Why Bit.ly is the New 1-800

Domain names are in hot demand - and the chances are good that your personal favorite is already taken - so how do you get your keywords into your URL? Read on...

Enter URL shortening services.

If you're not familiar with them, they take a long URL, and reduce it to something that can be tweeted, quoted, texted, or just scribbled on the back of a napkin with more accuracy than a regular URL.

There are a number of services that you can use:

• bit.ly
• goo.gl
• ow.ly
• is.gd
• ... and many more!

There are so many to choose from, that it can be difficult to make sure you're using the most appropriate, and useful service. Whichever you choose, your URL will look something like:

• http://bit.ly/keywordcracker

Notice how, even if the top level domain is taken, you can still have a (shorter) TLD with your web site name or marketing message in it!

So, why use a URL shortening service? Easy - they can be easier to remember, less ambiguous to communicate, and come with some extra benefits.

To learn about the key hidden extras, see why you should be using URL shorteners as part of your next traffic acquisition project, and, importantly which service to choose just join the Insiders Club:

Join Now! Traffic Acquisition Insiders
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You'll get the free URL Shortener Traffic Acquisition Report, as well as hints and tips on a regular basis to help you generate traffic, and make the most of it!

How Keyword Research Helps Reduce Traffic Acquisition Costs

One of the key questions on all content producer's minds is "how can I reduce my traffic acquisition costs?"

There are some easy answers - pay people less for content designed to pull in visitors, blanket bomb the social networks with a variety of split-tested messages, and use tools to target the lowest priced PPC keywords that have the highest raw return.

But none of these are particularly efficient. They may well drive up visitor numbers, but anyone playing around with Google Analytics will quickly realize, by looking at the Visitor Flow diagram, that the quality of visitor will be falling.

In short, they won't stick around long enough to make a purchase, and they won't come back.

The underlying reason for this is simple : there hasn't been enough keyword research, and as such the visitors that are being captured don't have a real interest in what the site has to offer. You're just pulling in more people with the hope that some of them are interested, whereas an efficient traffic acquisition drive will aim to pull in traffic where the majority of the visitors are interested in what you have to offer.

If you think that sounds obvious, then do me a favor. The next time you go on a traffic acquisition drive, track the conversion rate. 99% of the time, no matter who is managing your traffic acquisition project, it will begin to dip, even as the visitor numbers climb. So will your repeat visitor ratio. As will the time spent on page.

In short, stickiness will fall. And the further it falls, the less profit per visitor is being made. And the cost per visitor therefore begins to climb, which makes the TAC (traffic acquisition cost) look a lot less attractive!

To counteract this, make sure you do your keyword research. Now, as I pointed out on the Keyword Cracker blog post 'The Future of Organic SEO', Google is, on the face of it, about to make this a whole lot harder with the retirement of their AdWords Keyword Tool.

But I think that it's a blessing in disguise, because it will force (persuade?) people to put more emphasis on the context of the keywords that they use, and to re-examine the actual keywords that are bringing in traffic now, rather than trying to second guess what people might be looking for in the future.

So, fire up Analytics (or just look at the Blogger/Wordpress/Squidoo/HubPages/whatever stats) and start your keyword research there, instead. Then try to pick out areas that people are interested in, but that you don't cover explicitly.

Use those in the next traffic acquisition drive, and you should see a rise in effectiveness over previous campaigns, making it that little bit more cost-effective.

Traffic Acquisition Strategies Using Squidoo

The Squidoo publishing platform is organised around the concept of a Lens. Each Lens is a focussed discussion of a particular topic; which can be anything that the content creator wishes to publish.

Squidoo does have a few restrictions on content, and requirements (such as keeping Lenses fresh and up to date) which are all designed to help its stature as a publishing platform, and web property.

To use Squidoo for traffic acquisition, the Lens has to be attractive, relevant, and interesting, with a compelling call to action to drive the traffic from the Lens to your primary sales site.

There are many reasons for using Squidoo as a publishing platform designed to capture traffic: 

• flexible yet robust structured publishing interface;
• high Google ranking;
• large user base.

The last one might need some further elaboration  - the large user base is useful in the keyword research part of a traffic acquisition strategy, and can also be used to take a shortcut in buying an established Lens with existing traffic.

In other words, you can look to other lenses for keyword phrase inspiration, or you can search for a ready-made solution.

Squidoo Traffic Acquisition Strategies

In order to set up a Squidoo Lens (Lens being a kind of structured blog) for traffic acquisition, the usual factors need to be kept in mind:

• keyword density in content;
• keywords in Lens Title;
• correct tags describing the content.

