by Kevin Bramlett

A great way to generate traffic for your website is to create mirrors that 'reflect' surfers to your main commercial website. A 'mirror' is usually thought of as a carbon copy of your index page which is placed in a different Internet venue to reach an audience that frequents the other venue, or that is unlikely to find you via your normal website advertising channels. Links from the mirror page bring people into your main website. Think of them as alternative doorways into your website.

Actually, any web page which is located 'off-site' and whose primary function is to act as a funnel for collecting traffic and moving it to your main website can be thought of as a mirror, regardless of whether it truly "mirrors" your index page. As you will see, in some cases, you will want to devise web pages that are non-commercial, or at least very different from your website's index page.

Here are the primary strategies for using mirrors to increase your site's traffic:

1. Research Online malls, and find one whose traffic patterns and costs suit your needs. This is usually a case where true mirroring is done, i.e., copy your index page and post it in the Online mall (make sure you have absolute links to your website, not relative (file directory) links; your web designer should understand, if you aren't sure what this means). Malls can be expensive, but their traffic patterns can change your website's productivity and sales numbers overnight! Most malls offer submission, advertising, and publicity services when you register your web pages through them. Here are some good examples to check out:
   http://www.olworld.com/olworld/
   http://www.1stworldwidemall.com/
   http://www.1stworldmall.com/
   http://www.1stinternetmall.com/
   
2. Take advantage of any free web pages offered by your Internet Service Provider, build a page, and register it in as many search engines and directories as you can. Depending on what options your ISP offers, you may want to develop a new angle, or some new information that is not already on your website. It is not always necessary for your regular website to compete with your own mirrors on the same subject in a search engine. A better strategy is to expand the scope of your listings by thinking of a new market you want to reach, and then brainstorm for what they might be searching for Online. Build your content and listing around this new specialty, and funnel the resulting traffic to your regular website. Make sure your site fully supports this new demographic.

   Since many ISP's do not permit you to build a commercial page in their free listings, you will need to be creative in developing content that is informational or personal, and not "salesy", with subtle links to your commercial site.

   Alternatively, you can join an ISP that encourages you to build your business Online (for instance, Galaxy 2020 is one such - and that's one of the many reasons why we chose them as our preferred ISP). In fact, for those of you who do not want to build an html page, G2020's free webpage and marketing services are configured automatically - it's as close to no-brainer as you can get!

   Visit http://www.Galaxy20-20.com/members/WWG for details on getting your complete Online Business setup today - in as little as ten minutes!
   

3. Locate Online free page services, and take advantage of their space and traffic. Two of these I used to research this article are listed below; make sure you carefully read the use restrictions they place on these free pages, and comply with all rules to avoid losing your free space. They sometimes restrict 'commercial' pages. That's OK, just develop an information base about some subject related to what you do, then provide a "favorites" link to your main website. For example, if you produce widgets, write an article for your free page about the great history of widgets, or maybe a buyer's guide to selecting the best widgets, with a feature comparison chart. Purely informational, not "salesy", and link to your site using innocuous language, such as "Visit Me" (don't say "To purchase Widgets, Click Here" - this is an ad!) Following these tips will get your site accepted since it is a legitimate non-commercial use of the free space (if there is a non-commercial clause). In the GeoCities website, this is the strategy I followed (see link below). http://www.GeoCities.com/Eureka/Park/3962

   Or again, you can focus your free web page activities to companies that encourage Online Commercial activity, and then your free website can be very direct in offering products and services for sale. The best company in this category is Free Yellow. Not only do they offer free non-virtual commercial websites, but you can register a virtual domain name with them for a one-time fee of less than $150 (not including Internic fees) - that's a one-time fee, you never have to pay monthly charges or annual fees again, ever! Their other business opportunities and services are also worth checking out, for those of you who aren't sure yet what kind of business you want to operate on the Net. Find companies like Free Yellow that offer a ready made business and for which they do all the fulfillment work, and re-sell their products and services. Simple, easy, profitable. Follow the link below to see how I mirrored my commercial website at WorldWide Guide, and to request your free lifetime website! http://www.FreeYellow.com/members/wwguide

As far as registering pages with search engines goes, don't assume that you are limited to registering just your index page. You can register any page you wish separately, and use it to generate additional traffic. Articles on the core subject, ordering forms, discussion or chat rooms devoted to a subject, web resources, and many others. In essence, these amount to 'on site mirrors', but their function is the same - to show up on the radar of surfers using search engines and bring them into your website for more direct marketing. Some Search Engines and Directories are now considering a limit on the number of web pages per virtual domain site that can be registered. This makes it more important than ever that you setup as many off-site mirrors as you can to ensure that you are broadly indexed in the SED's.

For a complete listing of free web page resources on the Internet, visit http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/Internet_Services/ Web_Services/Free_Web_Pages/

There are over 400 free website listings there - something for everyone! Do one a week, and in a few months, you'll have dozens of mirrors all over the Internet all directing traffic to your main commercial website!

Article by Kevin Bramlett (Kevin@WorldWideGuide.com), author of The Web Traffic Bible - a powerful collection of traffic-building techniques, and Editor of ECOM: The Newsletter of Electronic Commerce (subscribe@WorldWideGuide.com). Get FREE Special Reports by autoresponder (GuideList@WorldWideGuide.com). Visit http://WorldWideGuide.com

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