Targeted Traffic Tips

3 Cash Sucking Free Traffic Mistakes

And a virtual buffet of more free traffic tips inside

You may be wondering why you should listen to a “Content Guy” about free traffic building.

Well here’s why:

“Jeff Herring has fast become a Living Legend of Traffic Generation, and more importantly, quality traffic generation via “Content Marketing.” He’s the go-to gunslinger showing entrepreneurs, online marketers, authors, and local private practice professionals and others how to leverage their know how and content and the power of the Internet with an auto-pilot system.” ~ Glazer-Kennedy Inner Circle, 2012

So here we go:

3 Cash Sucking Free Traffic Mistakes

Free Traffic Mistake #1: Failure to realize the traffic power of Content Marketing

When some people hear Content Marketing, they think “Oh no, I have to write, that sounds like work.”

Well, if you make it like writing was in school, well then, you are right. But if you make it a simple process and system to create small samples of your expertise that bring big rewards, then you have some leverage.

What to do instead

Get it that Content Marketing is the best free way to get immediate, regular and long term traffic to your web sites and blogs. While it make cost you a little bit to learn how to do it right, I recommend making the investment in your self and your business because of the incredible traffic you can get.

Free Traffic Mistake #2: Failure to invite your prospect to visit

I see so many people spend the time and effort to create their content and then fail to ask the prospect/reader to take any action at all. If this is you, then you are missing the point.

“If you build it they will come” was a great line in a movie but does not work in the marketing world.

What to do instead

Create your call to action with a compelling reason for your prospect to take action, and then invite them to do so. When you have crafted your content well, they are primed to want more information from you.

Offer it to them.

Take them by the virtual hand and tell/show your prospect where you want them to go.

Free Traffic Mistake #3 : Failure to provide something cool when they do take action

One of the biggest challenges on the Internet in any niche is getting found. Content Marketing takes care of that challenge rather nicely as you have seen above.

The next challenge it giving your prospect a good place to be once they find you, and creating a way for them to come back and find you again.

What to do instead

Make sure the place you invite your prospect to is a good place to be.

First, make sure it is working and not a dead link. Then make sure it is pleasing to the eye and optimized for your prospect to take action.

Have a way on the site for your prospect to get more good information from you in exchange for their email address. This allows you to invite them back many times instead of just hoping they will come back.

This equals good consistent traffic.

3 Big Barriers to Creating a Constant Flow of Highly Qualified Traffic

Profitable Traffic Building is an essential skill for building a successful online business. And you are reading this because you want a successful online business, right?

The challenge is there are many barriers in the way of profitable traffic building for both beginners and experienced online entrepreneurs. Let’s take a look at 3 big barriers and what to do instead.

3 Big Barriers to Profitable Traffic Building

Traffic Building Barrier #1: Lack of Knowledge

Even experienced online entrepreneurs are challenged by this one. That’s because most online entrepreneurs don’t know these important 4 rules of traffic generation:

Traffic Generation Rule #1: Don’t chase after traffic. Don’t spend money on traffic until you have a proven profitable system, especially with all the great sources of free traffic available to you online.

Traffic Generation Rule #2: Find out where the traffic is already going. What are the “social sites” that your ideal customers uses? Where do your ideal customers hang out online?

Traffic Generation Rule #3: Get in front of where the traffic is already going. Regularly and consistently get your content in front of where the traffic is already going. A great place to do this is on Medium.com and it’s publications like Dr. Mehmet Yildiz’s “Illumination.”

Traffic Generation Rule #4: Redirect the traffic where you want it go, to your profit pages. This can be an opt-in page, a sign up page or a sales page. Whatever pages bring you prospects and profits on a regular basis

Traffic Building Barrier #2: Lack of Consistency

The reality is that most online entrepreneurs are not consistent with their traffic generation. In fact, most online entrepreneurs are not consistent with anything! Don’t be like most people.

One the simplest and most powerful ways to be consistent is to do something each day to drive traffic. It can be something as small as a 280 character tweet or something as big as a live webinar. Just make sure you do something each day.

Traffic Building Barrier #3

Lack of Diversity — You’ve got to have multiple streams of traffic coming your way. The challenge is so many people rely on just one, and as Dan Kennedy is found of saying “the worst number in business is one.”

When you have many streams of high quality traffic coming your way, if one somehow goes away, you still have other streams coming in to build your traffic.

Insider Tip — Regularly creating high quality content is one of my best strategies for creating consistent traffic.

How to Direct Traffic Exactly Where You Want It To Go

Content Marketing allows me to drive traffic wherever I want it to go with each and every piece of content. There is so much traffic coming in now from all my content online that I could stop creating content right now and the traffic would keep flowing in.

But I’m not going to stop because I really like the traffic. And being able to leverage my content to direct traffic where I want it to go is an awesome benefit.

Here’s how I do it

Whenever I want more traffic and all the benefits that come with it (more prospects, more publicity, more profit) then I create more content. It really is as simple, and powerful, as that.

So I pick a specific topic to create content around. The more specific you can be the better, because you are then targeting your ideal clients who want exactly what you have. Broad topics are just not powerful enough to pull in the kind of traffic you want.

