It seems like everyone these days is launching a business website or contemplating doing so because of all the success stories we read of internet millionaires and billionaires who had an idea, implemented it, and in 5 years were richer than they imagined. . I definitely agree that the internet is a great place to start a business because the startup costs are extremely low and you can reach a global audience, which are two things your typical traditional business can’t do for the most part. I launched an online business in October 2009 hoping that within 5 years I would be making enough money to quit my day job, which I hope is still the case. I have a long way to go to reach my goal, but I am determined to do it.

After launching my business in October 2009, I decided to buy a book on search engine optimization because I was determined to get at least 100 visitors a day to my site. It took me two weeks to read the book because I implemented all the strategies that the book told me to implement. After all was said and done, my average daily traffic was about 5 people after the first month I started my business. I couldn’t believe that all the hours I spent reading and implementing these strategies had nothing to do with increasing the popularity of my sites. And the kicker is that most of my traffic was from paid advertising (cost per click) on Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask which was costing me a lot of money on a monthly basis with a pretty high bounce rate so I wasn’t getting no sales of this media at all. However, I didn’t let this get me down. I decided to buy two more books on search engine optimization (aka SEO) because every author has different ideas and I wanted to become an SEO expert and make my site a success from the start. I should also tell you that I bought a book on search engine marketing because I wanted to get better results through my advertising campaigns on the different search engines and even this did not influence my advertising results. So what happened next?

After spending countless more hours on the other two SEO books and implementing every idea I came across, I was hoping that all the time and energy I put into my site would be worth it. Once again, I was wrong. Once again, I did not see any increase in traffic. I didn’t let this get me down, I went out and bought two more books on the subject. Once again, I implemented every strategy in every book that equated to the same results as the previous books I read…nothing at all. In total, I bought 8 books on SEO and implemented each and every strategy in these books and got no reward for my time and effort. I am a firm believer that if you work hard, it will pay off in time. I still hope the search engines will reward me at some point for all the hard work I’ve put into optimizing my site. In addition to all the books I’ve bought on the subject, I’ve also spent hundreds of hours poring over blogs, articles, and any other media that talks about SEO and strategies I can implement to improve my search engine ranking. Even implementing the ideas I’ve found through these sources hasn’t led to better results.

The reason I wrote this article is to help anyone who has recently started an online business and wants to start getting traffic to their site as soon as possible. It’s also for anyone who’s had a site for a while and gone through the same challenges I have with driving traffic to their site. Here are my tips for driving more traffic to your site:

1) POST ADS ON CRAIGSLIST! – I put this as my #1 strategy because after all the time and energy I put into SEO, this has been the medium that has brought me the most traffic. I post on CL regularly in different cities because my traffic has skyrocketed doing so and it allows me to reach every corner of the country for FREE. I didn’t start posting to CL until recently and I’m so glad I did. My traffic has increased substantially. Another positive aspect of using CL is that you can republish your ads after they expire with just a few clicks.

2) If you have the means, invest in CPC advertising on the major search engines – This has definitely brought me traffic, but I have found that not many people convert to buyers by clicking on the ads. I read a book on search engine marketing and implemented the strategies it discussed and did not see any improvement in my results. So unless you have money to spend, I would tell you not to waste your money on CPC campaigns. Once you start selling products in your store, I think it’s a great idea to advertise online to continue to get your name out there. Until then, focus on free ways to increase your traffic. Craigslist has done wonders for my traffic and this is the only strategy I can recommend to drive traffic to your site right away.

Now, let’s move on to some of the strategies that all the books I’ve read suggested and that have given me absolutely no results:

Social Networking Sites: We are all well aware of the popularity of Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. Unless you have a ton of contacts and/or friends on each site, there is no point in adding information about your site to these media. I’ve wasted a lot of time doing this and it hasn’t brought me any traffic. If you are currently a user of one of these outlets with a lot of friends, I would definitely suggest posting information about your business on a regular basis. If you are not a user of any of these media and don’t want to be, don’t waste your time posting updates here because it won’t bring you traffic.

