11 Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Website

Issue #2012

• WEALTHY: Is it better to rent or buy? (Michael Masterson)
• HEALTHY: Unless you have multiple stomachs, avoid these foods
• WISE: Dan Rather on the tolerance of the American public

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• When is heavy traffic good for your wallet? (Craig Ballantyne)
• How HBO’s head honcho picks winners
• It’s Fun to Know… about crayons
• Add "pastiche" to your vocabulary

== Highly Recommended ==

Hello Bob,

I finished The Billionaire Way about 10 days ago. Now I promise you I did not cheat on this so hear me out.

I started the first two or three days I think and there was a transaction I was involved in that I was not comfortable with but had an emotional attachment to. I sat down one night and crunched the numbers and made some tough decisions, all emotion aside.

Then about two weeks into the program there was the day when we had to exclude our emotions and cut off dead baggage. Wow, I felt like yeah, OK I’m getting this because I just did that.

OK so now I’m tearing along the program, accepting things that I am already doing and working on the things I am not comfortable with. Vigilantly everyday, watching the DVD after the kids were in bed and working my work book.

Two days after I finished the program I saw an opportunity which I could assess very well given my clarity of vision, my assessments of my talents and the work I had accomplished.

It is my joy to tell you that I am founding executive of a new international network marketing company, the likes of which have never been seen and I have already built my team Australia wide within 10 days, using the billionaire way techniques.

I lost my fear, opened my mind and listened and I cannot believe the result. Thank you so much…

Regards
Kathy

Learn more about The Billionaire Way program today…

Dear Michael Masterson: "Why is real estate considered such a great investment?"

"First, thanks for the excellent newsletter and your book, Automatic Wealth for Grads. I’ve been a loyal reader of yours for over two years now, and really appreciate all of your insight.

"I wanted to ask you a question regarding something that you have discussed: the topic of owning versus renting real estate.

"The conventional wisdom - which, as I recall, you echo in your book - is that it is a good idea to buy real estate as soon as one is financially able. The rationale is simple: Renting means throwing your money away and seeing none of the appreciated value of the property. But, to play devil’s advocate for a minute, people seem to ignore the fact that owning has many (significant) costs associated with it. There’s the interest on the mortgage, of course, the property taxes, the upkeep/maintenance, and utilities (which are probably going to be higher than what you’d pay renting).

"My boyfriend and I recently came very close to buying our first home, but when we crunched the numbers, we realized we’d be better off financially to rent. The money we’d save could be invested in stocks (which historically average higher returns than real estate). And we even accounted for the tax advantages of owning when making our calculations.

"So what gives? Why is real estate considered such a great investment? It usually entails huge throwaway costs, it’s the least-liquid investment, and I’d likely make higher returns investing in stocks. The only way I see around this is if I bought property to rent it out. What am I missing?!"

- Emily Katz
St. Louis, MO

Dear Emily,

Buying a house is not always a better deal than renting. Depending on where you live, there are times when it is much smarter to rent. This isn’t because of the ancillary costs of ownership (which you correctly point out in your letter). It’s because sometimes the cost of acquiring property is so high compared to the cost of renting that the advantage of owning real estate - as opposed to stocks, for example - is eliminated or reversed.

This is the case now in New York City. And it was the case recently in many other "hot" areas of the United States, including my own hometown, Delray Beach, FL. Here, for example, you could rent a three-bedroom home for $1,200 a month that would cost you $450,000 to buy. Only a financially foolhardy person would buy real estate in that kind of scenario. The numbers just can’t work out unless the over-inflated price actually goes up further. But that investment approach - to buy foolishly and sell to a bigger fool - I don’t recommend and never have.

When the cost of buying homes is not so inflated, buying a house, despite the additional costs, is well worth it and will generally give you a better return on investment (ROI) than you’ll get on stocks. Why? The short answer is leverage. Real estate offers you an opportunity to ratchet up your ROI by using a mortgage.

You can leverage your stock purchases, but that involves a great deal more risk - for two reasons: (1) Stocks are typically much more volatile, and you can have your leveraged stocks forcibly cashed out by the broker with a "margin call" if they fall enough in value. (2) More important, using leverage with stocks is not as prudent as it is with value real estate, because stocks typically do not generate enough income to pay for the cost of the leverage (borrowed money). But when you buy real estate right, the rental income more than pays for the interest on the mortgage loan - plus all other costs associated with the property (taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc.).

Finally, you need to remember that for many people buying their own homes, real estate represents a forced-savings plan, a method of investing money every month (via the principal part of the mortgage payment) that would otherwise be spent on depreciating assets. Also, the interest on the mortgage and the property taxes are tax deductible. Renters get no such reductions.

I don’t know anything about the real estate market in St. Louis, Emily, so I can’t say whether it makes sense for you to buy there. But when you are figuring your returns, be sure to calculate the multiplying effect of a conventional mortgage. It tends to triple or quadruple your yearly rate of return over time, even counting those extra costs.

