Building Targeted Traffic Through Co-Gen Lists

Anyone of you who has followed me for a while knows that I am a list builder. I preach this to anyone who will listen...Your best source of truly targeted traffic is from your own personal mailing list.

What do you do if you have no list?

If you don't have a mailing list start building one NOW!

Using your free traffic sources; click exchanges, safelists, text ad exchanges, co-gen list sites...advertise your squeeze page and get sign-ups to your list. If you're not building your list, your business will never be successful.

A word about co-gen lists.

Co-gen list sites are those where you share a mailing list with other members. You're not only able to e-mail your personal referrals, but all or a portion of the other members referrals.

The number of people in your e-mail list may be determined by several factors. Some sites offer a daily reshuffle of the downlines to determine how many people you have the opportunity to mail. Others require you to read other ads and get points to mail other members.

The newest co-gen site is Super List Explode. This site ads all members that have signed up that day to your personal list if you have referred at least one person that day or read the required number of emails (5 at this writing) and clicked the credit link.

The site just launched on February 15th and I have over 4000 people in my list in only five days! Remember the old rule..."The more crap you throw at the wall, the more that will stick". With the rate of sign-ups at this site, I am getting a ton of crap (members of my downline) to throw against the wall (my squeeze page).

Once these people are in my personal e-mail list, then I will send them offers related to the free gift that I provided them for signing up to my list. They must be interested in that type of product or they wouldn't have signed up to begin with, right? So now I am building a targeted list to mail offers to.

Targeted traffic converts better than random traffic. I can send 100,000 people to my website, but if they are not targeted; I am not going to get many sign-ups or sales (probably around 100). If I send to a targeted list of 10,000 I should get around 120 sign-ups or sales (The internet marketing average is 1.2% conversion rate on targeted traffic).

If my website is especially appealing I should get a much higher return.

Using co-gen sites are a great way to build your list. Then use that targeted list to make your sales from.

There are other ways such as SEO and PPC (Adwords, etc..) to get targeted traffic and I'll touch on those in future posts. But for now...BUILD YOUR LIST!

Getting Referrals to Your Traffic Programs

Getting referrals to your traffic programs can be a daunting task for many marketers. Why should you even worry about referrals?

Referrals earn you traffic credits from their activity in most programs such as click exchanges. They can earn you commissions if they upgrade. Also many programs periodically pay you for sign-ups (usually $1 or less) even for free members.

Many traffic programs have downline builders, so your referrals get exposed to many other programs that you may be signed up to. Lastly, most click exchanges allow you to e-mail your downline. Using this feature gives you a ready list of prospects for your other programs.

How do I get those referrals?

The best way to gain referrals is to mail to your list. What? You don't have a list? If you're using any type of traffic exchange program, your first priority should be to build a mailing list.

You will need an autoresponder account. I use GetResponse and have never had any problems with mail delivery or spam complaints. They are very affordable at $17.97 per month.

You will also need something to give your prospects for subscribing to your list such as an eBook or video. You can visit many giveaway events and find a suitable product for free. Try and get something with Private Label Rights so you can edit it to your own style and put your own name on it.

You will also need a web host. 000 Webhosts provides a free account with more than enough bandwith and storage for your efforts. No ads or annoying pop-ups to disturb your prospects. They will try to get you to upgrade to a paid account, but for your list building efforts the free one will do just fine.

I don't have a list yet. What can I do now?

You have many options. What do users of traffic exchanges all have in common? Thay all are looking for ways to generate more traffic to their sites!

Most exchanges provide you with splash pages. Use those splash pages to advertise on your other sites and get people to sign-up under you. If they exchange has splash pages that use your picture, use them! It not only helps to brand your image in peoples minds, but splash pages with your picture convert better than those without. People feel better about signing up for something if they can see who they are dealing with.

