People are starting to cotton on to the fact that if you want to be successful in business these days you need some sort of on-line connection; either:

– Your business itself exists in cyberspace, or

– Your offline, bricks & mortar business has some sort of internet-based aspect for promotion, advertising, etc.

I just got back from breakfast with an old buddy (also from the ‘old country’ but who has lived in NYC for the past 15 years) and his wife bought a small ‘event planning’ business. This business works by finding, then building close connections with, all the best/cheapest local sources for all the stuff that one needs for an event: halls; bands; florists; center-piece makers; etc.

But, we were discussing how the industry needs good local ‘portals’ where people can find this stuff for themselves … obviously, the internet is the tool.

Anyhow, the point is that where you have the word ‘Internet’, you need to add one more word to make it work for you: ‘traffic’.

This is like the old retail store … it needs a cost-effective, high-traffic area to get all those eyes looking, to get a few of those eyes to turn into feet coming into the store, and a few of those feet turning into hands trying stuff out, and a few of those hands clutching wallets.

Similarly, online traffic = volume = ‘customers’ (or whatever action it is that you are looking for; for a blog it just might mean subscribers … for a online retailer, it’s obviously purchasers).

That’s why I made such a big ‘to do’ on my sister blog – 7 Millionaires … In Training! – about driving traffic to each applicant’s ‘Meet me’ page.

Eric, who made it to the Final 15, noticed this and sent me an e-mail that I thought I should share:

So how can I successfully drive traffic? I do not have my own blog and the methods I have tried have failed. I really want to ‘get it’ when it comes to Internet marketing. I truly believe the way to make your grand experiment work (If I am following along correctly) is to drive traffic, but not just to your site, but ours as well for future businesses we may have. How far off base am I? I realize if I do not have the correct tools to make this experiment work then I may not be a future millionaire. You can give a man a fish or teach him how to fish. I want to know more about Internet Marketing and what I am doing so wrong.

Exactly!

If you cannot find a way to acquire the skills (“tools”) to make this ‘experiment’ work, then how are you going to drive any online business?

As to building web-traffic, I assure you that I am no expert, but I managed to build a reasonable following by:

1. Commenting on others blogs, web-sites, forums;

2, Writing good enough content for mine that people would want to link back;

3. Getting a few articles published in one of the many ‘carnivals’ around (e.g. “carnival of personal finance” … google that) helped a little, as well.

But, I recommend that you begin by doing some research into what works and what doesn’t. Fortunately, for the Internet, research is as easy as Google:

For example, google (amazing how it’s become a verb!) Derek Gehl for courses on online marketing that you can buy, or buy Site Build It! by Kevin Evoy if you want to build your own non-blog site.

Read these excellent articles if it’s a blog that you want to promote:

http://www.rss-specifications.com/promote-your-blog.htm

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/blog-promotion/99-ways-to-promote-your-blog-for-free/

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/181812/how_to_promote_your_blog_without_being.html

Then …

… just do it! 🙂

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