Which ONE Traffic/Sales Building Strategy Should You Choose?

Now You want to start growing the traffic to your website, so you can steadily increase sales of your product or service.  But if you're like most small business owners, you have limited time and money for promotion. With that in mind, here is the one question you must answer: 

Which ONE of the following traffic/sales building strategies should you focus the majority of your efforts on?

  Getting good search engines ranking?  Setting up and maintaining a Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising campaign?  Setting up a blog and RSS feed?  Starting a viral article marketing campaign?  Utilizing traffic exchange networks?  Starting an affiliate program and seeking out JV partners?

You'll find the correct answer below.

I've used all of the above strategies and had different levels of success with each one of them. And I do think that using each one will help grow your business. So today I'll speak briefly about each strategy.

Then I'll share how and why one strategy works FAR better than all the rest combined. 

Getting good search engines rankings works well but is very difficult. Sure, the free traffic that good rankings can generate is certainly an attractive lure, but unless you are in a small niche, you can end up spending oodles of time and or money getting your site near the top of the major search engine results. And what can you do when search engines change their algorithms and your site drops? Nothing. The fact is, search engines have nearly all the control when you use this strategy and relying on search engines for the majority of your traffic is a mistake.

Setting up and maintaining a Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising campaign can bring immediate traffic to any website. But do you have any idea how much money you will need to spend if you are in a busy niche? Sure, Google Adwords is one of the best places to BUY traffic on the Internet, but small businesses need to focus on ways to get traffic without paying for it!

Setting up a blog and RSS feed is a solid strategy, and you'll find a myriad of books about "blog and ping" and rss as the future technology you cannot pass up. But the fact is, they are not the answer to high traffic and sales. They are merely technological tools developed for the purpose of distributing information. These technologies are not the Holy Grail of marketing, as many have professed.

Starting a viral article marketing campaign is a great way to get traffic for free. And it is one of my personal favorites. But let's face it, this strategy can be a lot of work. Sure, tools such as ArticleAnnouncer can speed the process and ease the learning curve, but many business owners simply do not have the time to dedicate to faithfully writing/acquiring articles and distributing them to websites and editors on a regular basis.

Utilizing viral traffic networks such as TrafficSwarm can bring lots of traffic to any site. In fact, I get literally thousands of visitors a month from TrafficSwarm so naturally I recommend it to me readers. That's because free traffic should always be utilized in small business, whenever possible. But the fact is, traffic from ANY such "traffic network" is commonly known to convert into sales at a lower percentage than traffic that comes from sources such as search engines, articles or personal recommendations.  

Which leads me to the final strategy, a strategy that will work forever and works better than all the previous strategies combined -- if you know what you're doing...

Starting an affiliate program and seeking out JV partners is the most effective, longest lasting strategy for growing traffic and sales at your website.

I've started using this strategy more and more this year and the results have been phenomenal.

Getting started...

Setting up an affiliate program is pretty simple these days. I use my webbusinesswizard.com pro account to handle my own affiliate program but you can find dozens of low cost solutions by searching google.com for affiliate management solutions. The key is to choose a simple solution that you can get working in a day or two.

Once you have your affiliate program in place, you decide what percentage you want to pay affiliates (I suggest 30% as a minimum in this highly competitive environment) and then post a link for your website visitors to join. Once they join make sure they get access to lots of marketing tools such as banners, solo emails and sponsor ads. Also make sure you system follows up with them regularly to assist them in their efforts.

The real key is to get proactive with your affiliate recruitment. Every day you should contact at least 3 or 4 owners of websites in niches similar to yours. Spend a little time at their site and if you like their product or service, tell them you want to promote it for them.That's right!Tell them you want to promote THEIR product? It's called Synergy.Dictionary.com defines "synergy" as: "The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects"And that says it all, really.You see, you should not be out there "pitching" potential super-affiliates. You know that tired ol' bit... "I have a new product and I'll give you X% of the profits if you'll promote it."Frankly, webmasters are tiring of those pitches. In fact, I receive literally dozens of them every week now. I don't have time to even look at all those offers.HOWEVER... (And this is the real twist that makes it effective)When someone comes to me and says, "Hey Jim, I think I can sell lots of copies of your new software..." then I sit up and take notice. And that folks, is the #1 job of any JV offer.So that's what you should be doing in your own efforts.Of course, at the same time, you will also "introduce" a product of yours that would fit in well with their niche. Here's a sample letter you can use to make the first contact...

Subject: I'd like to promote your site

Hi {NAME},

My name is {NAME} and I own {WEBSITE}. I just found your site today and I believe many of my website visitors would find your {PRODUCT NAME} quite useful. Would you be interested in a little cross-promoting?I'm confident I could bring you lots of fresh sales, and I'll pay you handsomely for any sales you generate of my product. Of course I'd be happy to send my product to you so that you can review it first. Just say the word and I'll get it right out.Sincerely, {YOUR NAME}

What you will find resulting time and time again is a JV-JV, or double joint venture, where you promote their product and they promote yours. Synergy. Increased sales. Call it what you want, it is very effective and profitable for both parties involved. Here are a few tips to consider before you start using this strategy.Tip #1: Make sure you have a top-notch product, service or opportunity to present BEFORE you start using this strategy. You'll need testimonials in place and you should also be willing to offer a complimentary review of your offering.Tip #2: Stick to businesses that are NOT directly competing with you, but whose offerings are in the same niche. For example, if your site offers discount search engine submissions, don't try to hook up with another search engine submission site. Instead, try domain name registrars, web hosting companies, or similar sites.Tip #3: Try to find other businesses whose traffic and subscriber lists are comparable to yours.  

Again, this is a strategy that will work forever. It is not subject to being blocked by technology or becoming less effective over time, like many strategies. So if you are not yet using an affiliate program at your site, and actively seeking out potential partners on a regular basis, I suggest you start today.