By JP McDonald

Targeted website traffic – you hear that term a lot these days. Most people know what it means and understand the concept. Some people actually strive for it. Some people don’t. In plain English, with targeted website traffic, your site has a chance to make some real money and there’s a slight chance you might be able to make a living of the internet. But, without targeted website traffic, your site is doomed to die a slow, painful death until it quietly fades away into the dust like so many thousands of other websites. If you do a search on any of the major search engines for the term ‘traffic’ you will get mostly websites regarding automobile traffic, traffic reports, road conditions, road closures, motor additives, etc. If you do a search on any of the major search engines for the term ‘website traffic’ you will get mostly websites regarding traffic exchanges, stat counters, web searches, page optimization, how to build a website, etc. If you do a search on any of the major search engines for the term ‘targeted website traffic’ you will finally get the picture of what this article is all about – making money on the internet. That’s why you are here, that’s why you have a website, that’s why you are reading this article in the first place. Targeted Website Traffic is King Without sufficient targeted website traffic to your website nothing will happen – no sales, no rankings, no noteriety, nothing. You need this type of traffic in order to generate sales, provide leads, gather email addresses and create advertising exposure. So many good things happen when one can actually tap into the targeted website traffic market that it’s difficult to name them all. Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about: * Sales First and foremost, sales is what you are after. Only targeted traffic will get you the sales you need to stay in business on the internet. * Links More targeted traffic leads come from links to similar websites than any other source. These can be either direct links to your website, Adsense links, press releases, blogs, or any other form of advertising that gets your website in front of other people’s eyes. * Free Advertising As the search engines pick up on your increasing number of visitors, especially if they come from related linking websites, your rankings will hopefully rise and your PageRank wil improve. Having your site on the first three pages of any major search engine is optimum exposure for your site and will bring in customers ‘off the street’, as it were. This is free advertising. * More Links Another benefit to your rise in the search engine rankings, and your rising PageRank, will be your ability to inundated with link requests from every other website imaginable. Remember, stick with only those that relate to your own site. Again, free advertising. It’s one thing to get your website noticed by the search engines but it’s quite another to get your website noticed by the buying public. Just because you have great links, great positioning in the major search engines, and great links will not produce sales. So, how can you become successful where most of the others have failed? What is the magic key to making all these sales that everyone is talking about? I’m glad you asked: The Magic Key Are you ready? Are you sitting down? Do you have a paper and pen ready to take notes? Well, then, calm down, take a deep breath, and just remember this one simple fact of internet life: The website makes the sales, not you, not your links, not your search engine presence, not even your friends or comrades whom you sent to check out your ‘wonderful little website.’ Unless your site screams out to the world, ‘BUY MY PRODUCT!!’, you will not make enough money to buy one month’s worth of internet cable service. You can buy, grab, obtain, link, and get all the targeted website traffic in the world but it will not sell a single product and/or service unless your website is compelling enough to do the selling for you. Design is one thing, content is another and, remember, content is everything. It makes the search engine robots and spiders visit your site on a daily basis, it makes visitors want to buy, bookmark, or return for a future purchase, and it makes one think, ‘Hmm…maybe I really do need this product and/or service.’ Just keep thinking to yourself, ‘Design and content, design and content…’, over and over. Plus, once your website is complete, it isn’t. A proper website is always refining itself and a webmaster knows this. The search engine robots and spider love new content so a little change here or a little change there will make a huge splash with them as they cruise your site on a daily basis. Targeted Website Traffic Can Make or Break a Website While having a great design and excellent content on your website is the best possible thing that you can have on the internet, it will still sit there and gather dust until you get the traffic flowing. Unless your website is the only site on the internet that sells a particular product or service, you will be lost in a crowd of thousands or possibly millions. Remember the term, ‘Targeted Website Traffic’, and keep this in mind: * Is it really targeted? Are the visitors you get to your website actually looking for what your site has to offer? If you buy your traffic from a service, how can you be sure that you get what you pay for? * Will they buy? There are no guarantees when it comes to how people make their decisions. All you can do is make your product or service as irresistible as possible. People, in general, are picky and they always want the best for less. Buying Targeted Website Traffic From a Service If you are new to this concept and have no idea which companies are reputable and trustworthy, then you will have to experiment, learn from others, hear about it by word of mouth, blogs, forums, etc. Check out each company you come across that offers the traffic you want and compare them against each other. What should you look for when comparing traffic service companies? * Do they offer a guarantee? If they do not offer a 100% guarantee then keep looking until you find only those traffic services that do. * Do they have contact and privacy pages? All reputable companies have these in place. Review them to your satisfaction before placing any orders. * Do they have your category available? Targeted website traffic must fit your site to a ‘T’ meaning that if you sell widgets then there must be a category for selling widgets, plain and simple. If there categories are not specific to what your website sells, move on until you find one that does. * Purchase 10,000 targeted visitors, get 10 sales. This is a general rule. If you do not get at least a 1% return on your investment then one of these things is wrong: either your traffic is not targeted to what you are selling or your website is not strong enough in its’ message to sell the product and/or service. * Does your page counter move? Every site should have a page counter on their main index page, either visible or not. If that counter does not show the traffic that you purchased then you are not receiving real people but, instead, computer-generated hits. Have you ever made a sale to a computer-generated hit? Whenever you try a traffic service, buy the minimum to see what happens. If the traffic campaign fails, and you are sure it is not because of your website’s design or content, then try another service. Keep searching until you find one that works well for you and stick with it. James McDonald is an executive at Dreamry, Inc. which has been successfully marketing and promoting websites since 2002. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=JP_McDonald Article

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