature line.

Professional networking sites such as LinkedIn are also
a great way to get the word out and drive free traffic
to your site. List all your websites in your professional
profile, and they?re there for anyone who joins your
network to see and follow.

As one of the three largest social networking sites,
Twitter quickly became a great marketing tool for
business owners and the self-employed alike. While
there are many ways that social networking can be used
advantageously for business purposes, one of the easiest
is to create a profile that draws attention to what you
have to offer.

Twitter allows you to use one of their standard background
choices. You can provide a small amount of information
that is detailed on the right side of your profile when
people click on your profile name or image. However, it?s
also possible to take advantage of the ability to upload
your own background by creating a splash page that is a
full blown advertisement.

There are designers who specialize in creating Twitter
backgrounds, and you may consider using one. The
backgrounds need to be created at just the right size to
insure that it shows up properly on monitors of all sizes.
Otherwise, important information may be blocked by your own
Twitter ?stream? of messages from those you follow.

When creating a background, be sure to use a high quality
professional image. Text should be located to the left of
the design, and can include as little or as much information
as you desire. Consider it the equivalent of a full screen
business card. Typical Twitter backgrounds include a short
bio, contact details, and a brief description of the services
or product you offer.

Drive free traffic to your website with a Squidoo lens. The lens is similar to a hubpage, but it is separated into sections. You have options for using affiliate links and adding your own website URL. This means that you will be creating a backlink to your website and therefore increasing traffic. The lens can be in the same niche as your website and talk more freely about the niche.

For instance, if you are selling fishing bait, you can talk about fishing or how to fish. You can make as many lens as you want with a link back to your website attached to each one. Your resources are huge when you use a Squidoo lens. How to articles and lost articles make great lens and people are going to want to see more about what you have to say.

Drive free traffic to your website with a lens and see the difference in a few days or weeks. Remember to do some social networking with Twitter to showcase your Squidoo lens and bring readers to your website this way. You can display a short sentence and a website link in less than 140 characters with Twitter or even Facebook.

Don?t you just hate the way the bad guys can take a perfectly legitimate way to do something, carry it all the way to its farthest extreme and blow it for everyone else?

The perfect example is blog commenting. Commenting on blogs is a great way to create meaningful dialogs. If done correctly, it?s also a good way to drive traffic to your website. It used to be a good way to build backlinks, too.

The backlink advantage is still there if you search out the minority of bloggers who?ve intentionally decided to join the ?do follow? movement, but overall pickings are slim. Most blogs are ?no follow? these days.

And it?s because the comment spammers went crazy, bombarding innocent blogs with thousand-link comment touting the virtues of Viagra and describing certain activities that probably shouldn?t be described (if you know what I mean).

You can still drive traffic with blog comments, but the whole scene has gone downhill thanks to comment spam. We can only hope that the burgeoning ?do follow? movement gains momentum and that spam defenses like Akismet continue to improve. It may not be too late to make it back to something approximating ?the good old days?.

Online communities and forums have come a long way since their crude beginnings. Many forums today use web 2.0 tools so that users can connect and interact with each other on a personal level. If you?re looking for an increase in traffic, consider how forums can help you reach your traffic goals.

Sign up for forums that are related to your site or blog. If you are a parenting blogger or run a business featuring products for parents, you?ll want to visit the places where moms and dads hang out.

Create a profile and be sure to utilize any social networking tools included. This means, if you are offered the opportunity to create a bio, upload pictures, or input your site url, do so. By using the tools available, those who visit your profile can further be directed to your main web page or blog. Many sites also allow you to make your own custom signature that will post when you comment and start your own forum discussions.

When you comment or create your own discussion, make sure it stays on target with the forum itself. This will keep you from appearing like you are spamming the forum. Follow up your discussions or comments with information that people can easily find on your own site.

We all know that the search engines love content. We know that text feeds their spiders We know that?s what are visitors are after, too. We get sick of hearing it, but we recognize the fact that ?content is king?.

We want more traffic. We really want more free traffic.

And there?s one sure way to get it. It?s not the most inviting prospect, but it?s a sure bet.

How do you get more traffic free? You make more.

More.
MORE.

More content. More on-site articles. More blog posts. More off-site content in the form of forum posts, blog comments, guest posts, and distributed articles. Everywhere you can cram another article, everywhere you can find a reader. More content. More.

It?s a treadmill. It?s a workout. It?s not your favorite way to spend a Saturday. Clickety clack clack on the keyboard seems far away from that four-hour work week sometimes.

But it does work. The ones who provide more continue to get more traffic. They understand what everyone from the nameless, faceless analysts at Google to your great aunt Ruby wants. More content.

Everyone knows that video is hot right now. It?s probably the best way around to drive traffic. All you need is a short clip and a good distribution plan to start finding visitors to your site by utilizing a clever or fun video.

What makes the whole thing even better is the fact that video technology prices have finally slid enough that video production equipment is within everyone?s reach. New laptops have built in cameras. You can get a fully functional webcam from the store for $20. Everyone has something around to make a video now.

And those who don?t can create computer based slideshows using free software and free/royalty-free images.

The excuses for staying away from video are dying. If you?re not using video to drive traffic, you should start today. The start-up costs are literally nonexistent and marketers in every niche are finding that a single quick video can make a great deal of difference in site traffic.

High-ranking article directories are your friend for driving traffic. Ezines and Article Submit are just two of the directories to post articles in with a link back to your website. There are hundreds of directories to post articles to, but remember to do it yourself. Many directories will not make your article their top priority if you are using article submit software. They want to see you doing the work if they are going to do some work for you.

Write a few different articles and start posting. Directories of this type are free. If you post articles to directories, you could still use Twitter to announce a new article, thus driving free traffic to your website in a roundabout way. Article directories with backlinks to your website help with search engines as well. In all, if you need traffic, you can write a few articles, post to directories and Twitter for a few extra readers right off the bat.

Take some time and see all of the article directories on the Internet and check the page rank to find some that have a PR (page rank) of three or higher. This will help increase your traffic and bring you more faithful readers.

Only a few short years ago, directories had a lot of online clout. Everyone was obsessed with finding a way to get their site into DMOZ. People were handing money over to Yahoo in large bundles to get into their directory. And thousands of little site directories popped up all over the web, offering the promise of an SEO-friendly backlink in exchange for a site submission.

Times have changed. It would be premature to call the directories dead, but they?re headed in that direction. The search engines once relied upon them. Today, those same engines are downgrading the value of site directory links. You?re better off making a comment on a ?do follow? blog than you are submitting to another directory.

There is one exception. Some of the niche-specific directories still have real value. That?s not because Google still loves them, though. It?s because real people end up bumping into them while doing research. That?s right, the only directories that still really matter are those that are performing the traditional role of a directory!

If you can find relevant niche directories, submit your sites. Don?t worry about the others. Sure, you might as well submit to DMOZ, but don?t worry about your status as they wait for years to look at your link. And keep your wallet away from Yahoo while you?re at it.

Directories. My, how times have changed!