Do you know what nearly every Internet marketer wants to learn, regardless of whether they are just starting out or have an established web business?

“How can I generate lots of traffic (visitors) to web sites online?”

But in order for me to teach you about traffic generation I first need to demystify it.

The truth about traffic generation

First off it’s a massive subject. Article marketing, banner advertising, blogging, ezine advertising, search engine optimisation, social media… the list goes on.

What I’ve found with traffic generation is most people lack clarity about what they should be doing.

So the first thing you need is a realistic understanding of traffic generation.

Note the word ‘realistic’. I have found that most people have a completely unrealistic expectation of traffic generation. This is probably because every week there is a new product released by a ‘guru’ claiming to be able to teach you the ‘secret Google loophole that will send tens of thousands of visitors to your web site overnight’ or something similarly silly.

Seeing these kinds of messages over and over again has led people to believe that there must be some traffic generation secret that, once they find it, will transform their Internet marketing endeavours.

Sorry, but there isn’t one.

No secret tactic.

No loophole.

No trick.

Traffic generation takes work. And if you don’t want to put in that effort then you need to rethink your business model.

For example submitting articles to directories like ezinearticles.com will generate some traffic, but not lots. I had my writer submit thirty-five articles to ezinearticles.com as a test to see how many visitors it would bring to one of my web sites. (By the way you can include a link to your site at the end of the article to generate traffic from the articles).

The result? Just over eight hundred visitors in six months. Hmmm, that’s not what most marketers have led you to believe is it? Most ‘traffic gurus’ have led you to believe that all you need to do is submit articles to ezinearticles.com and a surge of visitors will arrive at your site.

It’s B.S. Yes you will generate traffic by submitting articles to ezinearticles.com but unless you are willing to submit one hundred plus a month, every month, it’s not the right strategy for you.

You see, without realising it, you have been brainwashed by the sales letters and sales videos you have seen over the years with regards to starting an online business.

The two most common sales pitches in the Internet marketing niche go something like this:

“Affiliate marketing is the best business on the planet
because it allows you to promote someone else’s
website and get paid for a share of the sale you
generate. That means you don’t need your own
product or to deal with any customers yourself!”

Or…

“This secret traffic strategy will help you to send
tens of thousands of visitors to your site in a
few days resulting in tons of traffic and sales!”

I’m sure you’ve come across many similar messages over the years. And it’s easy to start believing that affiliate marketing is the best way to start an online business. All you have to do is just figure out traffic generation and find a secret strategy that works your life will change forever and you’ll finally be able to live the life you want to.

This is why people jump from one opportunity to another. They try something, don’t see the instant results they thought they would and move onto another traffic ‘Holy Grail’ to see if that works as promised.

I’m afraid it’s one big illusion. I’ve fallen for it before and thousands of others too.

But now I can let you in on the truth…

When you see Clickbank marketers show you their Clickbank ‘affiliate earnings’, the vast majority of them are earnings they made from selling products, not promoting other peoples.

Let me give you an example…

Let’s say I create a product entitled ‘Traffic Explosion’ or something equally lame. I sell it through Clickbank, have a few joint venture partners promote the product, and get some serious proof of earnings.

A few months later I create a product called ‘Affiliate Explosion’. I say that my Clickbank earnings are from affiliate marketing. So I make it sound like I am promoting other peoples products as an affiliate.

Why? Because this is the dream so many new marketers believe is the way to start and it’s the easiest sale. The truth is my earnings are from affiliates promoting me! So yes, it’s still affiliate marketing, but not in the way I am selling or teaching it.

There was a guy in Ireland who I ripped apart a number of times when I was editor of Digital Upstart who did this over and over again.

I won’t mention his name, he’s off the scene now, probably because people caught wind of what he was doing and realised what a git he was! But he repeatedly told the world how great affiliate marketing whilst most of his Clickbank screenshots were of the products he was selling and affiliates promoting him!

Now that is not some ‘conspiracy theory’. That’s cold, hard truth.

It’s why hardly anyone goes near Clickbank products or promotes them any more. There was a saturation point when even the people promoting Clickbank products decided ‘This is not right’ and stopped promoting them.

Too many marketers were selling the ‘affiliate dream’ but doing something completely different themselves – selling their own products.

That’s why I want you to think about this logically (and profitably) .

If you sold an Internet marketing product telling people that the easiest way to start an online business was to create a product and get other people to sell it for you what would you be doing?

You’d create competition for yourself.

You could end up teaching people to create a product who then create a cracking product and end up getting your customers. That’s why so many marketers teach affiliate marketing. It’s an easy sale because they can sell the ‘dream’ and also they don’t create competition for themselves.

Not nice when you think of it that way is it?

What I’m saying here is that tons of people sell courses saying affiliate marketing is the best way to get started online. They sell the dream of having a business where you do hardly any work as other people sell the products and handle customers.

The truth is though affiliate marketing involves MORE work because you have to do all the traffic generation.

Hmmm, funny how no one mentions that.

There is no secret to traffic generation. You have to follow a strategic, workable plan and repeat it over and over again. That’s the reality of traffic.

Recently I told my Mastermind members to create a ‘Traffic Action Calendar’

I told them to get a calendar and each day when they did not do something to generate traffic (for example write an article and submit it to article directories). They had to put a red X in that day on the calendar.

For every day they did do something to generate traffic they had to put in a green tick. The idea was to look back over the months and see how many days you did something to generate traffic.

If you lack traffic it’s not because you are missing the ‘secret’ or ‘trick’ that will transform your online endeavours. It’s because you’re so busy looking for the blooming’ trick (which doesn’t exist) that you never take consistent, every day action to generate traffic.

Guess what? All emails I received about the Traffic Action Calendar said that it was ‘eye opening’ how little work they had done on traffic generation and that it made sense to them. Traffic takes work!

And that, dear reader, is what you need to do. If you want to be involved in affiliate marketing stop thinking of it as affiliate marketing think of it as ‘Traffic Generation’, for that’s truly what it is.

If you want to generate traffic you need to do something every day to generate traffic.

Every. Single. Day.

So don’t be fooled by these ‘set it and forget it’ experts. You cannot set and forget traffic or it will dry up. You need to keep at it every day.

This presents a problem. When I surveyed my list they said that they wanted to learn about traffic generation they also said that freedom was more important to them than becoming a millionaire.

They wanted to have a business that allowed them to spend time with their kids, on the golf course or wherever that may be.

If that’s you then getting into the game of affiliate marketing or/and trying to generate traffic is not for you. Because you’ll be working harder!

But you’ll be glad to know I have a solution.

Next Tuesday (the 20th March) I will be releasing a free training video that details my ‘Traffic In Reverse’ techniques for the first time.

Make sure you look out for it… Until then you can check out the