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How can I drive more business to my website

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    cashcowcashcow subscriber Posts: 1
    I keep hearing about the Ezine success rates and think I`m going to try that. There are some many options as you can see from the suggestions and recommendations above.
    What additional success stories are there with using the Ezine approach.
    Thx Glen
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    eGurueGuru subscriber Posts: 7
    Hi SauceLady,
    I am sure you have heard this over and over again during your research as well as responses to your posting.  The basic ways to build exposure/traffic and more sales conversions is through:
    1) SEO - search engine optimization which includes the link building (exchanges), meta tags, etc that you have been hearing about.  the most cost effective solution in the long run definitely (it takes time but its most worth it)
    2) PPC - paying google/yahoo engines to list your site for a fee for everytime someone clicks on your link (short term quick sales generator solution) - i recommend this after you have succeeded very well with #1 SEO organic link building
    3) SEM - search engine marketing..publishing on journals and press releases, non web site avenues to advertise.
    The procedure is vast and is a long term process.  There are firms specializing in all this stuff that do not promise/guarantee anything yet charge you anywhere from $2k per month all the way up to $45k per month plus a up front fee.  I experienced and learned the rates as I was looking to hire someone for my business www.myperfumesforless.com</A>. 
    My partner and I decided to learn this on our own and over the past year and a half or so we have exploded in our site`s growth as well as retained clients who we perform this work for at a cost much lower than what firms charge.  I would be glad to discuss this further with you.  Currently there are over 150 links of google.com that are oranically dedicated to my site and I do not pay a penny for any of it.
    Good luck!
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    sauceladysaucelady subscriber Posts: 1
    Hi Mariam, Tawya and eGuru,
    It is amazing to me that wealth of information that all three of you and everyone else who has taken time to write to me have.
    I do have a professional webmaster and have been sending him all of your suggestions as one of the first places for me to get started....thank you thank you thank you.
    Sauce Lady
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    PokermanPokerman subscriber Posts: 5
    Hello Sauce Lady....
    From a fellow Northwesterner.... I just visited your website and notice the one page that doesn`t include your phone number and fax number is the "Contact Us" page.
    Although your phone number is included in the footer of nearly every page, it is below the fold and somewhat undiscoverable without scrolling.
    It is one thing to drive traffic to a website but once someone is at the site it is important that they be able to contact you easily.  Move your phone number to above the fold.
    Have a question about our Seafood and Meat Sauce products or just need to contact us? 
    Rozana`s Company555 Main Street Kent, WA 98030Phone# xxx-xxx-xxxx Fax# xxx-xxx-xxxx
    Or.....
    Enter your request below. We will respond A.S.A.P.
    Although your phone number is available, the contact page gives the impression that you would prefer to be contacted through email.  If I have a question as a customer or potential customer, I want an answer now...
    You should also include your left navigation on the contact page.  It appears that I`m no longer on your primary site without the navigation.
    You also have a menu item "Events Schedule" yet there is no schedule on the page and the text that is there is about an "upcoming event" that occurred in 2006 
    Surfing a website for information that isn`t there or is outdated is disrespectful of a potential clients time.  Every week or so, simply surf your own site and ensure that everything is still pertinent and functioning.
    I do intend on getting down to Larry`s Market one of these days and checking out your product.
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    sauceladysaucelady subscriber Posts: 1
    HI Pokerman,
    Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments I have pasted them off to my webmaster to take care of. As far as Larry`s is concerned alas they have closed up shop and it is one of the things on my list to remove. However if you have a Thriftway or Central Market in your are I know they do carry my product. Thanks again for the insight.
    SauceLady
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    DirtbagceoDirtbagceo subscriber Posts: 3
    I would recommend a new site called www.squidoo.com</A> check it out. It`s a blog on steroids and will help you rankings on google
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    sauceladysaucelady subscriber Posts: 1
    Great I will check it out!!!
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    ZachzZachz subscriber Posts: 0
    Good thread.
    With Google adwords, it`s all about relevancy.
    Your website has to be relavent to your advertising. The more relavent your website, the lower your bid prices. With a $5.99 product, you need low bid prices. 
