Budget Traffic to Website

Hi

 

I am trying to get a new website http://confident-kids.com up and 'out there' on a very tight budget. I have being doing direct marketing so far with the main interest being the free downloads.I am feeling very weary about it all. Until the site becomes solvant, I am reluctant to ppclick or spend too much money without guarantee fo return. Maybe I am asking too much, but any ideas how I might move up the ladder or get known would be most welcome -anyone?

Thanks,

Sally

Hi Sally,

The new website is starting to look pretty good :o)

... there are a bunch of options that spring to mind that could generate traffic (or directly build your list) without spending any cash on advertising. Each of these options has nuances, so please feel free to ask for more specifics...

1. Running live talks or teleseminars: with the goal of getting the names an e-mail addresses of as many members of the audience as possible. Nick routinely adds hundreds of names to our list using this approach - you might even get paid handsomely for your troubles.
2. Offline / online networking - I'd definitly recommend setting up your own Facebook Page and / or Facebook group and using it to build an audience. It might also be worthwhile joining LinkedIn.com, because aside from being a great networking community, you can also use it to build an online reputation using their "recommendations" feature (see my profile as an example). Also, don't forget live in-person networking as a way of building your visibility.
3. Getting other businesses to endorse you to their audiences: are there any affinity groups or networks that might be willing to recommend your free e-course to their people? If so - it could add dozens or even hundreds of names to your list in one fell-swoop. We've been lucky with this approach several times.  
4. Writing articles and content: have you considered getting articles (or tip sheets) published in the mainstream press or in niche magazines or on niche websites? Have you considered submitting your articles to article directories, or social media websites like Squidoo.com or HubPages.com?
5. PR: consider keeping a close eye on the media for features that relate to the parenting niche. Then contact the editor with your unique perspective and ask them to consider you for expert comment in the future. Ever considered using a forward features service?
6. Search Engine Optimisation. Putting in some leg work to get your website ranking highly in the search engines for some carefully selected keywords might be well worthwhile (although I'd experiment with Google Adwords first - because the results you get will teach you which keywords are worth persuing).
7. Creating a blog and filling it with great content: even though Nick rarely updates his blog, it still gets us a steady 100 visitors per month. Don't forget microblogging with Twitter.com.
8. Creating content for the video sharing websites: have you considered creating some great video content and sharing it on YouTube.com and the like? We're getting a fair bit of traffic from a video sharing website called Viddler.com at the moment.
9. Have you considered creating a Tell-a-Friend feature? Ours is a great example to copy - we've had just over a thousand people pass on our free e-course.

... of course, many of the most powerful traffic generation strategies cost money (PPC, banners, sponsorship, JVs, affiliates, etc...) so it's best if you can get the economics of your business and your sales process working fairly well first. Are you monitoring your opt-in rates (% of people signing up for your free e-book) and conversion rates for your paid e-course and coaching?

... ideally you want to reach a situation where your product set is so solid and your sales process so proven that you can test different advertising options to the point were you can more-or-less guarantee a return on the money you spend.

Hope this helps,

Niki

Hi Niki

 

Thank you so much for these great suggestions, some I have tried but there seems to be alot more that I can do that I hadn't thought about. I have been feeling quite isolated and overwhelmed which is part of the problem, also I am not really 'up-to-date' with all these online services. Not being a techi I find it all rather stressful so haven't used them to their best advantage.

 

However, it was a good move to get started on your website yesterday, and it is great to have the support of knowlegable colleagues! I hope I can return the favour at some stage.

 

Thanks again for your help and support.

 

Warm wishes,

 

Sally

Hi Sally

As Niki suggests I think you could do a some simple things to improve your search engine optimisation.

I have found using page titles that are terms that people will search on improves my search engine rating.

see www.expertlearning.co.uk

For example your home page title in the HTML says "Are You Shouting At your Kids?". This is a wasted SEO opportunity. If I was looking for positive parenting information it would not necessarily be something I would type into Google......

Also looks like positive parenting (if this is what people are searching on) needs to be liberally scattered in your page titles and copy. Also your free guide does mention positive parenting but ibecause it is an image then the search engines will not be able to see it. My site although not as nice looking as yours ;-) is crucially in HTML for the key bits of text.

Best wishes

Michael

 

 

 

Hi Sally,

I'm grateful for Niki's expert input too. There's so much great advice here it's just a matter of putting it all into practice!

