This is part three in the “15 Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Website” series. Here are strategies 11 through 15.

11. Craigslist

Craigslist.org is the hugely popular and successful local bulletin board website. Have you tried it for business yet? If not, or if your results have been less than you hoped for, here’s a link to an article full of great tips and a step by step on how to effectively use Craigslist: http://snipurl.com/3duox

12. Google Local

Want to come up at the top of Google listings? Target your geographical area and it might be easier than you think! Try a quick search for something like “alternative health anchorage” and you’ll see above the regular listing there are 10 geographically based listings with a small Google Map on the left. Now search for “your business type your city” (example: “dentist new york city” or “boutique baby shop seattle”) — if you aren’t listed on the top by the map, it’s easy to get added! If you’re already listed, claim ownership of your listing and make sure your contact info is up to date.

Description from Google: “Use the Local Business Center to create your free listing. When potential customers search Maps for local information, they’ll find your business: your address, hours of operation, even photos of your storefront or products. It’s easy, free, and you don’t need a website of your own.”

Sign up at http://www.google.com/local/add (you’ll need a Google account)

You can also encourage your customers to leave reviews for you through Google Local.

13. Joint Ventures

Two minds may be better than one. Two business promoting together can definitely be better than one! There are many easy ways to build your traffic and sales with joint ventures. Here are a couple quick strategy ideas to kick start your brainstorming:
- Create a collaboration of products
- Swap ads in ezines
- Link exchanges or banner exchanges
- Do a contest swap and offer a contest others can promote, the promote their contests for them
- Swap business cards – send theirs out with your orders, they send yours out with theirs

(I share more ideas in “Building Synergy”, available at www.themusesguide.com)

14. Giveaways

Who can resist a great deal? Or better yet, something for free? The most effective free items or giveaways will be closely targeted to your market.

For example, if you offer items like nursing bras, you could create (or hire a designer to create) blinkies promoting breastfeeding and give them away to visitors to use on their websites or MySpace pages. If you’re an artist, you could setup a script to offer free ecards that feature your artwork. You could give away craft project ideas if you sell children’s items, or recipes if you sell home related items to women.

Just grab a piece of paper and take five minutes to write down everything you can think of that your target market is interested in, and then go back over your list and highlight the ones that also relate to your products or services. Those are good things to consider for freebies.

15. Newsletter

I’ve saved the best for last. Studies show that most shoppers don’t purchase the first time they hear of a business, service, or product. So you need a way to capture their information and keep your business on their minds.

One of the best promotional tools is a newsletter or ezine. If you haven’t started yours yet, it’s easier than you might think! Choose your service provider, add the form to your website, encourage your visitors to sign up (offer a freebie or coupon in exchange for their subscription), then send out regular newsletters. Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or even seasonally may be often enough depending on your business model. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to keep your business in the minds of people who are interested in your products or services.

I highly recommend Aweber for newsletters: http://www.aweber.com/?221066

Need a bit more direction to help you get started? Ideas on what to write about? Get your copy of The Muses Guide to Creating & Managing Your Own Sales Newsletter at http://themusesguide.com

!!Bonus Tip!!

I couldn’t let this issue go out without one bonus tip to help you get more traffic. You need a way to let visitors tell their friends about your website!

Here’s a free hosted tell a friend form:
http://www.bpath.com/recommend/rcm_info.dbm

Or, here’s a free script you can install on your website:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/tell-a-friend-script.htm

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, or have talked with me much, you already know I’m a big fan of article marketing.  It works.  So when Denise Willms followed up with me a few weeks ago I was happy to share with her some stats I had from tracking my article marketing efforts.  With her permission I’m posting a copy of the press release she mentioned me in.

Calgary, AB (October 10, 2008) WAHM Articles challenges small business owners to jumpstart their holiday marketing this year.

Uncertain economic times mean small business owners need to work even harder to earn holiday shopping dollars. WAHM Articles, a popular article directory for women and an active writing community, is helping small business owners expand their reach by giving prizes for writing articles targeted at mothers.

Owner Denise Willms, a Virtual Assistant who helps her clients reap the benefits of article marketing, launched the Holiday Article Marketing Challenge early this month. Home and small business owners can win one of nearly $300 in prizes by writing articles to promote their products for the holiday season. Prizes include advertising space, Tupperware products, ghostwriting services, and personalized article coaching sessions with Willms.

“I’ve been thrilled with the response,” says Willms. “It’s great to see online business owners discover how to write articles that increase their visibility and their sales.”

