Traffic is the soul of every website. If a website has sparse traffic, its topline and bottomline will get disfigured very quickly and it will not survive in the competitive Internet marketplace. So, what does a website have to do to make a success of itself on the Internet? Here's what:

1. PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising: PPC is an advertising model adopted mainly by clicked upon. See the search results that fall in the "sponsored links" column in Google or Yahoo? Those are the PPC advertisements. PPC advertisements come very cheap - in fact, you can make a start with as little as $5! However, you have to carefully research keywords and strategically integrate them in your PPC ads to hook the reader. Also, you need to continuously monitor the performance of your PPC campaign and adjust it accordingly, if required.

2. Viral marketing is merely using already established networks of individuals in order to promote or generate traffic for your website. The most frequently used sites for viral marketing are video sharing and social networking sites.

3. Affiliate Traffic: There are a few important affiliate networks on the Internet, with CJ.com and Linkshare.com being the most prominent. Affiliate networks serve as a meeting place for affiliate merchants and affiliate publishers, and if you are an affiliate merchant you can dramatically increase your traffic by appointing affiliate publishers. What happens is this: An affiliate publisher browses through the merchants registered with the affiliate network and chooses a product that he thinks he can market well - the affiliate network gives him a tracking code that he has to plant on his website - the affiliate publisher publishes his website and gets a commission for every product sold - all the tracking, pay-ins and payouts are handled by the affiliate network.

4. Press Releases: Press releases are public announcements disseminating information about the launch of a new website, product, value-addition or a new scheme, and they can help increase the traffic on a website as well as the PageRank of the website on the search engines results pages. There are a few websites that publish press releases - PRWeb.com being the most prominent one. A website owner can get press releases featuring snappy content and a catchy headline expertly authored and then distribute them on these websites.

5. Viral Marketing: The viral marketing technique uses social networking websites (Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, etc.) to increase sales and brand awareness. Viral marketers pass on a subtle sales message by posting niche content - video, audio, games, e-books, pictures, etc. - on social networking sites and then the word spreads out on its own, increasing exposure for the viral marketer's website.

These are the top 5 Internet marketing techniques in vogue today. One word of advice: don't rush into them without understanding the concept first. Good luck!

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