Have you heard about google alerts ?

I am currently using this to monitor my competitors mentions. It help me approach people who are writing about my competition. It is totally worth it.

The only way to know for sure is to test.

What product is it?

I use Google Alerts for a handful of purposes.

(Someone mentioned checking competition. Ditto.)

If you're looking for a simple traffic method:

1. Slap your niche keywords into Alerts.

2. Set delivery to As-It-Happens.

3. Some alerts will be on forums.

4. Join those that allow commercial signatures.

5. Don't add a sig right away (even if allowed).

6. Begin posting on them.

7. Be a member of the community, not a salesman.

8. Get some posts under your belt. (Build trust.)

9. Then add your signature.

10. Send it to a lead magnet (audience capture).

At that point, given 1 week or so of growing your list of forums, you'll then be able to post immediately to brand new threads that often rank quickly or almost immediately in Google.

So what you're doing is building exposures on the forums and on Google. All of which will be pointing towards your lead magnet.

- Never be salesly.

- Let your sig do the selling.

- Use your posts to add good community content.

- Try be be the first to reply to new threads.

- Avoid creating new threads yourself.

I don't use the tactic personally, but if you're new to IM and looking for a solid and free means of getting traffic, it's a nice little one to get you started.

If you do it every day? And keep at it?

It can be a very powerful little tactic indeed. You're effectively building targeted exposures within Google.

- Tom