The great effort it takes to get a new visitor, and then persuade them to buy from you, is a fact of life on the Internet. Just as much as it is in traditional markets.

But there are some things you can do to make the job a little easier.

Here’s three you could try from your web site.

1) Give away a mini-course

A mini-course is a useful set of notes and resources, broken up into five or six parts, and emailed out automatically each day (or at whatever frequency you want) to those who sign up.

While he educates his readers during each lesson, the writer also promotes his products or services.

Everyone likes this.

The reader, because he’s getting valuable education in a manageable stream and small chunks, for free.

The writer, because for several days in a row he is able to gently remind his reader about his web site and the benefits of his product. And also because he has a name and an e-mail he can use again, sensitively, in the future.

This is so simple and effective we MUST all do it.

The Firebirdpro autoresponder will deliver these courses for you. Just set it up and let it run on automatic.

2) Use tiny web sites to get good search engine rankings … then link them to your main site

It is possible to build a tiny 10–page web site with interesting content, highly optimized for one or two key search terms.

A tiny site like this stands a better than average chance to rank high on the search engines, because:

- it has useful content

- it’s been very carefully written, keeping in mind those two search terms (and a few other significant things.)

Link one of these highly ranked sites to your site, and you have a stepping stone for an extra stream of visitors who might not find you otherwise.

A tiny site like this is not a trick to try and fool the search engines. Everything about a tiny site is legitimate.

So, they have a large potential to bring an endless stream of good quality visitors to your site.

I said ‘potential’. Because building them is an art as well as a science and there can be no guarantees.

The secret of why the micro site works so well is the content. It’s carefully written, specific content, of considerable value to people searching for your services.

Of course, your main web site pages will also be optimized for the search engines. But those pages are general, and it will never be possible to optimize them as effectively as a tiny, precision site.

I recommend you develop several at appropriate times in your product and budget cycle.

3) Get relevant sites linking to your site

How do the search engines know your site is valuable? One way is to listen to what your peers say. And they do that by seeing if your peers are linking into your site. Because a link is like a vote of confidence in the content on your web page.

The experts agree on this.

Some people actually do it. You can do it with free tools like Directory Submitter. Click and pick up the free version