No website traffic.....

FrannyN. · #1 (**permalink**) 02-02-2009, 11:37 AM

I've had my at home business online now for about 5 months, and it's not getting any hits! No hits..no sales...

I've done all the "free" stuff - emails to friends, register with the search engines...etc... no luck.

I have got to get this going! I'm going to look into online advertising, but don't have a lot of money to spend. I've searched through some options, but not sure which to use.

Any advice?

familymoses · #2 (**permalink**) 02-02-2009, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrannyN.

I've had my at home business online now for about 5 months, and it's not getting any hits! No hits..no sales...

I've done all the "free" stuff - emails to friends, register with the search engines...etc... no luck.

I have got to get this going! I'm going to look into online advertising, but don't have a lot of money to spend. I've searched through some options, but not sure which to use.

Any advice?

Hi, FrannyN.

If that's all you've done, you've just barely scratched the surface of the "free" stuff.

There are 2 major elements of so called "bum marketing" that you have not mentioned and are not doing.

Number One: You don't have a signature at the end of your post. You need to do that on every forum where you post. See the end of my post for an example. You set this up in your profile and it will appear on every post you make. It provides a link back to your website which the search engines will follow when they crawl the page your post is on. For that reason, you don't ever need to register with the search engines. They will find you, anyway. Also, no one here or anywhere else (except your friends and family) has a clue what your online business even is! Your signature would tell us!

Number Two Write articles that inform people about your topic - whatever it might be - and submit them to some of the major article directories. Ezine Articles is one, for example. You will need to create a Resource Box for each article submission site. That Resource Box appears at the end of every article and must be included if someone picks up your article to use as fresh new content for their site. More publicity and more one-way back links for you. Many forums such as this one also have places for you to submit your articles. Even more publicity and more one-way back links for you!

Yes it's a lot of work but costs you nothing but time. And yes it can be effective.

Also if your site is not Search Engine Optimized the search engines will more or less ignore you.

Search Engine Optimization is kind of a combination of fine art and moving target, but any improvements you make are better than nothing.

Here is a link to a free e-book on SEO. It has been around awhile but still has some useful tips. It's a pdf file and should just download when you click on the link.

SEO_MadeEasy

Audrey · #3 (**permalink**) 02-03-2009, 09:50 AM

Sandi has offered some excellent advice. Written words are huge.

blogs
articles
forums

It's free and very effective.

2kidzmom · #4 (**permalink**) 02-09-2009, 02:50 AM

Request reciprocal links..

Audrey · #5 (**permalink**) 02-09-2009, 09:20 AM

Recipricol links are only as good as the site offering the link. I've seen sites that have a link page. This link page is somewhere deep and buried but hey, it's a true link page. This type of recipricol link is not going to help you.

On the flip side if you find one or two sites wiling to you put your link on their hoem page or even one page deep, you'll actually probably see some traffic from the link.

The same is true for blogs. I'm seeing blog rolls these days that you have to scroll and scroll to get to the bottom. How many people do this? I'd much rather have a few links on blogrolls where they are only 10 other blogs listed.

FrannyN. · #6 (**permalink**) 02-11-2009, 10:15 AM

Wow! what great advice! I knew I would find some really good information here.

I need to do a lot more work it seems. I have been looking into what you have suggested and am considering some fee based advertising too. Has anyone used the social networking options like Facebook and BizAdSplash?
Do they increase search engine optimization?

artcountry1 · #7 (**permalink**) 02-11-2009, 02:49 PM

Wow! My first time reading the forum and I find something extremely useful with the first thread I read! I went right to my profile to update it (I was on another page to do it - hopefully it shows up right away). My website is still relatively new and am trying to learn all I can about promoting it. I have had some sales from it, but I certainly cant live off of it so far. I would like to, though. In case it doesnt show up at the end of my post, it's ArtCountry Corral - Handcrafted Knives, Pens, Keychains. I have to go now - end of my lunch break at my job that I would love to quit, but I'll be back! Thanks!
Karen

Audrey · #8 (**permalink**) 02-12-2009, 09:24 AM

I love Facebook. I'm on it daily.

Ravish30 · #9 (**permalink**) 02-13-2009, 06:53 PM

I find I get a lot of traffic to my site by blogging, writing articles and by networking on quality websites and groups.

artcountry1 · #10 (**permalink**) 02-13-2009, 09:41 PM

I've heard of blogging, but I dont really know what that is. What is it exactly? I've looked at a few things to try and find out, but havent really had success. Can someone tell me please? Thanks!