TalkingTraffic.com: Ethical and proven ways to increase traffic to your web-site.

But first...

Why should you listen to me?

The Highstreetcentral.com Shopping Directory was established as a web directory in October 1995 and is now one of the World's largest, covering a huge range of subjects. It links to millions of sites, services and products and has over 800 advertisers showing over 10 million ads monthly. It has also reached the top .01% of the World's most visited sites, reaching up to a quarter of a million visitors (not hits) per month.

The ed-u.com Education Directory, which is much younger (February 2000), and which I have only started to promote comparatively recently, already attracts tens of thousands of visitors per month.

As both of my web-sites almost exclusively rely on the search engines and web directories, I have made it my business to educate myself in their requirements. I'm not a techie and I steer clear of things complicated as much as possible. If I can achieve these figures, then so can you.

ed-u.com and UK Government backed internet marketing workshops

Most of my site's processes are automated, which enables me to concentrate on the consultancy and venture side of my business.

I provide marketing and e-commerce optimisation advice for several websites, including multinational and international corporations, and have been successful in creating substantial and sustainable business for many companies. I currently help to generate millions of pounds worth of internet leads per day for dozens of businesses.

And the good news is...

In fact, many hybrids of the old and new economy are doing particularly well. They find that they can create efficiencies and often streamline their procurement systems, therefore relieving supply chain pressures within their existing frameworks.

Research, development and design processes can all be streamlined by using the net as a remote central project depository to enable different departments (even if these departments are in different countries) to share files.

Remember that the internet is not just about making money, it's also about saving it.

100,000,000people@$2billion.com

There are 10% more e-mail users than Web users and almost 3 billion e-mail messages are already being sent daily. Commercial spending on e-mail marketing is expected to double in the next year - hitting the $2.0 billion mark.

With nearly 100 million people using the internet, e-mail is an important and efficient addition to your marketing tool-box.

Unlike regular mail or telemarketing, you can communicate your message in a matter of seconds - and for a tiny fraction of the price. Match this with an average click-through rate to your web-site of 3% and response turnaround of less than 48 hours and it is not difficult to see the power e-mail commands as a business medium.

Don't click here, can't click there

Now ask yourself how many sites have you visited that you have seen promoted on the internet itself. For the majority of surfers, the difference will be enormous.

It is simply far easier to click on a link than having to memorize or note it for future use. Many businesses are waking up to this and last year a huge increase in web-based promotion helped lead towards a 75% increase in on-line business. Much of this activity has been concentrated around search engines and directories.

The more prudent companies haven't followed the disastrous carpet-bombing advertising model; they have steadily built up a loyal customer base using the zero or low cost techniques described throughout this site.

The internet is beginning to catch its breath

For the most part, e-business is simply the old economy with access to a new technology. Hype and hysteria equals cash burn, whilst measured optimism equals business reality.

Are you brand new to the world of e-commerce? Looking at the code behind a web-page

If you right click on a text area on this page with your mouse and press "view source", you will see the HTML code. Don't let it put you off; the coding for this site, which includes Javascript and stylesheets, is much too complicated for absolute beginners, so your next step should be to look at the codes of more simply designed sites - a very basic page can be created with just a few short lines of code.

Find a simple page that you like, save it to your hard disk with a file name something like "mytestpage.htm" and start altering the existing text. Open it in your web browser to see what happens.

The code for a basic web-page:

Thankfully, most of the HTML knowledge necessary for traffic-building is at the beginner's end of the learning scale and, nowadays, there are many easy to follow on-line tutorials.

Even the founder of the world's most successful computer sales web-site, Michael Dell, recognised the power of understanding the basics. He moved his desk into the web development office when he decided to take his company online.

HTML and web-site design help

STOP PRESS: UK Government Ecommerce Awards Winner!

Stephen Timms the UK Minister of State for E-commerce said :

"I am an enthusiastic supporter of compelling web content which can help drive our ambition of UK e-commerce leadership. I congratulate Robert Brady on his contribution to sites whose excellence has been recognised in the latest e-commerce awards."

You are invited to a seminar and buffet lunch in Essex

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has launched a major campaign to get the UK online.

Under this initiative Robert Brady, owner of TalkingTraffic.com, Highstreetcentral.com and ed-u.com has been invited to give a series of talks on e-business, traffic building and best practice.

Hundreds of people have already attended these events and the first of a new series of talks was recently launched at the Foreign Press Association in Westminster.

Consequently, the FPA event was commended in a speech to the Lord Mayor of London at the Mansion House, where over 200 guests attended a luncheon for the communications, publicity, advertising and media industry. The "Traffic Plus" seminars are currently taking place throughout Essex.

The feedback from previous talks, where Robert revealed how anyone can also achieve dramatic rises in their web-site's traffic, was very encouraging: