Since I’ve been involved in internet marketing, which is more than a decade, the rules that govern this business have slowly been transformed. It used to be the secret to success in internet marketing was ensuring you drove a major amount of new traffic to your site each and every day. Although this is still the case, to truly have your Internet-based traffic and revenues grow it’s all about making sure you develop a strong following of return visitors.

Today, websites that cultivate a following that at the very least is interested in and preferably devoted to them are simply beating their competitors hands down. Good examples of this fact are the very popular sites that offer daily deals such as TeeFury and Woot.

Why You Want Return Traffic

Not that long ago during my Coffee Talk series, I conducted an interview with iContact.com CEO Ryan Allis.  iContact.com is a successful email list management service. The CEO noted that when it comes to those who visit your website, 70% will not come back unless you contact them through your email list. That translates into you devoting your important money, time and effort into getting people to come to your website and then simply go away forever.
That certainly sheds new light on the subject. As that ancient advertising maxim notes, the pricier or more complicated your service or merchandise is the more a potential buyer has to see it and have it explained before they will commit to a purchase. Simply put: those one-time visits don’t add up to much.

And then you can’t discount the importance of search engines. Google and other search engines constantly watch who visits your website, in what way they found it, and the length of time they stay at it. The trick to getting a higher ranking on search engines such as Google for any subject including car insurance quotes, to Pride lift chair recliners, inflatable boats, wood routers, doll houses, even arc welders is to make sure those who come to your site spend time at it and return many times.

I’ve compiled 5 strategies below that I’ve found to be successful in getting people to come back to my site again and again.

1) Utilize RSS to Email

With RSS software, you’re able to automatically update your members on any new information with barely any effort at all.

Yes, every one of us intends to develop those splashy weekly newsletters, that great series of autoresponders and make those personal connections with all of those people on our email list, but we know that time is finite and precious.

That’s where RSS to Email comes in. Utilize this automated service to alert those on your email list of fresh content on your site. Notifying former visitors of new content will get those people to come back and see what’s happening and that may get them to spend more time and investigate your products and services even more.

But that’s not the best thing about RSS to Email. One of the finest tools you can use is its scheduling feature. Regularly, I’m able to easily email a newsletter using RSS. This is the way it works. I tell RSS when to run and then it will go to my sites, collecting the new content and compiling it into a newsletter. I do nothing but set the time. By the way, you can set RSS to Email to send you an advanced copy of the mailing so that you can make sure it looks and reads just the way you want it to and later send the mass email to your list of subscribers.

2) Podcasting is Effective

There are many different podcasts out there but still not enough online businesses take advantage of this effective marketing tool. So often overlooked, podcasts are one of the best ways for you to connect with your visitors and to entice them back to your site.

I’ve used podcasting successfully by producing two different shows. My podcast The Affiliate Buzz, which is the longest running affiliate marketing podcast in existence, and my Coffee Talk with James Martell series have been instrumental in keeping visitors interested and coming back.

How long does it take to do a half-hour long podcast? It can be put together in less than an hour. And with today’s technology, you can record a professional sounding show easily. Plus, the publishing can be automated, allowing you to utilize your time more efficiently and effectively.

3) Staying Engaged in Your Blog

One of the best ways to keep people involved in your site is to make sure you engage them personally. I do that by reading their comments on my blog posts and responding to them. It’s easy and effective.

Consider this: one post may be read by thousands of visitors and you may not see a comment from even one of them. That means if someone does take the time to comment that you should honor their input with a thoughtful reply.

WordPress offers a handy plug-in that I have opted to use. It’s called “Subscribe To Comments” and it posts an email to those who have commented when a person responds to what they wrote. You can get it at no charge. This easy to set up plug-in is extremely important if you want to create connections and a feeling of community with those who visit your site.

4) Chat Forums Are Useful

Chat forums, which were initially known as Bulletin Boards, were a major method of communicating in the 1990s. They still are but it seems as if many Internet marketers have discounted their power. Chat forums are powerful tools that can help get visitors connected for the long run to your site, open up a dialogue between them and you and permit visitors to communicate with each other.

On various websites, my wife Arlene and I have found chat forums to be extremely helpful. As an example, EpilepsyMoms.com, which is one of Arlene’s websites, has given thousands the chance to share their personal stories of nurturing children with epilepsy. Many of the members have deeply invested themselves, returning to EpilepsyMoms.com on a daily basis to interact with others. That type of traffic comes from investing care and not money.

5) Be Supportive

You can simply allow your site to run on automatic. Or you may spend hours a day simply throwing content on the site to get something new up there. But trust me, you don’t want to get involved in these behaviors.

I’ve found that if I stay focused on what’s happening on the site and attempt to aid those who visit it, then I’m in a good place. You want to support visitors by offering them content that has solid information and will help them. It may be in the form of articles, audio or video. The primary thing to do is to help people find some answers to their questions and offer them information that is focused on their problem.

It’s Up to You

It’s essential to your success that you retain the visitors to your site. Although new traffic is good, if you want to see your search engine rankings rise and site traffic go up for those interested in topics ranging from car insurance quotes, to a Golden power lift chair, inflatable boats, wood routers, doll houses, even arc welders, you need to focus on making sure those who have found you stick around. Don’t spend all of your time simply trying to attract more people to your site put resources into retaining the ones you have.

Photo by Daz Smith