You can’t learn Web 2.0 traffic generation techniques in isolation. That would be like learning to reverse round corners without having learned to move the car forwards! Web 2.0 is a term that covers a wide range of interactive internet phenomena, and this is a quick guided tour so you know how and where to learn Web 2.0 for your business needs.
First off, Web 2.0 or social media can only be an effective traffic generation tool when you have an effective lead capture system. Otherwise you’re just collecting rain in a bucket full of holes.
You’ll need a squeeze page as part of your website so that you can direct your Web 2.0 traffic to it and offer a free, downloadable information product of genuine value in exchange for first name and e-mail address. Whatever your business is, building a subscriber list of people who have opted-in and are interested in your niche is absolute ‘Base One’ stuff.
Forget trying to learn Web 2.0 for driving traffic until you have all this set up right. Your opt-in form should connect with an autoresponder such as Aweber, who will give you the html code that you can paste into your squeeze page. You then follow up with messages that offer free and paid (where you have an affiliate link) products to your list. Now to Web 2.0.
The first thing to consider is creating a blog. Blogs are loved by the search engines as their content is frequently updated, giving visitors a better experience – the main driver for Google, Yahoo! et al. Go to WordPress.org, and install WordPress for free. If your hosting service has the ‘Fantastico’ function, then that will save time hugely, so much so it might be worth changing to a host that does offer it, such as Hostgator or Godaddy.
You can also create a lens at Squidoo.com. This is a site where you can pretty much create your own mini-website with text, video content, photographs, bio box (where you must of course put links to your site), and other features. Squidoo is a big favourite with the search engines, as is Hubpages which has similarities as well as some subtle differences. Investigate both.
To learn Web 2.0 in all its dimensions, I recommend you look at social bookmarking and learn how to and how not to do it. Some of the top bookmarking sites include Technorati.com, Del.icio.us, Digg.com and Stumbleupon.com. All are worth a look.
You should also not ignore the major social networking sites. Facebook has colossal traffic, and offers a paid advertising function that is as targeted as Google Adwords but much cheaper. At time of writing they are still not accepting Paypal but are planning to soon, within 2010 hopefully.
Don’t overlook Twitter. Like Facebook, it is attracting boatloads of marketers, some of whom use it properly! You’ll find Twellow.com is a great resource for finding Twitter users with an interest in your niche.
With time and space ganging up on me, here is a small list of good sites for anyone wishing to learn Web 2.0 as a business tool: Scribed.com, Zimbio.com, Boxxet.com, Lifehack.org, Instablogs.com, Buzztracker.com, Flickr.com and, of course, YouTube.com.
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