I have read numerous articles about all things related to writing, publishing, video marketing--you name it. One thing I consistently see is the lack of transparency with many of these so-called experts who claim to know how to increase traffic to our blogs and websites. The information is obvious most often and redundant. What I have learned is that you have to meet with a guru face-to-face (sometimes pay for his over-priced system), buy many books, and/or befriend a person who knows the tricks of the Internet world when it comes to marketing, building a social media presence and more. Most successful, online businesses pay for specific tools and human labor to increase page traffic, build subscribers and more. These "tools" can be quite expensive and confusing. Use the wrongs ones and you will lose everything that you worked hard to build.If you are like me, always seeking ways to improve your online products, services and other things you offer people, just take note of what is already being done. You don't change what isn't broken. I think many of these prosperous businesses remain that way, because they aren't changing just because everyone else is and if they don't see where something is broken, they leave it alone. But for those systems that no longer work after they have tweaked existing strategies, analyzed results (or lack thereof ) they then rid themselves of them.
Another observation I have about online marketing and businesses is that they usually find sources of traffic in ways that most others don't. They may link up with offline organizations to drive traffic to their sites. They do things like become members of known groups in their industries paying top dollar to join, they will have online or offline meet ups, create a theme event addressing a specific community need, or partner with others while promoting their brands. These are just some of the things that they do and that I have been a part of to help drive traffic.
So when you think outside of the box when marketing your own business that is a good thing because wherever the people are, sooner or later they are going to get on the Internet, look you up and see what it is that you do. Once they do that, they will make a decision whether to partner with you or not. Therefore, be sure that you represent yourself well and if you need assistance, by all means reach out.
Nicholl McGuire
