Update: You can now find links to the entire series of tips below.

I’m sure you’ve noticed some of the changes I’ve made to the site lately – design changes, topic changes… it’s all about course correction.

By that I mean that the things that this site has become known for aren’t necessarily the things that are helping you the most. At the same time, I don’t want to completely scrap all the other things you’ve grown to enjoy.

So I’m in the process of diverting some of my thought leadership discussions to other sites, but still finding a way to incorporate those headlines into the stream of information that comes from here. That way, each of the four major groups and the four major reasons for loving the site can all still converge in one location.

It’s the 68th day of the year. So to kick things off, today I’m going to do  68 traffic tips (or link to some of the tips I’ve given so far this year). After today, we’ll see how long I can keep up a daily traffic tip – or at least provide you with seven tips a week. No promises this time – you know about my schedule, health issues, and other extenuating circumstances – but I’ll do my best.

We’ll start shortly and the list will include:

• 8 Blog Traffic Tips
• 12 General Traffic Tips
• 21 Search Traffic Tips
• 8 RSS Traffic Tips
• 9 Social Media Traffic Tips
• 10 Article Marketing Traffic Tips

There will be times where, no matter how you try, you simply can’t share your ideas with text alone.

At the same time, you may not be willing to whip out your video recording software and go through the steps of editing a video, adding or editing sound, uploading it to a server and possibly converting it to a format that would be most easily shared.

An easy in-between would be to share your ideas as a slideshow presentation, the same way you would if you were going to do a lecture. All it requires is the software to make the show, and a way to distribute it once it’s created.

And of course, content that makes sense without a presenter to walk you through the steps.

The Equipment You Need

Now, if you’re a PC User, chances are, you have Microsoft Office, and have access to Powerpoint, or can get access to it at a local internet cafe. If you’re a Mac User, even money says you’re going for the slick effects a Keynote presentation is capable of (this is the program that most recently converted me to Mac – and of course I still have Powerpoint, so best of both worlds!)

What if you’re not Ms. or Mr. Moneybags, and you need a decent tool, that won’t empty your wallet? Or if you want to use something platform independent that will save in a format compatible with either system for editing?

You can always download the Open Office suite for free. It’s got word processing, spreadsheet software and can create presentations, and has a version for both Windows or Mac.

Then there’s always Google Docs. Not only can you create presentations from your browser, you can open presentations in other formats, or simply use Google Docs to share your documents with the world.

It’s also a good idea to have a way to get graphics for your presentation that are royalty-free, so you won’t have to pay a fee each time they appear. There are tons of places where you can find royalty-free clip art, though not as many where you can find them for free.

Don’t forget to include your URL! Make it clickable if you can, if you can’t, make it visible from every slide.

Okay, you found a place for photos or clip art, and you’ve picked your software. Now what?

Finding An Idea to Share

You need to make your slideshow not just worth viewing, but worthwhile for someone to tell a friend about. Start thinking about a question people keep asking you, the kind where they sigh with relief when they get the answer. Something that’s a question people wouldn’t expect to get a free answer to, that’s related to your business or site.

What do you keep getting emails about?

What is in your FAQ?

What questions do folks leave in your blog comments?

What are people asking about in forums?

Take your time and find something juicy.

Spreading the Word

Now, you’ve got your slideshow. It’s beautiful. It’s concise. People get epiphanies while viewing it. Angels sing.

Okay, maybe it’s just useful. Yeah, actually I was throwing a curve ball at you to see if you were paying attention. What you want is to do a basic, clear slideshow that’s not so fancy that the effects get in the way of the presentation. If you’re using effects, a good rule of thumb comes from fashion – complete the presentation and then take one effect out. Don’t try to be too perfect or fancy or you’ll never be done. Just make it good, get it out.

Now, it’s perfect for your purposes. How will anyone hear about it?

This is where our good old friend social media comes in, combined with a few more traditional ways of sharing.

Sharing step one, publish it in a shareable format. As mentioned, Google Docs will help you share it with the world as a public link you can send anyone to, but did you know that you can also embed them into your site?

Another popular option for embedding presentations is SlideShare, which can also help you go viral because, like Google Docs, it provides code which allows other to share.

You might also try BubbleShare,  KoffeePhoto, and SlideBoom. i have two other favorite tools for sharing slides, but I want to save them for our next SlideShow traffic tip.

In the meantime, Sharing step two is; Tell Everyone.

• Let your list know and ask for help sharing it.
• Call your networking contacts and get even more help.
• Ask your favorite expert or an admired peer what they think, and if they can think of people who will find it useful.
• Put it on your site.
• Link to it.
• Tell your friends to put it on their sites and link to it.
• Tweet it with a link
• Update your status on Facebook.

Tell.
Everyone.

That’s it. If you’re lucky it’ll go viral, but even if you just do okay, you’ll have spread the word about your ideas much farther than your solitary grasp.

Reward yourself accordingly with a nap, beer, or good cheer. Rinse and repeat.

