One of the most important elements of Internet business success is mastering Internet traffic generation, in particular, the art (and science) of driving targeted web traffic.

Many internet marketing beginners start their journey on the wrong foot by purchasing eCommerce store packages or website hosting plans that emphasize the “low cost” of setting up a website or store.

Unfortunately, if you’re equally new to internet marketing, you may not have been told that there are literally hundreds of millions of websites being indexed. In fact, just a few years ago, the Google blog announced that they had officially indexed over 1 trillion web pages.

If you just build a run-of-the-mill 1-5 page eCommerce store or “brochure” website, you’ll still be faced with the daunting challenge of figuring out how to drive web traffic to your online presence.

Here are some simple ideas to help you attract enough internet traffic so that you can achieve your personal and business goals.

1. Website Traffic Generation

There are three key elements to making your website a traffic magnet. First, it must be filled with relevant and engaging content: written, graphic, video, audio, or otherwise.

Next, you need to adhere to good search engine optimization (SEO) principles that make your web pages easy for search engines to find and retrieve when your target market searches for information.

Finally, you should have plenty of links from other relevant and authoritative websites (and web pages) in your category. These links are known as inbound links and are very important in the algorithms that Google uses to rank web pages. And since Google is the dominant search engine, it pays to follow its rules.

2. Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising with programs like Google’s AdWords program can be the fastest way to drive a lot of traffic to a website or landing page. However, it can also be very expensive, especially if you don’t take the time to study it and take precautions.

Some common sense AdWords strategies include targeting so-called “long-tail keywords,” which are often 3-4 word combinations that your target market is searching for, but don’t have the competitive pressure of phrases like “mortgage loans.” “, For example.

It’s also a good idea to set a very small daily budget when you start out so you don’t hurt yourself (or your wallet).

3. Traffic generated by affiliates

Another way to generate a lot of targeted online traffic is through the product-focused strategy of joint ventures and affiliate marketing. The key here is to create a product that gives you the advantage of offering incentives to high-powered partners who can send you traffic from their lists.

By following a strategy of combining an online infoentrepreneur model with an affiliate strategy, you can drive massive amounts of traffic to any website, landing page, or product you create.

4. Media sharing sites

Websites like YouTube (video sharing), Slideshare.net (PDF sharing, video and PowerPoint presentations), and podcast directories can be great traffic generators. By converting your content to various media and sharing it in other formats and on other sites, you reap the benefits of increased search engine exposure for your content, referral to those website visitors, and SEO value of links to your content. web from your content and profiles on these sites.

5. Social sharing and bookmarking

Another way to drive powerful online traffic flows is through the amplifying effect of using your social networks to spread your content further online.

An example of social media content amplification is easily seen with Twitter. A single tweet sent to a few thousand (or even a few hundred) followers with a link to your valuable eBook or white paper can result in that content being shared virally with many thousands more.

In the past, some websites have even crashed after unexpected traffic spikes from an article voted for the first page on Digg.com.

6. Content syndication tools

Finally, you can take advantage of various tools that help you spread the same content across many websites in an automated way.

If you are interested in generating traffic through online video, you can use services like Onlywire.com (bookmark/share) to syndicate your content. For videos, TubeMogul and Traffic Geyser are just two examples of services that allow you to upload to many video sharing sites. If you apply effective search engine optimization principles to your videos, doing so regularly can result in a tremendous flow of traffic to any website or page you target to increase traffic.