Ten ways to get leads for your online marketing business

No one will have any reason to visit your site until you direct them there. People who arrive at your "landing page" and look at your site are called "traffic". People who show enough interest in you or your product to "opt in" to your list (leave their name and email address) are called "leads" or "prospects". Many gurus consider that your list is your most valuable asset. Here are ten proven ways of getting traffic.

How do you get traffic? Here are some proven ways:

1 Online Listings, many of which are free. People really do read these, but be careful - you will inevitably be contacted by sharks who try to sell unnecessary services to you.

2 Adwords. In the notoriously risky world of "Pay per Click", you write a short ad which contains a compelling message full of the "keywords" that your customers will be using in their Google searches. The ads appear at the top of search results (with a pale coloured background) and to the right of the page. Each time someone clicks on your ad - thus getting sent to your "landing page" - you have to pay google. Get it right and you can make a fortune. Not quite right and you will lose one.

3 Newspaper advertisements: don't bother with local papers if your product comes with a hefty price tag. Ads in national papers can be expensive, so again you have to know what you're doing, but they do work. Agencies such as New Horizons can get you a discount and provide sound advice.

4 Build a great website full of "Keywords", with lots of links to and from it, and to a blog with constantly changing content. The art of setting your site up so that Google will put you at the top of the list is called "Search Engine Optimization" or "SEO". There is a whole industry surrounding this and there are plenty of opportunities to spend money trying to achieve it. Take care!

5 Article Writing: this is free and it can be extremely effective if you've got more time than money. To begin with, write short articles about anything at all that people might be interested in, include a link to your website and submit the articles to sites such as Ezine Articles. You can check which articles are read most, which get the most "clicks" and which are taken up by people who need material for newsletters. Then home in on the more profitable areas and concentrate on a successful "niche".

6 Create short videos and post them on "youtube". Include a link to your website in the description (so that people can click on it), show it on screen and mention it in the video as well. Get involved in user groups and discussion forums. The service is free and you can also use "youtube" videos on your own website.

7 Join social networking groups such as facebook, myspace, twitter and betternetworker. Have fun posting lots of zany messages and establish yourself as a sociable, active contributor. Use your popularity to stir up interest in your product and encourage other users to visit your page and click on your link.

8 Read discussion forums about whatever "niche" you're into. Post informed observations and answer other people's queries in genuinely useful ways that establish you as an expert. Subtly invite readers to click on your link.

9 Newsletter lists subscriptions: collect the email addresses of people who are interested in your niche and send them regular newsletters which include promotions.

10 Start a blog (free from blogger) but make sure the content is well written, entertaining and relevant. Add new, valuable content as often as you can - this can include audio and video, photographs and all kinds of "gadgets". Make sure that important keywords are included in the title of the blog, in the title of each post and in the text itself. Include lots of links (all this helps with the SEO). Promote your blog with Ezine articles, social bookmarking, submitting it to directories, video marketing, RSS feeds, your e-mail signature and comments in other people's blogs.