The single biggest question asked again and again by new Internet entrepreneurs is:

“How can I get traffic to my Website?”

Even newbies understand they need traffic to make sales. And online marketers learn quickly that it takes a strong flow of steady, targeted traffic to really create a good income.

In this article I’ve decided to reveal the secret to getting constant, quality traffic for any site. Beware: this information could change the way you look at Internet marketing forever!

Are you ready? The secret for getting all the traffic your site needs to produce a fabulous income day after day is…

Be willing to spend the time, energy, and money required for intelligent, ongoing promotion and traffic generation.

Not what you were expecting? The truth is there isn’t a magic button for continual, high quality traffic.

No single method is failsafe and no solution to the traffic problem is permanent. There are many tactics that work well, and a few very solid overall strategies, but none of them are totally passive or push-button simple.

The best way to approach traffic generation is to be prepared for a long-term commitment. You should also have an open mind and be ready to change directions quickly when something you try isn’t working.

The good news is traffic generation requires no heavy lifting and no hard physical labor. Furthermore, you can create a torrent of eager visitors without spending a fortune on advertising.

To be honest there’s nothing terribly difficult about building a strong and steady flow of traffic for your Web pages. But it takes a little work, a bit of planning, and even a small amount of patience.

Unfortunately many people who claim they’d like to be online entrepreneurs don’t want to work, can’t be bothered to plan, and have no patience whatsoever. And this is exactly why the mainstream online marketing community is constantly abuzz with talk about the “problem” of traffic generation.

But you are not the average pretend entrepreneur are you? I know this for one simple reason:

You are taking the time to sit down and actually read a full article. The majority of opportunity hoppers simply can’t sit still and stop daydreaming long enough to do this.

Now that we both know you’re serious about success we can get on with our talk about serious traffic generation. I’ll give you the quick outline for a simple, effective strategy that you can build on.

Take the following content and use it as a foundation. We’ll be covering more traffic tips later that will help you build on this sturdy base.

Go Search Engine Friendly From The START!

First of all, design your site to be search engine friendly from the start. Do the keyword research to find the most popular search terms for your niche and include these in your title tags, filenames, internal links, and META tags.

The Internet Is Built On LINKS!

And once your site is complete launch your lifelong quest for quality backlinks right away. Outsource directory submissions and create a handful of articles and/or press releases to build the base for a good network of links pointing to your pages.

Be sure to link to all of your pages, and not just the home page. This will get the search bots and spiders active across your domain and help you get ranked more quickly.

Spend time or money on link generation each month and never stop this part of your strategy.

Also use article submissions and press releases as often as possible. In addition to good links, these methods create extremely targeted organic visitors.

Install a blog on your domain and plug this blog into a huge list of RSS directories. By doing this and posting several times each week you’ll begin to get lots of links and visitors from the RSS directories, and of course you can link your articles to your blog posts for improved search position and targeted reader traffic.

BUY Targeted Traffic Directly!

If it’s in your budget to do so, launch a PCC campaign as soon as your site is live. It’s a good idea to hire a consultant or spend some time studying this method as inexperience here is the fast-lane to losing a ton of money.

With PPC you should target the most specific keywords possible. Avoid going broad as this will bring visits but not buyers. Ideally you want to pay for only those visitors who absolutely want exactly what you are offering.

Traffic Generation In An ONGOING Process!

Always be on the lookout for places to add your link or drop a dignified blurb about your site. Use as many offline methods such as cards, flyers, newspapers, etc. as possible to drive people to your domain as well.

And above all, actively work to collect the names and email addresses of everyone who visits your site. Use a free gift, a contest, or anything else that works to get people to fill out a short form and subscribe to your mailing list.

Once you have a decent sized list, you’ll literally have traffic on-demand. You can send a short promo email out and drive a ton of very targeted visitors to any sales page or blog post you like.

With this basic core strategy and any new tactics you can add to it the main element is consistency and persistence. Stay at it for the long haul, even if you need to hire others to do the legwork or labor for you.

Massive traffic flow is almost always built over time. It takes work, and it takes testing various methods. But in the end it is so worth it.

Few businesses are as rewarding as a Web venture that is running on virtual autopilot. So lose the idea of fast and easy and just dig into a long-term strategy.

Within a year or so you can have a massive traffic engine that brings you tons of visitors day after day all year long. And think of where you’ll be in three to five years!

