Here’s a list of 5 sources of traffic that deliver extremely targeted, extremely low cost visitors to your site. I use them as lead generation/list building sources, and right now they’re very untapped. As I’ve hinted at before, I’m trying to find the time to put together a traffic-getting manual, but that’s looming in the near future. Here’s your good stuff now. I’ve actually seen someone try to sell these 5 secrets for $147, so consider yourself lucky.

1) eBay. That’s right, the 18th most trafficked site on the internet. Why is eBay #1? Because every single person that goes to eBay is looking to buy something. There is no more targeted buyer. From my experience, people are looking to buy stuff at garage sale prices, so when they see a $6 million ebook (or however much you charge for it), they won’t buy. They will, however, buy a stupid $3 report ***UPDATE: EBAY NO LONGER ALLOWS YOU TO SELL DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT. FIND A CHEAP PHYSICAL PRODUCT***. They probably won’t buy a $500 fishing rod (well, they will, but not necessarily all that much), but they will buy $1 lures in BULK.

To take advantage of this traffic, find a very cheap dropshipped item or fix up a PLR article and call it a special report and place an ad for it on eBay. Include your website. Start out small (like everything else), and optimize your ad so people click through just as much as they buy. Your goal is to break even with this. Let your mind wander with this: if you are selling a fishing eBook, sell fishing lures at-cost. Then upsell them once you have their email address.

You’ll be amazed at how targeted your traffic is, and it’s an extremely effective way to build a list. Just send them to a squeeze page, or place a popover on your home page. Do not underestimate the power of this one traffic source.

2) Amazon. See #1. The only reason why eBay is higher than Amazon is because it is much easier to sell junk on eBay, otherwise Amazon would be higher because the traffic is actually of better quality. I’m not an advocate of selling junk, but it’s a good way to generate leads Just think of all the stupid refrigerator magnets you have of different realtors (or am I the only one). It’s the same idea, except people will pay you for it.

3) Craigslist. I know, it’s getting very hard to sell on Craigslist these days, with phone verified accounts and all. Suck it up. There are ways around it. Sell the same stuff as in #1 and #2, AND even sell your main products. The traffic from CL is OK. It’s not great, but the key is in your posting city and category. Books have been written about it, and I really don’t want to spend much time on it. I honestly think the traffic isn’t worth the hassle for some markets, but others it’s a gold mine.

4) Affiliate Networks. What? But I thought these were secrets, you say? This one actually takes a little thought, so hear me out. The secret is not in the source, it’s how you use it. Let’s say, you’re in a crazy competitive market like, ohh, let’s say… ringtones. Who is the primary market for ringtones? (I haven’t done any market research on this, so don’t shoot me for generalizations) 14 year old teenage girls, right?

While there is no way you’re going to compete with marketers who are firmly entrenched in the ringtone market, you will be able to break into a market like the "how to get a boy to like me" market. Create a cheap (they are 14 after all) product like this and list it on the affiliate networks. The standard rules apply: maximize the affiliate’s cut, ensure you have a well converting page, etc. Then, after you’ve gotten them to give up their email from affiliates driving traffic to your site, send them the ringtone offers.

See, you need to know your market. I quickly found that one of the markets I was in didn’t make much money in the mainstream electronics I was selling. I actually was breaking even. I made my money on the accessories and other products down the line (upsells and cross-sells) in similar, but different markets. i.e. selling Star Wars stuff to people who buy Macs (or vice versa). Is that such a far stretch? Get affiliates to promote you in a not-saturated market and bring them into the saturated (but lucrative) markets you want to.

Did I explain that well enough? If not, let me know. I’m not the best of writers.

5) Offline Advertising. Am I crazy? Is there really a world offline? Yes, there are! And the best traffic you’ll ever get is the one who takes the time to write down your website, come online, and interact with you. No kidding. Postcard campaigns, direct mail, billboard, radio, and to some extent TV (although I would stay away from TV for now. I’m just not sure how effective it is with DVR) create the best leads you’ll ever get. Like always, you have to test and track, but do not overlook the power of offline advertising. At the very least it should be a part of your backend.

