Introduction

In order to get streams of traffic coming into your site, you need to have a quality site with quality content.

Quality content means having interesting and unique content. In order to make the content unique, some has to write the content. If you are one of the many who struggle with writing, you have to come up with a solution.

You are not alone. For most people writing is tedious and even painful.

The best solution to this predicament is outsourcing the content writing for your sites and newsletters. Finding a good writer to do this work for you can be a tremendous help.

Of course, this solution comes at a cost.

Before you hire some one to write content for you, you have to consider this cost. Part of the cost is financial. Part of it is getting the kind of writing that you want.

These 4 tips for hiring writers will help you get what you want.

1. Know what you want.

In providing the writer with instructions on the content, be sure to answer these questions. This is necessary information for the writer but the process also helps you focus on your own target and goals.

• Where is your content going to be used?
• How many words would you like it to be?
• Who is your audience (e.g. are they electrical engineers or stay at home moms or 17 year old girls)?

Provide the writer with examples of the type of content that you want and examples of how you want it to be formatted. (e.g., short paragraphs, provided to you in text format)

Give the writer a working title of the article you want written (e.g., 10 Ways to increase your AdSense revenue).

The bottom line is that you have to give the writer as much specific guidance as possible. E.g., don’t say, “write about bears” say “I want an article with this title: Top 10 Foods that Grizzly Bears Eat.”

2. Be clear about your terms

Assume nothing. Even if it seems so obvious to you that you think it should not be mentioned, mention it anyway.

Make it very clear that you are requesting “work for hire” so that the writer understands that you will be the sole copyright owner of the work and can do with it as you wish.

This also means that the writer cannot write the same article for someone else.

State the price and the number of revisions you are expect to be included in the price.

Tell writers they must have a full command of the English language.

Arrange in advance how you are going to pay the writer and when you are going to pay the writer. For projects under $50, I always pay half up front and half upon completion.

For a larger project it is a good idea to pay a small sum up front, in the $25-$100 range. When the writer turns in the first piece, pay for that piece.

Continue paying as the writer finishes each piece until the entire project is finished.

Paying as you go gives writers the confidence that they will get paid for their work.

3. Don’t take the first bid or the lowest bid for your project.

You are in a hurry to get on with the job. However, it is important that you are not impulsive and accept the first offer that rolls in.

Don’t accept the cheapest bid either until you do your research. The cheapest bid could come from a really good writer trying to break into the business. It could also come from someone who cannot write a sensible word.

Do your homework! Check out the feedback the bidders have received. On some sites such as Elance checking feedback is easy.

On the Warriors Forum, it’s a different situation. The best bet on WF is not to advertise for a writer but ask who has hired a good writer in the past.

Finding someone who has had experience with this writer is the best way to learn the facts about the writer’s performance.

You should also ask the writer for three references and actually check the references.

Always ask the references the following:

• What was the size or scope of the project?
• Were deadlines met?
• How was the quality of the final product?
• How many revisions did it take?
• Would you hire this writer again?

Another must is to ask for examples of the writer’s work so you can see for yourself the quality of the product the writer turns out.

4. Build a relationship of trust

Finding a good writer can take a lot of time. At first it might seem like you have hundreds to choose from but the reality is that out of 100, only 2 or 3 are good.

I recommend when trying someone for the first time to start small. One article with a short deadline lets you see how the writer handles the task. A 500-word article and a deadline of one to four days will show how well the writer handles things.

If the short project is successful, don’t pile on a lot of work but gradually give them more responsibility as they perform well on smaller projects.

For instance, when doing a bigger project such as a 30-page ebook, don’t give it all to the writer at once. Break it into sections or chapters and ask for one section to be delivered before they receive the next one.

By assigning one piece at a time and only giving the writer the instructions for that piece, you can see how well the writer performed before going to far into the project.

If you set a short deadline for a simple section, you keep the writer focused and the writer is not too overwhelmed by a big project.

Because the writer has just the instructions for that piece, the writer will be able to create a more thorough document because all the attention is on just that one element of the overall project.

A real benefit of this approach is if the writer is not satisfactory, you can just end the relationship and move on to the next selected writer. Also the writer does not have all your good project thoughts in his or her possession. All the writer has is just the information for the one small section.

