In the past, we have been talking about keyword research, link building and other search engine optimization techniques. Today, let me illustrate to you what I mean by search engine traffic.

For example, last week, I posted an article titled “4 Essential Tools To Create Traffic To A Website“. Similar to many other LeadsLeap blog posts, the title wasn’t plucked from the sky. It was the result of careful keyword research.

Here’s a screenshot of the keyword research result:

As you can see, the keyword phrase “Tools To Create Traffic To A Website” is searched 32 times a day. That’s close to 1000 searches a month!

There are two ways to tap into this traffic. One way is by paying the search engines (i.e. Adwords etc). Another way is by getting to the top of the generic search result, through search engine optimization.

Both the paid ads and generic search result for this keyword phrase are shown in the screenshot below:

Can you see who is sitting at the #1 position of the 30,000,000 search results? Yes, it’s LeadsLeap.

The article we posted last week is now in the #1 position of Google search result.

With close to 1000 searches a month and being the first in the listing (after the ads), you bet we’re going to get some traffic from there.

That’s what search engine traffic is all about!

Before I end today’s article, let’s do a quick summary of what it takes to start getting traffic from the search engines to your website.

1. Keyword research (to find the right traffic generating keywords to target)
2. Search engine optimized content (to please the search engines and human visitors)
3. A website with lots of quality backlinks (to greatly increase your chance of getting the top ranking.)

Alternatively (or should I say ‘Additionally’), post your ad in LeadsLeap. Some of the traffic we’ve generated may click your ad and go to your website.

When I started my online business, I spent lots of money on online advertising. I still believe that if you have no resources, advertising is the fastest and cheapest (in terms of opportunity cost) way to get lots of traffic.

But advertising costs you ‘time’ to set up the ad, ‘effort’ to monitor the progress and ‘money’ to post the ad. While I was heavily advertising, I was at the same time using 4 other tools to create traffic to my websites, and these are the 4 tools we’re going to discuss……

1) Referral And Reward System

The first tool to create traffic to a website is a referral and reward system.

I think most of you understand the importance of having a referral system for your website. But having a referral system for your website is not good enough. You need to have a reward system that can motivate your affiliates to recommend other people to your website.

Most rewards come in the form of money. But that is not good enough, especially when you are in the internet marketing industry where everyone is paying good money to affiliates. In addition to money, you have to think of other tangible and intangible rewards.

Many social networking sites don’t pay a dime to their users for referrals, yet their users are enthusiastically bringing their friends in. Observe the tricks these sites deploy. You’ll get some good ideas that you can use for your business.

2) Tell-A-Friend Script

I’m sure you are familiar with a tell-a-friend script. Nowadays, when you sign up a social networking site, the first thing you’re asked to do is to grab all the emails in your contact list and send an invitation to all of them.

Tell-a-friend script is a powerful tool to create traffic to a website. But you have to use it with care. This tool can easily be used to send spam invitation and the end result is your website becomes blacklisted by some mail-filtering services.

This was an annoying problem I faced in my early years.

Here’s a little story to share with you. Hope it’s not too boring…

I still remembered a time when I wrote to one of such mail-filtering services requesting for a removal of my website from their blacklist. I explained that the spam email was sent via a tell-a-friend script, not from us. But they didn’t buy my reason. I then argued that similar tools are available for websites like Facebook and I too receive tons of spam invitations from unknown individuals. Guess what, they replied and said they are Facebook, but we are not. When you’re small, you are bullied. Anyway, I continued to argue and I think they were tired of my persistence and eventually got my website removed from their blacklist.

Some of you may wonder why LeadsLeap doesn’t have a tell-a-friend script. That’s because I cannot afford to have this website and our mail server blacklisted. But we are in the process of developing a tell-a-friend script that can possibly minimize this problem… and the best part is we will make this script available to all our members when it’s ready. A programmer is working on it and it’s premature to say when it can be accomplished.

Till then, if you want a simple tell-a-friend script, you can find some free scripts at hotscripts.com.

3) Viral Tools

As online marketers, we should always think “viral marketing” because that’s one main advantage of the internet over the brick and mortar world.

Typical viral tools include:
- viral ebooks such as rebrandable ebooks and MRR ebook,
- viral software such as our rebrandable ID manager, and
- providing free online tools on your website, such as a free mortgage calculator or free keyword research tools.

