Posted in Driving Website Traffic	May 2, 2007

Don’t let the online craze overshadow traditional marketing techniques that are proven and effective.

By Adam T. Sutton, Managing Editor, Mequoda Group LLC

When driving traffic to your website, you need to use every tool at your disposal. Focusing online with Google Adwords and sponsoring other websites will help, but don't forget about the physical world we live in.

As a publisher, you should consider selling physical products through retailers to drive traffic to your website. The idea is not unheard of. Some publishers even sell their products through retail stores and e-commerce sites at zero profit to build their email lists. Every email address you get is a chance for a more profitable sale down the road.

The key is to realize that selling someone a good product at a great price can be more effective as a marketing technique than a revenue generator. Making retail distribution work for your online business involves three steps:

1. Create or find a retail distribution channel where your product will be sold
2. Include an offer with the product that involves visiting your website
3. Set up conversion architecture to capture emails and begin building a relationship with the customer

First, you satisfy a customer with a good product at a great price, raising their opinion of your business. Then, you drive them to your website with another great offer. There, a system is designed to capture their email address for a continued relationship with your business that includes (hopefully) more profitable sales.

To read detailed analysis on how the best publishers are using retail to boost their online businesses, check out our Using Retail Distribution to Drive Website Traffic special report. Inside, Mequoda Managing Director and Chief Information Architect Don Nicholas lays out a replicable plan that can start driving traffic to your website today.

Recent Driving Website Traffic Tips

A Tool to Test Website Performance
posted in Driving Website Traffic | March 8, 2007

How Good are You at Using Print to Drive Website Traffic?
posted in Driving Website Traffic | February 27, 2007

A List of Cool Tools and a Job Posting
posted in Driving Website Traffic | February 23, 2007

Two Tools to Evaluate the Success of your Website
posted in Driving Website Traffic | February 20, 2007

How One Successful Publisher Uses Book Sales to Drive Website Traffic
posted in Driving Website Traffic | December 28, 2006