Everyone that has been online for a while trying to make money with an online business knows by now that traffic is very important for the survival of any online business and website. However, this subject is extensively talked about traffic is really not what is important, but highly targeted traffic.

Let me give an example. You could have a page on the website that is talked about in every media, but that page it not specific to the items you sell on the website maybe not even closely aligned to your industry. What will happen is that you will have thousands or even hundred of thousands of people visiting your website but no sales conversion. This is why it is important to focus on targeted traffic.

Traffic that provides you visitors that are not interested in your products or services or even industry is just a waste of bandwidth which you pay for to your website hosting service provider.

The same reason lies behind the myth that it is good to be on the first page of Digg. That is another story all together, which will go into in future articles under the social media section.

An online business may have all the things needed for to be able to succeed in a business such as affiliate marketing or any other online business.  The website owner may have the necessary drive, diligence and perseverance to be able to understand how the system works.  He may have all the tools necessary in maintaining the business, including a really unique and interesting website which could earn him a fortune if only the whole world could see it. Yes, that is exactly the trick, if only the whole world could see it. However, all these would prove useless if he does not know how to drive targeted traffic to the website.  The business would sink into oblivion together with all the sales, fortune and dreams that he might have realized if he only knew how to do this particular task.

If you are new and didn’t really get this yet, think of this way; you open a shop somewhere but you didn’t advertise or let anyone know about your shop. What is the likeliness anyone will come visit your shop and buy enough items to keep you in business? The chances are very slim that this will happen, unless of course your shop is right next door to a very large shop with high foot traffic.

See, even when you open a physical shop traffic is important. The difference is that in the physical world it would cost you far more to get that traffic.

The rental of the shop would be higher if you are next to a large shop to get part of their traffic and if you are not positioned so well then it will cost you in advertising to let people know what you have to offer and your location.

Getting people who matter to see one’s website it can be as easy or as difficult undertaking as one wants to make it. If one learns enough about targeted traffic and takes action on the knowledge with time it can become very easy. At the beginning though it would be more difficult, as all things are at the beginning.

However the difficulty in getting highly targeted traffic will also depend on the niche market and how saturated it is. This is another article all in its’ self, but just keep that in mind for now.

The seven best ways to drive highly-targeted traffic to one’s website would help not only to get started to also to understand and apply these steps right away.

Step 1 - Driving Traffic to Your Website

The first step in driving traffic to one’s website is by relying on search engines and what they can do for the website concerned. Because they are popular for driving free targeted traffic, they should not be ignored by all means.  Also because they are driving free traffic the competition to get on the first page is far stiffer than with other options. Having top search engine rankings is vital in building popularity links, and the use of the right keywords is important in attaining this goal. Once a website is on top of the list, it is easily accessible to anyone who wants to see it for himself. That said the search engines are ever changing, being today on the first page of Google does not guarantee the same thing will be tomorrow. Therefore learning about search engine traffic is crucial to get this type of free targeted traffic.

Step 2 - Driving Traffic to Your Website

The second way in driving traffic to one’s website is by contacting other webmasters for a possible link exchange partnership.  Locating websites that are related to one’s own website is the primary task.  Once there, he should be able to establish communication by personalizing everything as much as possible.  It is then possible to make reciprocal link exchanges between webmasters whichever way the online business owner prefers.

In this system it is important to keep the links related to the industry and market niche. Exchanging links between a swimming pool website and a care sales website won’t help the ranking or the traffic. The swimming pool website can’t send targeted traffic for car sales and vice versa.

Step 3 - Driving Traffic to Your Website

The third way is through writing one’s own articles. This is not only brilliant but necessary. This is an effective way in promoting a website, because good content that are appreciated by readers will lead them to visit the writer’s very own website out of sheer interest.

Again the content has to be related to the industry and market niche; otherwise the traffic will be bandwidth waster.

It has been said that content is king, with time now content has become Emperor. This is a long debate which we will have in further articles but by the looks of internet evolution good, unique, original and highly targeted content is just becoming more powerful by the day.

Step 4 - Driving Traffic to Your Website

The fourth way is through joint venture marketing.  This is one of the most effective ways of promoting a product or a service.  Having a partner through ad swap or link exchange is beneficial to both parties as it allows them to reach a wide customer base in a short amount of time.

This in actual fact means that one would promote your products and services and get paid for this. It is brilliant way to generated targeted traffic without cost. The cost is the commission, but that is only paid on a sale, which mean the traffic was as targeted as it can get because you pay on sales only.

Many people with products have started to create their own affiliate programs and use highly sophisticated software like iDevAffiliate to mange these programs. They work like a charm and the only leg work you have to do is finding your affiliates and getting them started with knowledge about your product and service.

With software products like iDevAffiliate become so cost effective (ok, if you are serious about your online business it is dirt cheap in simple words), these options in the US is almost saturated. The affiliate marketing model in the US is massive and not about to stop, but also the competition is as stiff as it can get. In South Africa this is not the cast yet and the trend is in its’ infancy (at time of writing), which means that you have many opportunities both creating an affiliate program and becoming an affiliate to someone else.

Step 5  - Driving Traffic to Your Website

The fifth is through joining affiliate programs.  Having affiliates to do the work means allowing them to bring tons of traffic to a website.  Skyrocketing sales would be realized as a result, and both the affiliate and the website owner will benefit from the situation.

This is the other side of creating an affiliate program and you can become an affiliate to someone while having other people promoting for your affiliate program. Some people think this is where MLM start sounding familiar. But it is not; it is nothing more or less than a multi tear promotional system or sales team that is all it is.

Some companies reward you on your sales and the sales of others that you brought as affiliates. This is great and lessens your work to get more money.

Step 6 - Driving Traffic to Your Website

The sixth is by having a list of subscribers that one can refer to every so often, because they are those which would prove to be valuable assets for the marketer concerned.  The use of autoresponders like GetResponse and personalized newsletters is one way of keeping track of them all, and holding on to them by letting them know about new products and services is an essential task that should be done by any online business owner.

The beauty of the internet again is in the simple fact that such relationship building is so easy and cost effective (yes, cheap) while in the offline world it is far more expensive.

Step 7 - Driving Traffic to Your Website

The seventh is by knowing one’s market through and through. It is important for traffic to be targeted to those who might have a special interest in the theme or topic of one’s website.  This way, a solid customer base is going to be created.  Once a potential customer shows an interest in a particular website by paying it a visit, one must not waste time in trying to show him that his effort is worth it.

To do this the website must add value in every way possible to the visitors. To know what value is, one must understand the market inside out. On Web Investor Network we are teaching people how to build successful online business and for this reason we build resources that are helpful and online business ownerns in South Africa can take action on these resources and make their online business work.

If for example you want to build links all you have to do is get the 101 Ways to Build Links to Your WebSite it is free and will far more than get you started.

Website traffic generating strategies are important in trying to make one’s online business successful and getting maximum conversion from the targeted traffic that visits your website.  It is always advantageous to plan one’s moves in any business that he might undertake.  This is particularly so in online business.  If one knows how to get people to see what he has to offer, then he is on the right track.