So there you have it. Leverage 3 of the top 20 most trafficked sites on the internet and you’ll be doing pretty well for yourself. Any questions?

BTW, even though this will get you some decent traffic pretty quickly, I haven’t told you the absolute best traffic secret I have. And it doesn’t have anything to do with search engines or social media. This secret is responsible for some pretty awesome traffic if you have a well monetized site. By awesome I mean a minimum 1 million visitors a month. Sorry guys, it will remain my secret for now

Before I get started, I want to make this very clear. This is one way, the quickest way, to launch a business. It is not the most profitable way, but if you follow these steps, you will come out with a targeted list, a few hundred dollars, and the knowledge on how to expand your business and profits. Without further ado, here is the sequence.

1. Sign up for a Clickbank.com and buy an account at Aweber.com.

   Before you start to tune me out and assume that I’m going to teach you the latest and greatest affiliate marketing technique, I’l just say this: the first product you sell will be someone else’s. The second, third, and hopefully fourth product you sell will be yours. If I told you to originally sell your own product, you’d have to spend days or even weeks researching and producing it. That’s not what we want.

   I use Aweber, and that’s what I recommend. Without getting into a debate as to which autoresponder is best, sign up for one. That’s the important one. You NEED one and won’t build a profitable business without it.

   I used Clickbank as an example. You can also use CJ.com, Paydotcom.com, Neverblueads.com, Shareasale.com, etc. Any affiliate network will do. I actually recommend you sign up for all of them to compare offers and products, and eventually you will sign up for most if not all of them, but for now just one will do. I’ll use Clickbank throughout the rest of this example.
    

2. Pick a niche and find 3 products in that niche.

   Any niche will do, really. I recommend a niche you’re at least interested in. We’re building a business that will grow and be around for awhile, so if you are not at least interested in the niche, it’ll get to be very hard to work the day-to-day aspects of it. There are a few niches that will always make more money than others: anything having to do with making money (stocks, FOREX, make money online, etc.), weight loss, fitness, nutrition, and markets similar to those. I caution you not to get into these markets if they don’t interest you… yet. They are good to get into later when you’re a little more experienced, but not right now. Plus, they’re pretty competitive markets and require a good amount of work and internet marketing prowess to make it work.

   Pick 3 relatively similiar products on Clickbank. Go to CBTrends to see a historical chart of the product’s gravity and other statistics to determine its growth. Find one that has gaining popularity, gravity, and earned per sale, meaning the product is popular and people aren’t returning it. These 3 products should have been around for a while.

   Ideally you will buy these products, however, right now, we’re looking to start quick. You can read the products while you’re making sales and adjust accordingly.
    

3. Use pages.google.com, Page Breeze, or www.weebly.com to build a mini-site.

   Most hosting companies offer free site builders as well, so you can use them to create your site, but those three will also do. You MUST host your own site. Do not use something like wordpress.com or blogger.com to host the site you are building. You need to create your own domain and your own brand. End of story. Without your own domain, you will not be able to build up your own brand and products, etc. Just trust me: you need your own domain.

   To build your site, take about 30 minutes to an hour and do research on the three products you found. Type up honest, unbiased reviews and recommend the product you think is most valuable. It doesn’t have to have personal experiences in the review. It can be subjective like a business article would be. Be sure you recommend one over the other and do not include negative things about the other products. For instance say something like "the blue book has 5 ways to make money online and a better bonus, whereas the red book only has 3 and no bonus, that’s why I recommend the blue book. The red book does work very well, however, the blue book is more thorough". Notice: no negativity, just emphasize the positives.

   Some may call this unetical: you’re endorsing products you haven’t tried. That’s up to you to figure out. I actually only endorse products I use and find useful. If you have a little more time, you want to evaluate the product fully. Your endorsement will reflect it.

