Wow! What a fantastic experience it was.  This was my first event and will not be my last!

Met loads of fantastic people, and listened to some great speakers, including Jit Uppal and Stephanie Mulac as well as Alex himself of course.

Because I live in the Uk and it is so fabulous to visit the USA we decided to combine this Internet Marketing event with a long vacation.

So I am looking forward to some time in San Diego followed by a cruise to Mexico.  I am in such a great mood that I wanted to give you all a gift.

If you click on the link below you will receive access to Alex Jeffreys ‘Post Launch Profits Secrets’.  Enjoy!!

http://www.sueworthington.com/free/ajplp

Here is a photo of me with Alex Jeffreys at the event.

Stay tuned for more gifts from my vacation coming soon.

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1. My Journey So Far

Press releases can be a very effective way to  generate traffic to your blog.

You can generate thousands of visitors, within a very short time.  You can also get quite a few incoming links  which will help to push your site and your press release up in the search engines rankings.

It is generally after a week or two, when the release begins to be get noticed by the search engines and starts gaining rankings, that you start seeing traffic.

In order for your press release to get the traffic you want, it must be crafted correctly. You will need to place your keywords in the title and throughout the release, much like you would optimize an article.

Below are  three reasons why it could be worthwhile using press releases to drive traffic to your website:-

Press Releases Bring An Immediate Rush of Traffic:

• A press release can bring you an immediate rush of traffic. News outlets and even other blogs are looking for quality news for their sites, and you can provide this with a press release.  If your release ends up on the right site, it could mean thousands of dollars and visitors for you.

Press Releases Rank Well in the Search Engines

• If you write a properly optimized press release, in a couple weeks, you will likely see it in the top 10 for a targeted keyword. However, to make this happen, you have to optimize it like you would an article, choose a niche or keyword that is not ultra competitive and submit it to the right PR company. There are many free PR sites that will get you decent rankings, for the right keywords.   PRWeb gets great results if you are willing to spend between $40-$80. Remember, you must pick a keyword that is not ultra competitive and you must optimize your release.

Press Releases Are Objective

• A good press release is not a glorified sales pitch, and should  offer good, newsworthy information phrased objectively. More people will buy from you, if it is not simply a sales pitch. So don’t include phrases like “best product ever,” or “buy now.” Reporters and blog owners won’t pick up your story and readers won’t believe you, anyway.

Here are some examples of press releases.

You can submit press releases monthly providing you have news that is interesting and current.

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3. Traffic Generation Strategy – Part 6 – Twitter

It helps to generate traffic to your blog if you have links from other sites.  I have covered linking strategies and also blog linking strategies in other posts, in my ‘Traffic Generation Strategy’ series of posts.

Creating a squidoo lens is like an amalgamation of both techniques.  The lens will contain separate information form your blog, but is your ‘virtual real estate‘ in that you own it and create the content for it, and you can link from it to your blog and vice versa.

My multi blogging strategy (available when you subscribe to my list on the sidebar) describes exactly how to link your blogs together across different platforms.

You must stay tuned to get my new report ‘The Link Wheel’ when it is published.

Your lens can contain information on any subject you like, and can be monetized by Adsense and Amazon links.

Squidoo is used to generate income for charities – 5% of  any revenue earned through lenses is donated to charitable causes.

So your own Squidoo lens is a webpage which is very easy to create and can be used to drive traffic to your main blog.  I have seen Squidoo lenses described as Article Markiting with extra ‘OOmph’, and I guess that is a fairly good description.  So you basically can write a (fairly large) article, but when you add it to your lens, you can then add modules to make it different and special.

So it is called a lens because it focuses on one single subject.  When choosing your title use your long tailed keyword, and also in your URL.  You also need to select from the category list which subject most closely matches your niche.

In your bio box you can put your links to Twitter and to your blog.

So although you still need to drive traffic to your lens, you are now beginning to create a ‘Traffic Wheel’ with your blog at the hub of the wheel, and your other platforms shooting off from the centre.  The wheel begins to form when you start to link not just from your blog to other platforms but also linking these other platforms to each other.  Fantastic!!

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1. Traffic Generation Strategy – Part 7 – Link Your Blogs
2. Traffic Generation Strategy – Part 9 – Article Marketing
3. My Traffic Generation Strategy – Part 2 – Web Directory Submissions

I use social bookmarking as part of almost every post I make.

If you read my post entitled  ‘Writing The Perfect Blog Post’ you will see the specific technique I use in each post I make.

However, that technique involves social bookmarking other sites on which I have commented.

I also bookmark my own posts too – not every one though.

It is a horribly time consuming task though and really tedious.

You have to create accounts at every social bookmark site – now I know this is only a one off task but it still takes time.  Then you have to log in to each site every time you want to make a bookmark.  I was finding that it took hours just to bookmark one single post – most of us busy bloggers simply do not have the time to do this properly.

My favourite bookmarking tool is Bookmarking Demon.  It is a great tool and I also like it because it is a one off payment rather than a monthly fee.  You do get all the upgrades as they are released.  It automates the whole process of bookmarking for you!

If you would like to know more about this fantastic piece of software I have a Free report which you can download here:-

http://www.sueworthington.com/recommends/bmdemonintro

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3. Traffic Generation Strategy – Part 9 – Article Marketing

Article Marketing is not as difficult as most people think it is.

People always have the perception that you must write a very sophisticated article to be a good one. Actually, what people need from your article for you to share  your expertise so that they can learn and perhaps apply what you know. You do not have to write extremely sophisticated articles, or to have a degree in English, to entice your reader. In fact, the more sophisticated your article, the less people will stay reading because they find it hard to understand.

Keep it simple!!

In order to generate traffic to your website, this is what your article should contain:-

1) Powerful and eye catching headline.

There are various tried and tested methods of generating an eye catching title.  Use descriptions, numbers, questions, lists or create urgency.

2) Relevant content in your area of expertise.

Research your content for accuracy and originality.

3) Introduction.

A few lines introducing your article and setting the scene is useful.

4) Explanation of the problem faced by people.

Explain the problem which you are hoping to resolve – try to tell an interesting story.

5) Your solution to the problem.

Towards the end of the article offer your solutions to the readers.  Entice them to want to learn more and to want to find out what your solution is.

6) Your Bio.

Always include a link to direct people to your website to learn more about your expertise.

7) Your article should be around 350 – 450 words.

People do not want to read extremely long articles – time is always an issue.  So if you find you can write for example 1000 words on the subject, why not split it up into 3 separate articles.

Article Marketing is an extremely effective method of traffic generation.

However it can be time consuming, and difficult for a lot of people.

You can get excellent quality articles written for you – http://www.scriptlance.com - make sure that the writer’s first language is English.  This could well be worth it, snce it will free up your time for other things.

Submitting your articles to the various article directories is another time consuming task.  Once again this task can also be outsourced, or you can purchase software to assist you with the task.

My favourite software  is Unique Article Wizard and you can take a look here – http://www.sueworthington.com/recommends/uawiz

This software saves tons of time, and gets much more exposure for your articles, and thus more traffic to your blog.

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1. Traffic Generation Strategy – Part 8 – Forum Marketing
2. Traffic Generation Strategy – Part 10 – Social Bookmarking
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Another great strategy to boost your blog traffic is by participating in Forums.  But what is the best way to go about this, because like any other strategy, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

Forum users are usually net savvy and very open to making online purchases.  Many forum users are also experts and bloggers in the specific topics covered in the forum.

Forum marketing has a high ROI, because once you make a good impression in an influential forum, this can help enormously in spreading your message.

So what do you need to do:-

• Find the right forum.

Search for forums in your niche.  You can try http://www.big-boards.com which gives a list of different forums in different niches, and the number of members.

• Check the posting guidelines.

Make sure you are allowed to promote yourself, how and what you are allowed to say, and what you are allowed to put in your signature.

• Use an avatar and an appropriate user name.

Use your global avatar of your real self if you wish (http://www.gravatar.com)

Or maybe you would prefer to create a persona if you are marketing in a specific niche, in which case you can use an appropriate representative icon.

• Create an interesting profile.

Give some background information about yourself, and let the users welcome you to the site. Try to convey the fact that you are genuine and have integrity.

• Lurk first and then introduce yourself.