Here are the 4 specific criteria I aim for in each piece of content:

1. Make sure it is good enough to represent me well on the Internet. Perfectionism just slows me down.

2. Deliver at least one gold nugget of information that can be used right away.

3. Helps prospects to know, like and trust me, and to desire my resources, services, and coaching.

4. Leaves prospects wanting more information about the topic and wanting it from me.

Your Call to Action

This will allow your prospects to flow right through your content and into your call to action.

What you say and don’t say in your call to action is crucial for traffic and profits. Mess this up and you have wasted all your time. Here are a few dos and don’ts.

• Don’t make it all about you. This is not the time to try to convince your prospect that you are an expert. That’s what your content is for.
• Don’t leave your prospect hanging. They want to know what to do next. Tell them and show them.
• Do make sure your content flows right into your call to action. Make a smooth and seamless transition from your content into the call to action.
• Do offer your prospect something related to your content and related to one of your paid resources in exchange for their email address.

Why Can’t I Just Have One Great Source of Traffic?

The problem is in this age old saying:

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

The reason why these age-old sayings stay around is there is some wisdom to them.

Here is how it works online. Let’s say you got all your traffic from Facebook. Not a bad source of traffic and certainly one you want to have in your arsenal of traffic. However, if all your traffic came from Facebook, and that was your only source of traffic, you’ve got a problem.

You don’t own Facebook. You don’t own your presence on Facebook. Your presence on Facebook is owned and therefore controlled by Facebook.

So what happens if they charge part of their rules about traffic, and it doesn’t fit for you or doesn’t work for you. Or even worse, as happened to many, what happens if for some reason, your Facebook account gets shut down, and there goes your one and only source of traffic?

An important business lesson

This is a business lesson I learned years ago when I was a marriage and family therapist in private practice and was building traffic sources. What we call in that business referral sources, where my referrals came from.

I had it made in terms of referrals once I started writing a weekly column for the local newspaper. From ’86 to ’94, I didn’t have the column, had multiple sources of referrals and traffic. Started writing that column ‘94, and it became a huge, enormous source of traffic and referrals and I loved it.

One of the best business decisions I ever made though was not to rely on that single source of referral or that single source of traffic because I did not control it. It was controlled by the newspapers. And in a sense, I served at their pleasure.

Although it was only supposed to be for six months to a year, it ended up, it still goes on now nationally and internationally, the local newspaper decided not to run it anymore after 10 years. So what would have happened if I had relied on that as my sole and only source of traffic, and then it dried up?

I would have been in big trouble professionally, but because I had and still maintained, even though I had this one great source of traffic, I still kept all my other sources of traffic working so that when that time came in ’04, and there was no longer that source of traffic, that it was okay. I still had all my other sources of traffic.

So yeah, use one, and maybe it might be your primary one, but always, always, have multiple sources of traffic because then you’re safe.

Another way to think of it is let’s say that you’re going to sit down and have a meal. Your table has one leg. How stable would that table be? Didn’t mean for that to rhyme, but it did. How stable would that table be?

I want to eat at a table with multiple legs and multiple supports. That way, if one gets taken away, that table still has an opportunity to stand. You want it to be the same way with your traffic.

How to Build the 3 Types of Traffic You Must Have Online

Content marketing and traffic generation is a great combination for bringing you highly qualified and highly targeted traffic. In this article we’re focusing on content marketing and the three types of traffic you must have.

3 types of traffic

These 3 types of traffic can deliver all the traffic you will ever need. I couldn’t stop the visitors coming into my web sites and blogs because of these strategies if I wanted to, and I assure you I don’t want to.

And neither will you.

Let’s take a closer look at these 3 types of traffic you must have. It’s not a matter of just one type, it’s a matter of all three types.

The first thing I ever learned about traffic on the Internet is this:

Don’t chase after traffic. Find out where the traffic is going and get in front of it.

Now, with content marketing and social marketing and social content marketing, I have added to that quote to say:

Don’t chase after traffic, find out where the traffic is going, get in front of it, and then re-direct it exactly where you want it to go.

And where you want it to go is your profit centers like your blog, your opt in pages, your product resource pages as well.

The three types of traffic are:

1) Immediate traffic

2) Regular traffic

3) Long-term/evergreen traffic

Immediate traffic is traffic that you want to get right away. Content marketing provides that for you. When you create a piece of content and put it on Medium.com, on your blog, and other places, you will get immediate traffic from that 20 to 30 minute investment that it took you to create that content and submit it. That is a great way to get immediate traffic.

Now, imagine having that power at your disposal.

You need traffic, create more content. Boom. Simple as that.

Regular traffic means regular, daily, even hourly, consistent traffic from your efforts. Your content does that as well. Content that may be old to you is brand new to the person that finds it for the first time.

That’s immediate traffic and then regular consistent traffic.

Long-term evergreen traffic is traffic that keeps producing for you day after day, hour after hour, year after year for you once you created the content.

And then you stack each piece of content upon another. That evergreen traffic just continues to build and pretty soon you’ve got more traffic coming in than you ever thought and you won’t be able to stop it, even if you want to. And like I assured you, you won’t want to.

BONUS TIP #1: Want even more targeted traffic tips? You’re invited to my Traffic Generation Hub:

BONUS TIP #2: I’ve talked a lot about content in this article. For quick help on coming up with fresh content ideas, grab my free guide called 21 Fresh Content Ideas.