Successful internet marketers will tell you that the formula for online success is:

Traffic + Conversions = Success.

For many beginning Internet Marketers who just don’t have a lot of cash to spend on advertising or traffic… Surfing on Traffic Exchanges has been how many of us started… and many still do that today.

Times are changing and today Gateway Pages are the Rage! They’re all but mandatory if you ever want to be seen on the Traffic Exchanges that have the short timers. Why? If your website or webpage has lots of graphics and audio or video content that plays automatically the timer will likely expire before your site is loaded and the surfer will “click on” before seeing your site.

So, if you don’t use Gateway Pages and surf for hours on end or BUY traffic, how in the world do you get traffic to convert to equal Success? The latest trend is to build Networks or an “audience” through the many Social Marketing sites that are available. Micro-blogging is becoming the HOT trend. The term “micro-blog” relates to the amount of text you can share per post (for example: On Twitter, your post is limited to 140 characters) so these are not long winded posts… just the facts! If you’re over 30 years of age and have children, just ask them how to network on these sites and you’re likely to get a great education. If not, stay tuned as we’re sharing some great “How-To” as we go along.

By the way, the Presidential candidates all have Facebook accounts… so why don’t you?

As with good Marketing Techniques taught by the pro’s go, Remember to always include links to what you’re doing in your email SigFile. If you’re on Facebook, include a link. If you’re on Twitter, include a link. The list of all these micro-blogs is daunting but yet manageable. Once you learn how to manage them, you can make ONE post on the lead site and copies of that post (or a brief portion of it) will be posted to a LONG LIST of these sites. Are you still interested? Where else do you know of that you can achieve such economy of action?

For instance, check the sidebar of this blog. You’ll find a little block that displays my most recent post on Twitter. Every time (not just once and a while) that I make a post on Twitter, the information in the box changes. And, the link at the bottom of the form allows you to click to “Follow Me on Twitter!” Please do so if you haven’t already done that. It’ an easy way for me to definitely SEE your page and if you have great links to YOUR website on your page… I will go look! This is so much easier and more effective that surfing for hours and looking at pages that you have NO real interest in! Well, occasionally you keep seeing one pop up and eventually you just QUIT surfing and go check it out. The ones that I do that to are few and far between… but they do show up now and again…

Oh yes, I almost forgot… when YOU sign up for Twitter and get people following YOU, every time that YOU make a post to your Twitter page (remember, just 140 characters max!) your followers ALL see what you “tweeted” to them.

There’s so much more to say about Tweeter and all the great new micro-blogs… but that’s it for tonight!

Catch you later,

David Perkins (aka: TrafficMechanic)
Follow ME on Twitter

Hi!

And welcome to the wonderful world of WEB 2.0

When I first began working online, one of the early ways to get traffic to my website was with ‘surfing’ on Traffic Exchanges (T/E’s). That worked well in the early days as the timers allowed your whole page to come up and even sound if you were able to make that happen. With many of today’s T/E’s and their extremely short timers, you’re lucky if anyone ever remembers you. The use of Splash Pages or Gateway or Landing Pages is mandatory… or you will NEVER accomplish much. That was… until the advent of WEB 2.0

With very little effort on your part, using just a few of the many Social Marketing sites available to you, generating a following and creating a flow of “Targeted” traffic to you website is actually pretty easy! Some of you may think that the Social Marketing sites are what teens and twenty-somethings use to gossip on. Well maybe that does happen some but there is PLENTY of room for Social Marketing! Marketing for your business in a social way. And, if the presidential candidates have Facebook accounts… Why shouldn’t you?

That’s right and also is a great place to start. You may not know WHAT to say or how to say it just yet… but I’d suggest that you go over there right away (if you haven’t already) and claim your space on Facebook. When you do, you’ll be asked for a username. My suggestion is to choose a username that describes what YOU do online! Make it catchy and indicative of YOUR business or service or whatever… but claim it now. And, if you sign up for other Social Marketing sites… use that same name and people will start to remember who you are and what you’re about! Do it. Do it TODAY!

In closing, there are a lot of sites you can join. A list will follow in a post coming soon. Just remember to include your “hottest” Social Marketing link in your ‘Sig File’ so people will go look for you!

More soon,

David Perkins (aka: TrafficMechanic)

Follow me on Twitter

If you’re getting into the WEB 2.0 scene and doing research for articles, you’ll be all over the place and probably see dozens of great articles during your browsing. So how do you get all that information out to YOUR readers? A great feature that is free and a quick install for your FireFox browser is called Shareaholic. Shareaholic allows you to share, bookmark, and e-mail web pages quickly via a wide array of web 2.0 social websites without cluttering up your browser! That’s a quote from the download page. Shareaholic will allow you to, with one click, share your latest find with your readers on your pages at: digg, del.icio.us, facebook, foxiewire, friendfeed, google bookmarks, google reader, healthranker, kaboodle, magnolia, mixx, myspace, pownce, reddit, simpy, stumbleupon, streakr, truemors, tumblr, twitter, ycombinator, bzzster, and more.

So, what’s keeping you. Click here for “Shareaholic” and with a quick click of the mouse, you’ll be done in no-time flat. Then it’s just a quick read and you’re sharing information on the fly!

Have fun and stay tuned for more tips as they become available.

Dave Perkins (aka: TrafficMechanic)

This past weekend I attended the Internet Super Stars (ISS) Conference in Baltimore, MD. My head is so full of new ideas and information that I’m probably in “Information Overload” at the moment but that’s OK… I’ll get over it and hopefully I will begin putting all this hot information to use soon!

I was invited to attend this conference by a couple that I met online. They’re known, online, as “The Dynamic Duo” and if you get the opportunity, you should definitely get to know Jeff and Lori. They have a knack of taking your content and turning it into so much more than you ever thought you could produce with those words that you started with.

Here’s me with Jeff Wark & Lori Steffen of QuickContentSecrets.com
during one of the breaks.
If you’re not familiar with the ISS program, it’s produced by Mark Hendricks, a leading teacher who leads by example… not a “do-as-I-say” kind of guy. You’ll find more about him at TheMarkHendricks.com and other web pages linked from that page.One of my passions is to learn all I can about Web 2.0 and at this conference I met Dr. Ron Capps who is, in my opinion, the ultimate Web 2.0 knowledge source.

Here I am hanging out with the “NicheProf“
There were lots of presenters this weekend and myriad subjects were covered, and covered well. For once, I attended a seminar where I didn’t feel like I was constantly being “sold” something. There was plenty that I could take advantage of but that did not seem to be the major mission of this event! What a pleasure…There will be more in the coming posts about things that I learned this weekend and the things that I will be learning in the upcoming weeks with the NicheProf.Until then, have a great week and stay tuned.

Dave
daveylee@daveylee.com