Build The Path and They Will Come

Your profit is directly related to the amount of sales you
generate. Your sales are directly related to the number
of visitors you get to your website. Your visitor
traffic is directly related to your web presence. Your
web presence is the quantity and quality of paths that
lead to your website.

Therefore, the most important thing you can do to increase
your profit is to increase the quantity and quality of
paths to your website. It is as simple as that.

Here are five good ways to build new paths starting
today. All of these methods take time, but the time spent
is a good investment. Our clients pay us to improve their
web presence and these are the methods we use for our
clients and for ourselves.

1. Link Exchange

If you don't already have a link directory on your site,
create one today. This is one of the easiest and most
effective methods of improving your web presence and
building new paths to your website. You simply find
sites similar in topic to your own and offer to trade
links with the webmaster of these sites. This is one of
the oldest and most effective methods of building new
paths to your site.

2. Publish Your Own Newsletter

If you don't have your own newsletter, start one today.
Have several links in your newsletter to different pages
on your site including: your archive of past articles,
a page to subscribe to your newsletter (for those who
receive it from a friend), a page to unsubscribe, a page
to submit articles, etc.

When you send out your newsletter, you will be reminding
past visitors to visit again. You will also be providing
them an easy path back to your site with the links in
your newsletter.

You should also make a note in your newsletter that your
articles are available to be printed in another
newsletter or on another website for free as long as a
link is included to your website (another path).

3. Submit Articles To Other Newsletters

You are already publishing your own newsletter; right?
Why not write an extra article and submit it to other
newsletters with the same topic as your own? Most will
include a link to your site in their newsletter (another
path). Many will also publish your article on their site
along with a link to your site (yet another path).

4. Participate in Online Discussion Forums

Join all of the online discussion forums, newsgroups, and
mailing lists you can find in your topic area. Never
discuss your product/service on the discussion forum.
This is considered very bad taste in many forums and
outright spam in other forums. However, if you
participate in these forums by answering questions and
being genuinely helpful, you will be noticed.

Include a link to your site in your signature so that
those who like your advice can drop by for a visit. The
simple link in your signature becomes a new path to your
site every time you help someonw by answering a question.

5. Syndicate Free Content

When you are building content for your site, always offer
it for use on other sites. Simply include a note at the
bottom of your page saying that webmasters are welcome
to copy anything in return for a link to your site.

This might include articles, pictures, scripts, etc.
Encourage others to copy your site as long as they provide
another path to your site.

Be sure to do a little of each of these methods every week
and your site will soon be among the most visited sites in
your topic area.

Someone once said "If you build it, they will come." I
believe that statement to be true. But you can't just
build the best website in the world and expect everyone
to visit tomorrow. You also have to build the paths to
get to that website.

If you build those paths, they will come!