The ninth and one of the most valuable skills you can offer to any client is the ability to help drive traffic to their websites. This is what our clients ask for help with more than anything else.

There are literally hundreds of ways to market a website and drive traffic, but all you really need to know and understand is one simple thing.

The *key* to successful traffic is to know the niche market you are targeting (or your client’s niche market).

Definition of niche: A group of people with common issues or interests, that ‘hang out’ together.

So there are actually 2 simple steps to driving traffic:

1. Know the niche market, and find where they are ‘hanging out’ together.

2. If you know where they are ‘hanging out’, you can find various ways to get in front of them or have them find you.

As an example, say that you have a client that is targeting flower shop owners.

Where do flower shop owners ‘hang out’ together? Well, first of all they have a listing in the yellow pages so it is easy to find their phone numbers and addresses. I’m sure there are some flower shop associations that you could plug into, perhaps submit articles to their newsletter. What about other companies who also provide services to flower shop owners that you could joint venture with, such as wholesalers?

If your client does not have a well defined niche it can certainly be quite difficult to drive traffic to their site. You may want to do some research to help your client find a niche or refine their niche.

Here are just a few suggestions on ways you can drive traffic, both online and offline:

- google adwords/pay per click
- search engine optimization
- link exchanges
- promo in email signatures
- online article directories
- online ezine directories
- discussion lists
- set up a public blog
- start a yahoo group
- tell-a-friend modules
- affiliate programs
- joint ventures, sharing lists
- social networking, such as Ryze
- local networking groups
- speaking engagements
- writing articles for print newsletters
- write a book
- advertising
- direct mail
- phone campaigns

Driving traffic truly is a whole other course onto itself, but hopefully this is enough to get you started.

And so I invite you to do one simple thing this week - pick one thing from the traffic list above and offer to do it for a client of yours. It could be as simple as submitting an article to a directory, or perhaps even offering to setup an affiliate program or to manage an existing one.

Remember, it is quite often the most simple things that can make a huge difference for our clients and ourselves. Don’t let yourself get caught in the perceived complexity of ‘driving traffic’, just pick one item and take it step by step.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at May 12, 2008 - 1:10 pm and is filed under Driving Traffic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.