If you long for the Niagara Falls of web traffic - an abundant flow of eyeballs on your site, you're gonna have to shell out some greenies….or at least plastic anyway. Those eyeballs cost money! (They don't call it online commerce for nothin'!) But building your list doesn't have to make your wallet hemorrhage!
You can certainly get free traffic to your home business blog using various methods like article writing, hashtags on social media, blog commenting tribes, and the like. Think of that method as a sort of sweat-equity process. If you work at it, it'll work, but the process can be slower than molasses!
The truth is…to get a lot of opt-ins so you can quickly build your list, you need an effective marketing funnel that shuttles leads to you. That requires 2 things:
1. LOTS of very interested eyeballs on your site
2. A VERY compelling reason for them to cough up their email.
Getting Eyeballs STAT!
Who doesn't need eyeballs quickly? It almost goes without saying that everyone would prefer to have an immediate and steady flow of traffic, for the cheapest possible outlay, but not just any traffic.
The best kind of web traffic is the result of a strategic and targeted effort that filters out the uninterested, and brings in the highly interested - your ideal customers!
Paid advertising IS the fastest way to get eyeball traffic to your business blog…but the good news is, it doesn't have to cost you your right arm!
In fact, you can run a very effective 3 or 4 day ad on Facebook for only $15 - $20 bucks. Simply set a $5 daily budget and you can test the waters without having to raid your kid's babysitting money.
But let's back the truck up. Before you do a single ad, make sure you've done a great job setting things up on your site so that the principles of attraction marketing will work.
There are plenty of articles on this site to help you with that, but in a nutshell, everything about your home business blog should:
1. Speak the specific language that resonates with your audience.
2. Contain plenty of interesting topics, resources and stories that benefit them and educate them on who you are and how you're uniquely qualified to help them.
3. Feature products or services that directly benefit them (solve their problem or issue)
If you've got all those ducks in a row then you're ready for the next stage in building your list -
Attracting Eyeballs With Your Free Offer
The next piece of the puzzle is to create a free compelling offer. The keyword here is compelling - simply put, it's a no-brainer reason for people to give you their email!
You'll need a page on your blog to display your irresistible offer. This is called a squeeze page. It has only one purpose…to entice them to exchange their email for your free offer. You can learn more about it here.
And finally - the trigger. What will trigger them to skedaddle on over to your squeeze page? A well-crafted, targeted, inexpensive ad, of course!
Create an ad that appeals to your specific niche
Use keyword specific language in your ad to attract their interest
Use an eye-catching graphic image to attract their interest
Use demographic targeting to make sure your ad is seen by your ideal customer.
Note: due to online consumer fatigue, and maybe a little A.D.D., be prepared to change up your ad to keep things fresh and give you the beat shot at reaching your intended audience.
Best Bang For Your Buck?
It's estimated that Facebook will surpass 2 billion active users in 2014. For that reason it's THE obvious smart choice when it comes to advertising your home business online inexpensively. As you gain proficiency with creating ads, brand out to other platforms where you have the best chance of getting eyeballs!
Learn how to advertise with Facebook here:
Having trouble with the idea of spending money to make money?
Do you have a limited budget? Here's a secret nugget: Use a self-liquidating offer (aka SLO) to pre-fund the cost of your ads. Offer something of high perceived value to your specific niche at a minimal cost, then use those proceeds to buy low cost ads.
Many people (me included) offer (sell) affiliate products and services to help pre-fund advertising costs. This reduces or even eliminates out-of-pocket costs for advertising. A typical price range for a low-cost SLO affiliate product is $7 to $37. The key here is perceived value. Be selective when choosing an affiliate product. <link to affiliate article>
See how that all works? Nifty!
As you're gaining experience in paid advertising, don't stop your other traffic-building activities. You'll gain the biggest benefit by employing both free and paid strategies.
So get busy lining up all your ducks and your home business will begin creating a steady of flow of eyeball traffic through your marketing funnel and ultimately build you a big fat list!
p.s. Don't forget to track your ads to measure their effectiveness. Monitor! Monitor! Monitor!
Eryn McCormick is an online marketing entrepreneur, coach and award-winning blogger. She's a woman on a mission to "inform, inspire and ignite" people to take action to recapture their own earning power by leveraging their skills, talents and abilities to start an online business from their home computer or on the go with a mobile device.
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