If you find a good writer, nurture the relationship. If you can build a relationship of trust with a writer, you will save a ton of time in the long run.

Over time the writer will get to know you and understand your projects. This means the writer will need fewer specifics about future projects.

Don’t be tempted to switch to someone else to save a buck.

What are your tips for hiring writers?

Introduction

This is perhaps the most popular way of driving traffic to a site for Internet Marketers, but you can use the same traffic tricks for a general website. Write a 500-word article with SEO in mind and submit it to ezinearticles.com. Be sure to place a link to your URL in your bio along with a tasty line or two about why the reader should visit your site.

You can also take a single article and “spin” the words in the content around then submit each original article to other ezine directories such as goarticles.com, articlecity.com, associatedcontent.com, articledashboard.com, articlesbase.com, and searchwarp.com.

Spinning

Spinning an article simply means taking the information from an article and rewording each line. Spinning content can be done manually or you may enjoy using a free content spinner like the one at jetspinner.com.

You might also want to consider using different main keywords in each article, so you’ll have a better chance of your article coming up in different searches (remember, compete for highly searched keywords as well as those terms searched for only 100 times per month, as well as seasonal keywords!).

Besides the direct traffic you’ll be getting from your articles, you’ll also acquire new one-way incoming links. With all that I’ve said in mind, let’s sum up how effective article marketing can be for sending traffic your way.

Benefits:

• Direct traffic from articles
• Direct traffic from websites who digitally reprint your articles.
• Traffic from search engine traffic your articles receive.
• One-way incoming links from both the article directories and the sites that republish your articles. Remember that incoming links (especially one-way) are essential for generating search engine traffic.

If you’re having trouble getting incoming links, article marketing should be a good focus for you easily acquiring them. More incoming links equals more weight in the search engines.

Consider these techniques when applying article marketing:

Write three articles on the same topic. Submit one to article directories. Put the other two on your website. In your bio box, tell readers they can read parts 2 and 3 at your website.

This may sound like a dumb statement, but only write about things you know others want to read about. Otherwise, you’ll get no traffic to that article to begin with. So write interesting articles or hire someone to write them for you.

Be sure to write in a fashion that your readers will 1) grow trust for you, 2) gain knowledge because of you. In internet marketing, articles can be powerful tools even in the sales process.

Private Label Rights

To make things easier you can buy Private Label Rights to articles for dirt cheap. For slang, we call this content “PLR.” When you own Private Label Rights to content, you can reword the information and submit the spun articles to ezines. However, it all depends on what specified rights you retain when you purchase Private Label Rights.

I highly recommend using PLR. You can get 500-word articles often for under a buck. This saves countless hours of work, especially if you’re working in a niche you’re not an expert in.

Use a PLR membership site such as plrpro.com or search for groups of PLR articles to purchase online. Search for buy PLR into your search engine and you’ll find what you’re looking for. You might also want to try Warrior Forum and ask if anyone has any good PLR on your niche.

Article Marketing by Steve Wagenheim

This is probably the cheapest of all the methods because it’s virtually free. Your only cost is web hosting and the cost of your domain name. Submitting to article directories is free so take advantage of it.

Okay, how do you get the most out of this?

Well, that’s where a lot of people disagree, unfortunately. So this is the tactic I choose. Others are welcome to add their 2 cents.

I choose not to fight the masses. So I go after the keywords that don’t have as many competing sites but still have a decent number of daily searches according to Wordtracker. I make my cutoff 50 daily searches and no less. Competing sites I cut off at no more than 50,000. Yeah, I’m picky, but the keywords I target that meet this criteria bring me decent traffic.

I do not plaster my articles all over the Internet because I am building for the long time. I don’t want duplicate content to ultimately turn my search engine rankings to dust. Yeah, I know, there are those who argue that duplicate content penalties are a myth. I’m not going to get into that here. I’m just letting you know what I do, and that’s to submit to just a few places and different articles for each. Ezine Articles is still the king in my book.

When you submit articles, make sure your articles are informative and the resource box has a strong call to action. Resource boxes that read like “John Doe is an author and has a degree in…” won’t cut it. You need to write something like…

“Sick and tired of <whatever the problem is>? Want to finally <what the solution is their looking for>? Then go to my site at <URL> and get your free report on <whatever your solution is>. Start <whatever they are trying to do> TODAY!”

