This article covers the most effective methods for getting a quick surge of immediate traffic to your site. Plus, you'll learn the most effective methods for building long-term, sustainable traffic and getting top rankings in the search engines.

Step 1: Announce your Site with a Press Release

A simple 1-page press release can be the most powerful marketing tool in your arsenal. Why? Because a press release is an effective way to get your news distributed across the internet news channels for generating market awareness, in-bound links for SEO and new visitors to your website.

Launch your site (or newly re-designed site) with a "BANG!" by first sending out a press release to your industry's media via personalized email and across the internet news channels (Google News, Yahoo News, etc.) by way of www.prweb.com or www.prleap.com. Be sure to use the correct format for your press release as outlined here: Press release format http://www.publicityadvisor.com/pressreleaseformat.html

Step 2: Start Up a Pay-Per-Click Campaign

The very best way to create instant and sustainable traffic is through pay-per-click (PPC) search engine advertising with Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions and MSN adCenter. In fact, according to the Jupiter Media Metrix "Online Advertising Effectiveness" study, advertisers are receiving the highest return-on-investment from pay-per-click search when compared to other forms of advertising.

But, before you jump into the competitive arena of PPC advertising you'll need to do a couple things to ensure you'll get a positive return on your investment (instead of running up big credit card bills!). To win with PPC you need to make absolutely sure your website converts visitors to sales. Use the strategies outlined here to increase landing page conversion rates. http://www.interactivemarketinginc.com/landing-pages.html

When starting out, set a budget you can live with and have a backend product on your site to at least pay your breakeven costs for the PPC advertising. Make sure your website is set up for collecting leads as well to ensure your PPC advertising pays off in the short-term and long-term.

Step 3: Create and Launch a Free (or low cost) Blog

After your PPC campaign is set up and making you a profit, now it's time to do the things that will really build your business and give you a healthy ROI over the long-term week-after-week and year-after-year. Now it's time to build your natural search engine rankings and traffic with the most powerful search engine optimization tactic available today… Blogging.

Having a blog allows you to use the powerful "Blog and Ping" method of getting keyword optimized backlinks to your website for SEO and it's also a good way to generate sustained traffic from the "Blogosphere." We accomplish this by creating a blog and submitting it to hundreds of blog directories such as Technorati, Furl, Digg, etc.

You can start your blog today by signing up for a free Blogger http://www.blogger.com/ account, or for just few hundred bucks you can have a pro build you a WordPress
http://www.wordpress.org/ Blog with all the "bell ‘n whistles."

After your blog is ready to launch, submit your blog's rss feed to the rss feed submission sites and directories here: http://www.interactivemarketinginc.com/blog-directories.html This can take over 6 hours to do, but the results are great. Just submit your url to as many blog directories as you can and you'll receive a bunch of one way links and good rankings in the search engines. If you're short on time or don't know where to submit your blog, click here or hire a pro.

If you want to maximize the links and traffic you receive from your blogging efforts, consistently posting at least 2 to 3 blog posts per week will REALLY help increase your traffic.

Step 4: Submit your Website to the Internet Directories

Links are the fundamental building blocks of the Internet and Search Engine Optimization. Having links pointing to your site is what makes your site visible and are vital to ranking high in the search engines. Getting your site submitted to the Internet directories like Open Directory www.dmoz.org and others is a great way to build you a foundation of keyword optimized links and tap into a new source of qualified visitors.

Like the blog directories, submitting to the Internet directories can take over 6 hours to do, but the results are great. Just submit your url to as many Internet directories as you can and you'll receive a bunch of one way links and good rankings in the search engines. If you're pressed for time, outsource this work and pay someone to submit your website to the list of Internet directories here: http://www.interactivemarketinginc.com/internet-directories.html

Step 5: Write and Submit Expert Articles

Writing expert articles and getting them published on other sites is the ultimate online marketing strategy. Why? Because your well-written articles can be used for the following advantages:

Generating one-way in-bound links for boosting your search rankings;
Attracting laser-targeted "ready to buy" visitors to your website;
Positioning you as THE expert in your industry or market.

So every week write and submit an article to your industry's websites, media, and the article syndication websites.

Be Consistent and Persistent

If you invest just 2 hours a day for 2 weeks implementing these marketing tactics you'll see a big return on investment in the form of increased sales. For example, if you stick with this plan you'll have thousands of links pointing to your website and a bunch of traffic due to your search engine rankings and one way links within just a few weeks. If you continue using these methods, you can dominate your market and double or even quadruple your profits.

NOTICE: If you think this all sounds like work… well IT IS! No goal worth accomplishing will happen for you without a little "elbow grease." But to sweeten the deal, there is a way to make this pay off even bigger for you. This is done by simply thinking bigger.

For example, the best way to market your website and business is to become a trusted source of content and information in your industry. More specifically… the best way to do this is to write a book or an ebook! Set aside 1-2 hours a day writing content, and as you're writing your book you'll also be using the content for posting to your blog, writing and distributing your articles and adding keyword optimized content to your website.

In other words, you'll be building your business while writing your book! When your book is done in 3-12 months you'll have another profit source, plus your book will make you a recognized expert in your industry which can be leveraged to get you a big share of the market.

By the way… this is exactly how you leave your competition in the dust:

1) By setting your company up as THE best choice in your market by offering valuable content and tips;

2) And then getting your message in front of your target market through strategies like blogging, distributing press releases and articles, adding keyword optimized content to your site, and setting up your autoresponder to follow-up with your website visitors, etc.

Conclusion:

PPC, Press Releases, Blogs, Articles and Search Engine Optimization are today's most effective methods for generating a quick surge of immediate traffic to your site as well as long-term sustainable traffic for building your business. If you consistently use these marketing tactics you will see a big return on investment in the form of increased sales.
Matt Hockin is President of Interactive Marketing, Inc.

Article Source: www.businesshighlight.org