Then I thought I had a plan. I got an e-mail from a guy that showed me a video of how he had used this "secret system" he developed to make $347,862.79 almost overnight. It was a system that didn't require any effort on my part, just "cut and paste" and I would be making the big bucks just like him. He was making me a special offer on it too. It normally sold for $1700.00 but he would let me have it for only $97.00 as long as I acted fast because he was only making a limited number of them available and they were going fast.

Needless to say, I eagerly whipped out my credit card and jumped on the opportunity. It turned out to be an opportunity for me to get extremely frustrated because the system didn't work for me like it was supposed to. It was also an opportunity for me to spend more money because the "internet marketing guru" said that he had perfected his system a little more so that it would be sure to work for me and I could have the upgrade for only $47.00. I figured that another $47.00 investment to make all that money would be worth it, so I pulled out the credit card again. The "sure fire secret system" still didn't work for me. I couldn't understand half of what he had in the system and needless to say his support wasn't very supportive. If I e-mailed support, I was lucky to get an answer back in two weeks if at all.

I thought that this system maybe wasn't for me, so I tried several other ones that I found online. They all had pretty much the same sales pitch and unfortunately the exact same results. I was spending a whole lot more money on all these "sure fire secret systems" than I was making online. I was about to the point that I thought that making money online was just a myth. Then, one night I was in a forum that I belonged to and started chatting with a guy that I had seen in there quite a bit. He was very vocal about the "internet gurus" taking advantage of the "noobies", selling them worthless programs, giving bad information, and not giving any support. I later found out that this guy is making about $10,000.00 a month with online marketing. He said that he wanted to try something new to help the "noobies" and asked if I would like to participate. I did.

Needless to say, I learned more from this guy in a month than I had in almost a year of buying the special programs from the "gurus" and I am now actually making money through online marketing. He set me up with my own website that already had 100 pages of content, was already monetized with my own affiliate links and he made me a member of his forum. I had no problem with support, he was in there answering any questions I had usually almost immediately. There are over 100 members in the forum now and every one of them are happy to help out everyone else. If you have been around online marketing for awhile, you know that is almost unheard of. So, now you have the opportunity to check out how it works and take advantage of the same deal I got. All you have to do is go see how you can get your own $25 dollar niche website and learn the right way to make money online.

For the first two or three years I was in business, I blew off search engine marketing. After all, the big name gurus didn't do it, and they were making plenty of money.

One guru even suggested putting some obscure search term like "scoobie snacks" on your page six times and then submitting your page to the search engines. After a few days, all you had to do was search for the term "scoobie snacks", and then you found your page at the top of the search engines.

Well, I don't sell "scoobie snacks". I sell internet marketing. Search engine marketing is part of my overall marketing strategy now because search engines are the way people find things. Search engines drive targeted traffic, I want my potential visitors to find me.

I've learned a few things since then. Search engines are an important strategy, but search engines won't buy from you. People do. Here are four things I've learned about creating an effective search engine marketing strategy.

1. Write for users first and the search engines second.

You can create all of the great content you want, rank number one in the search engines, and still not get any search engine traffic. Search engines read your content to index it, but they don't read it to learn anything, or buy anything.

Keyword rich, search engine optimized content will please the search engines. Easy to read content that pleases your readers will be interesting, include lots of information, and will make your readers want to read more.

2. A successful search engine marketing strategy starts with a successful marketing strategy.

Search engine marketing is only one key in a successful internet marketing campaign. Although you don't want to try and do too many different marketing techniques at once, you should have at least two or three internet marketing techniques you are very good at.

If one technique doesn't work, try something new. Bad marketing is better than no marketing, but effective marketing is what will drive your sales.

3. Consider social search as as well as standard search engines.

Social search is changing the way users interact online. Sites like Stumble Upon are just one example of how users rate content. Social bookmarking sites, like Digg, are another way users rate content by creating "mini news stories."

These sites are valuable for creating buzz about your business. They also help you build valuable backlinks for your websites. Don't be afraid to use them, or use them to connect with others and get the message out about your business.

4. Consider video as another search engine marketing opportunity.

You Tube is now one of the top five sites on the internet. A lot of people like watching videos. Why not take your content and create it in another form? Instead of writing that tutorial, why not film it?

There are tons of free tools available on the internet to help you create videos, and once you do it a few times, it's actually fun.

Marketing on the internet changes, and it often changes very quickly. What works today may not work tomorrow. Search engine marketing has been around a long time. It's the way people find things, whether they use search engines, or social search. How you use this technique is up to you. Just use it because it works.

Today, there are many ways to increase web traffic to your website. Some of them bring more traffic to your site, but some don't. Here are 10 of effective ways that can make your pages experience a traffic explosion.

1. Trading links with other web sites that related to the subject of your web site can bring you more web site traffic. Instead of trading links, you could also trade banner ads, half page ads, classified ads, etc. Moreover, a lot of banner exchanges offer free banner impressions just for signing up. Here are just a few banner exchanges website that offer free banner impressions:

http://www.purelybannerz.co.uk
http://www.linkswap.co.uk/

http://www.click4click.com/

You will find banner exchanges that offer free banner impressions more if you do a search for "banner exchange" on any search engine.

If you don't have a banner for your web site you can create one for free at:

http://www.addesigner.com/

2. Start an e-zine for your web site. When people read each issue they'll be reminded to revisit your web site. They'll see your product ad more than just once which will increase your orders.

P.S If you want to start building a list but have no auto responder for capturing leads, you can get a very cheap auto responder here:

http://www.aweber.com

3. Form an online community. It could be an online message board, e-mail discussion list or chat room. When people get involved in your community they will regularly return to communicate with others.

4. Write articles and submit them to e-zines, web sites and magazines that accept article submissions. Include your business information and web address at the end of the article. Here are the best places to submit your articles:

http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.ideamarketers.com

http://www.contentdesk.com

You can also use Article Marketer which is a paid service and I recommend using it to save you time. Just click below for more information.

http://www.articlemarketer.com

If you don't want to write article by yourself, you could outsource article writing for around $5 per article at these sites:

http://www.rentacoder.com

http://www.elance.com

5. Give away an electronic freebie with your ad on it. Allow your visitors to also give the freebie away. This'll increase your ad exposure and increase web traffic to your web site at the same time.

6. Combine your products or services into one big package deal with other businesses offerings. You could share a web site and advertise the package deal; which means double more web site traffic.

7. Submit your freebie to the online directories that list your particular item or service for free. If you're offering a free e-zine, submit it to all the free e-zine directories on the internet.

8. Participate on message boards. Post answers to other people's questions, ask questions and post appropriate information. Include your signature file at the end of all your postings.

9. Exchange classified or sponsor ads with other free e-zine publishers. If there is a huge subscriber difference between e-zines, one can run more ads to make up for it.

10. Post your ad on free advertising areas on the internet. You can post it on free classified ad sites, free for all links sites, newsgroups that allow ads, free yellow page directories, etc.