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Secrets to Attracting Repeat Visitors

December 29th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

To attract repeat visitors, your site must contain valuable information. Otherwise you won’t get noticed and will provide no incentive to bookmark you. Engage your visitors with a well-designed site that stimulates their mind from the moment they scan your content.

A content-rich site is a good baseline, but to attract repeat visitors, you need to refresh your content regularly, either every day or every week. If your visitors come back to you after a month or two and find the same content, they’ll never come back again to buy from you.

That’s why new content is the number one reason people will return to your site. The more often you update or improve your site in some way, the more often people will be inclined to come back.

Updating does not require a complete overhaul of your existing site. It’s simply adding a new article or blog post.

If you take it one step farther and let your visitors know that you update your site regularly (rather than assuming they will know about your update schedule), they will be more inclined to bookmark you.

If you update once a week or add an in-depth report once a month, advertise the days and times you usually add new content. That way those who bookmark you will know exactly when they can expect to see new changes and will come back out of curiosity on those dates.

What if they forget that you update your site, though? Is it possible that even if they bookmark you, they won’t ever return? Of course. But that’s where your opt-in email newsletter comes in. It’s your best and cheapest source for creating repeat traffic.

Staying in touch with your customers through email encourages them to stay in touch with you by constantly visiting your site.

You can send out a notice to your list every time you update your site with new content. Include part of the new article you posted in your email to generate interest followed by a link to your site for them to click to read the rest.

As long as you’re delivering good content, you create an unexplainable need in your prospects to open your email, read what you have to say and visit your site to get the full story.

To make updating your content a little easier on yourself, you can write one article and break it up into a series. By posting parts I, II and III in subsequent weeks, you keep reader interest high and thus maximize repeat traffic.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Glen Hopkins is Best Selling Author, Information Marketer, Speaker, And Consultant. Glen specializes in teaching struggling entrepreneurs how to turn their small Online businesses into thriving money machines using specific systems that will allow you to work less and earn more. Get his List Building Report and Web Traffic CD (valued at $97) for FREE at http://GlenHopkins.name 

How to Produce a Popular Podcast

December 28th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

The object of a podcast is to record content in such a way that it compels people to listen to you. That means you need to speak with energy, passion and enthusiasm when recording either an audio or video message.

Speak from your heart using an outline to keep you on track, not from your head by reading a script word for word.

A great way to learn how to speak with enthusiasm is to watch the home shopping network. Pay particular attention to the body language of the presenters and the excitement in their voices as they promote their products. Think about what they are doing and copy them.

Also, watch the news and listen to talk radio. These people are professional broadcasters. Model them.

Keep your podcast short, preferably no longer than 8-10 minutes. And pack as much value into those minutes as possible. The attention span of your online audience is short, so keep your podcast short, too.

By keeping your podcasts short and to the point, your audience will continue to eagerly anticipate your next message.

To get comfortable with the process, start by recording mini :30 second segments. Then increase the length to two minutes, four minutes, six minutes and finally eight-ten minutes.

And the one thing you must include in your podcast is a promotion for your products. This is how you drive traffic to your money sites!

You can create dedicated posts to promote your products, or you can follow the 80/20 rule: deliver content in 80% of the podcast and use the final 20% to promote your products.

As long as the listener gains valuable information from the 80%, he is willing to listen to your pitch during your 20% promotion time. Also, because he’s heard your voice and seen your face, he’s more likely to trust you and therefore more likely to buy from you.

But in order to get people to listen to or watch your podcast, you have to promote it. The most effective (and free!) way to do so is by submitting it to popular podcast directories such as:

• iTunes
• iPodder.org
• Podcast Alley

When adding your podcast to these directories, you need to choose good keywords and associate the right ID3 tags with your mp3 audio files.

An ID3 tag stores data about the mp3 file, data like Artist Name, Song Title, Year and Genre. The song title is nothing more than the title of your podcast, and the genre is the niche or category that best describes your subject matter. Choosing the right ID3 tags is the same as choosing the right keywords—they help people find you!