The three principle strategies for setting up a Lens geared towards direct traffic acquisition:

• build it yourself
• have someone else build it for you
• buy an existing Lens 

Clearly, there's an issue of cost here. The first strategy is essentially free, but will require time to build the Lens, and time for traffic to build up. There's also no guarantee that the best Lens titles have not already been taken, especially if you are trying to capture traffic for a particularly popular keyword phrase.

Outsourcing the Content Creation Process 

The second strategy will require paying someone to build a Lens, and will also require some time for the traffic to build up. 

The building process should be shorter (as long as you choose someone with Lens building expertise – i.e. from vWorker.com) but the time to build up traffic may become a factor for those looking for a quick return on the initial investment.

Above all, for these two strategies, you must remember that although Squidoo has a high Google profile, the exact choice of keywords and content will dictate the length of time it will take for a decent amount of traffic to build up. And, only a proportion of that traffic will click through to your main site.

Buying a Squidoo Lens for Traffic Acquisition 

The third option is perhaps the most interesting. Many people build Lenses (some build many, many of them) with the specific aim to 'flip' them for money. 

Lens flipping (Google “Squidoo Queen”for a masterclass) has become the principle business venture of many online content creators, and if you're targeting a popular niche keyword, there's a good chance that there is a Lens for sale that could be of use.

The price is dependent on several factors:

• amount of revenue generated;
• the CTR (click through ratio) on third party links;
• and volume of unique traffic.

While there are no hard and fast formulae, expect to pay tens of dollars for a new Lens with very little traffic, and thousands for an established Lens being sold as a going concern.

Choosing the right traffic acquisition strategy using Squidoo Lenses to capture and direct traffic (traffic bait) is an exercise in weighing cost against time. For those willing to pay a premium, there is instant traffic available – what you do with it is another question.

Using PLR to Generate Traffic

PLR - Private Label Rights - is a term used to describe material that has been created for the express use of being re-used to create web site content. The seller hands over a number of rights to the buyer, amongst them, the right to use the text in any way that they wish, and assume the ownership (or at least the right to be recognized as the author).

So, in theory at least, you could take the content, stick it in a blog, and then drop the URL on Google, Twitter, Facebook, or whatever, and watch the traffic come rolling in. Right?

Well... if everyone does that, then everyone's pages end up looking the same and you'll irritate the PLR owner into the bargain. On top of which, they'll be optimized to rank well in search engines for a variety of keywords, but there are a limited number of spots - 10, if we're trying to hit the first page of results.

Those top ten spots will quickly go, if all you do is copy and paste the PLR content in it's entirety. Using PLR is clearly as much about re-branding it, as it is about re-using it. Unless it's an eBook, or something to be used for newsletter content, which keeps it relatively private, it is vital to re-work the PLR content to make it your own.

In the final analysis, PLR is about research, getting snippets for insertion in your own products, and pulling out likely keyword phrases.

JustOutsourcing.com have a list of 101 things to do with PLR, and it's well worth a look, as there are some great ideas for turning PLR content into traffic acquisition content. Be warned, however, what might seem like a quick short cut to traffic actually does require some work to make it worthwhile.

A great place to get PLR content is from ghostwriter extraordinaire, Tiffany Dow, from her PLR Mini-Mart. They're bang up to date, seasonal where appropriate, and her blog is full of useful tips and tricks. Learning from the trenches of PLR and ghostwriting is a great way to get ahead in the internet marketing game, so I heartily recommend Tiffany's blog.

That's PLR, in a nutshell. It's a great investment when used correctly, and should be at the top of your traffic acquisition checklist.

What Do I Do With All This Traffic?!?

It's a question that often comes up - traffic acquisition is one thing, but once it's flowing, the story doesn't just end!

After all, there is a whole process that begins when the user (potential client) lands on the page, one which takes them through the marketing funnel, step by step. First they are a visitor, then, they become a prospect, then, hopefully, a customer, and eventually, a repeat customer.

Along the way, there are ample opportunities for upselling, special offers, one time bargains, and so on, all geared towards maximizing the revenue generated now, and into the future. The question is : how can we possibly know what is working, and what isn't?

The answer is given on the blog I've linked to above. It's all about testing traffic, tracking results, and helping to read customers minds, all with one goal : raise revenue and the value of each and every visitor.

Link Farms and Link Exchanges Can Hurt Page Ranking

Link exchange programs might be great at boosting traffic, but the association with a potentially low PR / Authority site can permanently damage your own Page Rank and position in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

The key is to only selectively participate in high quality exchanges with sites whose PR is at least comparable to yours. Informal arrangements with people you know is probably the best option, but remember that a well-timed press release may well get a link in from a high Authority site like the New York Times.

Other must-do's include using 'nofollow' links and making sure that outgoing links are associated with keywords in the anchor text that follow the LSI of the content that they are linking to.

Read the full article here : Linking and Search Engine Ranking.

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