Generating traffic for your mini-sites is the challenge.

Search engines look for large content. Therefore it is easier to get search engines to "spider" your website. Of course large content sites take more effort in building.

Mini-sites, however, are only 1 to 5 pages with the sole purpose of selling immediately to site visitors.

This makes it a lot more difficult to get mini-sites to rank well for competitive keywords. Unless of course you are a whizz at webpage optimization.

So that is why most webmasters do NOT rely on search engines for traffic to their mini-sites.

Remember this, you want targeted traffic, not website "hits". It is the targeted visitors that buy.

This article will briefly give some strategies to generate traffic to your mini-sites. Here are some traffic generating techniques to get traffic.

Forums/Discussion Boards

Search for forums/discussion boards that relate to your mini-sites theme. Post your comments and respond to posts and use your signature file to attract targeted visitors.

The basic strategy is to find related forums and become active in them. Build your reputation by getting yourself known as somebody qualified to give assistance and advice.

Find out what forum members talk about and offer your solution to their problems.

Forum marketing requires you taking the time to make sensible responses or by asking good questions.

Typically, forum promotions have no cost but you must abide by forum rules of conduct.

Ezine Advertising

Ezine advertising is a great way to gather traffic to your mini-sites but this technique can cost some money. If you select the right ezines, advertising can provide very good results. However, some ezines may not provide any results.

You usually have the option of "sponsor" ads or "solo" ads. If you have your own mailing list you may be able to negotiate an "ad swap".

The advantage of ezine advertising is that you know before you promote that you have a targeted audience that has already expressed an interest in your topic. That's why they subscribed.

One of the keys to doing well with ezine advertising is to run repeat ads in the same ezine. Your results improve on the second or third promotion. However, if you get no results on your first mailing, do not repeat that ezine again.

Article Writing

Write articles and submit them to ezines, web sites and article directory sites.

Here's a short list of article directories:

http://www.ezinearticles.com http://www.certificate.net/wwio http://www.ideamarketers.com http://www.goarticles.com http://www.netterweb.com http://www.jogena.com

The advantage with this strategy is that when other websites owners post your article on their website you get a link to your site through the resource box of your article. Also those that read the article may click through to your site. Imagine your articles being posted onto hundreds of other sites with a similar theme to yours.

List Building

You must of heard the expression - "the money is in the list". Without a list you are forever looking for new targeted visitors. Building a list means that you are marketing to an audience that has trust in you.

Your list could be for an ezine, autoresponder course, a free give-away, or a customer list. Whatever you decide, get started now. People prefer to buy from people they know and have a degree of confidence in.

Notice a the end of this article I am offering a free ebook. When you click through to the webpage you will see that I am building a list. You are also welcome to give the ebook away to build your own list.

Pay Per Click

Set up Pay Per Click campaigns and monitor the response level to ensure you are getting a return on investment.

You need to pick your keywords and keyword phrases carefully. It is best to compete for less popular terms related to your minisite theme rather than the top words which can be quite expensive to get top ranking.

Link Exchanges

Trade links with other web sites. They should be related to the theme of your minisite. A lot of sites now have an automated process for trading links. Search for similar theme sites and look for "link partners" page.

You will submit your details and the link exchange software will look for the return link.

If you are doing the process manually it is best to put up their link first, then tell them where it is and the link information you want in exchange.

This is not a comprehensive list of traffic strategies. However, get started putting some of these strategies into place. Otherwise nothing will happen.

Free ebook for you: "Mastery of Mini Sites" a collection of articles to assist you build successful mini websites mini-site-mastery.com/masterybook