Market and Investment

As you know, to generate an online income, you must bring prospects to your website, there is no other way.

Whatever you call that process (driving traffic, lead generation, sponsoring, referring, etc.), it all simply means bringing prospects to your website.

For the most part, you’ll want targeted traffic. In other words, people who have a specific interest in your product. Occasionally you’ll want generic traffic.

There are many, many ways to generate online traffic . . . email marketing, classified ads, pay per click advertising, articles and press releases, funded sponsoring, joint ventures, buying leads, forums and social networks to name a few.

You can utilize some of these methods for free, others have an associated cost.

One very clever method can even generate an income while building your website traffic. That method is called funded sponsoring. In funded sponsoring you can offset other traffic generation costs through the income earned by implementing the funded sponsoring process.

For the most part, article marketing is free, targeted traffic. Simply write short articles about your product or business, with links to your website embedded in the article, then post your articles to numerous article directories.

Webmasters will then choose your article from the directories and post to their website. Over time, your article will find its way across the vast internet, sending you much desired targeted traffic.

Press release marketing is very similar to article marketing.

Joint venturing can be produce a lot of free, targeted traffic very quickly. Joint venturing usually involves exchanging mailing lists with other online marketers.

Forums and social networking can provide you with free traffic also. Your strategy is to build relationships with other members in the forums and social networks in your particular niche, then introduce them to your product or business.

Mailing lists are an absolute necessity for any online marketer. Build a targeted mailing list, then create a relationship with your list members by sending newsletters, product information, industry news, through an autoresponder.

Classified advertising can produce extremely targeted traffic. Classified advertising can be free, or paid. However, free classified advertising usually produces very limited traffic.

Pay per click advertising can get very expensive, very fast. Before utilizing this method, get some expert coaching. A real advantage to pay per click is that it is extremely targeted traffic. If done correctly, pay per click is well worth the cost.

If you are just getting started online, look for ways to maximize your dollar. Article and press release marketing are very effective, free methods to generate solid traffic to your website.

Funded sponsoring is an extremely valuable method because you earn income while building your traffic, thus offsetting other costs.

The important thing is choose a method, utilize that method to its potential. Then, as traffic to your website builds, move on to other traffic generation methods. Learn to use every method available to you.

The bottom line is this . . . your business will not survive without traffic.