If you’d like to learn more about real estate from someone who does it every day for a living, read Justin Ford’s essays in ETR and check out his Main Street Millionaire real estate investment program.

Over the past 25 years, I’ve made lots of money lots of different ways. But I’ve done better with real estate - and with much less trouble and time - than with any other passive investment, including stocks.

Good luck to you!

- Michael Masterson

[Ed. Note: Have a question for Michael Masterson? Write to him at AskMichael@ETRfeedback.com.

Learn how you can be part of an exclusive group of 25 to 50 ambitious businesspeople that Michael will be leading through an elite 5-day program that can help you dramatically increase the profitability of your business here.]

"Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn’t block traffic."

Dan Rather

11 Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Website

By Craig Ballantyne

In the world of direct marketing, a one to two percent conversion rate is standard. In other words, if you have a list of 100 subscribers to your newsletter and you send them a sales letter selling a product (whether it is your own product or an affiliate’s), you can expect one or two people out of your 100 to buy.

Let’s say your vision of "success" is $500 in sales per week from your newsletter list. If you have 2,000 people on your list, one way to hit that number would be to send them one sales letter per week selling a $25 product. (Assuming a one percent conversion rate, one percent of 2,000 is 20, 20 x $25 per sale = $500 = success!)

But in the world of Internet marketing, that doesn’t happen. You can’t assume that 100 percent of your e-mails will be delivered … and you can’t assume that more than 50 percent of those that are delivered will be opened and read. So, in reality, you’d need at least 4,000 people on your e-mail list (if not 6,000 or more!) to reach that same $500 goal. (By the way, a good way to increase your e-mail delivery rate and track your e-mail stats is with Aweber.com.)

How do you get more people on your e-mail list to make it easier to hit your sales goals? Here are 11 ways:

1. Give away a free report to "bribe" visitors to your website to provide you with their name and e-mail address. For example, on my TurbulenceTraining.com website, I offer a free report called "The Dark Side of Cardio." A good title and a high-perceived value for your report will increase the number of visitors willing to trade their name and e-mail address for it.
2. Get affiliates to drive traffic to your site. For example, twice a year I run a three-day promotion on my website offering additional bonuses for my fat-loss package. And I contact affiliates weeks in advance to give them sales copy that they can send to their lists. In return for a 51 percent affiliate commission, it is not difficult to line up hundreds of affiliates willing to send you traffic. (Even if some of the visitors they send your way don’t end up buying immediately, many will sign up for your free report and add their names to your list.)
3. Start a blog and post informative content for your target market. This will draw traffic through search engines and links from other blogs. Once you start building traffic to your blog, add a sign-up box for your e-newsletter. You can start a blog for free at Blogger.com.
4. Create a joint venture with a company that complements your own. Joint ventures work very well. I have a blog on MensHealth.com that promotes a joint-venture transformation program. (What’s the biggest name you can think of to approach for a joint venture? Aim high! )
5. Create an e-book containing links back to your site, and allow everyone who downloads it to pass it around. I recently allowed hundreds of fitness trainers to give away an old workout program that includes links back to my sales and sign-up pages. This is a win-win situation, because it gives the trainers a freebie to use to encourage sign-ups to their own sites. Plus, most of them signed up to be affiliates for my products, which is sending even more traffic to my websites.
6. If you aren’t on Youtube yet, get started immediately. Put together a short video clip and post it on Youtube with your website address watermarked across it. That way, everyone who views the video becomes a potential visitor to your site. The more interesting you can make your video, the more people will see it. Clips that get the most views are usually funny, controversial, or heartwarming, and make viewers want to forward them to other people.
7. Arrange for a free teleseminar and host a one-hour interview with another expert. (You can use FreeConferenceCall.com to set up the call.) Get the expert to promote the teleseminar to his or her list, and build a sign-up page where people who want to access it give you their e-mail address in exchange for the teleseminar phone number and code.
8. Use standard PR strategies to get your website featured in the paper or on a local TV station. Make sure you get a confirmation from the reporter that your website name will be featured in the story or on the screen. But understand that only a small percentage of people who see an "offline" promotion will make the effort to track you down online. (Read about one of the techniques Paul Lawrence used to get free publicity here.)
9. Submit content-rich articles to online article directories likeEzineArticles.com. This can be a valuable source of traffic for your website AND a great way for joint-venture and affiliate partners to find out about your site and products.
10. Spend a weekend mastering the basics of Google AdWords. Learn how to use catchy pay-per-click ads to bring traffic and potential sign-ups to your site. Of utmost importance is writing a good headline for your ad. (Check out Katie Yeakle’s shortcut method for writing great headlines here.)
11. Visit related online message boards and forums. These can be good places to start building traffic to your site, but (unless they’re extremely busy) you’ll probably tap out their potential quickly. Simply post relevant content and leave a link back to your website in your signature.