There’s nothing magical about getting loads of quality traffic. Like anything else in the business world it’s a simple matter of rolling up your sleeves, having patience, and making it happen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THIS POST

For more info on how to start an online business be sure to check out the author’s free audio presentation and startup summary. You can also browse a number of helpful articles about how to start an Internet business by visiting Tim’s blog.

I’ve recently had a ton of requests for good, step-by-step information on how to “get started”. I actually thought I was targeting this blog and ezine toward people with at least modest experience but clearly I need to backtrack and be more aware of my readers who are very new to the realm of online business.

With that in mind I’ve put together this solid snapshot overview of what you need to do to get started with the Internet marketing business model. Please note two critical factors before reading this post:

1. There are few absolutes in business and there’s no way to capture everything in one article.
2. I define the “Internet marketing” model as follows: Using direct response Websites and content-rich Web logs (like this one) to sell products and build targeted opt-in databases for follow-up promotions.

Other entrepreneurs may define the model differently but this is my angle and it’s what the following material is written toward. I’ll keep this article as short and to the point as I can and I urge you to bookmark the page if needed.

Getting Started

Your Idea

The first thing you’ll need is an idea. Notice I won’t be saying a thing about “niches” in this post because that’s a specific point of conversation that you may or may not ever choose to have. Your idea will be basic and will flow to the tune of who you’d like your business to relate to.

Make a list of the topics you enjoy. What are the things you could spend hours each day talking to people about?

Be honest and don’t hold back. Avoid thinking in terms of viability at this time just knock up your list of enjoyable topics.

Here’s an example list of stuff I like off the top of my head :

• philosophy
• health & fitness
• money (crisp green paper and shiny silver bullion)
• animals of any shape, size, or species
• writing
• humor
• convincing people that I’m a smart dude
• helping people overcome their addictions

I could go on but you get the gist. I’ve owned profitable sites built around every one of these topics at one point in my career; some I still have and others I’ve sold to other entrepreneurs.

Look at your list and ask for each item:”Are people buying products and services related to this topic right now?”

For example my first item is philosophy and yes people are definitely buying information on hundreds of different belief systems and points of view at this time. My last item is helping people overcome their addictions and again, people are buying all manner of products relative to this, from nicotine gum to tips on how to quit chugging coffee.

Spend a few minutes listing some possible retail scenarios around each list item. Could you sell e-books, software, physical items, or services related to your areas of interest?

Finding A Model

After you have a general idea spend a couple of hours using your favorite search engine to find out what people are already buying and selling within the range of your desired topics. For each item you listed just hammer out half a dozen or so keyword searches and take the time to browse the first few pages of results.

What kind of commercial Websites can you find in your categories?

If you can’t find any evidence of buying and selling related to an item it’s probably no good. Frankly it’s hard to imagine this scenario but if you can’t find evidence in the search results that products - even information - are being sold related to a point of interest it likely means there just isn’t a valid market.

Focus on the areas where you find commercial activity. If you like frogs and people are currently buying and selling stuffed frogs, books on different varieties, info on how you can get active to support research into why these amazing little critters are vanishing from our earth, and even Kermit t-shirts, it means there is a viable marketplace.

Spend some time jotting down your ideas for a general business model based on what you see others doing and based on anything you have learned from me or other marketing writers.

Do you like the idea of running an informative blog and recommending some great products to your readers?

Would you like to add a powerful sales page to the mix and offer your own product or maybe an item you acquire the resell rights for?

Of course you’ll need to plan for an ezine or newsletter and some kind of free gift to entice people to join your mailing list.

Maybe you could set up an affiliate program for your main product that allows you to seek out joint venture partners and pay them a nice commission for helping you promote.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is not important that you have an expertly designed plan at this time. You just need some kind of idea to run with.

You’ll recall at the start of this section I told you to think of who your business will relate to. It’s key that you remain aware of the people who will make up your target market because everything you present will need to have a real impact on these folks and compel them to enter your world.

Laying The Foundation

In-Depth Research

Here is where you’ll need to follow through with some in-depth keyword research. There are a number of good tools you can use to find out exactly what people are searching for online related to your areas of interest.

For instance both Keyword Discovery and the Google Keyword Tool are superb. You just start entering the phrases dealing with products, services, and ideas in your chosen area and the keyword tools will give you info on how many people are searching these terms plus even suggest other terms for you to try!

You’ll use this data to get very specific about the products you’ll sell and how you’ll set up your business. Depending on the competition you discover this phase will also help you identify the methods you can use to promote.

The Basic Tools You’ll Need

Once you have some idea to work with, you’ll need to jump into the basics. You’ll need a domain name, a good hosting account, reliable email autoresponder for building your list, and you’ll need to get your template and site content built.