This is what I do and my opt ins come regularly everyday.

Try to write at least 3 or 4 articles a day. Why?

Well, that’s where the rating of this method comes in.

Quality Of Traffic - 10. These are people who are specifically looking for this information. You can’t get much more targeted than this. If the site in your resource box is a solid match for the content of the article, you should get quite a few opt ins.

Speed Of Traffic - 10. You’re going to start getting this traffic right away, as soon as those articles are posted. With Ezine Articles, it’s 6 to 24 hours once you’ve reached Platinum status, which only takes 10 articles submitted.

Quantity Of Traffic - 3. This is the big problem with article marketing. You’re not going to get a lot of traffic in the beginning because you don’t have many articles in circulation. However, once you have built up a nice article base, you will start to see the quantity of traffic increasing over time.

Article marketing is what I call the long haul process. It’s not a quick fix like Adwords, which you can pay for dearly if you don’t do it properly, but it’s a cheap way to get highly qualified traffic fast. Over time, the amount of traffic you get WILL increase, but you have to write everyday.

This section written by Steve Wagenheim. If you want a fool proof step by step formula for writing articles in under 30 minutes…check out the link below. It’s a book written by Steven Wagenheim who has the number 1 rank at Ezine Articles for the category of Internet Marketing…beating out over 4000 other contributors.
http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html

Introduction

Your wish is to get hundreds of visitors to your website today. No, thousands. Social bookmarking sites can bring you waves of mind-blowing traffic.

Tech-savvy internet users are actively involved in social bookmarking. That is, they use a social bookmarking site to bookmark and share pages on the net with others. If your page gets submitted and it’s liked (and voted for) by many, that alone can easily bring you thousands of visitors per day.

Although you won’t see the highest quality traffic, if you harness the power of social bookmarking, I guarantee you can get opt-ins to your list, gain incoming links from SU (StumbleUpon) users who choose to link to your post on their own sites, and some pay-per-click bucks. So how do we create content pages we can almost guarantee will be popular?

The social bookmarking world isn’t a lazy man’s (or woman’s) game even though all you need to do for your page to get listed is submit it at the click of a button. Pages that you and others submit to these sites have to be 1) of immense value, or 2) of rare information. Take a look through pages linked at a major social site and you’ll see they are often lengthy and contain info you don’t see everywhere else on the net for free.

What does this say about creating a content page solely for social bookmarking sites? Well, a good rule of thumb is to shoot for publishing pages that are at least 3 times more valuable than the pages already bookmarked at social sites. Put so much value into your page that it would have an actual cash value, being worth as much as a report or e-book. Information should be dense, rare, and interesting. In some cases you can get away with a short, interesting post, but I guarantee it won’t stay popular for long. It will be buried.

What are some good Social Bookmarking Sites?

The two best social bookmarking sites for traffic are generally Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com.

There are numerous other social bookmarking sites and you could spend all day submitting you pages to all of them.

The tool OnlyWire.com allows you to automatically submit to many social bookmarking sites at once.

Automate the process

To submit your site to multiple sites you can use social marker.  I cover this free tool in this post:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/657_the-power-of-socialmarkercom/

5 Tips To Get More Traffic From Digg

I wrote a post with 5 tips to get traffic from Digg:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/422_5-tips-to-get-more-traffic-from-digg/

Milking StumbleUpon

After you register with SU and download the toolbar, you can begin giving the thumbs up for whatever pages you like on the net. These pages will be shared throughout the social bookmarking community. Once you stumble your own page (giving it the thumbs up), you’ll notice a surge of traffic to your site instantly.

That said, it’s against the StumbleUpon Terms of Service to submit your own pages. If you choose to submit your own, do it at your own risk of getting kicked off the social site. If you’ve already stumbled your page, you’re growing an addiction for viral traffic. I know.

Only submit your own valuable content pages to StumbleUpon after 48-hour periods. Otherwise, your site will be banned from SU. So stumble your own content pages and other pages you like on the net every other day around the same time. You’ll want to stumble others’ pages as well and if you wish, take part in stumbling through pages. You might be blow away at what connections you can make with others in your niche just by finding them via StumbleUpon.