You can also help people find you by following these tips:

• Adding both audio and video to your blog helps your visitors feel more connected to you. So when recording, imagine you are speaking directly to your customers, rather than into the microphone or video camera. You’re building relationships with people, not your equipment!

• Start each podcast by saying: “(Your Name) here, the (your niche) expert from (your URL).” For example, “Glen Hopkins here, the Email Marketing Authority from Lucrative List Secrets.”

• Ask your listeners to post their comments after each podcast. Use their feedback to improve your podcasts and to find out what your audience would like to learn from you in future posts.

• Interview guest experts to add variety and spark interest. This is also a great way to break into podcasting if you’re not yet comfortable recording yourself.

• Use dedicated podcasts to promote your products. Remember to showcase the benefits of your products in these podcasts, not just the features.

The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll experience success.

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Glen Hopkins is an internationally renowned Internet marketer and
the #1 Best Selling Author of, Lucrative List Building.

Glen specializes in helping online business owners build large,
highly profitable opt-in email lists. Get his “Top 10 List Building
Secrets” Report (valued at $97) for free at http://GlenHopkins.name

Five Tips for Recording Your Podcast

December 28th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

To maximize the traffic-pulling power of your podcast, consider these five tips before you start recording.

First, you need a place to record your podcast. Ideally, you should record an audio podcast in a quiet room without empty surfaces and bare walls. If you do record your voice in a room with no furniture or carpet, you’ll sound like you’re podcasting from the bottom of a well even if you’re using the most expensive equipment available to you.

Choosing to record outside is not a good idea, either. The background noises will become more of a feature than your own voice. As you’re recording, check to make sure your sound level is consistent throughout the podcast. The goal is to have a clear, audible recording with no unnecessary background noise.

For a video podcast, a quiet room with a backdrop like a blank wall or curtain works just fine. You can set up a green screen in order to create your own backdrops, but that is far from necessary. You can keep things simple and still look professional.

Second, you need high-speed Internet access. You don’t have to have a broadband connection, but you’ll be spending a lot more time uploading your podcast if you’re operating with a 56k or less dialup connection. A broadband connection is therefore ideal. Just be sure to take into consideration upload speeds and any limits on uploading your connection provides.

Third, you need valuable content. Unless your content is newsworthy, don’t post. By newsworthy, it should contain information that provides value to the listener.

Don’t post a podcast when you have nothing to say or promote. You’re not operating a 24/7 news program, so you don’t have to fill time with useless information. If you do that, you’ll lose subscribers.

Fourth, you need an mp3 converter for your audio podcasts. You can get converter software at Tucows.com or any other site that offers such software.

Converting your audio file to mp3 format is a critical step that enables you to upload your podcast to places like iTunes.

Keep in mind these mp3 files are not small, so you need a hosting account that provides a large storage capacity. Or you can find a third party site to store all your podcasts for you.

Finally, you need an RSS feed. You need this feed to efficiently distribute your podcast. Your blogging provider likely offers this service as part of your blog, or you can get Feedburner to host your feed for you.

If you really want to attract traffic, pay particular attention to that last tip. Proper distribution of your podcast is vital!

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Glen Hopkins is an internationally renowned Internet marketer and
the #1 Best Selling Author of, Lucrative List Building.

Glen specializes in helping online business owners build large,
highly profitable opt-in email lists. Get his “Top 10 List Building
Secrets” Report (valued at $97) for free at http://GlenHopkins.name

The Pieces of a Podcast

December 28th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Creating a podcast is easy and simple as long as you have valuable information to share and the proper tools to record yourself with. And contrary to what you may believe, it doesn’t require hours of preparation and rehearsal.

The most important thing to do is just get started even if you have no broadcast experience. You’ll get better as you go, but don’t wait until you think your podcast is perfect before posting it on your blog. Just start talking…after you establish a purpose and gather the proper equipment.