Talking about providing free online tools as a form of viral marketing, the best example we can learn from is Google. Besides being a free search engine, Google provides free services such as map, keyword research tool, traffic tracking services etc. The idea is to provide useful tools to the world so that the world will come to you without you spending a dime in advertising.

4) SEOd Content

Last but not least, a must-have tool to create traffic to a website is SEOd Content – Search Engine Optimized Content.

I hope by now you know there is a difference between writing and writing for SEO. SEOd content is capable of attracting traffic from the search engines 24/7, without much effort from you, other than the initial effort of preparing the content.

This is where ‘blog’ comes into play because blog is a good content management platform. A blog is capable of creating thousands and thousands of traffic on 2 conditions:

- The backlinks to the website are well established.
- The individual article is well optimized for search engines.

Take LeadsLeap blog for example. As LeadsLeap.com is well linked from thousands of other websites, posting an SEOd content in its blog will easily get the article to the top search result and that will translate into free traffic from the search engines.

Same thing is happening to established article directories such as ezinearticles.com and buzzle.com.

This is part of our Tuesday With Kenneth series, where I reply our members challenges in internet marketing.

Today’s question is from David Nuzzi. Here’s his question:

“LeadsLeap is the only program that seems to be working for me. What is the best way to utilize your program to it’s fullest?” – David Nuzzi

To answer David’s question, let’s first look at how LeadsLeap helps our members to generate leads.

How LeadsLeap Helps You To Generate Leads?

LeadsLeap helps you to generate leads through a 3-pronged approach.

#1 – Leads Building Network

The first approach is our leads building network, where you refer people to join and build your network at LeadsLeap.

You may ask “Kenneth, isn’t LeadsLeap supposed to send me leads? Why am I sending leads to LeadsLeap?”

Fair question. Let me explain.

The people you refer to LeadsLeap are your ’seed’ leads. Remember that your ad will be shown to 10 levels of your network, for life. (Read our homepage again if you don’t know about it.) As your referred leads bring in more leads, you’ll see your network grow. Over time, more and more people will see your ad.

To illustrate, say if you refer 20 people to LeadsLeap, you may end up being able to advertise to 100s or even 1000s of people, for life.

That’s the leads building element of the system. (Note: In addition to building leads, you can also earn recurring commissions on sales made from product order and/or membership upgrade.)

#2 – Text Advertising On Our Website

Some new members ask “Is it possible to generate leads without referring people to LeadsLeap?” The answer is yes. This is done through the 2nd element of our system.

Besides being able to advertise to your LeadsLeap downlines, your ad will be posted in our members area and LeadsLeap blog. Our blog receives tens of thousands of traffic every month from external sources such as the search engines. This means you ad will be exposed to fresh leads months after months.

Sounds good? Yes. But there is a catch……

To have your ad shown in our network, you need to have excess credits in your account. I’m not going into the details of how to earn credits. You can read about it in your account. But I have one advice for you – try to focus on methods that can earn you credits on autopilot in the long run. You may need to work harder in the short run, but in the long run, you’ll not have to worry about credits.

Alternatively, you can become a PRO member of LeadsLeap, where your PRO ad will be rotated in the system indefinitely.

#3 – Leads Generation Tools

The last element of the system is more for advanced internet marketers, where we develop top-notch tools that you can use to generate more leads on your own, outside of the LeadsLeap system.

Two examples are the Affiliate ID Manager and M.Y.O.B List Builder Script. Even our Advanced Link Cloaker can be used as an advertising tool that you can use to get traffic from forums etc. Again, I’m not going into the details. You can learn about these tools in your members area.

More tools are in the pipeline. The next one will be released real soon!

So, what is the best way to utilize LeadsLeap to it’s fullest?

The answer is to make full use of all three elements of the system. Build your team at LeadsLeap, earn advertising credits on autopilot and check out the free tools that we offer and see how you can make use of them.

Last but not least, if you are new to LeadsLeap, check out some of our older posts in LeadsLeap blog. If you experience any internet marketing challenge, it is very likely that I’ve covered that topic in my previous blog posts. If not, you can always send your question to me (details in our email to you on every Tuesday).

This article has nothing to do with internet marketing. It’s about personal financing and I think it’s worth sharing with you.

