Internet commerce has not been around for hundreds or thousands of years. But offline business certainly has been. Today we'll see what we can learn and apply from the offline world but I'd like to start with a short illustration.

I was watching one of those crime shows on TV the other night and they were talking about the "murder suspect" and referring to him as an amateur entrepreneur.

I thought this was a pretty cool term, and it was an appropriate description of the character. He did a little of this and a little of that, but didn't necessarily do anything well.

So it got me thinking ... this is a problem that so many of us face when it comes to free traffic generation.

We try a little linking, a little SEO, and perhaps a few other strategies. When we fail to produce meaningful results, we give up and move onto something else. We might fail to recognize that something actually WORKED because we were expecting one or two articles or links to bring in thousands of targeted visitors overnight.

But the thing we have to remember, is that traffic strategies that work ... they work for the long haul. In other words, trying to find that magic bullet that will send you a flood of traffic tomorrow will only get you into trouble in the long run and you might start looking for ways to "trick the search engines" and so forth.

In this series of traffic generation audios we have discussed article generation several times. And to be frank, we will continue to discuss article generation again, and likely even again because it is a simple and highly effective way to generate free targeted traffic.

Here's an example of what I meant when I mentioned "the long haul". When your article is posted, it's there, online, permanently. If it's bringing you traffic today, it will continue to do so down the road. The reason is that if customers are trying to solve a problem today ... there will still be people looking to solve that same problem tomorrow. The only exception to this would be time sensitive events. For example, who are this year's candidates for an Oscar at the Academy Awards.

When it comes to article writing, are you including the MOST IMPORTANT element in YOUR articles?

That would be a call to action.

The call to action in an article that is distributed on an article site is located in the resource box. That's the box at the end of the article where you talk about your expertise and your solution to the problem, and tell the reader why they want to come visit your web site.

In addition to that, most publishers will typically allow several links within the body of the article. When the anchor text is written effectively as a soft sell you can direct them to your landing page.

Some suggestions are to weave in an offer of a top-ten list or a free e-book. Give them a compelling reason to come to your site.

Since most internet users spend more time browsing, surfing, reading, watching videos and so forth, shopping online is further down the list. So a true sales pitch is not normally a compelling enough reason for them to want to come to YOUR site. And furthermore, most publishers prefer not to have article that are too salesy.

So much information is available online free, that it's always the best advice to give away good quality content, to gain the trust of your prospect.

The same applies in the real world.

The example I would like to share is shopping for a new TV. With all the new HD televisions on the market, it is important to be educated and informed before making a buying decision. Any reputable electronics store will help you through the decision making process by educating you on HDTV and helping you learn everything you need to know.

They are giving you FREE INFORMATION.

And the purpose? To assist you in making your buying decision.

Another principle to apply from time honored business practices is CONSISTENCY.

Nothing produces results without hard work. And to generate both traffic and sales, you have to keep doing what works, on a consistent basis.

In other words, keeping writing and submitting articles, keep submitting links, keep working the forums, and so forth.

In conclusion, nothing in business worth having comes easily. Learn to apply offline business strategies to your online business and your business will grow ... for the long term!