I found this post by Alex Johnson and thought I would share it with you as I am looking at Facebook to try to increase traffic.

These days, there are tons of social networking websites available in the internet. It is easy to keep in touch with your old friends as well as your relatives and you will also be able to make new friends as well as meet new people.

With Facebook, you will be able to connect with friends, acquaintances, and with other people who you study and live with. The business opportunities possible with sort of site have not been missed either with many internet marketers using the services provided.

Unlike other social networking websites, Facebook will be able to offer you a lot of tools that you can use in order to market your products or services as well as your business website more effectively and efficiently. The site today has over 60 million active subscribers and is continuing to grow every day. While the opportunities are huge, it still requires a little knowledge on the part of the user and there are now a number of tools that can help to make the most of this site.
By creating a great profile page you can be sure that you will be able to attract a lot of targeted traffic. Always remember that a complete profile is the best way to go with any social site.

By building an extensive network of friends on Facebook, you will be able to boost your marketing efforts in no time at all. You can also join groups or create your own group. You can try joining groups that have the similar interest such as yours.

It will also let you syndicate your blogs and website through RSS and will let you post on bulletins to announce or advertise your products, services and new events. With this feature, you will be able to let people read your blogs and boost your marketing efforts.

You have to remember that in order for an online business to become a success, targeted traffic is the key and there is no better way than by using Facebook. Through these tips, you can be sure that you will get a lot of viewers in your profile page and increase the chances of getting them in your business website or get them to buy your products or services.

If you are looking for a traffic training course, check out my honest Rapid Mass Traffic Review and discover if the latest traffic generation course really can increase web traffic to your website.

Great read or what!

As marketers, we are told that we should be article marketing.  It is how you make money as an affiliate, it is how you promote your websites and it is how you add content to your virtual real estate empire.

Many people find article writing difficult to do because they are not used to writing.  If you have the money, it can be outsourced.  However, for many people starting out online, money is tight and so they can’t afford an outsourcer.

You can get articles written for a couple of dollars, but they are likely to be very poor quality.  For a decent 400 to 500 word article you are looking to pay around ten dollars, possibly more depending on the niche and the author.

You can write the articles yourself, and it’s not that difficult to do if you follow a system.  Many people suffer from writers block or are just not used to writing an article.  It can be very daunting to sit down and write if it is something you are not used to.

Below is a system that works very well, it is one I use myself and you can be writing high quality articles surprisingly quickly with this technique.  It really isn’t that hard and it enables even the most novice of writers to create decent articles rapidly.

Step 1 : Decide upon the niche you are writing in.

Step 2 : Determine which keyword(s) you are targeting in your article.

Step 3 : Determine the subject your article will be about.

Step 4 : Type into Google some of your keywords and see what problems and issues people are facing in that niche.  What do they want to know?  What is their pain?  What solutions are they looking for?

Step 5 : Write a powerful, interest building title with your keyword at the start, if possible.

Step 6 : Write out four or five short sentences about the problem (don’t give away too much … you want your reader to buy).

Step 7 : Turn each sentence into more descriptive paragraphs, remembering not to give away too much information.

Step 8 : Write a paragraph introducing the article at the top.

Step 9 : Write a paragraph summarizing what was in the article at the bottom.

And there you have a good quality, unique article that you could spin or just submit to an article directory or use on your website.  Content is king on the Internet, and unique content provides you with an edge over the competition.

This method will help you to quickly write articles, and it won’t be long before you can write a high quality article in under ten minutes.  With practice, you will be able to do them in five to seven minutes easily!

And remember the more articles you have out there, the more you can potentially earn!

Finding people and following them seems to be the most popular method. Remember that more people you follow, more followers you get. Many of your followers will stop following you if all you do is following others and not providing any value. Following to many people might ruin your following/followers ratio and will make people to think you are a scammer or a bot which will result in not getting any followers.

Unless you are a celebrity or famous on internet for whatever reason, you will have to work a bit to get more twitter followers.

Tip 1- Follow to be followed, but do it slowly. Don’t follow 500 people a day. 1-1 is perfect for your following /followers ratio. If you follow 100 people and have 100 followers do not try to follow another 100 people in a day, rather in a week.

Tip 2- Share what you know, what you thing might be interesting and provide value. Share links to interesting things on the web.
Have conversations.

Tip 3- Filling a bio and picture are a must. People get turned away if there’s nothing to see in your Twitter profile. Add a picture of you and write a few things about yourself. If people do not know anything about you, they will not talk to you.

Tip 4- Create a website or start blogging. People will be able to know you better if you provide them with a link to your website or a blog. You personality is expressed better on your blog than in the bio in Twitter profile.

Tip 5- Always reply to your followers and re-tweet valuable information. When your followers do the same to you, your name will be visible to their followers.

Tip 6- Become involved in a Twitter party. Always check if there is a Twitter meetup in your area and make sure that you participate. It is a great opportunity to get new followers and meet new people to follow.

Tip 7- Share your Twitter username in as many places as possible and make sure you get listed in Twitter directories.