Blogging: Just like social networking sites, if you don’t have people reading your blogs, then blogging will bring you absolutely no traffic. I add my articles to my blogs on Blogger and WordPress strictly for link juice. Other than that, I haven’t received any benefit in terms of traffic to my site.

Search Engine Keywords – All the books I have read on SEO really emphasize the importance of choosing the right keywords for each page of your website. I suggest using Google’s keyword research tool and looking for keywords that have low or average competition because you will never be #1 on Google for a highly competitive keyword unless your store has been in business for several years and you are the best authority for that. certain keyword or key phrase. There is also a lot of talk about search engines not paying much attention to keywords anymore, which I guess is correct. After all the work I’ve done optimizing my site for keywords, my average position for my keywords is about 150, which puts me on page 15 for most searches for my products. Therefore, I am invisible as most people don’t go past the second page when they do a search. I recommend trying to rank for keywords where there isn’t a lot of competition, but don’t be surprised if you don’t rank high for these keywords either.

Article Submission Sites: I write articles for two reasons. The first reason is that I really enjoy it. I have always liked to write about topics that interest me (like this topic). The second reason I write articles and submit them to multiple sites is because of link juice. Not only do I get link juice from the sites I post them on, but I also get link juice from people who place my articles on their site. If you decide to write articles and publish them online, always provide a link to your site in the author resource box. People who add your article to their site are supposed to add the link to your site as well. Most people abide by these rules, but some do not. Writing articles hasn’t brought me traffic at all, but I’ve read that the more links you have pointing to your site, the more likely you are to move up in search engine rankings. I have yet to see this, but I’m patient, so we’ll see.

Google Product Search: The web store service I use publishes all my products on Google Product Search automatically, and I’ve been told that’s where most of their customer sales come from. I haven’t made a sale with this service, but I continue to use it because I don’t have to do any work on my own and I appear on the first page of searches for particular products. This sounds great, right? Not that much. You have to realize that you are competing with the big guys like Amazon, Best Buy and Wal-Mart who also use this service and you can be sure that if you are a small store you cannot compete on price with them. Type. It seems that most people who use Google Product Search are only interested in buying a particular product at the lowest possible price and don’t care about customer service. I definitely recommend using this service as it is free and will allow you to appear on the first page of specific Google searches for the products you are selling, but be aware that your product will appear with 2 or 3 identical products and people will usually click the one with the lowest price. However, if you sell products that the major retailers don’t carry, I can see this as a great tool that will help you appear on the first page of Google when people search for your particular product.

Directories – Every book I’ve ever read talks about the importance of adding your business to directories. I have added my business to over 100 directories and have received very little traffic as a result. I think it helps add link juice to your site, but that’s about it. Every book I’ve read has mentioned that adding your site to DMOZ is crucial because this is the directory that Google crawls and pays the most attention to. I applied to add my site in October 2009 and my business has not been added yet. Since DMOZ has volunteer editors who approve and disapprove sites, it can take a long time before they get to your site. I have been waiting for 7 months and I am not sure if my site will ever be reviewed to be honest with you.

I could go on and on about all the strategies I read in SEO books, but I have covered the main topics in this article. If you plan to open an online business or currently operate one and want immediate traffic, my recommendations are to post on Craigslist and advertise on major search engines if you have the means. If money is not an issue, I would also recommend hiring an SEO company to help you rank high on search engines for keywords. I’m not at the point where I would hire an SEO company because according to all the books I’ve read (which are written by SEO experts and professionals), people who hire SEO companies don’t have the time to implement the strategies in the books I have read or choose not to. Also, many authors feel that SEO companies are a waste of money because they do the same things that are found in SEO books and charge very high fees to do these tasks for you. I truly believe that ranking high in search engines takes time and there are no tactics that will help you rank high for your chosen keywords right away. I say if opening an online store is something you really want to do then jump in and do it, but don’t expect your site to be a success within the first 6 months to a year. While it’s possible, I feel like it’s extremely unlikely. I hope this article has been informative. Thanks.