Below, I'll outline some basic strategies anyone on this forum can use to start generating targeted traffic to their websites today! But I must warn you... while the tactics are easy, they will require some work and effort on your part (alternatively, you can hire some high school kid to do it for you for just a few dollars an hour, or hire them on as an intern -- I like the latter better).
Anyhow... as the guy in the video already suggested, the traffic you're looking for already exists. All you need to do is position yourself in front of that traffic and you're 90% of the way there. For example, if you're selling a product for dog owners, the traffic already exists. Right now, there are dog owners online talking about their dog, putting photos of the dogs up, looking for clothes to buy for the dogs, researching specialized diets for the dogs, and their are probably people online trying to figure out how to make their dog "Go Green". They're searching everyday...they already exist.... so how can you find them?
Well, lets break this down... because once you know where they're at, you can position yourself in front of them so they can get back to your site.
1. FORUMS -- I went to Google and typed in the following: dogs + forums and it brought back thousands of forums related to dogs. This one had over 300,000 posts on the forum, with over 14,000 registered/active members:
http://www.dogforums.com/
That particular site had forums broken down into subcategories such as grooming, training, food, pictures, health, etc... so depending on your product/service, there were different places you can go into and start a dialog. In other words, by contributing quality information/content to the discussions already taking place, you can start to establish yourself as an expert. The great thing about forums, many will allow you to create a signature to put at the bottom of each post you contribute too. And in that signature, you can leave a brief blurb about your company, along with a link back to your website.
Now, the goal is not to go in and spam the boards, the goal is to contribute great/quality information. And as a result, you'll typically get people to spill over onto your website.
In the above example, lets say you sell "doggy treats". At the end of each post you contribute too, the following signature could accompany every post you make:
Treat Your Dog to Some of The Most Amazing "Scooby Snacks"
http://www.Your-Website-Name.com
Being that you're on a site dedicated exclusively to dog owners, then your message is targeting a group of highly targeted prospects.
Not only does this forum allow you to post and talk about your dog.... it also has spaces available throughout the site where you can "advertise" your dog products/services. Check it out for yourself:
http://www.dogforums.com/advertise.php
You can have your ads appear all over that forum and their rates start as low as $30 per month and go up from there. Not only is this good for advertising, but having these one-way links pointing back to your site will actually help with your SEO (search engine optimization).
I'm writing this at 3:00 a.m. in the morning and there are currently 400+ plus people in that forum conversating about their dogs... I'd imagine those numbers are quite significant throughout the day. But think about this for a moment... that was just one site I clicked on from Google. There are thousands of them that showed up in the search results.
Are you starting to see how this could be huge for your business? And I'm not just talking about dogs, but anything thing you'd like to talk about is being discussed on forums all over the world. There are forums for cancer survivors, there are forums for people who love birds... there are forums for people who love treasure hunting. The list goes on and on... with this one strategy alone, you can drive lots of targeted free traffic back to your website.
Like I mentioned earlier... hire a high school kid to come into your office and do this for you a few times a month (or bring them on as an intern). Or if you have children, get them to do it for you. It's a process, but the payout can be great!
2. YOUTUBE -- Another one of my favorites is youtube.com of course. A lot of people use youtube to watch a bunch of foolishness, but I use it to generate leads to my website to purchase products.
I've personally used youtube to grow my site from zero members to over 150,000 members by posting simple video clips. I have a site online at www.FreeMagicSchool.com where I teach people how to do magic. The quality of the video isn't that great of course, I was just learning how to use video when I created it and I've just been too darn lazy to change it out... but with the results I'm getting, why would I change it
Anyhow, here is what I did and you can do the same thing too...
I created a short video where I showed a magic trick. The video only last a few minutes. I posted the video on youtube and at the end of the video, I simply said something like this... "If you'd like to learn how to do this trick, go to my site at www.freemagicschool.com and I'll send you the video showing you how to do this trick... In fact, go see the exact video I'm talking about right now at YouTube... that one video alone has been viewed nearly 1,000,000 million times (mind you, that's just one video)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hQhdK8l6CuY
I know it's a horrible video, but I can't take it down now... I'm getting too much traffic!