Tip 8- Just be yourself and be unique. Express your feelings, speak openly. An interesting opinion will get retweeted and will make your name appear to others. Show your personality by changing colors and personalizing your profile.

Tip 9- Tweet regularly. Do not feel like you have to tweet 24/7, but try to do it every day. People will stop following you if your profile is not updated often.

Tip 10- Get all of the above balanced. Make sure you do not talk only about yourself, as it gets boring after a while and you will start losing followers. Good idea is to post 1-2 out of 10 messages about you and the rest to provide value to your followers.

Getting it all balanced is crucial and necessary.

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For more information and tips on how to get more twitter followers visit this site.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

There are literally hundreds of ways to drive traffic to your Blog. Here we have published the 44 most effective ways of getting visitors to any blog.

Enjoy!

1. Be active in Forums and use a Forum Signature including a link to your Blog.

Don’t try to spam forums just to get a link to your blog… you need to contribute great content and help others in the forum, then they will regard you as an expert and visit your Blog more likely.

2. Submit your blog to Blog Directories.

Search on google for the biggest Blog Directories and submit your blog there manually. Aim to get listed in at least 10 good directories.

20 Essential Blog Directories

3. Submit your RSS Feed to Feed Directories.

You can use automated or semi-automated software to do this or you can do it manually just like you did with the Blog Directories.

RSS Directories

4. Claim your Blog at Technorati.

Get an account at Technorati and claim your blog there. Tehcnorati is a must use for every serious blogger.

5. Cross Link with other Blog Owners.

Your blog has a Blogroll… so you can exchange links with other bloggers in your niche on your blogroll.

6. Bookmark your Blog posts.

Go to SocialPoster and bookmark your best blog posts.

7. Distribute articles including the “About the Author” part with a link to your Blog.

You can use the ISnare article distribution service to get your article listed in hundreds of article directories. They also submit your article to many newsletter publishers. This strategy alone can create a huge viral constant flow of traffic to your blog.

8. Create an account at MyBlogLog and use their Widget on your blog.

MyBlogLog is a social community. You can get a constant flow of traffic through them by making friends with other bloggers and building your community.

9. Post useful Comments on other Blogs.

Don’t leave short comments like “hey I like your post”… rather write long comments and start a discussion… Blogs are made for people to interact.

10. Use Ping Services

WordPress automatically pings when you make a new post but you can improve this automated Ping service by using the MBP-Ping-Optimzer and an improved list of ping services.

11. TrackBack other Blogs.

Link to other Blogs in your posts and send them a trackback. Before you do so make sure that their blog accepts trackbacks. Sometimes you can do a PingBack instead of a TrackBack.

12. Notify your opt-in list subscribers about your latest blog posts.

Of course you should have an opt-in list on your blog to catch the name and email address from your readers. Make sure you send them a message when you have new content on your blog. The best visitors are returning visitors!

13. Have a Signature with a link to your Blog in every email you send out with any email program.

That’s something many people don’t do… they miss out on a lot of traffic. Even if you answer just a support question or communicate with your friends, always have your Blog URL at the end of the emails (better would be your contact information plus all your main blogs and websites urls)

14. Create and distribute viral ebooks that include a link to your Blog.

You can write 20 pages short reports or ebooks and make them viral by letting other people give it away for free. Include your blog url throughout these viral reports and you’ll soon get tons of viral traffic.

15. Build a Squidoo Lense and put a link to your Blog on that.

Squidoo pages are great to get 1-way links to your blog. Google loves Squidoo Pages and often you are ranked within the Top 10 for long-tail keywords. That means you’ll get direct traffic to your Squidoo lense and a part of that traffic will follow the links to your Blog.

16. Build a Hub Page and put a link to your Blog on that.

Same here as the Squidoo Lenses.

17. Create and distribute a video, include a link to your Blog in this video.

People love to watch videos and they love to share videos. If you are good, then your video might go viral and you’ll get lots of visitors to your blog. You should have a short URL that people can remember and type into their browser bar.

18. Create an account at social pages like MySpace or Facebook – put a link to your Blog into your Profile.

I guess you know what social marketing is… send some of that traffic to your Blog to build up a loyal readership.

19. Signup for EntreCard and add their widget to your Blog.

Entrecard can be a huge source of traffic but you need to invest about 10 minutes each day to be active and drop some cards.

20. Register your Blog at BlogCatalog and put their widget on your Blog.

Your blog simply must be in the Blog Catalog. You can get a nice flow of traffic from them after a while.

21. Signup for BlogRush and put their widget on your Blog.

Blogrush is a no-brainer… I just wonder why there are not more services out there like this.

22. Submit a XML sitemap of your Blog to Google Webmasters

You don’t need to do that, but if you know that some of your pages are not spidered yet, then this will get them indexed pretty soon.

23. Provide good content on your Blog.

Duh!

24. Be the first one who publishes a newsworthy story.

O.K., it’s hard to be the very first one who publishes a big story… but there are smaller newsworthy stories, maybe even local stories depending on your niche.