    Anyway, I`m relatively new to google adwords, but I just wanted to recommend a fantastic website that has helped me understand google adwords.
    Check out their Free Internet Wealth Guide.
    www.wealthyaffiliate.com/?a_aid=M0gUA0C5</A>
    ZachZachz2007-2-11 22:20:38
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    rexiedexierexiedexie subscriber Posts: 97 Silver Level Member
    Saucelady
    I recently (about 10 days ago) found and joined a new program similar to Google Adsense.
    They give you 5,000,000 free text and banner ad displays just for joining.
    I just wrote an article about this as I got a real shock when I logged in to see what I had earned.
    Read the article here. You can also review this program.
    sense_or_will_they_go_broke
    .
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    rexiedexierexiedexie subscriber Posts: 97 Silver Level Member
    Saucelady
    Sorry... apparently writingup has been down  for some days. This often happens as the site gets traffic overload.
    Another link to get the 5,000,000 free ads
    See http://www.freeads.love-au.com/</A>
    If writingup comes back online soon you can read the article then.
    .rexiedexie2007-4-24 13:9:37
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    sauceladysaucelady subscriber Posts: 1
    Thanks for all you help.
    R
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    JeannieJeannie subscriber Posts: 8
    Hi SauceLady,
    You may want to post your website on StumbleUpon.com. 
    Recently, somebody posted my site onto StumbleUpon and I`ve gotten more than the usual traffic. When I first launched my site to the internet, I averaged about 30 unique visitors a day. But after being on StumbleUpon, I`m getting an average of 400 visitors per day. This may not be much for some, but this is my start and I`m grateful to have any at all!  
    Another way to get traffic is by visiting sites that asks for tips or those that have a "suggest a link" button! I have been visiting gadget sites and have submitted tips and they`ve featured my product! If you google my product name, SmudgeGuard, you can see all that have linked to me. It`s really fun to see the list growing! So try that out! If they find your product interesting and beneficial to their readers, they will post it!
    So, those are my two tips.  If I have more, I`ll share it with everyone here. Hope it helps!
    Thanks!
    Jeannie
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    sauceladysaucelady subscriber Posts: 1
    Wow great ideas. I will give it a try.
    Thanks so much,
    SL
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    DennisDennis subscriber Posts: 0
    I checked out your website and I would suggest you start a newsletter or give away something on your site that potential customers would really value.
    Add a subscription form displayed prominently on your web-site so people can sign up and you can build a list. I see you have a mailing list form and that`s great, but it needs to stand out and give your potential customer an incentive to sign up.
    Provide them great information through a newsletter about your business and build a relationship with these subscribers.
    You can drive all the people you want to your website, but most likely they aren`t going to buy something from you on the first visit and if they leave, they will probably not come back. By capturing their contact info on that first visit, you can start building that relationship with them and follow up with them.
    As far as driving traffic to your site: Create a report in the same subject area as your ezine maybe 20 or 30 pages. Put som good info in it. Make it the best report you can.
    Don`t put any advertising, affiliate links or anything promotional in it. The purpose of this only to generate high qualified prospects to your web-site capture page.
    Find websites that are influencers in your target market.These are websites that everyone in your niche know about and belongs to. Create a separate copy of your report for each major website you find and Brand the report with the websites name and address on the cover page.
    Something like Brought to you by ABSwebsite.com
    Make sure your signup page is displayed on the front coverof the report and possibly every page in the report so they can go directly to the page and sign up.
    Send the report to the webmaster and tell them you prepared the report and are giving them the rights to redistribute the report at no cost. Also tell them that there report is branded with their url displayed right on the cover page.This in most cases will be enough to get them to mention it to their list and offer their subcribers a download link.Offer to host the download or let them set up their own link, whichever is easiest for them.
    Also an additional incentive to get the webmaster to to agree to distribute the report if they are reluctant is to let them include their affiliate link to any one of their programs they want to promote in a prominent area like the title page or cover. It`s not going to hurt your signups but will make it a win-win situation.
    I hope this can give you some added info to help you with your business.
    Have a great day.
    Sincerely,
    Dennis Stokes 
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