It’s a good idea to stumble pages that link to your own.

The Quest for the Front Page of Digg

Getting on the front page of Digg can potentially send tens of thousands of visitors to your content page. The same methods for getting a page stumbled over and over on StumbleUpon apply for Digg. Your page needs to be of supreme value.

What’s nice about getting on the front page of Digg is that Digg users are often also users of other social bookmarking networks like Del.icio.us. What happens is a Digg user likes your page, so he submits it to other social sites. This can send substantial amounts of traffic to your site for weeks.

Case Study:

Jason Parker of atomicguitarist.com has reported generating 10,000+ hits to a guitar lesson page in three days from a combination of StumbleUpon, Digg, and other social bookmarking sites. And for over the course of a week after, he generated no less than 2,000 visitors to his page per day for two weeks after. Last heard, he’s still getting 100s of hits to that page daily.

Parker reported that he purposely created the page for social traffic. The page contained immense value. For one, the lesson was created after researching the needs of guitarists, providing a solution to a problem. Two, the information was dense.

Host an Inner Circle Project for Social Bookmarking

Who’s going to submit your URLs to these sites or “give them their digital blessing?” Possibly no one, especially if your niche is irrelevant to internet-savvy consumers & readers.

With no big name, how are you going to harvest a bounty of traffic from the online social sea?

Note: The following tactic I’m about to teach you can potentially send 1,000 or more visitors to your website pages via viral traffic alone. As you might be thinking, yes, the method is against all of the sites’ TOS. Do it at your own risk. You can get booted off social websites if discovered. Some would call this blackhat.

Gather an inner circle of no more than, say, 5 to 20 internet marketers to begin with (25 to 100 people if you are really serious) and website owners whom you trust. You’re going to submit each other’s pages to social sites for massive waves of viral traffic. You’re also going to give each other the thumbs up on StumbleUpon and a Digg at Digg. As far as I’m concerned, an operation of this scale is no big deal.

There are a few ways to have an inner circle project:

• You can make a list of e-mail contacts and send out viral traffic requests.
• You can create a forum on a sub-domain at your website and configure it so only users can view requests.
• You can install a content management system like Drupal in a sub-domain and also set it to private (so only logged-on members can view information).

The most efficient way to carry-out an inner circle project is to have only one thread or blog post for each day.

That way all submission requests can be found on the same page.

Who wants to dig through 100 different posts each day?

Consider using your inner circle for all content you produce (that links to your website).

For instance, make requests for your ezine articles. Not only will you be amazed at how much traffic your friends send you, but how many other social site users give your articles a big thumbs up.It’s important also that everyone in your inner circle also uses StumbleUpon and Digg for submitting other random pages online.

It’s best if the people are in different places; the last thing you want is all the people to be from the same IP address, state, or even country. Otherwise, it will be easy to detect that your group is only submitting each other’s pages.

Just remember the golden rule: keep your inner circle private, keep it hush hush.

Question Box: How do I get traffic with RSS and social marketing?

This is my video response one of my reader’s questions about how to use social bookmarking and RSS to get traffic:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/1226_question-box-how-do-i-get-traffic-with-rss-and-social-marketing/

Top 100 Social Media Sites by techgal

I’m sure you all have noticed sites like Blogspot.com, hubpages.com, and Squidoo dominating the front page of Google. “Web 2.0″ properties have enabled this kind of Google domination.

To help everyone start benefiting from these sites, I have compiled a list of the top 100 social media sites that pass page rank.