25. Publish content on a regular basis.

Come on, one post per week is not much… better would be to post on a daily basis if you can do it.

26. Install the most important WordPress Plugins.

List of Plug Ins

27. Invite known experts in your niche to be Guest Writers for your Blog.

Start with “small” experts and then move up to the bigger ones. Many bloggers would love to get some extra exposure on your blog… once you have some visitors.

28. Be a Guest Writer on other Blogs.

If you have good content, then this is the best way to introduce yourself to your niche. Let people know you exist by being a guest writer on other people’s blog.

29. Include links to useful ressources in your blog posts.

I’ve just recently started to do this… I was always greedy on giving away free links… but you’ll see that it’s well worth it. Especially if you link to smaller blogs, then the owner will notice that and many will do a favour back.

30. Don’t have your Blog full of advertising.

Come on, you won’t make any real money from your blog before you don’t have 100+ visitors each day… so you can as well make your blog ad-free until you have that many visitors.

31. Start a Running Post, for example an experiment that lasts a week or a month.

This can bound many readers to your blog. Finish each post with a Big Question or a little pre-view on what’s coming next… that will leave them eager to read more and they will come back once you make the next post.

32. Publish your contact information on your Blog and your Picture.

Go public, don’t hide! People love to know who you are and what you do. A picture helps people to remember you… it’s called Branding!

33. Create an interactive Blog

Make sure people can comment on your blog, make sure they can subscribe to your RSS Feed, make sure they can leave trackbacks etc.

34. Write about stuff that is currently a Hot Topic in your niche.

You can use Google Alerts or other news sources to find the Hot Topics in your niche. Then enter the discussion with some controversity.

35. Research keywords and use long-tail keywords in the title and the first sentence of your posts.

Don’t try to rank in google for the term “internet marketing”… rather try to rank for “internet marketing explained for newbies” or some other long-tail keywords. Use Wordtracker to find keywords that have less than 100.000 competitors. Then use the keyword in your title and in the first sentence of your post.

36. Customize your Blog with a unique Header and Footer Image. Don’t use the Standard Layouts.

Here is a simple example… look at the header image of this blog… Will you remember it? Of course you will, at least better than most other headers… it’s unique and you don’t see a header like this anywhere… that’s again Brading!

37. Categorize your Blog correctly, make it easy for your readers to find the content they are looking for.

A good categorized blog looks professional and helps peole to find what they are looking for.

38. Use Credit Based Safelists

I know… some people will laugh about using safelists… but I’ve my tracking in place and I know the numbers… 20 Essential Blog Directories0 work, don’t let anybody tell you different!

39. Answer all questions that your readers send by email or leave as a comment.

Have a question? Post a comment and I’ll be happy to answer it… Don’t you like that?

40. Have your Blog URL on your Business Cards (off-line traffic)

Not really possible for everybody… but make sure you have business cards with your blog url on them when you go to internet marketing events or places where business people hang out.

41. Answer questions at Yahoo Answers

Yahoo Answers is a great place to establish yourself as an expert in your niche. That will have a branding effect.

42. Be Controversial

Be different, be unique, stand out of the crowd!

43. Install a Bookmarking Widget below each post so that your readers can easily bookmark your post.

See mine? If you like this list, go ahead and bookmark it!

44. Create a Link Bait

What’s a link bait you ask? Well, it’s what I’m doing or trying to do right here. I’ve invested about 3 hours into writing this post, I’ve done research, I’ve done the work… People appreciate that and naturally link to posts like this one. That’s called a Link Bait. Your content must be so good that people just want to tell others about it.

I hope you enjoy this list!

Guido Nussbaum

If you use any of the major social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook etc then checkout….

http://socialribbongenerator.com/

It’s a FREE tool to add a corner ad on your blog/website etc

You can sign up for extra banners but to be honest the initial ones supplied are perfectly ok!

For an example of what I mean go to www.lkldigitalmedia.com and see it in action.

It’s FREE – NO opt-in or registration required.

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube – They’re all there

Enjoy!!

P.S. Feel free to share this post on your blog but would you please add a trackback. Thanks a million! :0)

If you want to have more people visit your blog, there are plenty of blog directories on the Internet that you can submit your blog to so that people will come and visit it. Most blog directories are listed by the topics that the blogs that are submited cover.

Blog Catalog.com is a free blog directory that offers categories such as career and jobs, marketing,writing and many others. It has features such as featured blogs and other things to offer those who submit their blogs there.

Another great place to add your blog is blog-directory.org. Not only do they have an an extensive list of categories with sub categories, you can get your blog reviewed. For the most popular blogs, it shows the amount of hits that blogs have and if they have any reviews. As well as listing by category, the blogs are also listed by location.

There are other blog directories on the Internet -these are only a couple of them. But blog directories are a great place to advertise your blog and to make new friends. You never know what you will find when you browsing through the directory, and you may just find out information that you never knew. Some of the blog directories offer chat features as well, so that you can meet other people easily.