Karen Knoke.com

LOW COST TRAFFIC GENERATION TIPS TO GET TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG WITH THE GOAL OF GETTING BACKLINKS TO YOUR SITE FROM RELEVANT PLACES.

ARTICLE MARKETING
Article marketing is a good way for newbies to start generating traffic. You want to create something that people are interested in and want to find more about. Once your article is written you can post it to places such as Ezine Articles, Articles Base or Go Articles and they will be published in various places. It may only take 10-15 minutes to write your articles and post in these places.

At the bottom of your article place a link that directs them back to your website for more information.  If you have valuable content others will download it and put on their websites. This added traffic will help you to rank higher with Google which is exactly what a newbie needs.

YAHOO ANSWERS
People ask questions on this Yahoo site while others wait for a question to answer.  Be sure to give thoughtful answers as you want to provide valuable information that will be helpful.  Then you should be able to give a link to your website and generate traffic back.  http://answers.yahooanswers.com

IT NEVER HURTS TO ASK
Some people blog for personal enjoyment or as a hobby.  If you find a relevant site that you think might enhance traffic generation to your blog ask them if you can link to their site.  It may bring you extra traffic or more money.

PRESS RELEASE
Anybody can send out a press release. You can write about your new promotion or anything you want to announce.  Be sure to follow the proper format and then submit it to a distribution place and they will send it across the internet.

Some places that do this are:

• Free-Press-Release.com
• PR.com
• NewswireToday.com
• PRlog.com

You might be able to get a free press release the first time you send one out. This can be a super traffic generation method.

BLOG COMMENTING
Make comments on other blogs you would like to attract.  Say something to engage them and leave a positive comment. If they leave it up other visitors may check out your blog as well.

Content is king. Educate people and build a relationship rather than posting something to sell.  Give a tip of value like free traffic generation with good unique content so SEO doesn’t see it as an advertisement.  Become a resource that they respect.
-- Karen Knoke

It is tough to learn something new, especially something as apparently complicated as “online marketing”. But that’s not true! It’s not as difficult as everyone thinks. Here is a small Online Marketing Guide for Newbies, outlining the 5 basic steps to start making money online.

1. Choose a Niche- First of all; it’s necessary for you to choose a niche or a market that you want to get involved in. Are you interested in gardening, music, games, bodybuilding, cooking? There are so many niches to choose from, so select something you are interested in.

2. Select a Product/Offer- After you are done with the niche selection, you need to find a product or offer related to that niche to promote as an affiliate. For example, if your niche is bodybuilding, you can use Amazon/ ClickBank or any other affiliate network to find related offers to promote.

After you find a product, you can create your affiliate link and place it in articles or emails and send out to your people or list. If you find a useful and informative article you might change it into a report, put a cover on it and use it as your free offer.

3. Keyword Research- The next step is to do some basic keyword research. You can use any free keyword research tool such as the Google Adwords keyword tool. You need to find the keywords that have low competition and still get a good amount of searches every month. Then make a list of keywords that are related to your niche and product.

4. Create a Blog/Website- No need to worry. It is easy and free to make a simple blog or a website, to use as a homebase to market from. For easy instructions on setting it up you can use something like WordPress, Blogger, Hubpages, Tumblr or Squidoo.

Use one of your keywords in the domain name of the blog/website if available and also in the title of your website or blog. Use some relevant keywords throughout the page. Also include some basic and helpful information about your product/niche with some related images and if you have an affiliate link you can insert it here.

5. Write Articles- Now that you have created a blog/website, you will need to write some unique articles to get some free traffic to your site. You can use some free article directories to submit your articles and promote your website. You don’t have to be an expert author or a writer, but make sure the article is unique and helpful for readers searching for information related to your niche. At the bottom of the article you can include a back-link to your website in the author bio.

Online marketing sounds complex at first, but if you just break it down into these simple and easy steps it’s not so difficult. Just move ahead step by step, and when you are done you will have an entire sales funnel accomplished. You have a well optimized blog/website that is getting a good amount of traffic and will earn you commissions as an affiliate or direct you to a sales page for your main product.

I hope this article helps to put things into perspective. Just move ahead one step at a time and you will find that internet marketing for newbies isn’t as intimidating and difficult as you thought.

– Karen Knoke

A website without traffic is no different than a store in the middle of nowhere without customers. You have put in endless hours setting up your website or paid a webmaster a pretty penny to do it for you. You have visions of making thousands of dollars a month just by following some magical system of internet marketing that doesn’t require a lot of work.

You have seen the hype including how to market and make money online. Every newbie tries to find the easiest way for a simple guide to internet marketing. You have maybe felt the sting of the brutal realization of being quickly parted from your hard earned money when that shiny new object was no more than just that. That reality has popped up and kicked you and you are finding that internet marketing is an uphill struggle.

As you well know, there are always two sides and when it doesn’t work as expected disappointment ignites. Along with high apprehension there is also a twist in feelings that you’re riding a dead horse. Often, this is when newbies give up on online riches not realizing that success is awarded to those that have a formula or franchise like system.

When cracking into the online markets the first basic principle beginners need to do is find their niche or market. You go through a process or keyword search to find a profitable niche online. Your initial ideal market is usually way to big with too much competition so you need to find a segment of that market with less competition but still plenty of people typing in that keyword.

An example might be coats, well that’s a pretty big area, so try leather coats, still too big, so how about ladies suede coats or blue suede coats. Suede coats might be a profitable niche if enough but not too many people type it in, and suede coat or coats would be the keyword.

Once you have your market and website up you have to generate traffic to it and build a list of people to market to. There are many ways to drive traffic and build a list and it’s up to you to choose and become an expert of 2 or 3 different sources. Trying to get them all up at once would be both overwhelming and discouraging as you would surely lose your focus.

Following the above basic steps will get profits coming your way in due time. Many online marketers use affiliate marketing as a way to bring in commissions selling other people’s products and services online in order to fund their beginning expenses. With affiliate marketing you can sell products through Clickbank.com or PayDotCom.com or by leveraging other people’s traffic.

– Karen Knoke