Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Where Do I Start Getting Traffic?
I got a question today that struck me as a good one to share with others. It's a common position that many new business owners have. It's one of "Help, I have a business but I don't know how to get customers."

Since the questioner seemed to be pretty much at ground zero in his business, that's where I answered it from. Hope it helps

"This may sound like a cop-out, but the best place to market what you have to offer is to go where the people who are most likely to want it are.

"What problem does what you're selling solve for people? Figure that out and you can start narrowing down where to find them.

"Oh, and saying, "Well, everybody could probably use what I'm selling." Figure out who would benefit from it most and then start looking for places that they would go looking for answers.

"Craigslist is good for selling physical products, but it has its limitations for things that are less tangible. And it limits you severely when it comes to where on the site you can post your ad. But I've had success with some things on there.

"For physical products, eBay can be a good way to start. You have plenty of traffic coming there looking for solutions. That means you don't have to go look for them. It's cheap to set up, your risk is a lot lower than going out and buying advertising for a website. I have a few tips for auction selling on my website if you're interested: http://www.onestopwebsupport.com/dir-auctions.htm

"If you have a website already and are looking for ways to drive traffic to it for free, you might also want to look at forums. Find the forums that people who are most likely to be interested in your solutions are looking for answers. Don't go in there spamming the threads with nothing but "Buy my stuff!"

"Be genuinely helpful to people. Answer their questions, even if they don't apply to your solutions. When you get a question where your product is related to the question, drop in a link to your site with a comment that they might find what you have there useful. Be careful, though, that you don't violate any forum terms of service about links. Check that out before you start posting on a forum.

"If you build a reputation on the forums for being helpful (and not just pushing your product). You'll start getting traffic from there. No, it's not going to send you millions of visitors a day. And it will take some effort on your part. But once you start getting income, you can start reinvesting it back into your business with strategies that cost a little.

"Business never works as a big explosion -- from no income to riches immediately. It's a matter of building momentum, slowly at first, but if you keep building it steadily, it will eventually become an avalanche."
Jeff

Labels: start business