http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/
http://360.yahoo.com
http://pages.google.com
http://www.wetpaint.com
http://www.blogspot.com
http://www.flickr.com
http://www.livejournal.com
http://www.wordpress.com
http://www.xanga.com
http://www.digg.com
http://www.technorati.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.squidoo.com
http://www.slashdot.org
http://www.reddit.com
http://www.blogsome.com
http://www.propeller.com
http://www.tumblr.com
http://www.sphinn.com
http://www.hubpages.com
http://www.indianpad.com
http://www.furl.net
http://www.killerstartups.com
http://www.dzone.com
http://www.care2.com/news/
http://www.zimbio.com
http://www.clipmarks.com
http://www.activerain.com
http://www.leenks.com
http://www.bumpzee.com
http://www.faves.com
http://www.swik.net
http://ma.gnolia.com
http://www.shoutwire.com
http://www.humsurfer.com
http://www.mister-wong.com
http://www.imnewswatch.com
http://www.thoof.com
http://www.listverse.com
http://www.spicypage.com
http://www.aboutus.org
http://www.plugim.com
http://www.blogmarks.net
http://www.autospies.com
http://www.sk-rt.com
http://www.ballhype.com
http://www.bibsonomy.org
http://www.rateitall.com
http://www.lipstick.com
http://www.yedda.com
http://www.blog.co.uk
http://jackhumphrey.com/imnews/
http://www.listible.com/
http://www.linkedwords.com
http://www.smallbusinessbrief.com/
http://links.hubspot.com/
http://www.searchles.com
http://www.connotea.org
http://www.rawsugar.com
http://www.blogmemes.net
http://www.folkd.com
http://www.plime.com
http://www.clipclip.org
http://www.mixx.com
http://www.work.com
http://www.spotback.com
http://www.trailfire.com
http://www.bloghop.com
http://www.socialogs.com
http://www.kinja.com
http://www.dotnetkicks.com
http://www.blogster.com
http://www.blogowogo.com
http://www.wirefan.com
http://www.hugg.com
http://www.buzzflash.net
http://www.clearblogs.com
http://www.connectedy.com
http://www.bmaccess.net
http://www.onmylist.com/
http://www.tribalwar.com
http://www.aeonity.com
http://www.thoughts.com
http://www.easyjournal.com
http://www.marktd.com
http://www.blogetery.com
http://www.linkatopia.com
http://www.complore.com
http://www.mylinkvault.com
http://www.listafterlist.com
http://www.millionsofgames.com
http://www.fluther.com
http://www.tweako.com
http://www.unalog.com
http://www.protolize.org
http://www.creamaid.com
http://www.realestatevoices.com
http://www.hypediss.com
http://www.pixelgroovy.com
http://www.betamarker.com/

I have two goals for the next six months.

First I would like to lose 10 pounds.    I would feel better if I shed a little weight.

My second goal is to quadruple the amount of traffic that I get to Nick’s Traffic Tricks and quadruple my RSS readership.

Today my RSS readership is 94.  To reach my goal by year’s end my readership needs to be 374.

And my traffic needs to hit 600 unique visitors a day.

It will take some work but I think I can do it.

What are your goals?

I would love to hear what your goals are.  So please leave a comment below.

If you have goals about increasing the amount of traffic you get and I might be able to help.

I just read an excellent article on 8 different strategies you can use to add value to your blog.

If you want to get traffic to your website then having value is absolutely critical.

And the strategies are not just for blogs; they are for any website that provides value to others.

Read 8 Magazine Strategies that add Value to Your Blog

Introduction

With torrents marketing you can share media files like PDF reports and ebooks containing links back to your site (and affiliate links).

Download the platform Limewire to begin sharing your torrents with other Limewire users.

Just be sure not to illegally upload or download any copyrighted material.

Tips & Tricks

There are also torrent search engines and sites you can submit files to.

Check out torrentz.com. Search “torrents marketing” in Google for more top sites.

To create a torrent file, you’ll need to download CompleteDir. Click here for in depth details on how to convert your files into torrents so they can be shared:
http://www.sidewalkcrusaders.com/bthowto/btmake.html

In order to share your torrent files, again, you’ll need to download Limewire at Limewire.com.
Besides generating traffic to your site via torrents, you can write reviews of products and place affiliate links in your PDF, then convert that PDF into a torrent file and share it.

For instance, if you review the bestselling ebook “Niche Marketing on Crack,” make the title to your torrent simply “Niche Marketing on Crack.”

This both converts into sales and protects others’ copyrighted material.

Introduction

Buzz around the net about your website can bring you enormous amounts of quick, quality traffic. Bloggers and website owners write about you, they link to you, and traffic pours in. A newspaper might even write about your site.So how can you create buzz?

Here are some ways

Write a press release that may be chosen for publication in newspapers. For instance, if you’re a blogger making some money online, your local or state paper might find your press release and publish it. We’re talking loads of traffic.

