Perhaps you have followed the trend in business to create an internet web site for your business that can be used to supplement your marketing efforts. If so, you have joined the momentum to create a corresponding “place” in cyberspace that can be used to reach customers online. The need for such an internet presence is entirely market driven. Internet sales have soared, particularly in certain market segments and more and more, the first place people go to in order to learn about your business is the internet. If they find a well designed web site that is full of features, that works fast and draws them in, that can be a tremendous tool for promoting your business.

When you set up a marketing tool outside of cyberspace, the first concern is how will that new marketing effort get noticed. So we are drawn to places where there is already an active traffic of people who would qualify as our customers. That may mean putting up a billboard where it will be seen by people going to work. That target audience may be the best population to respond to your message. Or if your business appeals to youth, advertising on MTV or on popular radio stations is a natural place to put your marketing money because the traffic is already there.

We have to approach the internet differently. Yes, the traffic is already there but we have to enter the world of cyberspace marketing with a different kind of strategy so we can reach the customers who are traveling certain “internet roads” and make sure those roads lead to our web site.

There is whole a cottage industry that has sprung up around the need for knowledgeable internet marketing gurus. And, yes, it’s a good idea to use their talents to make sure the search engines put your web site in front of the right kind of client or customer. These talented internet geeks can put your business web site into the flow of web surfers so you get your fair share of that traffic.

That said, you don’t have to wait for the internet marketing experts to make your web site more successful. If the business has made the effort to put that web site up, you want to see it start to pay off right away. That is why you should consider some creative ways to drive people to your web site from your traditional markets thus educating your current customers, clients and partners about the site. Ways to do that include…

§ Promote the web site at the retail level. Some creative signage at your retail locations can create some momentum and interest in customers to go see your exciting new web site.

§ Put the link on all correspondence. If you have flyers, a magazine or other current means of communications, your URL should always be listed there. Add your URL to your email signature and on business cards and all other forms of communication so your community of clients, customers and partners get used to associating that web site with you as much as they do your business name.

§ Create excitement. It is easy to operate a business contest from your retail sites that drives people to the web site for clues or to claim their winnings. That kind of momentum can create huge surges of traffic through your web site with the corresponding surge of sales and leads.

The modern customer or client is used to seeing the promotion of a web site included with other forms of promotion and advertising. You are not “assaulting” your customer base with this information. If anything, when your audience sees that the business has burst into the cyberspace world in a big way, they will be thrilled and as likely to respond with, “It’s about time.”.

You know how much you depend on the internet to keep you informed about areas of interest and about businesses you like to patronize. So you can see that not only putting up a good web site but letting people know that it is there and that there are big things there for them to enjoy is doing them a favor as much as it is creating new marketing opportunities for your business.

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, jamorama. Feel free to look at his jamoramawebsite jamorama review website Thank you.

One of the greatest difficulties in being a new webmaster is trying to acquire traffic. This is because trying to build legitimate traffic requires both time and money. How is this so? Well, if a webmaster is trying to obtain traffic through search engines, they will need to spend a great deal of time with link-building and content creation. If they are trying to get traffic through a pay-per-click program, they will have to invest hundreds to thousands of dollars if they want to take advantage of a high-performance keyword. However, there is another alternative that can allow a webmaster to get tons of traffic without having to invest too much in time or money. It involves purchasing expired domain names.

What is an expired domain name? An expired domain name is a domain name that never got renewed by its owner. This could be for a variety of reasons such as disinterest in the original website, lack of funds or something more serious, such as an owner’s death. Whatever the reason when the renewal fees aren’t paid, the expired domain name sits out in cyberspace still functioning as any other domain name. There is just one difference… an expired domain name doesn’t have a website attached to it, so it instead points to a 404 error page.

Indeed, it is a waste of traffic when an expired domain name points to a 404 web page. Many domain name companies have realized this, which is why quite a few sell expired domain names either through a regular, upfront sale or through an expired domain name auction. The prices for these domain names can range from less than $100 to over $1 million. Some of these sales may even include a website.

So, how does a webmaster know if an expired domain name is worth buying? First, they need to check to see the Google page rank of an expired domain name. To do this they need to download Google’s toolbar and then type in the URL of the expired domain name. The toolbar will then let them know what the page rank is. If the page rank indicator is gray, the expired domain name must be avoided since this means the site has been banned by Google. Otherwise, it should be okay, though webmasters should also take into consideration the actual number associated with the page rank. If the number is between 6 and 10, they should strongly consider buying the expired domain name.
Secondly, webmasters need to find out the Alexa rating of an expired domain name. The Alexa rating determines how much traffic has actually gone to a domain name. If a website has not received a significant amount of traffic, it will not have an Alexa rating. To determine the Alexa rating for an expired domain name, webmasters need to visit Alexa.com.

Finally, webmasters need to see how many websites are linking to the expired domain name. To do this they need to put the command link: followed by the URL of the expired domain name into a search engine. If a lot of links are returned, this is a sign that the traffic coming to the expired domain name originated from legitimate sources.

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, jamorama. Feel free to look at his jamoramawebsite jamorama review website Thank you.

Your website needs lots of visitors (traffic) if you are going to make money from it. If you do not have a large advertising budget, an effective way to advertise your site for free is to use traffic exchanges, sometimes known as surf sites. These can bring a steady stream of visitors to your website, for no outlay – very important for a business startup if you want to make money online from home.

There are two main types of traffic exchanges – manual exchanges and autosurf. A manual exchange requires you click a link after viewing every page, but you can log in to an auto exchange and leave you computer running. It is best to checking every few minutes that all is well, to ensure you get your credits.

When you join a traffic exchange (usually free) you view other members’ web pages in return for your own web page being displayed to other members in rotation. You log in to the exchange and surf, and you are credited for viewing other members’ web pages. You allocate these surfing credits to your web pages so they will be displayed to other members.

There are some important elements in surfing for traffic, which may be new to you.

– Paid/Pro Memberships – most traffic exchanges offer free membership with the optional paid upgrades. If you upgrade, there are extra benefits such as an allocation of credits per month and a higher credit ratio for pages surfed. You can also buy extra credits. You can decide whether a paid membership will help you after you have tried out the traffic exchange for free first – I have usually found that free membership gives enough credits.

– Credit Surfing – all traffic exchanges allow you to earn credits in return for viewing other members’ websites. Also look out for bonus credits: many exchanges will give you bonus credits for signing up, for surfing a certain number of pages, or they pop up as you surf, to see if you are paying attention.

– Minimum Time Limit – you need to leave a site onscreen for a minimum length of time before you earn a credit. This is normally between 10 and 30 seconds.

– Anti Cheat Mechanisms – to ensure that a real person is viewing your web site most traffic exchanges employ anti-cheating mechanisms. This usually means that instead of clicking a “Next Site” button you have to click on a specific icon such as a number, letter or picture from a selection, before you move on to the next site. If you fail this test repeatedly, your account will be terminated automatically, so pay attention!

– Referrals – this is the fastest way to build up your credits. Most traffic exchanges provide you with referral pages and banners. You can use these to recruit yourself a downline. When someone signs up from your promotional web page or banner they are placed in your downline. This can earn you an immediate bonus plus a percentage of your downline credits, for example you get one credit for every 10 sites they surf.

There are hundreds of different traffic exchange websites. You can sign up for an account instantly, submit your website’s URL and start surfing for credits. Some sites allow you to advertise up to five web pages. I usually include my homepage, plus pages promoting ebooks and free courses.

But the big question is – which traffic exchanges will give you results? Will you be promoting your website in the right places?

Traffic Hoopla produces regular reports to show the most productive and successful traffic exchanges to use. This report is updated weekly with the top 50 traffic exchanges and the top 10 new traffic exchanges. You can find out from this report who delivers the highest unique percentage of visitors and who will deliver quality traffic to your website. This will help you to decide, then you can sign up at the best traffic exchanges to get the biggest return for your efforts.

In the beginning you may want to set aside time to surf for credits – in fact some traffic exchanges require you to surf a certain number of sites to activate your account. Most people find they can complete their surfing in less than an hour a day

In the longer term the best way to make traffic exchanges work for your benefit is to build your own downline. Then the credits flow in as others do the clicking for you. You can recruit members by using the referral web pages of each of the traffic exchanges that you have signed up with or you can sign up with Traffic Hoopla and advertise the 10 best traffic exchanges in one go. This is what I did, and more than 50 people signed up under me in the first week. I now have a comfortable credit balance without needing to surf frequently, and l use my credits to promote my online businesses

This article is distributed by Hansel Gunners. He owns a site, jamorama. Feel free to look at his jamoramawebsite jamorama review website Thank you.