Author Archive for Jill Brennan

Website Traffic: Why Targeting is Important

by Jill Brennan

People are constantly looking for ways to get more website traffic; however, unless they’re getting targeted website traffic, they’re just spinning their wheels. Is your good-looking website attracting the right kind of traffic? Are you reaching the right audience?

The only way your site can be successful is if the visitors find your information useful. For example, consider browsing for books on Amazon.com: when you buy a book, the site gives you suggestions for other books in that category. The company figures that if you bought one book on a specific subject, others on similar subjects might interest you. You’ve just been targeted. While targeted website traffic won’t give you guaranteed traffic, it will increase your chances of reaching the correct audience.

Targeted website traffic by no means guarantees traffic. Targeting only increases your chances of hitting the right audience. You don’t want to randomly lure people to your site and hope for the best. That’s a waste of time.

Although they don’t really hurt anything by being there, you don’t want to waste time courting them, just hoping they will like what they see and become a fan or a customer. It is up to you to take advantage of all the marketing knowledge out there, just waiting for you use.

The starting point for building traffic is to look at the keywords that you’re using on your site and then see what keywords visitors are using to search. Words are the starting point for any internet search. If someone wanted to find soft dice they could hang from the rear view mirro in their car then they will type related words into a search engine.

This is why you’ll often hear internet marketers talking about ‘getting inside the head of the prospect’. What would they type into a search engine in order to find fuzzy dice? Would it be “car dice”, “furry dice”, “soft hanging dice”? Or some other variation that you’ve never thought of? Picking the right keywords is about improving your chances of success.

So what else are you selling along with your fuzzy hanging rearview mirror car dice? You can’t get targeted website traffic if you don’t know who you’re targeting, so figure out just what kind of site you have. Should car dice should be sold at a car accessories site, a weird gifts site, or a kitsch site? They should be sold on a site that has other merchandise that will appeal to the fuzzy dice people-like fuzzy steering wheel covers, or even animal print clothing, if it’s a retro shop. That approach will get you more website traffic.

Getting people to visit your site and buy what you’re selling is similar to playing the stock market: You can make some educated guesses, but it’s all a risk and a gamble. That doesn’t mean you should ignore trying to improve your odds, though — targeted website traffic will definitely help. When you tempt people who want what you have, they’ll buy.

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Bad Credit Consolidation: When Its Necessary

by Jill Harney

As a direct result of being unable to manage credit, many Americans have resorted to bad credit consolidation. Bad credit consolidation is fast becoming a fact of life in the United States, and it seems everybody owes, be it school loans or mortgage payments.

Most bad credit and the resulting card debt consolidation is due to the mismanagement of credit cards. Failure to make payments or making late payments can result in huge penalties and fees, resulting in a landslide of unmanageable debt. For many, the only way out is consolidation of debt.

If you have ever encountered the demise of finances due to credit problems, you know that it is a slippery slope. It begins by missing one or two payments. Even if you are a day late on your payment, a late fee charge appears. In addition to this fee, there are always troublesome interest rates that accumulate as the unpaid balance lingers.

When credit problems begin, the down slide is quick. Before you know it, you are in a deeper mess than you ever thought you would be. Most people initially react by making matters worse, reaching out for whatever help they can get quickly, and usually the most convenient help is the preferred choice.

This is often in the form of another credit card. Anyone who follows financial matters knows that using one credit card to pay off another as a form of card debt consolidation is simply a bad idea.

This debt cycle has longer term impacts because of the slide in your credit rating. A low credit score makes it difficult to get a loan for a new car or a home loan. This is also around the time that credit agencies turn up the heat and start demanding their money.

Its at this stage, that most people throw up their hands in defeat and look for anything that can ease their pain. Usually this is in the form of bad credit consolidation. This is where your debt is all rolled into one and you begin paying it off at an agreed rate and schedule. If you choose the right company it can mean a saving rather than a continued escalation of your debt.

Another benefit to bad credit consolidation is that your combined debt (the final product of the process) is much easier to manage. Your interest rate is lower and fixed, while you end with just one payment each month. You will still have debt, but it will be much more manageable. Remember that this can be a very important step towards fixing your financial situation.

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