Traffic Building

Beyond Article Marketing - Highly Qualified Social Traffic - For Free

Unless you have been sleeping under a rock for the past year, you would know that a wave is sweeping through the Internet Marketing industry. Potentially more powerful than search engine optimization or traditional traffic generators like article and press release submission, social-based forms of traffic generation are increasingly becoming the traffic "weapon of choice" for Internet Marketers on the cutting edge.

Social traffic generation differentiates itself from other forms of traffic generation because it has a strong social or relationship aspect.

Rather than rely on search engine algorithms to drive traffic to your site, social traffic generation is very much an adaption of the brick-and-mortar "word of mouth" neighbourhood/office gossip communication network, given an online, digital spin.

Sites like Yahoo! MyBlogLog, the BumpZEE affiliate marketing network and MySpace are one of the examples of social traffic networks.

These networks primary focus is a means of gathering like-minded individuals in one central location and providing opportunities for them to interact.

The gathering of like-minded individuals helps sieve a community of highly-focused and highly-targeted individuals, especially if you target a community specific to a niche you are developing.

It is possible to find communities focused on scrapbooking, pet tarantula upkeep, as it is to find one focused on Microsoft's Xbox360 game console, or the hottest pop band.

But finding the community is only the first step.

To create an account and initiate contact with a message like "Come visit my website and download free cell phone ringtones now!" is apt to get you banned, and for repeated infractions, blacklisted.

This will obviously kill off any chance to get any social traffic out of the community.

Think of social traffic generation as the process of building a human relationship.

First you start out as strangers, then acquaintances, friends, close friends and finally confidants.

If a confidant gave a recommendation for a service you were looking for, maybe a cell phone provider, you would be much more likely to consider their advice, rather than the same suggestion from a complete stranger.

Attempting to escalate the relationship immediately once you create and join a new community is tantamount to social suicide (unless the possess the online persona of a digital Casanova).

Social communities have their own social rules and norms, just like their real world physical counterparts.

Understanding the mechanics of social dynamics and intricacies of social transactions will give you a foundation in generating an unlimited source of social traffic.