Recently, a senior of mine, a 60+ year old savvy businessman, showed me his insurance policy that is about to mature…..

To cut the story short, on maturity, instead of getting about $300,000 as he thought, he can only receive about $150,000, which is lesser than the total premium he has paid!

What he had purchased was an endowment life insurance. It’s a common insurance product, where one pays certain premium every year and after 20 years, that person can possibly get back a lot more if he is still alive, or if he passes away during the insured period, his family will get a sum of money.

For my senior, his policy is about to reach the 20th year. But instead of getting $300,000, as told by his insurance agent many years ago, he can only get back about half of that amount.

Has he been cheated?

Definitely not.

For those of you who knows about endowment life insurance, there are two components to the return. One component is the guaranteed return (which is always lesser than the premium you’ve paid). The other component is the bonus return (which is the ‘extra’ money the insurance company will give you IF they make money with YOUR MONEY).

Because of this economic crisis, the bonus component has dropped significantly, so low that after adding on to the guaranteed component, the sum is still less than the premium that he has paid.

Ok, let’s get to the moral of the story……

1. Let insurance BE insurance

Many people buy insurance for investment purposes. Have you heard of insurance agent saying things like “After 15 years, you will break even. After 20 years, you will make X amount of dollars!”

What if on the 20th year, exactly the 20th year, there is an economic crisis, so serious that the stock market indexes retrace back to the level 20 years ago, as what we experience in March this year?

This is what is happening to my senior.

I’m not saying Don’t Buy Insurance. I’m saying Let Insurance BE Insurance. That means if you were to buy an insurance, just buy the insurance component, not the investment component.

There are insurance packages that only cover death, critical illnesses and accidents. They are much cheaper in premium because there’s no investment return. If you do not make any claim this year, the money will become profit to the insurance company. To you, you’re buying an insurance for any possible misfortune.

If you want to invest, you should learn to invest yourself instead of leaving the money to the so-call ‘professionals’, thinking that they will take good care of your money.

2. You Don’t Need A Life Insurance If You Start Planning Early

A ‘no-frill’ life insurance is one that will give your family a sum of money if you pass away. The reason why you need a life insurance is because if you are the financial support for your family, the money will be useful to help your family to get through the difficult period.

Such insurance is good, but there is a better alternative – rental property.

Imagine if you own one or a few rental properties. If anything were to happen to you, your family can still live on the rental income. Isn’t that better than life insurance?

Of course, it may cost a lot more to buy a property than a life insurance. But if you plan and work on it, it will happen.

Linking today’s discussion back to internet marketing, there is a cheaper form of rental property I can think of – the virtual real estate, VRE.

You probably know what I’m going to say by now. Yes, create an estate of content websites and monetize them with Adsense. Assuming that Google advertising is going to continue working for the next 100 years, your Adsense income can be a good form of passive income even if you are not around.

To tell you the truth, I bought all kinds of insurance in the past. But if I were to re-start buying insurance today, I’ll only buy one that covers me against accidents and critical illnesses. I’ll not buy any life insurance or any investment-linked insurance, as what we’ve discuss in this article.

“Please advice me on how best to get internet network marketing leads. I just joined an MLM company whereby I need to introduce the business to prospect and they purchase a product before I will get my commission. How best or which way can I do this in order to be successful in the business?” Winnie from West Africa

Apparently there are many ways to get internet network marketing leads. Different network marketing gurus will claim to have their proprietary leads generation methods.

I don’t have any proprietary leads generation methods. But I do know some effective ways to get internet network marketing leads and I’m going to discuss some of them here.

1) Just Advertise

Almost all internet network marketing companies have their standard lead capture squeeze page. If your company doesn’t have one, run away from it.

The easiest way to get quick networking marketing leads is to advertise the lead capture page in ‘established’ lead generation websites.

I’ve seen many of my customers (my advertisers) getting good response using this simple method.

One warning is that if your network marketing company is a popular one, this method will not be effective. This is because the lead capture page has been overused. Fresh and interesting lead capture page usually can generate better response.

2) Create Your Own Lead Capture Page

As I said, fresh and interesting lead capture page usually can generate better response. So instead of relying on your company’s standard promotion tools, why not create your own lead capture page?

Of course, in order to create one, you need to learn copywriting, basic html etc.

