Tips

Traffic Swarm is a free site that will generate traffic to your website. What you have to ask yourself is, will that be targeted traffic.

Recently I was pitched an internet advertising program. I pay, let’s say for example, $100 for advertising. I then am able to create an ad that rotates in turn to the visitor of the ad site. I can earn back my ad expenditure if I just click on 24 other member sites, in the rotation, and stay on each site for 15 seconds. To actually earn money, I have to bring others into the advertising program.

Traffic Swarm does the same thing, only free. If you sign up, you get to create your ad, which runs in a rotation. You then earn advertising credits by clicking on the other ads and staying on the site for 20 seconds. I click to earn my credits. You’re lucky if your site, coming up in rotation, is a site I’m interested in.

So how do you target your traffic? Are you blogging yet? Are you involved in social networking? You may want to consider visiting my Cross The Digital Divide free webinars to help you learn how to spot the scam from the legit on the net. Or check out the Resource Library and Article Library for info that helps.

If you try Traffic Swarm, let me know what you think by commenting.

by Leesa Barnes

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn. These are just 3 of the many social networking tools available online. They are great for finding new prospects, making new friends and connecting with colleagues.

Podcasters use social networking websites to build traffic and grow their audience. It’s an easy way to share your audio or video content to attract attention and gain new fans.

Despite this, many have forgotten their networking manners. They are pushy and greedy. This type of behaviour is enough to make you hit the ignore button.

Want to make enemies? Here are 5 ways you can lose friends online, and how to make sure it never happens to you.

1. Hard sell during the introduction. Along with saying "Hi, we have some mutual friends, so let’s connect," you include the URLs to your blog, website and everything else you’ve created online. Whether it’s asking for donations to your favorite cause or asking for a visit to your blog, you go in for the hard sell on the first hello.

What should you do instead? Become a friend, then offer a quick tip. I recently became friends with a man, a health buff, who reminded me to stand up and stretch every few minutes if I work at my desk all day. He was being helpful and I appreciated this.

Final advice? If you want to lose friends, do the hard sell. If you want to make friends, be helpful.

2. Bombard your friends with notes and emails with your offer. Whether it’s a teleclass, a workshop or a new book, tell all those in your friends’ list about your product. As many times as you can.

What should you do instead? Create a video offering a quick tip and ask for feedback. My friend, Nancy Mar recently did this. In just a few hours, she got 18 replies from friends providing feedback on her video tip.

Final advice? If you want to lose friends, be egotistical. If you want to make friends, be humble.

3. Send the same message one by one to all your friends. I’ve seen a few people send the same message over and over to different people. How do I know they’re doing this? When you login to Facebook, the front page contains the activities of your friends. Often, I see someone posting the same message to different people’s profile. The only thing the offender changes is the individual’s first name.

What should you do instead? Visit your friend’s profile page and find out if you share any hobbies. If so, share your thoughts on that hobby with your friend. If the person is celebrating a birthday, send a birthday greeting. Anything to make the note much more personal.

Final advice? If you want to lose friends, sp@m people. If you want to make friends, personalize your message.

4. Requesting friendship from everyone, including your contact’s 13 year old son. Some join Facebook and MySpace to be friends with as many people as they can. Their goal? To do #2 and #3 above. They are so focused on numbers, they neglect to check if they’re requesting friendship from teenagers.

What should you do instead? Read people’s profiles, study who they are, then request friendship. This will help you avoid the embarrassment of being called pedophile.

Final advice? If you want to lose friends, focus on quantity. If you want to make friends, focus on quality.

If you focus on being helpful and on developing a few key relationships, people will be so interested in you that curiosity alone will send them to your website, blog or podcast. Practice these 4 tips and watch your business grow as people start to trust and like you.

Award-winning blogger and podcasting expert, Leesa Barnes, teaches insider tips on how to boost your sales and make a six-figure income using a podcast. Visit http://www.leesabarnes.com and sign up to receive 2 FREE chapters from her book, Podcasting for Profit.

I just discovered m0serious over at You Tube. He’s a genius.

This is a video about coding, writing clean code. It also has some tips on tasks you have to do when you create a blog post, like making sure there’s text in the "Alternative Text" area. Plus, he’s entertaining!

Ok, we call them gadgets, widgets, or plug ins. The point is they add interactivity to your site, compelling your visitors to hang around. I’ve used many on my various sites. So let’s talk about a few of the Google Gadgets For Your Website.

You go to Google, choose a gadget and customize it. Google will generate the code you need to place your gadget in your post or on your sidebar. Just play around with them. Give your visitors a reason to stick around….

Crystal Ball
Ask your question and tap the ball to reveal the answer to your question.

Sudoko Puzzles
Test your skills.

Coloring Page of the Day

Jigsaw Puzzle of the Day

Leadership Quote of the Day

Skype Me!

Google Talk

These are only a few gadgets. Go to Google’s Gadget page and check out a few for your website or blog. Keeping our visitors engaged is how we develop relationships with them. Try one or two gadgets today!

Let me know what gadgets you like, leave a comment below!

Show Notes

Audio of GeekSpeak to English, 101 June 13, 2007 webinar. Tips on editing audio in WavePad.

1. Tell your prospects that you offer free delivery. This may cost a little money, but, you will gain the extra customers to make up for it.
2. Tell your prospects that you offer a lower price. If you can’t afford to offer a lower price you could always hold the occasional discount sale.
3. Tell your prospects that your product achieves results faster. People are becoming more and more impatient and want results fast.
4. Tell your prospects you’ve been in business for a longer period of time. People think if you’ve been in business longer you have more credibility.
5. Tell your prospects that your product tastes, smells sounds, looks, or feels better. When you target the senses you’re triggering human appeal.

Press releases are one of the most cost-effective ways to get promotion for your online business. Many entrepreneurs ignore this type of promotion because they don’t know how to write a press release. It’s important to promote your online business with press releases because of the media all over the internet. The following is a list of some common press release writing tips:

• your press release should sound like news, not an ad
• you should only send your press release to the media related to the topic of your press release
• keep your press release one page in length
• your header, contact information and release date should be at the top of your press release
• use short sentences and double space in between sentences
• your header and first few sentences should capture the readers attention
• you should tell a story and briefly mention your business, product or service in the body of the press release
• proofread your press release many times. Look for grammar and spelling mistakes.

You can get other press release writing tips and ideas by reading other businesses press releases, reading how to publications, talking to experts and visiting other media web sites. A Goggle search for online press release directories will yield you plenty of site to submit your press release. Good luck!