The value of traffic can never be underestimated.  The best website in the world, the best blog in the world, the best free offer in the world amounts to nothing if there is no traffic to it.  Even the best articles in the world can sadly sit idle if there are no eyeballs to view it.

I am no traffic expert, but I do know a thing or two about generating the kind of traffic that matters.  Because in the end, traffic means one thing and one thing only…

People, visitors, readers, viewers, prospects, customers.

They are your traffic.  Living, breathing, interested folks are the kind of traffic that matters.

Wouldn’t you rather have 100 visits from targeted, interested people than 1,000 visits from people who aren’t looking for what you do and don’t care about what you do?

How to get the kind of traffic that matters

If you ask 100 people a traffic generation question, you will get 100 different answers.  And their answers will be all over the place, from social media to paid methods.  But here’s the honest truth – If you want to get traffic that matters to your site, then you have to implement a tactic.

A strategy.

Every answer you get regarding traffic is just a strategy.  This sounds so simple, but it really is the answer to your traffic dilemma.  Choosing a method and implementing it every single day.

I asked a simple traffic question to 3 good blogging friends.  I chose them to help with this post for a few reasons:

1)      They all are in different niches – they focus on different methods to drive traffic to their websites/businesses

2)      Second, they are all experts in their subject

3)      And third, they are just really great Entrepreneurs

And as you’ll discover from my guest experts here, there are several ways to drive traffic…

The question they were asked was…

”What methods would you use to drive traffic to a lead capture page?”

Ana from Traffic Generation Café:

“The main difference between driving traffic to a landing page designed to capture leads vs, say, a blog post is foreplay.

Landing page traffic HAS to be targeted enough, know about you and your offer, and be ready to sign on the dotted line when they hit that page.

With that said, some of the best ways to drive warm targeted traffic are the ones that infer your authority on the subject, like:

• guest posting;
• mentions by other bloggers;
• social media (IF you have an established loyal fan base).”

Ana Hoffman Traffic Generation Cafe

Sarah Arrow from Sarke Media:

“The example I’m going to use is for an email lead capture, with an ethical bribe.

Knowing that your ethical bribe is about a specific subject (one that your audience is interested in) makes things easier. Start with what content you already have on the same topic. Adapt the call to action on each of these posts and make them a little harder hitter. Things like “You’re interested in xxxx subscribe now and get a free copy of xxx” and direct them to the capture page. These pages already have traffic, so they are the low-hanging fruit.

Power up your video – do 3 or 4 quick You Tube videos on the topics and in the description area post a link to the capture page. There would be a verbal call to action in the video as well inviting people to subscribe by clicking the link in the description box.

Next I’d set up a nice keyword-rich Pinterest board on the topic. Pin a variety of useful posts (and the videos) onto the board. Boards can show up nicely in Google if they are optimized (have the relevant keywords in the descriptions).

And when you’ve done that, it’s time to visit Twitter. Some quick hashtag research over at http://www.hashtags.org/ will tell me what people are tagging in my niche. Taking some time to craft some nicely worded tweets will pay off for you here. People are asking and sharing information using hashtags. Use hashtags wisely, don’t spam them.

Tweet out your posts and your videos, and 2 or 3 times a day ask for a direct visit to your capture page. Example- I share a lot of #blogging tips, if you’d like more visit here and subscribe. Space out these “direct ask” Tweets, one every 6 hours. Schedule them so you don’t forget. Balanced tweeting with great information sharing will mean you drive traffic back to your pages.

Sharing your content where your ideal reader hangs out is vital. If they are on Facebook, make sure you are in the right groups to get noticed. The same for LinkedIN. By being where your ideal customer hangs out, sharing the content with the direct calls to action, means your clickthroughs to conversion ratios will be much higher.”

Sarah Arrow can be found at SarkeMedia.com writing about blog-scentric social media

Noel Cunningham from Noel Cunningham.net:

“If I had to pick just one traffic source I’d have to choose banner ads in popular blogs. My philosophy when it comes to traffic is simply find out where my target audience hangs out and figure out a way to divert it to my site. Banner ads and niche blogs are a perfect way to do this.

What I do in this situation is make a list of the top, most traffic blogs in my niche and research them all to see if they accept advertising  on their sites. 90% of them do and then I find out what their rates are and how much traffic they receive each month. Once you have these numbers its pretty easy to work out the best package for you and book your banner space.

The beauty of this traffic is that you are guaranteeing high quality, targeted visitors. You already know they are interested in what you have to offer because they are visiting a related blog in your niche. You are simply tapping into this traffic source and through your banner ad diverting some of this traffic back to your site.

If you have a marketing budget I think you this is some of the best traffic around and well worth the initial investment. Especially if you have some forms of monetization on your site you can quickly recoup some of your costs.

Either way it’s a great way to quickly establish yourself and also to build relationships with other more successful bloggers in your niche.”

Noel Cunningham can be found at http://noelcunningham.net

Making this work for you

With three actionable answers from three great Entrepreneurs, the next step is to put something into action.

Ultimately, sending traffic to a lead capture page is the kind of traffic generation activity that can be the most rewarding, but also requires strategic effort.  Testing, tracking and analyzing your results ensures that each action produces the desired outcome, namely, more opt-ins.

The underlying message here is pick a strategy and put it to work for you.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

You Might Also Like:

• Increase Website Traffic in 10 Easy Steps
• Traffic Tip #9 – A Guest Blogger is a Great Blogger
• Turning Website Visitors into Subscribers… AND Making Sales