At first it seems that the more traffic you get the better your sales and profits will be. Obvious eh? Well not necessarily. Unless you have the right sort of traffic it won't matter if you have 10 hits a day or 10,000.

(When I say the right sort I mean buyers!) Although not all sites want buyers I am assuming most people reading this will be looking to make sales from their sites. However the strategies would apply equally to generating traffic to a non profit site.

If you do an online search for "get more traffic to my web site" or something similar you will see a ton of people trying to sell you something that will send millions of visitors a month. Now they may well be telling the truth (though unlikely!) but what caliber of visitors do you think they will be? Not the sort who are hungry for the products or information you have to offer!

If you do want to buy "lists" of people to promote your site to, you are far better buying a targeted list, and using an opt in autoresponder service to capture interested names and e mail addresses. You can then build your own subscriber base and write to them on a regular basis promoting your products and services. This has proven time and again to be a real winner in sales terms.

Back to the need to get more traffic......

One of the most effective ways of getting good targeted traffic is using pay per click programs like Google, Yahoo (Overture), Miva, Kanoodle etc. You can then research the keywords you would like to market to and choose the amount of advertising budget you wish to spend. I always go for very "niche" words and real rock bottom prices, with a bit of ingenuity you soon learn to get on page one of the search engines with your ads and keep your costs down at the same time!

By the way, people get really hung up in ppc about getting the highest spot on the number one page. Not me! I'm happy to get on any of the first 5 pages as long as I pay minimum price. And I have words appearing on pages 50 to 100 that get clicks. It amazes me how people see these ads - but they do.

You will notice I haven't mentioned pushing your web site itself higher in the rankings - that's because I work in more mysterious ways! I have tried search engine optimisation but it can be a real headache. Mainly because no one really knows how the various companies rank sites! I'm sure there are people who know how to do this effectively but it seems so difficult and time consuming I prefer to use easy and quick methods.

One of the best is actually writing articles (but that's another story).

Another very effective way to build more web site traffic is to use e zine advertising. E zines are an incredibly popular internet phenomenon and there are almost certainly many in your particular field of interest. Just type "xxxxxx e zine" (with your niche instead of xxxxx) into a search engine and you will see for yourself. Then have a look at some of the e zines and pick one or two you like the look of. What you should do is subscribe to some and see what their content is like. If you think it's readers would like your products then take out a solo ad. These are very effective ways of getting more traffic that is responsive - by that I mean buyers!

But beware, there are other cheaper ads in e zines. Don't be tempted to take these based on price. In my experience it is the solo ads that work.

I hope this article has given you a few ideas to increase your traffic. It is just really skimming the surface but if you use these methods you will definitely see an increase in your online traffic and a much better sales return.

Gaz Hutchinson Internet Marketer.

For a review of how to generate more free (!) web site traffic using articles visit http://www.realmoneysite.com