Do the Web Write. Dan Furman

to remember)?

      3. Banner ads and email: Banner ads are ads that you can place on other websites. Most popular websites now have some kind of advertising, and some of it can be quite effective. Especially if you advertise on a site that is in the same general area of interest as your business is in (for example, a bike accessories company advertising on a mountain biking forum). You can either search for “banner advertising” for companies that can help you (they can even make your ad), or, if you see websites that you would like to advertise on, look for an “advertise with us” or “your ad here” statement somewhere on the page and follow that link.

      Another form of advertising is by email. You can buy email lists of people who are interested in just about anything. If you do that, you can send them an offer that links to your site. Again, search for companies that do this. However, I will caution you here: Many companies who do this get labeled as spammers, so you may want to refrain from blind email bursts. An offshoot (and very non-spammy) method of this is your own client email list; that’s definitely targeted traffic. Just save the email addresses of all your clients, and send them an offer every now and again. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be actual clients; you can have a simple “sign up to receive company updates” form on your website, and send the people who sign up a periodic offer. This is a very effective marketing tactic.

      4. Online forums: I’m all over the Internet, and I’ve been posting to forums (essentially discussion groups) for years. There are forums for almost everything. And for each one, I have my website address in my signature.

      It’s a really simple way to get traffic, and it’s almost always free (see, I’m mentioning some free ways to get targeted traffic as well).

      I post to all manner of forums; I am a regular on several small business forums, and they have gotten me good traffic. I am also a regular on some hobby forums, and my website address is there, too. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t get a ton of business from Fantasy Football forums (I am a big fantasy football nut), but hey, who’s to say that “MRNUTZ44” isn’t really the CEO of a medium-sized company, and might need a writer at some point? There’s no harm in posting your website address in your signature.

      Join some forums — some related to your business, and some not — and put your web address in your signature. There is no downside, especially if you post helpful stuff. You’d be surprised at how many clients will look in business forums for experts. I got started in my home-based business because I was answering questions on an e-commerce programming site (I did e-commerce programming at my last “real” job), and a guy who needed an e-commerce programmer was reading it and said, “Hey, this guy Dan knows what he’s talking about. He’s answering all the questions!” One thing led to another, and soon I was happily e-commerce programming from my basement (which eventually turned into writing). So forums can really be a great thing.

      One caveat to marketing on forums like I am suggesting: It is considered bad form to do anything more than have a signature on most forums. For example, the business forums I post to have a rule: no direct solicitation. People are adults, and they can clearly read my signature, so I don’t need to answer posts with a “use my service” post. So just do what I did. Be a helpful, knowledgeable poster, and sooner or later, someone who needs your service will follow your link and become targeted traffic.

      Here’s the signature I use on the business forums I post to:

      Dan Furman

      Professional Copywriter, Business Author, and Marketing Consultant

      www.clear-writing.com — My business writing website.

      Also check out my new small business book: Start & Run a Real Home-Based Business

      5. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Natural search engine rankings deliver great targeted traffic. People search for certain words and/or terms, and the search engines try to deliver the most relevant sites. But it is VERY hard to get a high ranking.

      This is important, so I devote a full chapter (Chapter 8) to SEO writing and search tactics, where I’ll talk about things like press releases, blogs, articles, and writing your pay-per-click ads (and again, a lot of these tactics are free). The key thing to remember is natural search engine rankings in and of themselves are free, which is … in a word … awesome.

      Wrapping up targeted traffic

      The lesson to learn about targeted traffic is simple, isn’t it? You get targeted traffic from where people already interested in your service will likely look or where they gather. It’s pretty basic. There’s no real big secret here. If someone in your town needs a plumber, they will likely type “(your town) plumber” into a search engine. If you have a pay-per-click ad that gets triggered by those keywords (or your site comes up high in the natural rankings), you stand a great chance of getting that person to your website. And then, because you have this book, your website will instantly greet them, offer a clear solution to their problem, and then convert a certain number of them to contact you.

      Substitute your own industry/town/situation for the preceding. The result is the same: Deliver someone to your site that wants to be there, and you have a great chance of getting their business.

      See, this web stuff isn’t that hard, is it?