Hi everyone,

I was just wondering what techniques you guys and gals use to drive traffic to your own sites.

I'm using a Google-friendly approach and trying to get people to link to me by having interesting and useful blog posts on my site.

But I know advertising might be a more direct route. Or perhaps even off-line efforts such as a mail-shot.

Which do you find most useful? Do you use Adwords?

If you pay for advertising, what is the ROI like?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this!

Cheers,

Leif

I've used very little paid advertising so I don't have personal experience with that yet, although I intend to in the future.

I have used free methods of driving traffic to my sites. The most effective for me in terms of conversions rates have been (in no particular order):

• Article marketing. I submit articles to ezinearticles and the articles that I write solely with readers in mind always, always generate far more traffic than articles where I've meticulously researched keyword phrases.
• Autoresponders.
• Press releases to local newspapers.
• Blogs. So far I haven't bothered to seek out links, I just write posts that I think the readers will enjoy and benefit from.
• Forums. Not forum marketing (I haven't tried that much) but having a forum that accompanies your website. It generates word-of-mouth buzz.

This is just what has worked for me so far in my limited experience.

--Anita

Allan Gardyne offers a free ebook, "77 Ways To Get Traffic nearly all FREE". It's pretty good:

Affiliate programs - Learn from an affiliate marketing veteran

He gets millions of visitors to his websites.

Alex

Yes, all that others have said: articles, onsite and offsite seo tactics (rss type stuffs), posting to various forums and blogs. Running your own affiliate program is a great way to get traffic too. Every affiliate is a potential inbound link

That's one smart way to go. Years back I had an affiliate program I billed as the highest commission of any affiliate program on earth. Had thousands of links coming in. That was its only real purpose, to build my position in the search engines. Had a gawd-awful high purchase price but an equally high affiliate payout. Server logs proved more traffic came from affiliate links then, than any other single source.

Wish I could say it was from forethought but was by accident after checking server logs that I learned the impact of owning an affiliate program. In hindsight I'd have kept the high-priced pitch, but cross sold something more affordable once folks arrived. So yes, launching your own affiliate program works well for traffic purposes.

Andre

Leif,

You're on the right track, and you've gotten good answers here. I'd add one thing - the competition for "copywriter" and associated keywords on Google AdWords is very high. So high that it probably doesn't make sense to try it for most copywriters.

I think you're better off with the free methods.

Also, try hanging out at the Warrior Forum at www.warriorforum.com. Lots of internet marketers hang out there, and there's a section for copywriters.

I hope this is helpful.

Janet

I did a mini video review of Pierce's -Instant Traffic- program that came out today.

Assuming people are looking for you & what you are selling, there is:
Blog Traffic
Directory Traffic
Forum Traffic
Article Traffic
Joint Venture Traffic
MySpace Traffic
eZine Traffic
Pay-Per-Click Traffic
Classified Traffic
Squidoo Traffic
Search Engine Traffic
Banner Traffic
Craigslist Traffic
eBay Traffic
Facebook Traffic
Social Network Traffic
Podcasting Traffic
Social Shopping Traffic
YouTube Traffic
Link Traffic
Press Release Traffic

I discovered some next day methods.
Created with Camtasia Studio 5

Adwords is a great test of your self-promo piece. If you're not getting clients then you need to shape up.

The only way I can see it being unprofitable is if you're charging peanuts or your site is really, really bad.

Let's see, $2 clicks and a 4 or 5 figure payday for 1 conversion... even if you convert at 0.5% and only get a $1000 job... you're still $600 in profit.

The very first time I ran an adwords ad I spent less than $100 to land a $4000 job.

I don't understand why people waste time with article marketing and other free (but time-intensive) marketing strategies for such a high-margin service

I am a retired 70 year old who has built a small business to help beginners - and I mean real beginners. During my own 'earlier' learning curve I asked this type of question several times and 'seldom' got any real answers!
I have been a member of this forum for about 10 minutes and have found the frankness, help and information on this topic alone very encouraging.

Looks like I shall be one happy bunny as a member of this forum!

Copywriting is my current quest - and I was attracted by the name of the forum but one can instantly see there is a lot more here than that

RonW

Kyle,

I appreciate your reply. Of course, someone has to be at the level of charging on the higher side in order for this to be profitable. But I'm very glad to have someone who has experience with AdWords for copywriting offer his perspective.

Now I'm ready to reconsider AdWords and Leif and others on the board have a more realistic view of whether or not they should consider it. Thank you!

Janet

For copywriters just starting out with no testimonials, no proof of ability and so on, I imagine article marketing (which creates the whole expert perception) would be one of the more the most effective ways to go.

Did you ever have a time when you didn't have results to back up your claims that you can write good copy? Or did you come from a business you ran which you could use to "prove" that your copy has made profits in the past?

Not having a go, just saying I believe this is why you'd want to do article marketing... tangeant alert.