I'm with SBI (Site Build It) - and created my website through their written and video 'Guide'.  The Guide is quite extensive but easy to understand, BUT you've already done the main graft by building your site!

The next stage is 'building traffic' - i.e. what you're wanting to do now.   I think you may find some of the information in the SBI guide helpful.  It's written in a non-techi user-friendly way.  You can view it here for free

http://action-guide.sitesell.com/KarenM.html

 

I've also written about SBI on my website under 'my SBI journey' (link to my site below)

Hope this helps! 

Claire

Hi Michael Thank you for your comments, I have passed them on to the web designer. He has been linking up the direct advertising with the words on the website and we are in the process of coming up with something different for the title you comment on. He is a designer and has not done the search engine side of things to its full potential despite my requests; he has been learning too! Not my intention but a long story and this is where I have ended up! I have another training business too http://www.manushi.com and that website needs a serious overhall - so I have alot to do! All these ideas will be really useful for that too. Anyway, I am really grateful for the responses I have recieved and have lots of ideas to work through now. Thank you, Best wishes, Sally

Hi Claire Thank you for your suggestions. The website sounds really interesting and it seems like you have a good grasp of how to do it yourself. That must be quite empowering and much easier to edit when you want to, rather than waiting on someone elses time schedule which has been one of my challenges :) I have looked at the site and it is very easy to understand as you say and quite useful. Again, I have passed the information on to my confident-kids web man who I am meeting this week, but will use the information with Manushi as that website is about to have an overhall. Thank you for your help and getting in touch. Best Wishes, Sally PS my last post came out without any paragraphs - not sure what is happening there as I am writing them in?

Sally

Glad my suggestions were of help.

You might find the following about how to write good page titles of use http://www.socialpatterns.com/search-engine-optimization/writing-better-titles/

Page titles are also the text that appears on the top of the broswer, on google searches and when the page is book marked.

Your Wed Designer can put them in - but I suggest you write them - because you understand what your audience are most likely going to be searching on.

Same goes for packing out your HTML text/copy (not images) with lots of likely search terms.

Best wishes

Michael

p.s. I signed up for the A-Z - some great stuff in there. It is something we are keen to get right for our 2.5 year old daughter. Do you have an AutoResponder set up - like GetResponse.com? i.e. will I get more emails? There was quite a lot in the first email - you might like to think about putting some of it (Summer promos, hard sell on the courses etc. etc.) into follow-up emails (spread out over a number of days/weeks). You can also ask me for feedback on the A-Z in a follow-up etc........). Or even just send 5 letters of the alphabet per email for five days. Anything that gets me used to receiving useful/valuable information from you on a regular basis.

 

Hi Sally

 

I've just started to read your thread and wow lot of the quality of response you've gotten - thanks for asking the question!  I too like Michael have signed up - I was motivated to do so as you've been an expat parent, as I am now. 

RE the expat part - knowledge for use whilst living abroad and an ability to be able to tap into it at an appropriate time for oneself is key.  Perhaps you could have a look at www.expatwomen.com - a website targeted at women living overseas due to a number of reasons - there may be potential there to write an article - you need to contact Andrea who runs the site - details on the site.

http://www.expatwomen.com/

 Look forward to learning more from you moving forward.

N

Hi Claire,

I just wanted to thank you very much for your SBI journey report.  It was very interesting and gave me a good few insights into the whole process which I think I'll sign up to.  Your comments about being a Mac user were helpful as I've just recently moved from PC back to Mac - I'm finding the Mac so much nicer to use.

Seeing the videos has been useful too -thanks for putting the links in - haven't dared listen to the male robot yet - might put me off!

If I click through your site when I'm ready to buy can I get you any benefits/kudos?  I noticed there is an affiliate option.

Looks like I'm in for an interesting education in the world of websites and SEO.

Thanks and best wishes,

Lisa

Lisa Farr

Marketing Consultant and Coach

I totally agree with the comment about page titles.  How about this for the home page: "Free Positive Parenting advice from Sally Muir", maybe adding (though it goes over the usually recommended 64 characters) "-as featured on Radio 4"

Have a separate page (as well as the homepage) for "Download free A-Z of Positive Parenting by Sally Muir".  I'd repeatedly mention your name in the titles so anyone searching for you will find your website.

Search Engine Optimisation is a whole subject to itself, but good page titles are the absolute most important thing you have direct control over.  Of course, the thing that will affect your rankings the most are the inbound links that you get from other sites - the quantity, the quality/ranking of the referring site, and the words they use to link to you.