   When you write the endorsement, make sure you stress the benefits to the reader, not the features. Example of benefits: only spend 15 minutes a day while the FOREX software makes you millions. Example of feature: FOREX software connects to the broker to automatically make trades. See the difference? Make sure you stress these BIG TIME. That’s what will sell your product.
    

4. Write 4 Follow-up emails, with the 4th one including your affiliate link to your product through a link cloaking tool.

   This is the most important part of this, and the easiest to screw up. Do NOT try to sell the reader on the first email. Span the emails with 2-3 days in between messages, unless you call it a "mini-course" or something of that nature and they expect emails every day.

   You can find the content all over the internet for the four emails that you write. Make it very good and useful content, or you will not convince your reader to buy anything. In addition, make sure your subject line is something you would open. Remember: curiosity = opened email.
   
    

5. Make your Autoresponder

   Put those 4 emails in your autoresponder. Then create a popover script that entices the person to sign up for your course or information. Place that code on your site and sign up for your own autoresponder to make sure it works.
    

6. Send traffic

   This is the fun part. The best 2 quick ways I can recommend you send traffic your way is through article marketing and forum marketing.

   a)  Article marketing: simple enough – write 5 articles and publish them to ezinearticles.com.

   b)  Forum marketing: find a forum related to your niche and create a signature that links back to your page. Start answering and asking questions in the forum. DO NOT SELL TO THE PEOPLE ON THE FORUM. Provide value. That’s the most important aspect.
    

That’s it! Your goal is to start collecting email address and "building a list". Check. And make a few bucks in the process. Check.

Where to go from here: That’s where it gets fun. Create your own product, create a blog for more traffic generation, increase your article marketing, open your site to more marketing methods, cross-sell other related niche’s products to your list, JV and partner with other merchants, and the list goes on and one.

But you’ve started building your list, and that makes it so you will be able to create a relationship with your list (invaluable), and gives you leverage with other marketers so you can JV and create more partnerships.

So there you go. 3 hours, by my estimation, mostly taken up by article creation. About $35 for signing up for Aweber, and paying for hosting. Seriously, if you can’t find $35 to start your own business, you shouldn’t be looking to start your own business.

What is the most valuable asset to your business?

In other words, let’s say someone wanted to buy your site/business tomorrow. What would make it worth more than the next guy’s?

Ask yourself that question. What is your answer? Usually I get answers like "My list", "My readers" (which is the same thing as a list), "Pageviews", "Traffic", "My Brand", or something else along those lines.

I would agree that your most valuable asset is branding, readership, loyalty, or a list, which are basically synonomous with each other. One begets the other. Are we in agreement so far? Hang with me, I have a point here.

So let’s say Joe Visitor happens on your website from Google or some other random link. After they’re done reading what you put in front of them, what are their options ? They can hit the back button, click on a link, make a purchase, or sign up on a form. That’s basically it.

We’re all in agreement that you don’t want them to hit the back button (or close their browser) and the only way to stop that is to entertain and engage the visitor. Check. So that leaves clicking on a link, making a purchase, or signing up on a form. Which of these makes your business more valuable? Both making a purchase, and as we discussed above, signing up on a form. So why then, would you place advertising on your blog where you only get maybe 50% of what the click is worth?

Every once in awhile you stumble upon someone who "gets it" with respect to building a business and advertising. Chad’s post talks about how Adsense will pay you maybe 25% of what you’re actually worth as a blog, and while you may not think so, you can charge quite a bit for advertising. I wholeheartedly agree, and Chad’s someone I think you should listen to – he’s a marketing manager for b5Media.

In fact, I go as far as even saying that you should not place advertising on your site until you have a solid, loyal readership. Why would you send someone off to another site, never to hear back from them again, when you can just as easily turn them into a loyal reader? Is that $0.23 cent click really worth it? Is that how little you value your readers?

I will say, and Chad points out, that Ad Cents has its place. And it does. Just not for new sites, and not at the top of the page. It’s called remnant advertising and you should implement it while closely tracking your profits. It may very well have a negative effect on your readership/profit.