The Best Online Traffic is Always Free

You know what really frustrates me?

When someone new to Internet Marketing asks how to make money, then some self-proclaimed “guru” replies to buy a squeeze page template, throw up some sponsored ads on Clickbank and then wait for the money to roll in. If you have less than a few years’ worth of experience under your belt, I guarantee that you will fail using this method ten out of ten times.

Here’s the even bigger problem though; you not only fail, but you can lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars paying for ads that don’t convert. But why should they? Because you don’t know how to optimize your ads, you don’t know if your page copy is any good and you definitely don’t know who your ideal customer is. So you’re completely guessing…and investing money into that guess with the hopes that something positive will happen…and that’s just plain stupid.

That’s like throwing your weekly paycheck into a ceiling fan and hoping that it somehow multiplies before hitting the ground again…and you’d honestly be better off buying a few hundred lottery tickets. At least that way you have a small chance at a return on investment.

So let me tell you how I monetize websites, and I want you to keep in mind that the only thing I risk is about $30 for the domain and the hosting. If my idea falls flat then I fail just like everyone else, but it doesn’t sting nearly as bad since all I lost was a little bit of time.

Before I even consider a domain, I ask myself how it can be monetized naturally. For example, if you have a site on lawnmowers then you’d get an affiliate relationship with John Deere and Craftsman…that makes sense because that’s what all of your traffic is looking for. Selling lawn chairs or an eBook on landscaping wouldn’t make sense though, because only a fraction of your traffic will want those things.

So make sure you’re monetizing with the most logical product(s) and you’ll be fine. If your idea doesn’t have a product that makes complete sense for 100% of the visitors, then choose another niche. It’s that easy.

Then, I buy a two-word domain. My site’s name is either going to be an industry and a city (like MiamiPlumbing), or it’s going to be an industry and a niche within that industry (like PlumbingFaucets). The name is far less important than it was a few years ago BUT Miami Plumbing is still going to get some natural favoritism in Google…so why not roll with it?

Next, I am going to plan out at least 25 core pages for my site. I want to talk about every aspect of that niche I possibly can, and I want the info to be as detailed as possible. Google says that the site with the best natural information should always rank #1 in the search engines, and that’s a universal truth that’s never changed. So my focus is on AWESOME content.

The great news, however, is that there’s already awesome content out there in cyberspace…but it wasn’t written by awesome writers. So for all of you that say, “Oh, pay someone 5 bucks an article and it’s good enough.” You’re 100% dead wrong. Content is king…KING…and you never want to go cheap on the most important aspect of your website.

Average content ranks average…great content ranks great. It’s really that simple. So write great content or pay someone to write great content. Those are your only two options to create an authority site.

And if content is king, photos are definitely queen. Give people something to look at on every page and make your site genuinely sexy…the layout is a very important factor.

Backlinks also play a massive role and despite popular demand, forum links and comments are not the way to go. Google wants to see you listed on-

- Directories that consistently provide the same core information (with unique messaging)
- Authority sites within your niche
- Local sites to where your business is located (this applies to affiliate sites as well)
- News and informational sites with solid reputations

Here’s the thing though; if your only links are from sites like Clickbank, then Google knows right off the bat that you’re an affiliate marketer. And Google hates affiliate marketers so your site will never, ever ever rank for a single keyword. That’s why the content and REAL backlinks are so important.

By just doing these three things the right way, you will have a solid base website that the search engines will view positively. You’ll get natural traffic as well, and people will opt in without any kind of insane sales pitch. This happens because everyone trusts you…you’re legitimate…and you’re not trying to spam the web with some type of gimmick that less than 1% will fall for.

Then you can move into social circles, write press releases and do some of the many other methods to begin receiving larger amounts of traffic…and you use this time to evaluate your site. This is where video marketing comes in at as well; start making tutorials with genuine advice and let others see that you really know the niche. We do this to test your traffic to see which pages they prefer, update pages with high bounce rates and to see how traffic moves thru your site.

The LAST thing to do is to start advertising your affiliates, and this is not a “let’s get buck-wild and spam the cosmos” moment. You have natural traffic that trusts you, so you simply give them a few banners and let the rest happen naturally. This is also the time you’d consider paid advertising BUT only in moderation….because you should also continue to fine-tune your site to meet the user’s end goal.

I hope that helps!