Again, on your site, don't use words like "click here" for internal hyperlinks - rewrite them to include your keywords.  E.g. on the front page:

"Short on time, but want to learn how to be a more positive parent?  Sign up for our 5 part e-course on Positive Parenting, and get a FREE trouble-shooting tele-seminar."

Or: "If you want personalised advice, book a 1-to-1 Postive Parenting coaching session with me."

Hopefully you get the idea, and hope that helps.

Best regards
Gordon

Dear Gordon

 

Thank you for these suggestions, they make perfect sense to me. One of the restrictions I have is that I do not edit the site myself, I have a portfolio career and building my own website was one stretch too far. I have passed them on to my web guy and asked him integrate your ideas as I find them very helpful - thank you.

 

Also, thank you to all the other suggestions people have posted. It has been great to receive support and all the ideas have been most valuable, some have already been acted on... it feels quite exciting to think of the difference they could make without having to spend a fortune.

 

Best wishes,

 

Sally

Sally

One last thing from me. You should also make sure your Web person supplies you with a simple website counter/dashboard.

Amongst other things this should show you a bar chart summary of the words that people are using to find your site, plus the top referrers (mainly search engines) - which will allow you to view the actual phrases people have used to search - plus you can click through to the google/yahoo page and see where you came in the search - and importantly see what other sites these prospects could have clicked on (your competition).

This will give a a simple way of measuring the impact of your SEO work.

Good luck!

Michael

 

 

Hi

I've just been running through this thread and finding all the info here very valuable .. many thanks to all who contributed ... :o)

On another note I need to know a bit more about RSS and pinging. I just gave RSS a shot on my blog site www.rekindleyourspark.blogspot.com using feedburner but it's a bit like going in blindfolded and wondering if it is all set up right! And how do I then include the RSS in my signature file?

And pinging, well what's that all about? I know it's something to do with letting the search engines know when I've put up a new post on my blog .... at least I think that's what its about ... but how do I do that?

Any help sincerely appreciated

Regards

Joy

Hi Joy,

How's the business going? From the outside you seem to be going from strength to strength :o)

Yep - you can pull in an RSS feed from your blog and publish it on this website by pasting the RSS filename into the "Shared Feeds" section of your profile (which can be accessed by clicking the "Edit" link on the top right of the screen - when you're logged in).

You're right about pinging - the general idea is to pull the search engines (including blog specific search engines like Technorati) back to your website so that they'll index your content more quickly (and sometimes you can get additional inbound links that can help with your link popularity). My understanding is that many blogging platforms actually do this for you (e.g. I've set it up so the blogs here at IE Club ping about 20 different search engines every time there's a new post). There are also pinging services you can use that can help you to speed up this process if you have to do it manually.   

If you like I can also share the list of the websites we ping automatically when a blog post occurs on this site...

Niki

Hi Michael,

Sounds like good advice, but....

I am using iweb from a mac, and I cannot find a way to change the page title on my website www.clearcircle.org. Any ideas how I can do this from anyone? 

I don't use a Mac but a  quick Google (http://www.google.co.uk/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=iweb+change+page+title&meta=) turned up several answers, including a link to this:

http://www.proposedsolution.com/solutions/ps0007.php

Hope that helps.

Regards
Gordon

Hi Sally I see you got some great advice from the experts here. I think I might be missing something but if you go to your web site and then in the browser click on "View" and then on "page source" you will see the HTML of your page. I only see a Title tage in your page and no "description" or "keyword" tags. Those tags are crucial so that the search engines can list your site and you can get free traffic from the search engines. Perhaps the experts can explain why you do not see them if you view the page source.

More cost effective ways to promote your site is to:
1.Add the URL of your site in the signature of your forum or blog profiles so that it is always displayed when you post.
2. Place the link of your site in your email signature
3. Place add on all the Free Classified web sites you can find with relevant categories for your site.

Forums and blogs are a great source of traffic especially if you can find a forum or blogs relevant to your topic. If you frequently participate in such a forum or blog you will start to stand out as an expert and people will visit your web site more.

 

Hi

 

Meta description is definitely valuable, as it is often the description that appears in your search engine result, so make it appealing.  Keywords tag is worth filling in but don't agonise over it.  It's been abused so much that the search engines don't give it a huge amount of weight.

Agree with the rest of the comments about promotion, but be careful to be offering useful information and not blatantly pitching your site - that's a fast way to get banned from a forum in most cases.

Cheers
Gordon