Turn you Website into Traffic Machine

Increase Sales By Flying Under Your Prospects' "Radar Defenses"
by Jim Edwards
All Rights reserved

A whole world of marketing exists around us trying to do that every minute of the day. Do you even notice it anymore or, like your prospects, have you subconsciously set up a system of "radar defenses" against the daily bombardment of marketing messages?

Take a minute and count up the advertising methods which fight for your attention (and money) every day. Just the basic list includes:
· Yellow page ads
· Newspaper and magazine ads
· Postcards, catalogs, and direct mail circulars in your "snail mail" box
· Radio pitches interrupting the flow of your favorite songs· TV ads - about 20 minutes worth per hour now
· Hundreds of storefronts, "mega" malls, and strip malls
· Highway billboards by the thousands
· Circulars hung on your doorknob
· Illegal signs on stop signs and telephone poles
· Legitimate email messages
· Spam email or UCE (unsolicited commercial email)

So how can you, as an online merchant or affiliate marketer, get around this psychological wall against the constant sales and marketing messages?

Well, the answer does NOT lie in hitting people with more frequent and obnoxious advertising or sly, sneaky tactics. You might get them to trust you for a minute, but it will backfire in the long run.

You must do two things instead:
1. First, you must establish credibility for yourself and your business as an expert in your field or "niche" market.
2. Second, you must reduce your prospect's fears about doing business with you.

Doing these two things will get you past their defenses and allow you the opportunity to persuade them to buy your product. So how do you accomplish these two "simple" things?
What will win someone's attention, raise your credibility, and lower their fear factor all at the same time? The one-word answer really applies to most everyone.

Trust!

Quite easily actually! Take a break from reading this and go check out a newspaper or magazine for a minute. Which do you trust more, the ads or the articles? Most people will choose the articles hands down. Why? Because the articles don't try to "sell" you anything. Instead, they hand out useful information for educational or other practical purposes. Most of us grew up in a culture which says we can believe and "trust" what appears in the standard "news" or "information" format. In other words, if it appears in print, then we can believe and trust the author. So go ahead! Use this lifetime of conditioning to your advantage in selling your products and services!

So remember these points when deciding whether or not to use articles to promote your business:

1. Few things create as much trust and confidence in the minds of potential customers as reading an article you wrote on a subject which specifically and intensely interests them.
2. Articles establish credibility quickly because, right or wrong, we've all been trained to trust the "news."
3. An article, or series of articles, will differentiate you from the competition, who bombard people with nothing but sales messages and "pitches" while providing little useful content.
4. Providing content-rich, non-sales-oriented articles will also help build and solidify your relationship with existing customers so they give you repeat business... and also help you attract new customers and subscribers who find your approach a refreshing change to what they're used to getting from your competitors!

*Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook, "Turn Words Into Traffic," that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website.