Let's face it... If you want to be successful and make the highest earnings possible, then you need to be driving tons of targeted traffic to your web site. Without traffic, the most compelling sales copy, the most informative articles, and the most well-designed web sites sit idle... and unprofitable.

Unfortunately, much of the traffic generation advice and tips that you'll get from online e-zines and marketing experts is geared toward large corporations with million-dollar advertising budgets -- completely useless theory if you're a one- or two-person operation looking for "in the trenches" guerrilla marketing secrets.

I'd like to give you 5 simple traffic tricks that you can start profiting from immediately -- secrets that absolutely anyone can use to dramatically increase your monthly earnings, no matter whether your advertising budget is $10 per month, $100 per month, or $1,000 per month!

• TRAFFIC TRICK #1: Purchase Ad Space In Newsletters And E-zines

  The beauty of purchasing ad space in online newsletters and e-zines is that you can target your market with laser-like precision. Online newsletters tend to narrowly focus their content to meet the needs and capture the loyalty of a very specific readership... giving you the perfect opportunity to get your ad in front of your best potential customers!

  Of course, in order for this type of advertising to work, you need to be very careful when choosing which newsletters to purchase ad space in. There are several factors that should be taken into consideration including:

  • Who are the readers? Do they fit the profile of your best potential customer?
  • How many subscribers are there? This question is important when deciding what you're willing to pay to advertise in a particular newsletter. Do the math and figure out what you're paying per subscriber.
  • Where will your ad be placed?Will it be at the top of the newsletter? The middle? The bottom? Will it be surrounded by other ads?
  • How big can your ad be? Will it only be a few lines of text? A paragraph? An entire article?

  These are all factors that should be taken into consideration when deciding what an ad in a particular newsletter is worth to you.

  The best way to find targeted newsletters is by surfing the Web and contacting the sites one by one. If you do this, you'll likely find a number of excellent newsletters with a loyal subscriber base that have not yet taken advantage of their advertising potential.

  There are plenty of sites that have developed a strong relationship with their readers, but that have never offered advertising before and likely don't know what it's worth. These can be some of the most profitable newsletters to advertise in!

  Not only do you get quality advertising at bargain basement prices, you also get first crack at advertising to a readership that is "ripe for the picking!"

  Of course, e-zine ads aren't just an easy way to drive reams of targeted visitors to your web site for minimal cost, they can also be a great place to promote your affiliate products!

  For example, it would be extremely easy to take one of the "E-zine Sponsorship" ads that we give you in the Affiliate Resource Center and purchase ad space in a targeted industry e-zine that caters to online business owners.

  Contact your favorite industry newsletters and inquire about their advertising rates. And if you are not having any luck locating ad space, then you may also wish to search the sites listed below for newsletters that cater to your industry or niche:

  • http://ezine-universe.com/
  • http://www.ezinehub.com/
  • http://www.newsletteraccess.com

• TRAFFIC TRICK #2: Bid On Keywords In The Pay-Per-Click Search Engines

  Pay-per-click search engines are much like auctions -- they allow you to bid for top-ranking positions under keywords of your choice. For each visitor who searches the keyword(s) you rank under and then clicks through to your web site, you pay whatever you bid. Prices typically range from 1 cent to numerous dollars per click-through for popular keywords.

  For example, let's say that your web site caters to bowling enthusiasts, and you want to be ranked in Overture.com (the most popular pay-per-click search engine) under the keyword "bowling." In order to be ranked in the #1 spot, you would need to outbid the site that currently claims the top spot.

  For the sake of this example, let's say that to be ranked #1, you need to pay 12 cents per visitor -- the site that's currently in the #1 spot is paying 11 cents per visitor. So you submit your bid of 12 cents, and within a couple of days, your web site is ranked in the #1 spot in Overture.com under the keyword "bowling."

  Now when someone searches "bowling" in Overture.com, your web site appears in the #1 position. If they read your site description and title, and decide that your site might be relevant to their needs, they may decide to click on your link. If they do click through to your web site, you are charged 12 cents.

  There are a few advantages to bidding on keywords through the pay-per-click search engines...

  1. You only ever pay for advertising that works because you only pay when someone actually clicks-through to your web site. This means that pay-per-click search engines can be a cheap way to draw targeted traffic to your web site.
  2. Rather than waiting weeks, even months, for your web site to be listed with many of the other search engines, pay-per-click search engines will list your site within as little as a couple of hours, a couple of days at most.
  3. All you need to do to be ranked in a #1 spot is outbid the other sites. It's a pretty straightforward process compared to achieving and maintaining a top ranking position in the "regular" search engines.
  4. If you rank in the top 3 bids under any keyword in Overture.com, your web site will also automatically get exposure in other top search engines like Yahoo!, MSN, Netscape, AltaVista, Lycos, and HotBot under your particular keyword or phrase.

  The most popular pay-per-click search engine is Overture.com -- it receives the most traffic by far. However, there are many others worth considering, including Kanoodle.com, Bay9.com (Xuppa), FindWhat.com, and 7search.com.

  While the less trafficked pay-per-click search engines may not drive as many visitors to your web site, you will be able to purchase top ranking positions much cheaper than you will in Overture.com, so take this into consideration when choosing where to spend your advertising dollars.

  Important Note: Please understand that I'm not suggesting that you start bidding $1 or more per visitor when you're just starting out. Focus on targeted keywords and phrases that your visitors will be using to find you in the search engines, but that are what you determine to be "reasonably priced" (what you are willing to pay to attract a visitor will vary depending on your business model, your visitor-to-sale conversion ratio, and your profit margin).

  If you have a serious interest in increasing your site traffic using the pay-per-click search engines, then I'd highly recommend reading the following two articles before placing your first bids. Here you'll learn:

  1. How to determine what a single visitor to your web site is worth -- know exactly (don't guess!) what you can afford to pay for advertising!
  2. How to scoop up inexpensive and neglected traffic streams with strategic bidding strategies!

• TRAFFIC TRICK #3: Secure Links From Related Web Sites

  A really effective way to attract highly targeted traffic is by including quality content and information on your web site that will be of interest to your target market and then persuading other related sites in your industry to link to you as a resource for their visitors.

  You see, a link is equivalent to a personal recommendation. A link from another well-respected webmaster establishes your credibility even before the visitor reaches your web site, dramatically increasing the likelihood that they will buy.

  Think about it... When visitors arrive at their favorite web site and notice a link posted to your site, they automatically assume YOUR site must be credible! They know and trust their favorite site, and therefore trust this link as a powerful recommendation -- your credibility is established before visitors even arrive at your homepage!

  For my Car Secrets Revealed site (http://www.carsecrets.com/), we spent two solid months locating high traffic car sites and convincing them (by e-mail, phone, and fax) to link to us. It was hard work, but now these links are generating over 22,000 visitors to our site every month!

  That's over 250,000 visitors a year, for years to come. And all it took was a couple month's hard work. I'm sure you can imagine the profit we make from 250,000 targeted visitors per year!

  Obviously, developing a linking strategy that directs a high volume of targeted traffic to your web site is not an overnight process. First you need to develop quality, in-demand content for your web site that's going to interest your market.

  (If your site doesn't offer quality content, and it's just a blatant plug for an affiliate product, other webmasters aren't going to link to your site -- they're just going to go join the affiliate program and promote the product to their visitors themselves!)

  Then, once your content is ready to go, it will take anywhere from two weeks to six months to secure the quality links you need.

  While this might seem like a lot of work, I promise you that it's worth the effort! Once you have done the initial footwork, the links that are established will remain on these sites for years to come. It's a strategy that costs you nothing more than your time, and that can result in years worth of traffic and commissions!

• TRAFFIC TRICK #4: Place FREE Classified Ads

  When approached with the right technique, online classified advertising can be a powerful way to attract new visitors to your web site and promote affiliate products to generate impressive commissions... all with very little investment!