BONUS TIP:

Look outside your industry for opportunities to promote yourself and your website. For example, writing articles for Early to Rise has taken me outside my regular health-and-fitness environment. Look for similar crossover opportunities, and you’ll have access to a previously untapped audience.

Use all of the above methods to build your e-mail list - and be patient. A list with thousands of e-mail addresses on it doesn’t happen overnight.

[Ed. Note: Besides being a master Internet marketer, Craig Ballantyne is a world-renowned Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Check out his Turbulence Training for Fat Loss system - and get a look at his marketing techniques - on his website.]

== Highly Recommended ==

The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness

Practical tips for every parent.

There may be no joy greater than that of having a child… and no worry greater than that of being a parent.

As a parent, how do you do the right things now to ensure your children’s future happiness, self-confidence and success in life? Parents need to learn the facts and the reassuring good news. Parents need to have a plan for their kids, and not leave their future happiness to chance, or to frantic pressure-packed planning.

Children and parenting do not come with a manual to read, which is why if you are a parent or concerned about childhood happiness and how it affects adulthood you absolutely must attend an event on April 18th that will give you the answers.

In an exclusive interview and live teleseminar, regular ETR writer and expert David Cross interviews eminent Harvard doctor, parent and four-times Oprah guest, Edward Hallowell, M.D. author of the best-selling book, The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness.

Dr. Hallowell is a warm and engaging speaker and will share the practical skills every parent needs to help raise happy, emotionally mature and self-confident children.

Learn more about this even here

The "Anti-Nutrient" Capacity of Cereal Grains

By Dr. Loren Cordain

From well-meaning (though misinformed) nutritionists to the government’s Food Pyramid to food companies themselves, the message to eat more grains is being trumpeted loud and clear. But following this advice can be harmful to your health.

Yesterday, I wrote about the main problem with cereal grains: the fact that consuming these high-glycemic foods can promote obesity and diseases of insulin resistance. But these are not the only adverse health effects they cause. In addition to their low nutrient density (compared to fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and seafood), cereal grains also contain a variety of "anti-nutrients." These are substances that directly interfere with the absorption of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. For example:

• Phytic acid is found in the bran (outer hull) of cereal grains. This anti-nutrient binds to calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc in the intestinal tract and prevents the absorption of these minerals.
• Grains contain components that inhibit the digestive enzymes amylase and protease, which may lead to abnormal growth and cancerous lesions in the pancreas.
• Grains also contain wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), which binds with a particular hormone receptor in the gut and then rapidly enters the bloodstream. From there, this substance can gain entry to various cells of the body (including skin, pancreas, reproductive, and musculoskeletal cells), where it has numerous adverse effects, including blocking the cellular transport of vitamin D. 

The primary nourishment of many animals is grains, and those animals generally have multiple stomachs to facilitate the process. Humanity, on the other hand, is not designed to eat these foods, especially in the quantities we eat them in today.

If you want to optimize your weight and improve your health, a good place to begin is by strictly limiting the whole and refined grains in your diet.

[Ed. Note: Dr. Loren Cordain is the author of the e-book The Dietary Cure for Acne and publisher of The Paleo Diet Newsletter

Worth Quoting: Chris Albrecht on Aiming for Quality

"You can't guess at what's going to be popular. You have to use your instinct, intuition, and intelligence to try to help you determine what will be high quality. I think if you err on the side of quality, you never really fail."
(Source: Business 2.0)

It's Fun to Know: About Crayons

The smell of Crayola crayons is one of the 20 scents most-recognized by American adults (along with peanut butter and coffee). For many, the scent is so soothing that sniffing it reduces blood pressure.

(Source: Infinity in Your Pocket by Mike Flynn)

== Highly Recommended ==

Learn ETR's Most Exclusive "Insider Secrets" For Coming Out On Top...

Now you can outwit, outmaneuver, outthink, and outsmart all the folks who are putting a crimp in your day-to-day happiness.  I’m talking about life’s little (or sometimes big) annoyances like: overpriced repairmen, family feuds, stock market losses, and relationship problems.

Consider having a team of self-made multi-millionaires pulling for your success all year long, offering you their years of wisdom and experience, and cheering you from the sidelines.

Act now, and a copy of ETR's latest book, Unscrew Yourself -- absolutely FREE!

Word to the Wise: Pastiche

"Pastiche" (pas-TEESH) - from the Italian for "hodgepodge" - is a literary technique that employs a lighthearted imitation of the style of some previous work. Though somewhat tongue-in-cheek (like many modern stories featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes), it is usually respectful of the original source.

Example (as used by Steven Heighton in a New York Times review of The Solitude of Thomas Cave by Georgina Harding): "Harding describes Cave's solitude mainly in the third person, and in language that has a period flavor (though happily it's not a slavish pastiche)."

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007