With the way the economy is going, not everyone can afford to expend massive amounts of money on advertising their website or blog. The only solution is to devise creative (and free) ways to bring in traffic. The question then arises if you’ll take any traffic you can get, or if you’re looking for niche-targeted traffic. Either way, the tips I will discuss in this post can be adapted for whatever you want.
Free Traffic Methods
1. SEO – Search Engine Optimization. This may seem like a no-brainer but it’s actually the most effective way to bring in visitors and can often be done at no cost. Optimizing your site for search engines brings in organic (and often highly targeted) traffic.
2. Social Networking – Twitter, Facebook, etc. While there are many people who feel Twitter is much more popular than it should be (myself included) it is important to realize the potential it carries due to this popularity. It’s free to sign-up and participate and it is a great way to bring in free traffic. Other social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are also useful. If you own a blog, try creating some social networking profiles for it and adding as many people as possible. Facebook has added functionality with it’s fan/group system.
3. Traffic Exchanges. Swap advertising space with other webmasters or explore the possibilities that traffic exchange systems such as EasyHits4U have to offer. Exchanging things is always a great system because both parties get what they need.
4. YouTube. Depending on your niche you may be able to produce videos that introduce your content and help bring people to your site. You can try writing about your site in the video’s description. For example, “This video is brought to you by RunningOnlineBusiness.com – a blog dedicated to teaching you about online business and how to make money online.”
5. Article Submission. Write an informative, high-quality article and submit it to various article directories. You can find a ton with a simple Google search. The directories give you a ‘resource box’ which has information and a link back to your site in your article. Many people that try this method walk away satisfied. The key is writing a useful article.
6. RSS Directories. While not extremely easy to find, there are entire directories setup to accept your RSS feed(s), and if you post quality material on your blog then this method should produce promising results.
7. Regular Directories. I’ve never heard of anyone getting significant traffic from directory submissions, but it is possible. Either way, the backlinks are valuable so it’s always worth a try.
8. Blog Commenting. I am a huge fan of blog commenting. I absolutely love receiving comments on my blog and I enjoy leaving comments on the blogs of others as well. This method produces traffic and nice backlinks. Be sure you aren’t spamming or doing anything you wouldn’t want someone to do to you. On a similar note, making your blog ‘DoFollow’ will increase traffic because people want to post comments to get a backlink. If you do this, however, be ready to deny a lot of spam.
9. Guest Posting. Most blog owners (once again, myself included) will allow you to write a post for their blog and will, in exchange, place some information about you or your blog, as well as a link or two, at the top of the article. If you can find someone who will allow you to write a guest post for them, and you can make sure you meet their standard of quality, this is a wonderful way to get free traffic and backlinks.
10. Forums. Probably the best invention known to man, forums can provide you with a constant flow of traffic. Sign-up to a forum in your niche and place a link to your blog or site in your signature. With every post you make, exposure for your links is gained. Assuming you contribute nicely to the community and your posts are not spam, people will click on your links.
11. Freebies! Offer people something for free on your blog. This will always result in great traffic. In one of my posts here at RunningOnlineBusiness I gave out free lists of DoFollow blogs. It pulled in some nice traffic and also was a way for me to give back to the community. If you decide to write and give away something like an eBook, be sure to include a link back to your site in it.
12. Social Bookmarks. Submit your posts to Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, and other social bookmarking websites. Encourage your visitors to do the same. This has the potential to bring you traffic if your posts are interesting enough.
Well, that’s all I have for now! Hopefully you learned something from this post and are prepared to go out and start pulling in free traffic for your blog. Let me know by leaving a comment below if you have any methods to add to the list, if you’ve tried anything I talked about in this post, or even if you need some help!
Free Traffic Methods
1. SEO – Search Engine Optimization. This may seem like a no-brainer but it’s actually the most effective way to bring in visitors and can often be done at no cost. Optimizing your site for search engines brings in organic (and often highly targeted) traffic.
2. Social Networking – Twitter, Facebook, etc. While there are many people who feel Twitter is much more popular than it should be (myself included) it is important to realize the potential it carries due to this popularity. It’s free to sign-up and participate and it is a great way to bring in free traffic. Other social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are also useful. If you own a blog, try creating some social networking profiles for it and adding as many people as possible. Facebook has added functionality with it’s fan/group system.
3. Traffic Exchanges. Swap advertising space with other webmasters or explore the possibilities that traffic exchange systems such as EasyHits4U have to offer. Exchanging things is always a great system because both parties get what they need.
4. YouTube. Depending on your niche you may be able to produce videos that introduce your content and help bring people to your site. You can try writing about your site in the video’s description. For example, “This video is brought to you by RunningOnlineBusiness.com – a blog dedicated to teaching you about online business and how to make money online.”
5. Article Submission. Write an informative, high-quality article and submit it to various article directories. You can find a ton with a simple Google search. The directories give you a ‘resource box’ which has information and a link back to your site in your article. Many people that try this method walk away satisfied. The key is writing a useful article.
6. RSS Directories. While not extremely easy to find, there are entire directories setup to accept your RSS feed(s), and if you post quality material on your blog then this method should produce promising results.
7. Regular Directories. I’ve never heard of anyone getting significant traffic from directory submissions, but it is possible. Either way, the backlinks are valuable so it’s always worth a try.
8. Blog Commenting. I am a huge fan of blog commenting. I absolutely love receiving comments on my blog and I enjoy leaving comments on the blogs of others as well. This method produces traffic and nice backlinks. Be sure you aren’t spamming or doing anything you wouldn’t want someone to do to you. On a similar note, making your blog ‘DoFollow’ will increase traffic because people want to post comments to get a backlink. If you do this, however, be ready to deny a lot of spam.
9. Guest Posting. Most blog owners (once again, myself included) will allow you to write a post for their blog and will, in exchange, place some information about you or your blog, as well as a link or two, at the top of the article. If you can find someone who will allow you to write a guest post for them, and you can make sure you meet their standard of quality, this is a wonderful way to get free traffic and backlinks.
10. Forums. Probably the best invention known to man, forums can provide you with a constant flow of traffic. Sign-up to a forum in your niche and place a link to your blog or site in your signature. With every post you make, exposure for your links is gained. Assuming you contribute nicely to the community and your posts are not spam, people will click on your links.
11. Freebies! Offer people something for free on your blog. This will always result in great traffic. In one of my posts here at RunningOnlineBusiness I gave out free lists of DoFollow blogs. It pulled in some nice traffic and also was a way for me to give back to the community. If you decide to write and give away something like an eBook, be sure to include a link back to your site in it.
12. Social Bookmarks. Submit your posts to Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, and other social bookmarking websites. Encourage your visitors to do the same. This has the potential to bring you traffic if your posts are interesting enough.
Well, that’s all I have for now! Hopefully you learned something from this post and are prepared to go out and start pulling in free traffic for your blog. Let me know by leaving a comment below if you have any methods to add to the list, if you’ve tried anything I talked about in this post, or even if you need some help!