List of Press Release sites:
http://www.nickstraffictricks.com/press-release-list/

To learn more about writing press releases, go here:
http://mashable.com/2007/10/20/press-releases

Networking with others in your niche can create immediate or future buzz. Just go to another site in your niche and contact the webmaster. Try building a relationship with him. Whenever you release a new product or, say, open a forum, it’s likely your network won’t mind posting a blurb about it.

If you feel as if you’re an expert in your niche, contact your local radio stations. They’re always looking for guests. This is yet another method that will send more visitors than you can imagine in your direction within a short period of time.

Introduction

One great way to drive quality traffic to your website, although you might find it to be a small amount on a daily basis is by forum marketing.

Remember that one hit of quality traffic is often worth as much as a few hundred hits from a non-quality source. What makes it of quality is you’re getting traffic based on what you say in forum replies (you’ve already sold yourself to a degree).

Join a forum on your site’s niche.

Login and edit your profile.

In your signature, provide a link to your site along with a tasty blurb.

Another huge benefit of forum marketing is that you’re talking with others in your niche. At the same time you’re driving traffic to your site, you’re market researching. You’re finding out the biggest problems in your niche, so that you can provide solutions in the form of an info products or website content.

Tips & Tricks

• Start by finding a forum related to your niche and make sure signatures are allowed.
• Build your reputation as an expert in your niche. Provide quality information in your posts and replies. Users of a forum will only click on the link in your signature if you’ve enlightened them. One tactic you can use is by creating a new thread with pure information in your niche, almost like a blog post.
• Never link to your own site within content of threads. Only place a link to your site within your signature.
• Be sure to read forum rules and regulations before joining any forum. Nearly all forums don’t allow affiliate links in your signature or within threads.
• Don’t spam forums!!!

Introduction

Today’s traffic generation method is going to be short and sweet.

If you have an email list there are some wonderful things you can do with it to get more traffic!

Traffic Method 1

The first and most obvious option is to send a blast out to your list about some new thing you have put up on your website.

You’ll get loads of traffic by doing this.

Just make sure you’re email blasts are:

1. Relevant to your subscribers’ interests
2. Spaced far apart that your subscribers don’t start opting out of your messages in droves or ignoring all messages from you.

Traffic Method 2

This second method takes more work than the first one but is well worth it.

What you need to do is find other list owners within your niche and signup for their list.

Pay attention to what kind of emails they send out. Are they the kinds of things that your subscribers would like? If they are then you should consider proposing a JV (Joint Venture) to the list owner.

What you are going to propose to them is that you send out an email to your list sending people to a page on their site, and in return they will send an email to their list sending traffic to your site.

Tips:

• For this to work you must have a page with real value for the other list owner to send his subscribers to.
• Frequently the person you are contacting will have a list larger than your own. If for example they have a list that is 3 times as big, then volunteer to send out 3 email blasts instead of just 1.
• Offer to send an initial email blast to your list driving traffic to a page of their choice with no strings attached. Afterwards ask them how much traffic they received from it. Once you have proven that you have a responsive list that is capable of the other list owner will be much more likely to JV with you.
• When sending a blast out to your list that will drive traffic to someone else’s site, make sure you make the email enticing. Give readers a reason to open the email and click on the link.
• When proposing a JV make sure to include a screenshot of your account proving how big your list is.

Traffic Method 3

This method is a lot like method 2 but instead of sending them to an interesting page you send them to a signup page and bribe them with a free gift when they join your list.

The benefit of this is that you are growing your list. With a bigger list you can send even more traffic to your site (See Traffic Method 1).

Getting traffic to your site will depend to some degree on your ability to brand yourself.  Having a good name, your own website, and a good design are all elements of your brand.

With the explosion of twitter users it has become more common to add a twitter profile to your brand.  And just like everything else in your brand, you want your twitter profile to be unique and reflect you.

I just came across a site with 100 examples of various twitter backgrounds that people have used for their twitter profile.  If you are struggling to find a unique profile for your twitter account then this should give you some great ideas.

Check it out:  100 Creative Twitter Backgrounds Featuring Illustration

Warning to people who do not have a fast Internet connection

This site has a lot of really good images.  Unfortunately that means that it may take a while to view the site if you do not have a speedy Internet connection.