Use solo ads on text ad exchanges and credit-based safelists. Solo ads with well written letters convert better than splash pages. Use credit based systems so that even if they don't read your message,the people are still clicking your link and visiting your sites.

Join list builders like List Joe and List Auction. These will allow you to mail to prospects once a week as a free member (more often and to more people if you upgrade). They are both credit based and get better response than places like List Bandit (although I do get sign-ups from there too).

Join Top Tier Traffic. If you haven't looked at it, this is the most innovative click exchange to come along. The more active you are, the bigger your downline. You can earn a downline to mail to and earn you credits even if you refer no one! The more active you are the bigger your downline will be. There is a reason why nearly 9000 people signed up in the first 30 days!

Use web 2.0 sites like Youtube and blogs to generate traffic to your sign-up pages. I belong to several social networks and frequently use my blogs there to tell people about new traffic programs. You can also start user groups on sites like Myspace and Facebook to help grow your downlines.

There are numerous ways to build your downlines at traffic programs. When it all comes to a head, the best way is to build a responsive list to mail to when you have something to offer. Don't abuse the list and send tons of offers every week. Keep them happy (throwing an occassional freebie their way helps) and they will be more likely to read your messages and respond to your offers.

NEVER buy another Internet Marketing product until you see this...

If you're anything like me, you've probably bought loads of Internet marketing products that promised the moon but barely got you a Snicker's Bar. Let's face it. People are in business to make money, and unfortunately, we're the ones they make the most off of... until now...

The long-needed resource has FINALLY been created--a user-contributed ratings and reviews website for Internet marketing businesses only. Now you can find out what other people *really* thought about a product they bought before you buy it too!

The site is called *Internet Biz Buzz*, and it allows you to get the "buzz" on a business BEFORE you buy from it...

http://www.InternetBizBuzz.com/?r=1004

Not only can you read other people's reviews, but you can leave your own. You can praise great products, and expose the crappy ones... You can even review businesses that haven't been added to the directory... It's GREAT!

Be smart, get the buzz BEFORE you buy.

http://www.InternetBizBuzz.com/?r=1004

See you at IBB

Tips to Increase Ranking and Website Traffic

• Create a site with valuable content, products or services.

• Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.

• Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target customers.

• Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web page. Like Title, META tags, Headers, etc.

• Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.

• Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.

• Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.

• Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.

• Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and the keywords they used to find you.

• Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.

• Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.

• When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer’s experience fast and easy.

• When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.

• Don’t look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.

Build Your Targeted List with Niche Social Networks

If you are building a list in a niche market you should be a member of a social network in that same niche.

The trend in social networking is to build small niche sites instead of trying to be the next Myspace or Facebook. The idea of bringing a smaller group of people together with something in common lends itself to a more active site, as measured in percentage of regular users, than a broad interest site.

I have talked before about a targeted list is much better than a broad list. If you are marketing products related to your targeted list; your conversion rates and revenue will be much higher. Big business recognizes this, too.

With the increasing popularity of niche social networks, more and more businesses are targeting their ads to them. It just makes sense that a record company would target, and pay more, for an ad on a site like Mog, a network for music lovers, than on a place like Facebook. True there are millions of music lovers on Facebook, but submitting an ad to a targeted market will bring many more sales per impression than it would if running on Facebook.

Its like selling a product on safelists, a broad audience; compared with selling it to your niche-targeted list of names. Your sales will be much higher selling to your list than promoting it to the safelist membership. True, you may reach more people through the safelist, but most of them will not be interested in your product.

By becoming a member of a social network that targets the same group of people that your niche list does, makes sense. You create your profile and add friends, just as you do on any social network. Give these new friends a gift to join your list (you may even be able to add an opt-in form to your profile page) and watch your sign-ups increase.

Spend a few minutes every day on that site requesting new friends. The more people that you request; the more that will see your profile. If you have your free gift link on your profile, you will get sign-ups. The sign-ups from these sites will be highly targeted to your niche and add dollars to your online business for months and years to come.