Do you want to build a successful website and drive a lot of traffic to it? Then don’t try to fool mother Google.

It really does work like that, as most of us have learned from previous experience. However, building a successful website is possible. And we have a few easy steps which will help you achieve just that.

Here are some simple tips to drive traffic and what I found to work the best for me. I think it will work for you too.

Make content the king of your success and make the search engines “drool” over your content! If you actually publish something of value rather than trying to game the search engines you will be miles ahead of many….many marketers.

Don’t sit back and wait for traffic, go get it!

A lot of marketers build their website and wait for traffic to come to them. Do you know how many websites are out there? Millions, all competing for the same traffic. Who do you think will get the lions share of the traffic, those who sit back and wait for it to come to them or those that go out and get it?

Exactly, go out and get your traffic. Write a few articles and distribute them to the article directories. This will help you get one-way incoming links which the search engines love. Participate in related forums and provide valuable content and input in exchange for a link back to your website.

Forums have been a huge benefit for me. I started posting in several niche forums just to get a feel for what type of product they might want and before you know it I was getting traffic left and right. When I did some investigating I found it was coming from the forums that I had posted in. I mean BIG traffic and TARGETED traffic!

You can also advertise on select and related sites. Just make sure that the website you’re advertising on is actually a high ranking site with a steady stream of related visitors. The trick to getting traffic is to be consistent and to try a variety of different methods to help build incoming links.

Of course, you’ll also want to make sure that all of your website pages are search engine friendly, that your website has a user-friendly and search-engine friendly navigation structure.

Include plenty of links to outside resources and also link to other articles inside your website. This will get the reader to stay on your site longer, lower your bounce rate, and increase the value of your site in Google and other search engines.

Be a Real Person. Many websites are cold and unfriendly. This won’t help your sales. People are sceptical and when doing business on the web, they’re going to opt for websites which appear professional and also reassure them that there is indeed a real person behind the website.

Be sure to include an “about us” section on your website as well as a contact and privacy page. If you are having trouble creating a privacy policy page there is a WordPress plugin called Easy Privacy Policy that will create on for you in a snap.

A picture of you and your team (if you have one) is a nice touch as well. Share a little about your business and let them know you are there to help them. People like to know you are human. As quirky as it may sound…. the more human and less polished the website sometime the more traffic you get because it looks authentic.

Building a website requires a lot of hard work and a lot of common sense. Dont over think it adn put yourself in the shoes of your target market. What would they want to see when they come to your website…. and give it to them.

And finally, being personable and letting your customers know that you are there to help them should the decide to purchase anything from you. The more they trust you the more they will come back and the easier you might make a sale.

One of my  favorite songs from the 80′s is from the movie “Rocky 4″ called “No Easy Way Out” by Robert Tepper.

We use to play this song in the cover band I was in and I got to sing it. What a rush that was.

I know… I know… you’re asking me what this has to do with marketing… well…everything. (and it’s sounds a lot more fun than saying “there’s no free lunch in this biz..doesn’t it -:))

As corny as it sounds, there literally is no easy way out of building a good living online. It still is all about hard work , determination, persistence, and discipline and it always will be. There is no short cut.

That being said, the sooner you quit buying all the latest gimmicks to try to get rich quick, and spend time establishing a solid routing and daily structure the faster you will start to see results from your hard work.

This is not to say that you should quit learning new things every day, this is about finding something that works, that is proven, and sticking with it.

Just the mere fact that you stick with it puts you miles ahead of the next person… because they aren’t going to stick with it.

I lot of people start to earn a decent living online “by default”.

What I mean by that is after the put in so much time the ball starts to roll in there direction and success begins to happen “by default”. They outlasted there competition and start to get more traffic, more sales, more money, and more momentum.

Success by default: sounds easy…. but it is not. But it is real and can be for you too.

So the next time you start to rock out to “No Easy Way Out”  remember “there is no easy way out…. there is no shortcut home” and know that you will start to succeed by default if you just keep on plugging away at it.

You’ve labored over your opt-in form, you created an offer that has value, and now you need to drive traffic there to see it. I know this sounds obvious, but the best offer means nothing if no one is stopping by to see it.

Using only one method to drive traffic to your opt-in page probably won’t get the job done. There are many different ways to bring people to your site that you should utilize as many as you possibly can. Using a variety of them will help you achieve the best results. Here are some of the most popular ones to help get you get started.

• Link to Related Posts – Travel the internet and collect links to post related to yours. Gather them all in one post and submit it to article directories. Don’t forget to link to the articles on your site and add commentary. It is always more valuable for your readers when you share comments. Share the link to your post with the people you’ve linked to as a courtesy.

• Guest Posts – Writing a guest post on a complementary blog is a good way to get your name out there. Everyone is always looking for fresh content. Especially, if it’s good quality and they don’t have to write it. These sites are easy to locate by doing a search or you can simply email your competing site owners and make the offer to write a post. The resource box with a link back to your site at the end is your reward for your hard work. Build those backlinks baby!