First of all, you need a purpose for your podcast. Who are you speaking to? What message do you have to share? Why are you recording your information?

If you start recording without a clear vision of your market and your message, your podcast is sure to be scattered, vague and worthless. And so you won’t fulfill your purpose of driving traffic to your site and establishing yourself as an expert in your field.

And second, you need recording equipment. For an audio podcast, you need several pieces of equipment: a microphone and headphones (or a headset), and recording software.

If your computer is already equipped with a microphone and sound card, you could begin recording a podcast. But your audio quality will be poor, distracting from your message and reducing the potential “buzz factor” your podcast could generate.

To increase sound quality, you need a quality microphone. The better the microphone, the better the sound. You don’t have to spend an outrageous amount of money here, but a $20 microphone won’t give you professional-grade sound.

I recommend investing at $99 into a good microphone. Otherwise you’ll end up with a lot of popping, hissing and voice distortion. If that is out of your price range, though, invest what you can afford now and plan to upgrade as soon as possible.
In addition to a microphone, you need a good set of headphones. Without the headphones, your microphone is likely to pick up sound coming from your desktop speakers.

Earbuds are acceptable and less expensive, but headphones that cover your ears best isolate your recording sound from other audio distortions.

Instead of purchasing a microphone and headphones separately, you have the option of purchasing a headset that plugs right into your computer. Look for a headset that not only records clear sound but is also comfortable to wear. Once again, the better the equipment, the better the sound quality.

Recording software like Audacity is a necessity as well. When researching which program is best for you through a simple Google search, be aware that some programs only allow you to record while others allow you to both record and edit. And the ability to edit is essential.

Little mistakes add character to your podcast, so you don’t have to delete every tiny blunder to achieve perfection. Just take out any mistakes that make you appear unprofessional and damage your image as an expert.

The basic editing process includes highlighting and deleting all the places you used filler words like “um.” Deleting these words makes you sound more professional.

A more complex editing method involves adding background music or other audio clips into your recorded file. Plenty of places online offer music available for use in podcasts. Just be sure you don’t use something that requires a royalty payment.

For a video podcast, a low-end Sony camera is all you need. Even if you shoot a video using the most expensive camera, it will end up looking about the same as it would with the cheaper camera once it is uploaded to the Internet.

Another option for video podcasts is to use screen capture software like Camtasia. This is helpful if you want to walk your audience through step-by-step procedure on your computer.

Now that you know why you want to produce a podcast and have the proper equipment to make it happen, start talking!

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Glen Hopkins is an internationally renowned Internet marketer and
the #1 Best Selling Author of, Lucrative List Building.

Glen specializes in helping online business owners build large,
highly profitable opt-in email lists. Get his “Top 10 List Building
Secrets” Report (valued at $97) for free at http://GlenHopkins.name

How to Generate Targeted Traffic Using MySpace

December 28th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

MySpace is “a place for friends.” People sign up looking for friends who are interested in the same things they are interested in. If you share their interests and have information products or services that can enhance their lives, it’s your duty as their “friend” to let them know about you.

You do that most effectively when you create at least 10 different profiles. MySpace limits the amount of friend requests and comments you can send per profile per day, but they don’t limit the number of profiles you can register. By starting with 10 profiles, you should be able to generate at least 1,000 targeted visitors to your site every day.

Remember that with each profile you register, you should seek to be a great friend first. Make your space attractive by posting a variety of pictures. Don’t forget to add a little humor to your profile and give away lots of free, helpful information. That’s what friends are for!

Your main picture is your most important asset. Most users will authorize or reject you based on the quality of your picture alone. So choose a picture that captures your personality.

Then invest in friend management software. Considering you have no advertising costs, this software will soon pay for itself and is well worth the time and frustration it will save you from marketing your site manually.

This software gives you the power to be social, so take advantage of it by inviting 350 people per profile to become your friends each day. And once you start gaining friends, be bold. Comment on 225 friend spaces per profile each day. Include a link to your site every time you post a comment. This is how you get traffic!

