If you build it, they will come. At least that is an illusion I fell into when I first set out to create my fortune online selling different products and services. I eventually discovered that driving traffic to a website is very simple, but the process itself can be very difficult. Simple and easy do not always go hand in hand. I eventually learned a number of valuable lessons that I know many people could find very useful, and I thought it was time to save some people a ton of headache, money, and time and share some of what I have learned over the years.
On this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seo on Wikipedia we find that SEO is defined as, “Search Engine Optimization, is the process of improving the ranking of a website on internet search engines.” It is a simple enough definition, but it doesn't exactly explain how to accomplish this daunting task. I have found a number of effective methods for driving targeted traffic to a website that will last long term and continue to drive traffic from the search engines to a website.
I found a website that provides a tutorial that covers the general idea of what I have learned during my online marketing experience. You can read more about it on this page http://godofseo.co/tutorial/traffic-generation-guide/#axzz2rv3bEKCC which will provide a great tutorial on the overall mindset of marketing successfully online. It does a much better job, and goes into much more detail than I could ever hope to do in this thread. It is essential to understand the market that you are communicating to in order to generate sales.
I believe that the biggest reason most people fail in business, both online and off, is because they fail to understand their market and demographic well enough. If you want to earn money online you will have to learn to recognize a problem that people have, and learn how to communicate the solution to them in a manner that connects with their reality.
Another essential aspect of success online is the ability to find niche markets that are not saturated with tons of competition. The goal is to locate specific niche markets that have a significant amount of search volume, but have very little competition in the search engines. Finding specific markets that are hungry for a solution, but are unable to locate a solution can be one of the most profitable skills you could develop.
If I were to offer a tip that is the most valuable to anyone trying to earn money online it would be that not all keywords are created equal. It can be challenging to find the most profitable keywords, but there are a few indicators that can help save countless amounts of time and money wasted in learning the lesson the hard way.
The key is to locate buyer focused keywords. These keywords show signs that anyone who would type the keyword into a search engine is at a point that they have already done their research, they have a strong emotional need to solve their problem, and they are ready to spend money in order to find a solution. This one little tidbit can help significantly improve the number of visitors to your website into sales much more easily, and it can make every penny spent on pay per click campaigns go significantly further.
Let's look at an example. If someone went to the search engine and punched the keyword phrase, “why does my dog bark” into the search engines, we can assume that they are not at a point where they are willing to spend money. They don't understand yet why their dog barks, let alone having a desire to make the dog stop. They are still doing their research.
If someone else were to type “how to make my dog stop barking now” into the search engine, we could assume that they are much further along the purchase decision chain and at a point that they are likely to spend money to solve their problem.
Taking the time to locate markets that are low in competition, but full of hungry buyers who are eager for a solution can be one of the most investments of your time. Once you are able to locate these markets you will find effective methods for driving even more traffic to your website.
Once you understand the mindset of the market you are communicating to you are capable of creating powerful articles on your website that will keep those visitors coming back time and time again. You will also develop the ability to convert those visitors into paying customers who will purchase any products that you recommend.
Feel free to add anything you may have to add that would be useful to people in order to help improve their ability to earn money online. I would like to turn this thread into a useful and powerful post that helps people improve their ability to earn money online. Let's bring all of our thoughts together and create the best techniques and resources we know for accomplishing this goal. Please only post links to resources that are useful, and avoid spamming us with your affiliate link to some program.