Yes, it’s true some methods take anywhere from 3 days to 90 days to take root, and that advertising can be faster. (We already went over the fact that you cannot get fast, cheap/free and good countless times, so I’m not going to go into that).

No, it is not true that all free traffic methods take forever to start working. Almost every method has a fast-track, you just have to find it. Is that fast track as good as building a system? No. But for fast, free and okay? Can’t be beat.

Let’s get right to it.

#1 – Choose the Right Traffic Methods.

We went over the Avalanche and the Blizzard the other day. Why?

Because with every traffic method you have to ask yourself, am I going to get immediate results with a short term burst, or am I going to patiently build a system that will bring me long-term results?

If you know what you’re doing, you can get social media, social networking, article marketing, expertise marketing, affiliate/referral marketing, and organic search results within the first 24 hours.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, go find someone who knows and ask them to do it.

Picking the wrong system will crush you. If you want immediate traffic, rather than a traffic system, starting a blog isn’t the best strategy. Blogs will bring you traffic forever. But the momentum doesn’t start until it’s up. If you’re not technically inclined, you may not have a blog up today.

If you don’t know what to say in blog comments, you might not be able to start the traffic train this afternoon. If you don’t know what to put in the ping section, it could be a day or so before the notification sites list you.

Picking the right system is critical.

#2 – Employ the Method Efficiently & Immediately, Even if It Means Getting Help

Here’s one example. I defy you to try this, right now, today and if you don’t get results by tomorrow, come back, leave a response to this thread, and I’ll look at your link and tell you exactly what you did wrong.

Turn every single distraction off. Do not open your email, answer your phone, text anyone, go to Twitter, or respond to questions or even look at your staff members until this is done.

Go write a top ten article. If you can write a grocery list, even if you’re completely inept at writing an email, you can manage a good top ten article.

Send it to a submissions service to post it online. Article Marketer will let you sample their service for free.

Publish the article on your site.

Set up a Google Alerts on the title of the article.

If you did nothing else but that, you should be done in a couple of hours max. It’s not that the activity takes forever. It’s that we’re all so paralyzed in wondering if we’re doing it right, and busy doing non-work that we don’t finish.

And you know what else? If you didn’t like your article, if you hate your results? Outsource it. The whole thing. Have someone else write the article, and give you the rights. Have someone else do the submissions and hand you a report.

Not free anymore but it’s done, and still faster than most ads go up. Yes, 24 hours is sometimes faster than it takes for advertising to show up in an ezine.

Tomorrow your article should start appearing on various sites. Today if you like, you can start posting it to sites online yourself.

#3 Do It Again. Learn from mistakes and do it better.

Here’s a simple concept.

Do something.

If you get any measure of success?

Do it again.

Then.

Do it again.

Then. Keep doing it. Ask our good friend Mr. Joyner about his Integrated Marketing system if that confuses you.

For now, just know that when you hit on that great traffic builder? Your first job is to see if you can duplicate your success and for how long. If it keeps bringing you traffic, and better traffic at that, turn it into a system. If it only brings you a lot of traffic once in a while, then obviously that’s one of the avalanches you can only use a few times.

Digg traffic? Is an avalanche. For some sites, they’re lucky if they can get on the front page once a year, some get on the front page once a day, but it’s just not a source of traffic that helps lay a foundation you can build on forever.

StumbleUpon traffic? Is a blizzard. No, it’s not going to covert to sales. Anyone who discounts it because of that, is, quite frankly, a dumb ass. That’s like saying water sucks because it doesn’t turn into soda in your mouth.

SU isn’t for that. Networking and gaining leads? Sure. First-visit sales? Don’t be silly.

Wrapping It Up

Does that mean don’t pay for traffic?

Heck no. If you’ve got the money, spend on advertising, but track and test. Spend as wisely as you can. Speed is a wise expenditure – you can get advertising to show up on Google in 15 minutes. If I don’t want to stand in line, I go to 7-11 and pay almost double.

If saving the time a- makes sense for YOU and b- you can now, and know you’ll continue to afford it, then that’s all that matters.

Just remember that an ad doesn’t get you expert status, links, or make it easier to convert sales. Nor can you get more of it with less if you fall on hard economic times.

Trust me, when you have your last dollar in hand is the WORST time to try and find out whether you can get customers in a place other than advertising.

Still, I’ll be the first person to tell you that when you find a good paid advertising source keep using it, forever if you can.

But especially while you ramp up the traffic from free or inexpensive sources. To paraphrase John Reese in the original Traffic Secrets promotion, the only way to know if your product sells well enough to rely on free traffic – test it on paid traffic.

At the same time, passing up effective, no-cost marketing strategies is like flushing your money down the toilet.

… of the Year, is now online.

You have no idea how close it came to being the last one ever…

Whew!

In this Christmas Issue:

Five Seasons Freebies
Four Traffic Weapons
Three Blogger’s Resources
Two On-Going Contest
and a Funny Chirstmas Video of Me!

Can’t wait to see you there!