But to avoid being flagged as a spammer, do not exceed the MySpace limits of 400 friend requests and 225 comments a day per profile.

And while you’re inviting friends and commenting on other people’s spaces, test, test, test. Test your pictures. Test your headlines. Test your friend request messages. Test your html comments. Test your text comments. Test everything. The more you test, the more you’ll be able to see what works and what doesn’t. Then you can stop doing what doesn’t bring you traffic and start doing more of what does bring you traffic.

Finally, join groups in your target market. Visit the members’ spaces and read their profiles as well as the comments posted on their sites. These spaces take you into the hearts and minds of your customers. By understanding how they think and feel, you can tweak your copy to reach them more effectively.

Above all, be consistent and persistent. Make requesting friends and posting comments a part of your daily marketing routine. By sticking with it and learning what it takes to gain friends in this social network, you will start to see a steady flow of free traffic come your way each and every day.

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Glen Hopkins is an internationally renowned Internet marketer and
the #1 Best Selling Author of, Lucrative List Building.

Glen specializes in helping online business owners build large,
highly profitable opt-in email lists. Get his “Top 10 List Building
Secrets” Report (valued at $97) for free at http://GlenHopkins.name

How to Convert MySpace Comments Into Traffic

December 28th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

As an Internet marketer, you should know how to take advantage of every free source of traffic available to you. One such source is the popular social networking site, MySpace.

To make this tactic work for you, you need to set up at least 10 different accounts and join groups in your target market. Visit the members’ spaces and read their profiles as well as the comments posted on their sites. These spaces take you into the hearts and minds of your customers. By understanding how they think and feel, you can tweak your copy to reach them more effectively.

Then using a friend management software like Friend Adder or Friend Laser, start asking these targeted prospects to be your friends. With 10 profiles at 350 requests each, you have the ability to send 3,500 requests a day.

A good response rate (which depends on the quality of your picture first and your message second) gets you 250 friends for every 350 you request, so you have the potential to gain 2,500 friends each day.

Within a matter of days, you should begin to see the friend sections on all of your spaces fill with pictures of your new MySpace friends. And having friends means you’re ready to start commenting on their sites and driving traffic to your website.

Here are some basic things to keep in mind when leaving comments no matter which program you use:

1. Write several Comments in both html and text only format.

a. For users that allow html comments, the best way to drive traffic to your site is to use an image that, when clicked on, leads people directly to you. Test several images as well as the copy that accompanies the image.

b. For users that do not allow html comments, write at least 5 comments in text only format. Here you’ll have to include your actual web address for readers of the comment to copy and paste in their browser.

c. Include a tracking tag in all your comments so you can track the click thru rate.

2. Limit your comments to 225 per day per profile. If you attempt to send more than 225 comments (which is the current MySpace limit), you could be accused of sending spam. If that happens, your accounts will be deleted.

3. Leave only comments that are relevant to the group you are targeting.

4. Target users who allow html comments first.

5. Make commenting on your friends’ sites a daily habit.

Now that you know the basics, let’s do the math to discover the kind of traffic you can expect from the comments you post.

By sending 225 comments for each profile, you’re actually posting 2,250 “ads” a day. Since each comment is viewed an average of 10 times a day, 22,500 targeted people are exposed to your information every day.

Because these are targeted viewers, you should be able to expect a 5% response rate from a deceny post. That percentage translated into an actual number gives you 1,125 visits to your site a day.

How’s that for a great source of free, targeted traffic!

So make requesting friends and posting comments a part of your daily marketing routine. By sticking with it and learning what it takes to gain friends in this social network, you will start to see a steady flow of free traffic come your way each and every day.

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Glen Hopkins is an internationally renowned Internet marketer and
the #1 Best Selling Author of, Lucrative List Building.

Glen specializes in helping online business owners build large,
highly profitable opt-in email lists. Get his “Top 10 List Building
Secrets” Report (valued at $97) for free at http://GlenHopkins.name

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