There are three things you need to use to build you home based business on the Internet. Most Internet Marketers use one or two of these but if you want to generate traffic you should be using all three. These three things are; an Opt-in Page (or sometimes called a name squeeze page), a Sales Page and a Blog

The opt-in page is used to trade something of value for the visitor’s name and email address. Because most people are not going to make a purchase on the first visit to a website, you need to build a mailing list for the product or niche area and continue to give away more value to the email list while promoting your products.

The sales letter is normally seen after someone opts into your list using the opt-in page. Most sales letters are very long and describe the product, offer testimonials from customers and may include videos of the product in use.

You can use the blog to generate free traffic to your opt-in page by offering free content that pertains to the niche your product is in. Keywords for the product or niche help to generate the website traffic when people search on those terms. You link those keywords to the opt-in page so that when people click on the hot-linked keyword they are taken to the opt-in page.

Now let’s look at several other things that we can do to help to generate tons of website traffic to your WordPress blog to get this process started.

Create RSS Feeds on Your Website

This allows easy access to your information and updates.

Offer Free Consulting

This works especially well for content sites. Free consulting can help establish your site as an ‘expert’ name in the field, and bring more to you through enhancing your reputation.

The option of obtaining free consulting itself can gear more people to visit you.

Product sites can do the same by offering samples and trial runs or demonstrations of products.

Ensure Accessibility

A site that is easily accessible, easy to navigate and browse, doesn’t hurt the eyes, encourages more people to visit it than sites which are complicated and cluttered.

Good layout and color choice is vital.

Another aspect that shouldn’t be underestimated is spelling errors in page content. This can act as a big deterrent.

Build Uniqueness

Give your visitors a unique experience and unique content and atmosphere. Chances are they will surely come back.

A unique concept can also embed your site in viewers’ minds, thus allowing for recognition and easy association.

Provide Useful Resources

Be an expert in your field and also aim to help the people who visit you.

Product sites can provide links to related items, or guides such as maintenance for the product they offer. This also helps create goodwill in your name.

Content sites can do so through their content itself, by providing accurate information and becoming the one destination for their topic.

Again, replying to queries and comment add in to the helpful experience.

Provide Follow-up

Especially useful and vital for product sites. Following up with clients will create a good impression of your site and place you in your clients’ good books.

Auto mail and responders also work, and can be used by content sites.

Providing Exit Pop-ups

When a viewer exists your site, a window pops up where he is taken to another address.

This takes place in an exit popup program where sites can register. As a window pops up from exiting your site, your site can pop up the same way on another website that is part of the program.

This helps to increase your visibility, and clients who may not know of your site can be exposed to it in this way.

Ask Viewers to Bookmark Your Website

Bookmarked sites are more visible to a viewer, as the links are right there in front of him when he opens his browser. This can entice a viewer to visit back when exposed to the site’s presence in his favorites list.

Be Active on Discussion Boards

This can generate awareness of your site and provide exposure.

Furthermore, having your own discussion board on your site enhances the interactive, human feel viewers look for on the Net.

People who have had a good experience on your discussion board will think of it when they run into a problem again, and some may even come back just for the social aspect, to meet new people in a setup that is familiar and pleasant to them.

Product review boards would work well for a product site, further working as a tool to promote the products.

Content sites can make use of the board as a platform to help others and provide insight and further information about their topic of interest.

Let Them Use Your Content for Free But Link Back

Encourage your viewers to forward your free articles or newsletter, provided they always include the link to your site on it.

This provides additional exposure as you will have circulation in clients’ private contact lists, a feature that would not have been accessible to you otherwise.

Encourage Viewers to Spread the Word About You

If viewers are satisfied with the experience and content/product you provide them, ask them to tell others about their experience.

Word of mouth is still one of the most effective promotion tools even in this age, so make use of it.

Always use a WordPress Blog

This allows for easy updates and an added ‘human’ touch to your site.

Blogs also provide features that can generate traffic and exposure even more. Features pertinent to blogs, for example pinging, allows for each update to the blog to be pinged and updated on blog directories that are scouted by lots of people.

There are other, very effective methods of generating additional traffic to your site. These methods, which will be mentioned later, have gained lots of popularity recently and as such, will be considered in more detail.

Forums

Forums allow you access to industry/sector specific areas where you can comment and interact with others.

Interacting on forums is a good way of getting your name out. Topic-specific forums can allow content site owners to provide helpful and judicious advice on forums posts, thus helping to present them, and in turn, their site, as ‘experts’ in the field.

Most forums also allow the one posting to have a signature attached at the end of a post. This signature can be used to provide links back to the site and specific pages if it is content-oriented. Always make sure whether signatures are allowed though.

Products can promote themselves on forums too.

However, it is wise to refrain from spamming and even too-obvious promotion posting on forums. Aim to offer relevant and accurate content, and offer your help wherever possible. This established goodwill already allows your reputation to precede you before the person even goes to your site.

There are many forums out there, and finding one or a few pertinent to the sector your site specializes in should not be too hard.

Pay Per Click or PPC

Pay per click is the process whereby a site pays for every click generated from its advert on a specialized page or a search engine results page.

This process works on the premise of selected keywords. The site selects its keywords and states the amount it is willing to pay, or bid, for every keyword. The highest bid for this keyword then earns the best placement in the sponsored links section of a search engine’s results page. If a viewer clicks the link to the site, the site owner then has to pay the search engine the amount it was willing to pay for the keyword. Thus the site only pays for a ‘clicked’ visit.

PPC is basically a new form of paid advertisement that is getting more and more exposure and popularity as site owners are not reluctant to pay to earn traffic.

However, the process doesn’t work just like that to ensure good results. Even landing a prime spot in the sponsored links section, people may simply scan over the ad and discard it.

The key then, is to have a very good ad copy to present for your link. Something that is intriguing and catchy and which covers what the viewer will find at your site is bound to work better than a general description of your site offerings.

Using varied keywords for better exposure is also another way of ensuring broader scope.

It pays to note that the ad should be linked to the specific product/content page it is advertising.

Another requisite of PPC is that links should constantly be checked to see if they work. Also, testing can allow the site owner to find which keywords are earning him the best placements and consequently focus his attention and money on those keywords.

Tomorrow at the end of Part 5 of this series on how to generate website traffic I will provide a list of resources for you. Also, I will have an invitation to a special event where you can learn more about building your online home based business. Stay tuned.