• Guru Interviews – Guru Interviews are a good way to expose your site to a lot of people who haven’t been there yet. New venues to share your information such as teleseminars, podcasts or email interviews can drive good targeted traffic from many people at one time.

• Contributors – Rather than having someone just write an occasional guest post, have them listed as a contributor. People love fresh content and a new person can give a new perspective on your niche and add substantial value for your readers. Again, the payoff for them is a link to their site in their resource box.

• Brandable Reports – A secret technique used by top internet marketers is to giveaway top quality information with links to their products. Once you develop products (or find affiliate products you can recommend) that have brandable reports as a marketing tool just give them away. Make sure they include your affiliate link (if it is an affiliate product) making the benefits two-fold. You have content for your readers and the possibility of making money through affiliate sales.

Your Goal – Discover what you market is looking for when they type in a word into Google and give it to them for free! This will drive a massive amount of traffic to your website and you will be well on your way to success.

When I first started to market online everything was trial and error. I didn’t know where to start but I did know that I was going to jump right in and figure it out. That seems to be the best way for me, don’t procrastinate, just jump right in. So that is what I did. Little did I know how complicated things could be.

Talk about being overwhelmed! Everything was an hour or two to learn or a day or two to set up. Nothing was simple but that was OK because I was determined to learn how to do this.

About two weeks into it I came across a site called Site Build It. It looked really simple to follow and I didn’t have to be an expert at HTML. It was a bit more expensive than GoDaddy or other sites but offered much more in tutorials and step by step SEO information. This really cut my learning curve in half.

Now I no longer use SBI because I don’t need too. I have become proficient enough at SEO and HTML, WordPress, Joomla and the like to not need all the tutorials and step by step help. This enables me to save some money by going through GoDaddy and Host Gator. But I would have never got to that point without SBI.

The reason I am saying this is because using information that others have put out there is a great way to save you time and money! Don’t reinvent the wheel when getting started. Use what is already out there. I liken it to my golf game. I fought a slice for 15 years and was embarrassed to go to a pro for help. When I finally did he had me straighten out in 30 minutes. Now, it took a lot of practice on my part afterward, but the point is, I could have save myself 15 years of aggravation and had a lot more fun if I would have just sucked it up and went to a pro early on.

If you are just starting out on line, take a look through the video’s and articles I have posted in this blog  as they should give you a pretty good head start to your online marketing.

Have you had a simlar experience? Leave me a comment below or if you have a specific question please post it below and hit the submit button and I will do my best to answer it.

****some of the links on this page are affiliate links and if you purchase something I could make a small fortune -:)

So…. your good friend recommends a product that she purchased and is having good luck with. You purchase the product without hesitation because you trust her opinion. Has this ever happened to you? If so, you are the beneficiary of word-of-mouth advertising.

This technique works well online as well. Here, it is called viral marketing. Marketing that is ignited by the spread of your product through “hyper” social channels online. Free Reports re a great way to get your own  viral campaigns up and running fast.

The reports we are talking about are special reports. They are usually around five to ten pages in length. In them, readers will find a wealth of information on a topic of interest. For you, the topic has something to do with your business niche.

Viral advertising only works when the product that you offer has mass appeal. This means that people will want to share it with others once they see it. It can be a unique twist on an old subject, something funny or something interactive. With reports, they can present a new twist, make someone laugh and provoke thoughtful discussion.

Hey, where can you find a report like that? You are going to write it. You don’t have to be a great writer to produce a free report worth reading. The best tool that you have is the fact that you know a lot about your niche. Your business is your passion and whatever you write needs to convey that passion.  The most interesting reports are those that offer something that the reader doesn’t already know or something that they need.

What do you want to accomplish with the free report? It can be a list of potential clients, a bigger sale or even a sign up for something else free like a trial membership or trying out a new product. Your answer to this question leads to your landing page. This is where you advertise your free report and give reasons why the reader needs to opt-in to receive it.

Your free report will touch off a viral storm but you need to let people know about it. It’s like using promotion to help you interest people in a product that will further promote your website. It sounds complicated but actually isn’t at all.

Are you familiar with article marketing? That’s when you write articles about your niche and submit them to article directories. At the end, you’ll include a link in our bio box that leads to your website business. With the free reports, you’ll write articles about the same subject as the report and link to the landing page so readers who like your article and find the free report.

How about your existing customers? They have already bought products from you and know how great you are. Send them an email with the link to your landing page. Do the same for your friends, associates and, if you have an affiliate program, your affiliates.

People like to get free items, but they also want them to be worth their time. Use interesting free reports to jumpstart a viral marketing campaign and drive traffic to your site.

John Carlton takes copy writing to a whole new level. If you are interested in learning how to write great copy from one of the masters, I highly recommend visiting John Carlton’s Official Blog (it is free).

Kevin Rogers was a stand up comedian for a while and wrote a nice post on the inner working of being a bartender in Chicago. It draws a great parallel to our direct selling market and how bar customers can teach us a lot about marketing. Give it a read.