You can choose to tackle all this yourself or you can find professional help. I recommend hiring others to help with the groundwork but that’s a call you’ll need to make for yourself.

At this point you’ll have a slew of questions. And if you look you’ll find a dozen answers for every single question you ask.

It’s important not to get overwhelmed at this point and just trust your gut, commit to a course of action, and take it!

Here’s the simple truth that no Internet marketers seem willing to accept: You’re probably not going to hit a home run with your first venture.

You might make some money, but a year after setting up your first business you’ll be a completely different person that you were the day you took your first steps. This is the unavoidable nature of any business so just get over it and get to work.

It’s All About The Process

Of course you will also need to enhance your knowledge on traffic generation, good sales copy, and general marketing and selling practices. As an entrepreneur you need to commit to a journey of constant education, always refining your approach and striving to better yourself.

To this day I still invest money in books, audio courses, and even seminars and coaching when I’m in the mood. And the people I consider my mentors also invest in coaching and continual education!

Consider this: I now earn a great living from home, but this did NOT happen suddenly overnight as the result of some boxed business system I bought and studied!

Please stop looking for some kind of magic system and just concentrate on the sometimes challenging process of becoming the entrepreneur you want to be.

Feel Free To Cheat!

In marketing it is a FABULOUS idea to copy what someone else is doing if this other person is having a good run of it. If you see something you like feel free to try and imitate it!

In Summary

So to recap what you need to do is find some things you enjoy and connect these general ideas with existing markets where people are already spending money.

Next, you’ll look for specific ideas on what to sell (i.e. what people are looking for and buying right now) and how to set up your Website network.

Third, you’ll find yourself a good domain and start building your site (or have someone build it for you).

And you’ll commit to learning the finer points of marketing on the fly.

You see it is MUCH easier for someone like me to help someone like you if you at least have a basic site and idea to show me. And considering your total investment for a site can be pretty minimal there’s no big loss for getting started and then adjusting your course as you go.

I’ll be covering some more detailed points on business building over time. In fact this year will be heavily focused on the powerful basics and delivering a good deal of excellent info through this blog.

For folks who want a really robust course on EVERYTHING you need to plan, build, launch, and run a profitable Internet marketing business I highly recommend the “Insider Secrets” course.

This is a full home study course that’s delivered right to your door. You’ll get two ring binders and a suite of CD/DVD lessons, plus whatever great bonus lessons they are currently featuring. The thing about this course is that it really goes from the very beginning all the way to the final processes and leaves nothing unturned.

It lacks the hype and nonsense you’ll find in many guru courses. And for this reason I’ve heard many people say it’s “too basic” but here’s a CRITICAL point you need to get:

You aren’t going to see a burning bush, an angel of god, or any other kind of profound message telling you “this is the way”… it’s going to be up to you to get started already and put an end to all the piddling and waiting. Internet marketing is “pretty basic” and that’s exactly why people looking for a get-rich-quick joy ride don’t make it in this business.

Again here is the best home study course for people wanting to start an Internet marketing business. If you can’t swing this right now just keep coming back to this blog and be sure you are subscribed to my list so you can get future lessons/articles.

The fact is if you’re willing to spend a lot of time reading and studying you can learn all the basics without paying a dime. The course is great for people who can afford it but understand I’m not telling you that you’ll fail without it. ;o)

I hope this content has been helpful. For some additional brief points on this issue check out my previous post about starting an online business.

After you have a domain name you’ll need to acquire your hosting account and set up your basic FTP connection. Your host is the server machine that stores the files and data that make up your site, and the FTP connection is the software and Internet access protocol that lets you connect to your site and move Web pages, images, and other files from your computer to the Web and vice versa. This initial setup process can be tackled in 10-15 minutes and is not as technical as many people fear.

First you’ll need a quality Web hosting service.

And you can download a great, free FTP tool here.

CHOOSING AND SETTING UP HOSTING ACCOUNT

View this brief video to understand how to select a good hosting account. There’s very little to this and you’ll be up and running in no time if you follow these instructions.

FTP CONNECTION TUTORIAL

A lot of people over complicate the FTP process. Don’t fall into this trap.

Just download your FTP software from the link above, and then follow along with this video to establish your FTP connection.

The fast you can knock out these essential basics the faster you’ll be able to get on with the process of setting up your income-generating offers! I hope this information is helpful. ;o)

Be sure also to review my companion post about registering and configuring your domain name.