Spend some time ‘lurking’ on the forum, and therefore getting to know what the members are talking about.  Try to find out what their current issues and problems are, and plan how you can help them (ie sell your products to them).

• Make valuable contributions

When you do start posting, do not launch immediately into sales mode.  Make as many posts as you can, and as regularly as you can, giving valuable and helpful advice.  This way you establish yourself as a valuable member of the forum community. You will find that as people get accustomed to your helpful posts you will not have to sell overtly on the forum.  Readers will start to do their research on you and your products.

• Use a signature file.

You can get a really great signature file from http://www.feedburner.com

• Do not cause conflict or controversy.

Drama is inevitable in forums. By their nature, they are a place to have open discussions about topics. Posting your opinion on something is fine, but to attack others personally will establish you as a controversy seeker and backfire later.

I hope you have found this post useful as another method of generating traffic to your blog.

If so,  do please leave your comments below.

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3. My Traffic Generation Strategy – Part 2 – Web Directory Submissions

In this report I outline step by step and in great detail, how to connect your blog across many different blogging and micro blogging platforms.

I have found that this does increase traffic because many people use platfroms such as Multiply, Blogspot, Posterous and many others.

So for this report Free simply enter your details in the form on the sidebar and download it immediately.

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Yes everyone is using Twitter!  But do you know how to use Twitter to increase traffic to your blog?

First of all when you set up your account make sure you put on the url of your blog, and also pay great attention to your bio.  Use your keywords – do not forget that when people search on Twitter they will use keywords, so make sure your most relevant keywords appear in your bio.

You may also want to brand your Twitter page by investing in a custom background, which you may wish to brand in line with your blog design.

I personally believe that having as many Twitterers as possible is not necessarily the best thing.  It is best to have fewer followers, but make sure they are targeted Twitter followers, and so will be interested in what you are tweeting about.

Driving Traffic from Twitter to your blog (and Vice Versa)

Use a plug in like Twitter tools so that you can automatically post a tweet to your account when you make a post on your blog. You can also post a weekly tweet digest to your blog.

Relationship marketing is all important – build a relationship with your readers – tweeting allows you to give your followers little glimpses of your life – you do not need to reveal too much.  However people will get to know, like and trust you and then are much more likely to become customers.

You do need to tweet regularly, and to build relationships with others, you can retweet their tweets, and others will do the same for you, thus ensuring greater exposure for your messages.

I find it is best not to be to overtly in sales mode on Twitter.  Try to give valu and point out events such as webinars or interesting free offers, rather than simply trying to sell on Twitter.

Twittering regularly really can help to explode your traffic used in the correct way.

For a great comprehensive guide on how to:-

• Grow your Twitter following properly
• How often to tweet
• Dominate a niche market
• How to brand yourself
• Common mistakes to avoid at all costs
• How to stamd out from the crowd
• What tools to use

Check out this great value ebook here:-

http://www.sueworthington.com/recommends/twitterdecoded

I also have a great website which is still under construction but well worth a visit:-

http://www.twittertoolsdaily.com

So, yes Twitter is important BUT you must know how to use it properly!

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In my previous post here – http://www.sueworthington.com/internetmarketing/blogging/writing-the-perfect-wordpress-blog-post – I outlined my strategy for ‘Perfect Blog Posting’ and this strategy really does help your traffic, and should be used consistently.

In addition to this method every week or so I have found it useful to write a post which optimizes your primary keywords.

In my case this primary keyword phrase is ‘Simple Strategies for Home Business Success’.
So every so often I will write posts with that phrase optimized, as I have done here – http://www.sueworthington.com/category/homebusinesssuccess.

This greatly helps with SEO and increases your chances of getting results on Google searches for that phrase.
This main keyword or keyword phrase is often your tagline of your website, and should appear in the source code for your site.

Another tip is that if you cannot think of useful posts on that keyword subject, then why not outsource the task?
Save yourself loads of time and find a good but reasonably priced article writer here – http://www.scriptlance.com or http://www.replace-myself.co.uk
Just make sure that English is their primary language so that they will write the articles in an appropriate style.

This will save you a lot of time for a relatively small outlay.

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2. Traffic Generation Strategy – Part 12 – Press Releases
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Take a look at this video -- the best of 2009.

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