Are you starting to see where this is going now? YouTube is like a search engine because the only way these people would find my video is by typing in terms such as "how to do magic tricks" or "learn how to do magic". In other words, they're targeted prospects. They're looking to learn how to do magic. So... they join my magic school and we have them on a list (we just added some type of myspace like script to the site -- that won't show 150,000 members because it's new, but on the homepage, you'll notice a form under the video where they must input their first name and email address -- it's here where we've built an active list of over 150,000 members on our list... these are people we can email to and sell/promote magic related products. In fact, on the inside of the site is a magic store, of which thousands and thousands of orders have been placed.
Keep in mind, 100% of the traffic from that site came from FREE video directories like YouTube.
Are you seeing the big picture here? The our prospects already exist... they're on youtube looking to learn magic, so all we did was position ourselves to be there. That way, once they arrive there looking for magic tricks, well... we magically appear
Theres more psychology to why we did what we did at the magic school site, but I'll save that for another conversation.
As you can see, in both examples above, the traffic was already online doing their thing. We just had to get there. Now there are a ton of video directories out there that will allow you to post videos. But the key again is putting quality content that people want to know about. For example, I purchased a whole fish from Publix by accident the other night. I thought it was already cleaned but when I got home I realized I had to clean it (it was a Mullet fish and it was good by the way).
Anyhow, I went to youtube and typed in terms to the effect of "how to clean fish", and a few videos came up and the guy showed me how to properly clean a fish... and then he had an upsell at the end of the video that said something like... "Learn How to Fillet Your Own Fish"
This guy was smooth... but can you see what he did? I was a targeted prospect for his product, and it's at this stage he already established himself as the expert in my eyes because at this point, I had a "clean fish" now. Whatever he had to say, I was listening...
What can you do with regards to your product or service... can't you create a simple 5 minute video educating your prospect? There are thousands of people doing it on YouTube everyday? Give a little upfront, and get a lot back...
Right now, on youtube, there are videos on any and everything you can imagine... if you want to learn how to groom or clip your dogs toenails, there are videos on youtube showing you how. YOUTUBE is like the #3 site in the entire WORLD with regards to the amount of traffic it gets everyday.
There are doctors on youtube explaining certain procedures/treatments. There are people on youtube teaching you how to get 6-pack abs... there are people there teaching you how to draw or paint. Anything you can imagine, there are people there on YouTube teaching you how.
And best of all... it's 100% FREE... for now at least!
I built my list to over 150,000 strong with that traffic, and that one site generates thousands and thousands of orders!
It takes a simple camcorder, nothing fancy...
In fact, check out a simple landing page I created for a client of mine... turn your speakers down, it has a video that will load up automatically... I want you to see this video because he shot it with a camera that only cost him $150 BUCKS ---
http://lunchwithken.com/
Now.. that was done with a camera that cost him just $150 bucks... you can get this Flip Video phone at best buy, circuit city, walmart, etc...
So now you have no excuse to start shooting video today -- and then put it on your website to help generate more leads and sales. As you can see from the video, those folks are having a great time!
I've been working with Ken on his various projects going on 2 years now come October. He was a complete newbie at this stuff and now he's making a fortune from his coaching program for home inspectors:
http://www.homeinspectorstartupandgrowth.com
He has hundreds of members that pay him $80 bucks per month to access his membership site and he's used many of the strategies (some of which I shared above).
In just a few short years, Ken has grown his business tremendously, and I can say with complete confidence that if you're willing to do a little groundwork, the payoff can be huge.
I would provide more ways to get targeted traffic to your site, but I'm about to passout -- it's now 3:40 a.m., and I can't keep my eyes open any longer.
Good Luck Everyone!