SMS messages are a great tool.  They let you send a message to someone in such a way that the other person will know it has arrived but needn’t be interrupted by it.  They can simply finish whatever it is they are doing before picking up the message.  In addition to this, the cell phone doesn’t even have to be switched on in order to receive the message.  Well, it does, but if it isn’t, the message isn’t lost forever.  It is simply stored for up to three days, and will be automatically sent to the cell phone when it is switched on.  This means that even if the other person isn’t around right then or they are out of signal range, they will get the message as soon as their cell phone is able to receive it.

Web SMS is also a great tool.  Not only does it allow you to take advantage of all the usual benefits listed above, but it can also offer you a couple more.  Firstly, there is price.  It is often a lot cheaper, if not completely free, to send a web SMS message rather than from a cell phone and with certain software programs you can send multiple messages, even thousands, simultaneously for a very low cost.

This aspect of web SMS messaging really comes into its own for businesses running marketing campaigns.  Using web SMS allows you to send the same promotional SMS message simultaneously to thousands of cell phones.  This means that you can offer promotions and discounts for very short periods of time, because you know that the message has been received.  Unlike email you won’t have to allow a certain amount of time for people to check their email when considering what deadline to put on your offer.  With web SMS you can tell someone that the offer expires in half an hour and still have an excellent chance that they will respond within that timeframe.

And how will you know that they received the message?  Delivery reports.  Many people have these on their cell phones for when they send text messages, and they can be used with web SMS as well.  Through delivery reports you can know who received your message and when, which means you can analyze the success of your marketing efforts much more accurately than would otherwise be possible.  Web SMS also allows you to keep track of who has responded to the message and who hasn’t, as when they call or text in, that cell phone number will be recorded and can be correlated to the message that was originally sent.  And if it doesn’t match any of the numbers you sent your original web SMS message to, you will know that you are benefitting from a viral marketing effect, caused when someone forwards the message you sent to someone else who they think will be interested in it.  These people will actually do your marketing for you beyond the initial effort on your part, and they will pay for it too!

Targeted Web Traffic is getting visitors to your site who are interested in what you have to offer. These visitors have to be able to find your web site first. The two most common ways visitors will find your site is by typing in a word phrase into a search engine or linking to your web site from another web site. There are several ways to get your web site on the search engines results page and on other web sites. Many of these ways are free. Here are three free resources you can take advantage of to get targeted web traffic to your site.

Writing articles and publishing them on article web sites is a great way to bring attention to your web site. And sometimes these same articles will quickly rank on search engine results pages. This gives you another opportunity for visitors to find your site. These articles should have keywords or search phrases in them that visitors use to find information on your website topic. For example, if you have a website on aquariums. You would want your article to have phrases in it about aquariums or fish. These keywords should be considered in all three ways I discuss to get web site traffic.

Keep in mind, one article will not get the amount of targeted web traffic you are looking for. You will need to write and submit several articles focusing on the topic or niche of your web site. Most article web sites do not allow you to put links to any web sites in the body of the article. However, they do allow a bio box about the author to be used and a link can be placed in this text that points to your web site. Before publishing any articles, review each article web site’s policies.

Social media sites like Squidoo or Hubpages are sites where the members create and provide most of the content for the site. These types of sites allow you to directly link to your web site. So, you can create a page on the site that discusses the topic that your web site is about. You can include links to your web site allowing the visitor to the social media site to follow the link or click through to your site. This then brings targeted web traffic to your web site because the visitor wants more information on the topic of your web site. As with all 3 of these web site traffic ideas, these social media sites want good content and not one big advertisement. Being spammy and not providing any useful content may get your page deleted. And there goes all your hard work.

Blogging and Microblogging are similar and are both ways to get targeted web traffic. Blogging can be done by having your own blog web site or using a community blogging website. Wordpress has both types. I believe it is better to have your own blog so you are in control of the blog contents. Blogging is a platform that encourages the question “What’s on your mind?” to be answered. This type of site allows you to put in your own content, create links to your sites or other sites, similar to social media sites. Updating your blog weekly is a must. The search engines love new content. These updates can be short. Microblogging are sites that encourage very short entries, some only a couple of lines. One of these sites is Twitter. If blogging asks, “what’s on your mind?”, microblogging asks, “what’s on your mind right now?”As with blogging, you can link to your web site with microblogs, but be sure to provide good, informative content.

