How and where to promote your website so you can start making money online

A lot of people make a website and then have NO idea how to promote their website. The thing is there are a lot of WAYS to promote a website but not all of them are worth it. You see, when you send traffic to a website you want it to convert. When I say you want it to convert this means that you want them to click on a ad, buy something from your site, Subscribe by opt in email list or RSS feed or to bookmark the page and come back later.

The real goal though is to get them to buy something or click on a ad but bookmarking or subscribing is also wanted so you can get them to possible come back and click on more ads or buy more stuff or if they never clicked on a ad or bought anything they might possibly by something later when they come back.

So let me just come out and say it, SOME TRAFFIC IS JUNK. That is right not all traffic converts and some of it may NEVER convert or would convert so poorly you would just lose money.

One of the WORST forms of traffic being sold on the internet is traffic from Paid to Click sites and Auto/Manual Surf sites.

The way these sites work is you sign up and view a page to get a page view to your own site or you view a site for some chump change, usually less than 1 cent for 30 seconds or longer. I have no idea why anyone even uses these sites as you get so little and it takes so much time.

The goal of the Paid to Click or Auto/Manual surf sites for the person using them is to either get paid or get the views and that is basically their ONLY goal. They do not care about clicking on your ads or sticking around on your site for any longer than the 30-1 minute minimum stay length.

So they might not even read your site but just sit there and wait for the timer to run down so they get their credit. Most likely they WILL NOT come back and NOT click ads.

The PTC sites sell this traffic in bulk for almost nothing. It sounds great to get 100,000 views to your site for 100 bucks. Trust me and skip this type of traffic altogether.

The next type of traffic people will promote with is Social Media or Social bookmarking traffic.
Popular sites that people use include:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/
http://www.mixx.com/
http://digg.com/
http://buzz.yahoo.com/
http://reddit.com/
http://www.propeller.com/
These two are mainly tech sites only.
http://slashdot.org/
http://www.techdirt.com/

These sites can send a lot of traffic that may or may not convert. These sites usually do not send really targeted traffic and so it may or may not convert well. Sites like Digg and Stumbleupon can send a LOT of traffic but from what I have seen it does not convert well. Some times if you have good content other blogs in your niche will pick it up and send GOOD traffic which will probably convert. You can get a flood of links because of social media traffic as blogs pick up and start talking about your site. One thing is for sure these sites can get the word out that you are out there and let people see your site.

If other sites do not pick up on your content usually the traffic is not worth too much. I have got a few ad clicks and one month out of 70,000 plus views I made little over 10 bucks with Adsense. Now I was using the traffic on a comedy type site. These type sites do not convert well in the first place.

I have not tested it on a site like this so it may be worth a try but many others agree that Social media and Social Bookmarking traffic does not convert well.

In some cases it is worth submitting your new posts and content to Social Media sites just for the extra links as some of the sites like say MIXX give you a “Do follow” direct link to your site. The Do follow sites can give you extra PR for your website.

Some of the best traffic is targeted traffic. This can come from buying links or banner space on related sites or from buying ads from Google Adwords or Yahoo’s Adsense competitor YPN.

With Adsense and YPN you will have to PAY for each and every click and it can really drain your wallet. You will set a daily spending limit and hope the traffic converts. It can be hard to use this type of traffic. You set the ads up and if the traffic is not targeted enough it will not convert. Like if you have a money site and think you can get traffic from bidding on laptop ads it may not convert but it will drain your wallet.

Clicks can cost A LOT of money. It will vary per niche that you are targeting but usually it is quit high. The thing is if it converts well you will make money, big money.

These are just SOME of the many ways to promote your website. I will cover more on this as I come across more that work.

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