Pew Internet Project has released a new study (summer 2002) describing what people do online. (http://www.pewinternet.org/)

The researchers found that searching for information is big -- second only to using email. Fully eighty percent of Americans who are on Internet have used a search engine to find information. Twenty-five percent (that's thirty-three million) use a search engine on a daily basis.

Men are more likely than women to use a search engine on a given day. 33% of men and 25% of women reported using a search engine on a specified day.

College grads are more likely to use a search engine than high school grads. 39% of Internet users with three or more years under their belts use a search engine on a given day, while only 14% of those online for less than six months use searches on a given day.

Google is most used search engine in terms of minutes searched. It's currently at 25.9 minutes and gaining. However, MSN has most number of users. It recorded 43 million unique users in May of 2002, compared to Google's 36 million. Yahoo had 38 million unique visitors during that month.

Information searches fell into four main categories: information about people, health, government and religion.

People searches leaned towards personal (66.6%), more than professional (33.3%). College grads were more likely to do people searches than high school grads, and younger people (18-29) were more likely to do people searches than older people (50-64).

Seventy-three million Americans looked for health information... up from 52 million in fall of 2000. Women are more likely than men to look for heath information, but are likely to be turned off by sites that are selling something, or by sites that do not provide date and source of their information. 81% started their search at a search engine or at a web portal like Yahoo, AOL or MSN. The others started at a health information site.

Is 1000 extra hits a month enough? How about 1000 a week, a day, an hour?

Logic alone tells me that there is really no such thing as enough.

How about setting goals for growth. As we mentioned before, should I try to get an extra 1000 hits a month?

That's not answer. I think you should have one goal, To build as much traffic as you possibly can as quick as you can.

So how does one go about accomplishing this?

There are many ways. One of more common ones these days are traffic exchanges, such as start page and surfing programs.

These can produce a lot of traffic. But real trick here is using those hits so they "count". You can find out more about that in my article "Surfing For Success"

http://www.moneyforhire.com/article30.htm

There are a lot of them and some give higher quality traffic then others. In fact with autosurf type programs becoming more prevalent all time, you don't even have to be there to get credits and nobody's looking when your credits disappear either.

I'm going to share a little trick you can use to convert surfing with an auto surf program into credits from one of top start page programs on net. It may work with some others but many of them will approve your URLs, then turn around and cancel them.

If you don't already have an account, open one with these two.

Join KickStartHits http://www.moneyforhire.com/kickstart

NoMoreHits http://www.moneyforhire.com/nomorehits

( Note: Feel free to use home page URLs to sign up for these traffic programs. This article is certainly not about me getting traffic sign ups. LOL )

Once you have accounts with both programs, Set URL where you send traffic for KickStartHits program to your NoMoreHits start page. The page you use for surfing.

KickStartHits URL to send traffic = NoMoreHits StartPage

Then set your NoMoreHits destination URL to website you want to receive traffic.

NoMoreHits URL to send traffic = Your Website where you want traffic

Now just log in to KickStartHits and let it surf while you are online. Watch your NoMoreHits credits start building quickly.

Great way to get some quality hit exchange traffic. NoMoreHits has reputation of being one of top two or three on net. Set KickStartHits as your home page and each time you launch your browser, you will continue to earn hits as long as your browser is on.

This can generate a lot of hits each month. Combine this with techniques I describe in following article:

http://www.moneyforhire.com/article30.htm

This is a great technique to increase your website effectiveness. But, is it enough? Let's try for more!

Here is method that I ran across a while back. The program is set up by Markus Allen. I'm going to warn you before you head to his site, Markus went overboard with pop-ups, pop-unders and a lot of other things along those lines.

But and this is a huge BUT, results are what counts and this one delivers. You only have to suffer through pop-up nightmare once and you can build a nice surge of traffic. Well worth effort and putting up with pop-up network. :o) The nice thing about this one is it will keep producing over a period of time as well.

To get started, head here

http://www.markusallen.org/cgi-bin/r.pl?A=198817070&PC=1

Sign up for: FREE e-mail report reveals how to triple your viral traffic to your Web site in just 12 days. (It is main program on page)

Then just follow instructions in report each day. This will generate even more traffic. But is it enough?

Want more? You got it!

The first two methods I mentioned were both free and both worth some very nice traffic.

This next method can be carried out free but you had better have some time and submission software. I would suggest to fork out cash. I try and find as many free methods as possible but this one is worth every cent you'll spend.

As you have no doubt heard many times, getting links to your site should be a very big part of everyone's marketing strategy.

There are so many things to get done that work still overlaps from one day to next. You must pick and choose what is more important to your business and your life as well. I already work a 28 hour day and need to increase that by at least 4 to 6 hours in next few weeks or risk welfare of my business. :o)