Posts Tagged ‘youtube.com’

If you ask any expert to help you get 100,000 visitors to your website, they will tell you it can’t be done, or at least you have to spend a lot of money to do it. If you use conventional methods then this is true. But let’s think out of the box. What if you could get your message in front of millions of people for free? What if you could do that instantly, for free, and as often as you want? There is a brand new frontier for Internet marketing and it’s called Social Media Optimization, or SMO.

So what is Social Media Optimization (SMO)? SMO is using social media web sites to promote your own web site, products, or services. Social media websites are all those websites where you can create a profile page and interact with others users with messages and videos. Sites like www.myspace.com , www.facebook.com , www.youtube.com , www.plaxo.com , www.linkedin.com , www.twitter.com , www.craigslist.com , www.ebay.com , www.wikipedia.org , and many more. Social media optimization is the art of using those sites to promote your own site. It takes a little practice, but master the art of SMO and you’ll have more traffic than you can imagine.

Objective #1 – Target Your Audience!
Your website must have products or information of interest to your audience. If you have more than one target customer, then you may need more than one “landing page”. Your landing page should captivate the visitor. If you are selling an e-book on marketing that caters to musicians, for example, then build a page that that touts that book and creates urgency for them. If you sell a similar e-book on marketing that caters to used-car salesmen, then create an entirely different page for them. Then promote the different pages separately. Have an entirely different campaign for each e-book.

Objective #2 – Sell Them Now or Lose Them Forever!
Urgency is the key to Internet marketing. Just assume that if your customer leaves your website then they are gone forever. Your marketing pages should sell a product, give away a product (in exchange for contact information), or collect their contact information for an email, blog, or newsletter. Don’t let them get away.

Social Media Marketing Basics
Nearly all of the social media sites allow you to add a link to your own website. You can add links to the profile page on most sites. You may be able to add links in the descriptions of videos you upload. Many popular blogs allow you to add links when you write comments that add value to their blogs. Start with youtube.com, then add your own site(s) on digg.com, del.icio.us, and other bookmark sites. Put links like [digg this], [add to yahoo.com], and RSS subscribe links on your blog pages. The concept is simple. You want a link to your website to be created on those popular sites. Master that art form and you will see your traffic explode.

I know you want to know more about this. It is a learning journey at first, but before long you will be a master. There are tips all over the Internet that can help as well. Now that you know about SMO you are well on your way to being a master Internet marketing.

The most challenging part of having a website is getting quality traffic to your website.  You build it, and then nothing!   What does it take to get people to visit your website?  This challenge is further compounded by all the empty promises of the so-called experts out there.  There has got to be something you can do, but what?

Whether you are looking for random strangers or whether you are looking for more visits from your warmer local markets, there are things you can do that will help you build up your traffic.  There are no shortcuts.  No magical mystery techniques.

Choose one or two techniques and build it from there.  The more of these techniques you use, the more results you are likely to get.

Search Engine Optimization – Choose good keywords and incorporate them into your website.  This requires some expertise.  This will help the search engines learn how to prioritize your content into their search results.

Advertise – Promote your website in print and online advertisements.  Include magazines, radio, electronic newsletters, and other websites.  Be sure to use techniques that help you track the effectiveness of your various campaigns.

Publish – Write your own newsletters, produce your own podcasts, or write free articles for the various free article websites.  Put your expertise on paper and always include a link to your own website.  Press releases can be helpful for some companies.

Participate in the Community – Contribute comments into various other forums or blogs.  Anywhere you can embed a link to your own website is a potential place for you to contribute.  Many communities welcome your self-promotion as long as you also contribute valuable content.  Support the community and they will support you.  One great method is writing book reviews for books on Amazon.com.

Add Community Features to Your Website – Add a forum, a blog, surveys, or anything that adds enough fresh content that visitors can’t wait to return.  Consider how youtube.com works.  People go there every day to see all the new videos.  Do not host your blog on another website.  Configure their blog tools to publish into your website.

Viral Marketing – Create a system that encourages your customers to share some opportunity with their friends and family.  Offer invitation only benefits substantial enough to encourage current members to invite all their friends and family with urgency.  You could offer a limited time only free whatever to the first 100 people who register.   There are hundreds of variations to consider.   Or create a member feature that people want to share like video sharing or photo sharing.  Use a feature that pertains to your business.

Partnering Strategies – Join forces with other businesses.  You can advertise their products or services and they can advertise yours.  Create joint promotions.  Sponsor each other’s newsletters.   Form a mastermind team for creating promotions.  You can all help each other come up with powerful ideas to try.  Create an affiliate or referral bonus program and pay others to promote and sell your products.

There are so many great ways to promote your website.  Many of them work best when combined with others.   Hire a professional, form a mastermind group, or do it all yourself.  The sooner you get started the sooner you will have hundreds or even thousands of visitors on your website every month.