  Did you know that there are well OVER 2,000 Free Classified Ad Sites on the Net? It's true... There are hundreds and hundreds of classified ad sites that will allow you to post your advertisement at absolutely no cost, giving you a cheap and easy opportunity to drive more traffic and more sales to your web site.

  Of course, you need to be prepared to work at it because placing your ad on one or two sites isn't going to generate much of a response.

  While a classified ad site might receive a reasonable amount of traffic, there may only be a handful of people -- even just 1 or 2 -- each day who are interested in the category that you've submitted your ad to. So you might only have a few people read your ad, never mind click through it.

  That's why submitting your ad to the free online classifieds is a numbers game. If you want to generate the most sales and traffic, you need to submit your ad to as many sites as you possibly can.

  To start placing your ads, just search "free classified ads" in any search engine, and you'll be swamped with sites that you can post your ads to immediately.

  Actually, before you get started, I'd recommend saving your ad in a Word document on your desktop, so you can just copy and paste it instead of retyping it over and over again for each new ad site you submit to. That way, you can be sure you won't make typographical errors and save yourself a bit of time.

  And of course, if the thought of placing your ads manually doesn't appeal to you and you'd rather find a way to automate this, I'd recommend that you check out Power Submitter, a powerful software that will submit your ad to the top 2,000 classified ad sites -- automatically.

  The software is dirt cheap and can save you a ton of time, but if you're on a really tight budget, I wanted to make sure you knew that you could do this technique manually... at least to start with until your traffic and sales pick up and your time is more valuably spent on other promotions.

• TRAFFIC TRICK #5: Promote Yourself Through Online Communities

  Look. I'm not going to kid you -- promoting your e-business through online communities is not an overnight moneymaker. This marketing technique takes a serious commitment to the long-term success of your business.

  However, with hundreds of thousands of online communities to choose from, and with millions of people reading and participating in these worldwide discussions every day, online communities can still be a great place to...

  • Kick-start your sales campaign when you're first getting your business off the ground by getting your name and URL in front of targeted potential customers.
  • Develop your reputation as an industry expert by making yourself available to answer questions and provide participants with information that they will value.

  ... Of course, for this to work, you need to use the right approach.

  You see, online community promotions are ultimately about selling yourself as industry expert with a wealth of knowledge to share. Gimmicky sales tactics and hype do NOT work! People participate in these online communities because they want to share information -- not because they want to be "sold" something.

  So this means that you should be looking for opportunities to respond to questions with the exact information the poster is looking for in order to gain the respect of the community. The trick is to sit back, listen, and wait for legitimate opportunities to share your expertise.

  Some good places to start looking for discussion boards and newsgroups related to your area of interest include...

  • http://groups.google.com/
  • http://www.talkcity.com

  ... but a quick search of "newsgroup directories" in any major search engine should also produce good boards and chat rooms to check out.

  as well, if you'd like to try starting an online community of your very own, some other great places to look are:

  • http://www.yahoogroups.com
  • http://groups.aol.com

  However, be warned! Online services like this don't take kindly to blatant advertisements. So make sure you provide valuable information in response to participants questions and use your community as an opportunity to establish your credibility; drive visitors to your web site by referring them to it as a resource that answers their questions.

Final Thoughts:

If you've been looking for ways to dramatically increase the traffic to your web site, then the 5 traffic generation secrets I've shared in this article should prove very useful. However, these are by no means the ONLY ways to drive traffic to your web site. Nor has this been a thorough discussion of each technique.

The truth is, in my Insider Secrets course, I spend more than 12 lessons of the 22 (that's more than half of the 1,000+ pages of tips, strategies, and resources) discussing the most potent, most cost-effective strategies for driving targeted traffic to your web site. Not to mention all the pages devoted to discussing strategies for monetizing your traffic like capturing visitors' e-mail addresses so that you can market to them again and again!

If you'd like to learn the tested and proven marketing strategies I reveal in this #1 best-selling Internet marketing course, you can claim your very own copy... Internet Marketing Center - Insider Secrets.