Article writers gain exposure for their businesses by creating articles that solve their readers’ problems, and including a link to their website at the end of the article. The author’s resource box invites the reader to visit the writer’s website for more information.

To date, WAHM Articles has published nearly 2000 articles by 500 authors, each written with mothers in mind. Article topics range from parenting to business issues and from crafting to personal relationships.

Willms took inspiration for this challenge from the 30 Day Article Challenge, created by Carrie Lauth of CarrieLauth.com. In the 30-day challenge, participants put their marketing endurance to the test by writing 30 articles in 30 days.

Lauth says, “Article marketing has proven to be a consistently effective traffic generation method for me. I launched this challenge to give myself  some public accountability but also to motivate others - it’s not as  hard as you think to write articles, especially since all of us internet marketers are already writing so much for our blogs and websites.” Others are invited to join the ongoing challenge at any time.

For those who don’t know how to promote their business by writing articles, WAHM Articles offers a free forum, where members can ask questions, and get answers from article marketing professionals, experienced article writers and article publishers.

Writing and submitting articles has proved to be an effective tool to gain targeted traffic and increase conversions. Michelle Shaeffer, The Small Business Muse™, recently conducted an experiment to track conversions from writing and submitting articles. She found the traffic she received from her articles came with more average page views per visit and a higher subscription rate to her newsletter. From general website traffic, Shaeffer noted a 20% subscription rate to her newsletter. However, 40% of visitors who read one of her articles then clicked through to her website signed up for her newsletter.

To learn more about writing articles to promote small business, submit articles for moms to read, or to participate in the holiday article marketing challenge, please visit http://www.WAHM-Articles.com

Here are ten easy ways you can get more links to your website.

Comment on High Traffic Websites: One great way to not only boost your website rankings but to also increase your visibility and get additional traffic to your website is to post  meaningful comments on blogs and websites that are relevant to your website’s products/services.

Specialized Directories: Use the search engines to find trade associations and product directories that you can be listed in.  One example is http://www.diaperpin.com for cloth diapering websites. You can find good, targeted directories by searching Google.  For example, try this:  “product name” directory.  For example:  “cloth diaper” directory or “website design” directory

General Directories: General directories such as http://www.dmoz.org and http://www.alexa.com are free to request a link from.  You may want to consider paid directories on individual basis.  Their value for you will depend on your particular business and the type of traffic the directory generates.

Other Directories: Look at local directories such as http://local.yahoo.com and http://cityguides.msn.com as well as small business directories, environmental/ethical directories, and other similar sites to request listings on.  Also check the websites of the retailers/wholesalers you purchase from, the shopping cart or web host you use, and other businesses you work with.  Many offer directories of their clients or retailers and you may be able to pick up some links and targeted traffic by being listed.

Article Marketing: Submitting articles you’ve written to article directories can be a great way to get links back to your website.  Anyone who publishes you article will link to you in the resource box.  My favorite article directory sites are http://www.ezinearticles.com and http://www.wahm-articles.com

Shopping Websites: A very popular way to shop online is with the shopping directory and product comparison sites like Google Base and Shopping.com.  Are your products listed there yet?  It’s easier than you might think to get added! Google Base is a great place to begin.  Formerly named Froogle, it’s a popular, free, easy to use comparison shopping website from the geniuses who brought us Google.  http://base.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=59260&hl=en
Many popular carts offer a built-in system to upload directly to Google Base, so check with your cart’s support team or site owner.  You can also upload your items one at a time or using a spreadsheet: http://base.google.com

Review Products & Services: Take a few minutes to write honest testimonials for other small or home-based businesses and email them.  They are likely to print them on their websites and be willing to include a link to you (I do this if someone sends a testimonial about my ebooks or services, I link to their sites and they get some free promotion).

Blog: Start a blog!  It’s a great way to get search engine traffic as well as build a sense of community with other bloggers and to help your visitors get to know you.   Be sure to use your Blogroll feature, turn on your RSS and pings, and use social bookmarking plug-ins on your blog.

Social Networking Pages: Websites like MySpace, Facebook, and Ryze that allow individuals to connect with others by sharing their interests, opinions, photographs, and whatever parts of their lives they choose.  Take some time to explore a bit and see which sites are a good fit for you and reach your target market.

Links from Other Sites: Create a “Link to Us” page and offer visitors both well-written text links and a selection of banner ads to use.

Pick one or two of these ideas and get started!  More links to your website means more opportunities to be found, and it will help boost your search engine rankings, too.