I thought I’d start my online money making blog addressing the most crucial part, building website traffic.  Many people look at starting a website as a tool to make money, but you cannot capitalize on such an effort without significant website traffic.  If you are one of the many browsing webmaster forums or reading SEO blogs, you have probably been fed a variety of false strategies.  Most of these so called experts are just talking parrots repeating what the last talking parrot said.  Not many have the legitimate personal experience to offer you any sound advice.  These squawking parrots are simple “mushmouths” bubbling about website traffic building strategies that produce little to no results.

How many of you have heard the following?

- Search Engine Optimize your website
- Publish articles on article sites
- Use Pingomatic to notify when a new post is published
- Social bookmark, such as Digg your pieces
- Use social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook
- Submit to Blog Carnivals
- Comment on related blogs
- Submit to directories
- Post on popular related forums

If I went to every webmaster forum and just copy and pasted the list above to every thread asking about search engine optimization, building website traffic, and creating backlinks, I would become a talking parrot that is only contributing in order to inflate post counts and increase the exposure of the links in my signatures.  Who wants to take advice from squawking birds that have nothing unique to add?  The truth is you'll only see trickles of traffic with most of these methods.  Let’s take a look at how these traffic building strategies measure up.

Search Engine Optimization

The only one worth pursing in depth is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  However, even if you do it right, you probably won't be listed high enough to be seen; at least for the first year.  The algorithm that produces the SERP is ever changing and rarely makes sense to anyone.  Organic traffic is overrated, there is no guarantee, and that is just the way it is.

Publishing Articles

Article writing is a difficult and time consuming effort.  What if your articles are poorly written, not informative, or just basically crap.  If anyone has been duped into hiring an article writing firm that will write and publish an article promoting your site, you know what I’m talking about.  These articles are just spun and spun by the agency and they ramble on about nothing and provide no incentive for a reader to even visit the link therein.  Even if you get some quality articles out there, only a very small percentage of your readers will actually click to go to your website.  It would require hundreds of articles for just so so traffic.  You are better off adding that content value directly into your website.

Pinging Your Website

Pinging is absolutely worthless if nobody is on the receiving end.  Also, almost all modern content management systems automatically broadcast updates with a ping to feed aggregators and web servers.  The talking parrot just wasted minutes of your life on this one.

Social Bookmark and Networking

Marketing on social bookmarking sites is hard to do without being pegged as a spammer.  You will have to spend more time befriending others and building trust and reputation than working on your website in the first place.  This takes too much time for too little results.  The majority of your followers and those you’re befriending all probably have the same motivation, free advertisement.  However, no one actually reads the promotional link spam you send and you certainly don’t read others.  So why are we bothering to listen to these parrots shouting about social bookmarking instead of shooting them with a pellet gun between the eyes?  Unless you have something viral, don’t bother.

Submitted to Blog Carnivals and Directories

Has anyone been to a blog carnival or directory site looking for information?  No!  The only dopes that go to these sites are webmasters looking to receive a backlink and nothing more.  There are only two directories worth pursuing DMOZ and Yahoo.  Getting listed in DMOZ will cost you your first born and yahoo a week’s paycheck.  Regardless, the authority of these two directories are in constant decline and real web browsers use search engines not directories.  You’re better off collecting Beanie Babies and hoping that fad returns before receiving traffic from anything resembling a list of links.

Commenting on Blogs and Participating in Forums

This is the bottom of the barrel in marketing.  Experienced webmasters have found that there are very few clicks on forum link signatures or blog comment links.  Of the few that are curious, a very very small percentage will convert to a purchase or stay on your site for more than a few seconds.  Most are just wondering who you are and what you are affiliated with.  High bounce rates are notorious.  Also, this is where you are going to find the majority of the squawking parrots and legitimate traffic is looking for posts that are creative and provide new information or an intelligent debate.  I suggest you throw the parrot in the barrel, dump a school of piranha in, and seal the lid.

So what is the best way to build website traffic you ask? 

Ignore the talking parrots and advertise, but the right way.  I'm afraid if you want to make money, you are going to have to spend it.  The parrots will tell you to give Google AdWords or another pay per click firm a try.  They are just soliciting a referral program.  In reality, this form of advertising is way too competitive and has enormously high rates.  You will be throwing money away in return for very few visitors and even a smaller number will convert to any sort of sale.  Also, why would you want to put your ad directly underneath or on top of a competitor's ad?  There is just too much noise and wasted money there. 

Advertising on large sites, such as YouTube or Ebay, is also not recommended.  Due to their very large traffic base, the owners can command a very high price.  Practically all who use these sites do not click on the ads, it's just that kind of a site.  You will not make your money back; in fact the talking parrot will eat your shirt.

Another avenue of building traffic to your website could be advertising via the traditional methods of the past.  For example, placing a sign in your vehicle that can be seen through the back windshield; turning your car into a driving billboard; placing flyers on parked vehicles.  These simple advertising approaches may net a few curious visitors, but they are grossly unrealistic in expecting the results to be worth the effort.  It all comes down to "time is money".  The freebie traffic building techniques described thus far are too much of a time investment and the advertisement methods above do not produce enough bang for your buck.  Listening to these parrots is wasting your time. 

Advertising Huh, so what is the right way to advertise a website? 

Learn how to be a cheap and creative advertiser. Creativity is something that is lacking in the parrots of today.  Think outside the box and find advertising space that is undervalued.  It's really the only way to get a lot of traffic on a consistent basis.  Advertise on small to medium websites directly with the webmaster.  Focus on small but traffic steady websites where through volume you can accumulate lots of real traffic.  Cut out the middle man and negotiate flat rates with the web publisher. 

Create interesting and curious looking banner advertisements.  Do not buy banners, just make your own.  Try Banner Fans if you don’t have photoshop.  Most internet surfers have banner blinders on so you need to get creative in your design.  Use a small picture and a catchy phrase that you yourself would click on.  One such example is the marketing genius behind The Rich Jerk product line.  Most of the advertisements are insulting and crude that catches the eye of curious web surfers.  A key phrase such as “I’m Rich, You’re Not” coming from a SouthParkish cartoon character flipping you off is going to get much more traffic than “Get an Awesome Make Money Online Ebook Here.”

Once you have a viralish marketing strategy, build your Ad campaign and test what converts.  Obviously, the better you get at this the more website traffic you will receive.  If you've spent time creating a good blog or content site instead of investing insane amounts of time with frivolous freebie marketing efforts, eventually word of mouth will take over to the point where you will not have to advertise as much.  When a webmaster claims they get thousands of visits daily, it is due to advertising, word of mouth, and repeat visitors built up over time.  Anyone who says differently is either trying to sell you something or they have a slow dead site themselves.  Honestly, this is the only way to build real traffic to your website.

Once you have built up a decent amount of traffic, you’ll want to monetize on this effort.  For that, browse through our Online Money Making Opportunity Reviews and find out what program would best suit capitalizing on your newfound website traffic. Now that you’re on the road to success, find a stick and hunt down all the squawking parrots that have led you astray.