Using all three of these traffic generating ideas together will help bring in a steady stream of traffic. All of these ideas should be done on a consistent basis to keep the flow of targeted web traffic going to your site. Although I have only listed a few resources, there are almost unlimited resources that can be used to get web site traffic.

As a web site owner it is important to recognize your target market and make it as simple as possible for your potential customers to find your products or services. Internet users can be impatient, and with no shortage of competition, visitors can quickly lose interest in your web site and move on to the next one in the search results. Now, if you have this particular problem then at least you have traffic going to your web site and it’s simply a matter of how to keep your visitors interested. This article will touch on some of the common mistakes I see on web sites.

I see a lot of different web sites from all sorts of industries everyday and there are a few basic mistakes I see quite frequently that are easily fixed. This isn’t about the design or the SEO, but the simple and most basic details that are often overlooked. For example, let’s say I’m a DJ and have my own DJ company called “John’s DJ Services”. My web site has been designed to showcase my offered services, display images from past events, and even some testimonials from previous clients. I have contact information including my company email address and a phone number. Sound like a pretty good web site concept? Not bad, but what’s missing? Where is this DJ company located? What area of the city, country, or world are these great services being offered? It’s unbelievable how hard it can be at times to determine where geographically a company is offering it’s service based on its web site. I often find myself using Google to search the area code in their phone number just to find out what part of the world the company is in! The only reason I even bother is because I am evaluating their web site for them by request. If I was a potential customer there is no way I would waste my time and I would be off to the next site. I see this on a daily basis and I guarantee it is costing these companies money.

The point here isn’t to make fun of web sites or their lack of such details. What I really want to say is that sometimes there are some very simple ways to improve your web site without spending a dollar on SEO or expensive redesigns. Web site designers often overlook these details as well because they are focussed more on the visual look of a site, and generally only use the content provided by their customer. SEO companies often take a web site designed by someone else and clean up the code, and embark on elaborate link development campaigns also sometimes overlooking the most simple details. However as a business owner it is important for you to think about your web site from your customer’s perspective and not from your designer or SEO companies. You know your customer’s needs and wants. Designers and SEO companies know how to showcase your products and services, but they are not experts in your field.

When looking at either designing a new web site, updating a current web site, or increasing your traffic to either, first take a step back and ask yourself, “if a customer was looking for my product or service and found my web site, would he or she find it useful?” If a customer in St. Louis is looking for a “health spa” to visit and can’t find yours, perhaps you should make sure that your web site clearly states: “St Louis Health Spa – Relax at Sarah’s Health Spa”. Display this somewhere easy to see like in your title tag and in your heading tags. Don’t make the user search for this information, this is just as important as the actual service you’re offering. Think of the internet as a big shopping mall except all the shoppers are lost and have no idea what city they’re in. They have an idea of what they want, but they have no idea where to find it. Make it easy for them to get the information they seek.

Another common mistake I see regularly on web sites is the “intro page”. First of all, what is it trying to accomplish by being there? It’s telling me what I already know: I’m at this web site. Let’s visit this problem from a potential customer’s perspective and I’m the customer. I’m using Google to search for a “seafood restaurant in San Francisco”. I get the first page results and see that the first is from google maps, and the next two are directories, before seeing the fourth result is an actual restaurant’s web site. So I will start with that one. I click the link to the site and after waiting 15-20 seconds for the page to load, I’m shown a visually stunning “intro page”. At this point I have already spent more time than I wanted to with this web site, and I’m thinking about hitting the back button and moving on to the next result. What if I’m trying to load your web site in my hotel room and have week wireless internet signal? Now instead of taking 15-20 seconds to load, it could be up to a minute! I guarantee now that I won’t be dining at your establishment. The point here isn’t that all visitors are going to be annoyed by your intro page and leave, but many will. Why would you want any potential customers to leave your web site before even having a chance to turn them in actual customers?

The solution here again is simple. Do away with the senseless intro page. In fact do away with anything on your home page as well that will slow down the loading of your web site. Small images are great for most people’s internet connections and browsers, but text is obviously the best. It’s quick and to the point, which is how you want your visitors to find your web site.

Think like your customers, walk in their shoes and you will have more success at meeting their needs.