3) Use Funded Proposal Concept

This is by far the BEST way to get internet network marketing leads.

The idea of funded proposal is to charge your prospect upfront before selling them the actual backend product.

If this is the first time you heard of this term, you may wonder why these prospects are so stupid. Who in the right mind will pay for something upfront knowing that they will be asked to buy other things later on?

If you have such a doubt, wait till you see the example below……

Example – A $10 Internet Marketing Course

Will you pay an ‘experience’ internet marketer $10 for a half-day course teaching you how to make money online?

Many people will.

During the course, the marketer will ‘really’ teach you some good internet marketing skills and at the same time show you a good business opportunity that he is making money with.

See the idea?

The $10 fee will help to offset for his advertising cost. These prospects are in a way paying him to sell them.

4) Give Away A Book, Audio CD or DVD

Giving away free ebook for leads generation is becoming old school. Advanced marketers are now giving away a real book, Audio CD or even DVD. The cost of production is negligible but the perceived value is much higher. The response is hence higher.

5) Brand Yourself As A Guru

You must have seen some internet network marketing gurus online. They sell products to teach you how to make lots of money from internet network marketing.

This is another typical example of funded proposal, where they sell you their products upfront and then their network marketing opportunity subsequently.

Anyone can be a guru. It all depends on how you position yourself.

“How to build a list of people, if I do not have the funds to do this? I have tried some free advertising companies but nothing yet.” – Jay Rossi

If you are in the same situation as Jay, I hope this article can help you.

First thing first, stop dreaming!

Many marketers promote internet marketing as a lazy way to make money. To a certain extent, it is. But if you talk about list building, it’s definitely not a lazy way to make money.

If you think all you need is an opt-in form and people will flood into your list, you’ll be wondering why your list building effort is in vain.

First of all, you got to ask yourself the following questions:

- Is your sales letter powerful enough to get people’s attention?
- Is your offer appealing enough such that people bother to opt-in to get it?
- Is your sales letter convincing enough to get people to take immediate action?

If your answer is ‘no’ to any of the 3 questions, you should first brush up your copywriting and marketing skills, before even talking about where to get the traffic.

I hope I’m clear on this point.

Why free advertising doesn’t work?

I probably say this hundreds of times. The key in advertising is finding targeted traffic. So long as the traffic is targeted, it doesn’t matter whether the advertising is free or paid.

So instead of questioning yourself whether free advertising works, you should ask yourself whether the advertising traffic is targeted to your niche. If it is, the problem is not with the advertising media but with your skills in converting the traffic into your list.

So, how to build a list, if you do not have the funds to do it?

Well, there are many ways to build a list without having to spend a dime in advertising.

These ways include exchanging traffic with other marketers (provided that you have an initial list), building a list through your blog (provided that your blog is getting free traffic from the search engine), starting your own affiliate program (provided that you have access to a list of affiliates), as well as other standard free traffic strategies such as forum marketing, article marketing, traffic exchange networks, list building networks and social networking.

But instead of limiting your option to free traffic strategies, why not think of how you can earn back your advertising cost?

My preferred way, of course, is to use the MYOB list builder script that I’ve developed for my own use and given free to our LeadsLeap members. If you do not know what this script can do for you, you better check it out. At least you know what are the options available to you.

Don’t keep thinking of how to build a list for free or how you can get free traffic. Instead, think of how to design a good sales letter and a good marketing system, so that you can profit from your advertising effort. This was what I did when I first started marketing online without any resources (read the full story at My Best Kept Secrets To Increase Web Site Traffic From Scratch).

With companies in no mood to hire, the unemployment rate is still rising. But the furious pace of layoffs is easing as the recession loosens its hold on the country.

The decision on whether Chrysler can sell the bulk of its assets to a group led by Italy’s Fiat as part of its plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection heads to a federal appeals court Friday.

Angelo Mozilo, the man who rode the housing boom to build Countrywide Financial Corp. into a California collossus of high-risk mortgage lending, has been charged with civil fraud and illegal insider trading by federal regulators who accuse him of deceiving shareholders and profiting on confidential information.

Asian stock markets were mixed Friday as investors tread cautiously ahead of a key U.S. jobs report that could bring more signs of recovery — or weakness — in the world’s largest economy.