7 Free Traffic Methods That Rock |  | Visited: 1718 |
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| | by David Jackson
November 17, 2009 |
You've probably heard the proverb, "If you want to catch fish, fish where the
fish are." Well, that exact same principle applies to Internet Marketing as well
- especially when it comes to generating free traffic to your website.
So where should you fish for free traffic? And how do you know what works and
what doesn't? Believe it or not, I once had the exact same questions. To
discover the answers, I read articles like this one and started experimenting
with a variety of free traffic methods.
This article is the result of those experiments. Following are seven free
traffic methods that I've used successfully over the past year, and continue to
use today. What you are about to read is not speculation, it's fact.
1. Search Engine Optimization
I don't consider myself an SEO expert by any means. But I've taught myself
enough basic SEO, so that I can at least optimize my own website well enough to
generate a decent amount of free traffic. Optimizing your website should be one
of the first things you do. Focus your attention on basic SEO techniques. For
example, make sure your title tags contain your primary keywords.
Also, make sure your description and keyword tags are all properly optimized.
And don't repeat your keywords more than twice. Any more than that could be
interpreted as spamming by the search engines, and your website could be
penalized as a result. Using different variations of your keywords is the best
approach.
Believe it or not, these simple but basic steps really do make a difference.
One of my favorite resources for learning basic search engine optimization
techniques is Jill Whalen's, HighRankings.com.
2. Press Releases
If you've never used a press release to promote your business, you're missing
out on a proven and powerful free traffic method. A properly constructed press
release brings a news slant to your promotion, as opposed to a hyped-up,
blatantly obvious advertisement. The purpose of a press release is not to make
the sale, but rather to inform the reader. The whole idea is to get prospects to
visit your website, and attempt to convert them into customers there.
After writing your press release, if it reads like an advertisement, my
advice to you is rewrite it. If you want to see samples of properly constructed
press releases, visit press release distribution services like PRWeb.com and
PR.com. One last thing, in addition to syndicating your press releases online,
you should also circulate your releases offline. Send your press releases to
local newspapers, and radio and tv stations.
3. Article Marketing
I have to admit, out of all the free traffic methods that I use, article
marketing is my absolute favorite. Why? Well, there are a variety of reasons.
But the main reason is because article marketing allows you to laser target your
traffic to the nth degree. Here's how: When you write an article and submit it
to authority sites like Promotion World, people go searching for those articles
based on the subject matter they're interested in.
For example, photographers seek out and read articles about photography.
Techies read articles about technology, and people interested in search engine
optimization read articles about SEO, and so on and so forth. The point is,
people read about things that interest them. That means if you write articles
about specific topics, the people reading your articles are already targeted.
4. Forums
If you aren't familiar with online forums, I highly recommend that you get
familiar with them. Because topical forums are an excellent way for you to
promote your business, and generate free traffic to your website. And the
possibilities are endless. Name the topic, and there's probably a forum for it.
For example, if you were a virtual assistant targeting small business owners,
you could join small business forums like StartupNation or Small Business Ideas
forum.
The key to having success with forums is participation. You have to
participate in the various discussions to get free exposure for your
business.
So how does participating in forum discussions benefit your business? On most
forums you are allowed to promote your business with something called a
"signature file." What's a signature file? A signature or "sig" file is
basically a little advertisement (similar to a classified ad) about your
business that is automatically attached to every forum post you make.
In fact, on many forums your sig file is the only place that you're allowed
to promote your business for free.
Anyway, the more you participate in forum discussions, the more members get
to know and trust you - especially if you provide solid, useful advice. As a
consequence, forum members as well as lurkers (people who visit forums but
aren't members) will read your sig file and click on it. I should mention that
in order to receive a significant number of click-throughs, your sig file needs
to be interesting and well-written. You need to give people a compelling reason
to click-through to your site. For example, "Free interesting, illustrated SEO
report!" Or "Free podcasting teleseminar!"
By the way, you can find forums that you're interested in by going to your
favorite search engine and typing in a topic of your choosing followed by the
word "forums." For example, "pet forums."
5. Blogging
No matter where you look these days, it seems everybody is blogging. Well,
there's a reason for that. When it comes to generating free traffic, blogging
works. Millions of people read and make comments on their favorite blogs daily.
And when they stumble across a new blog they like, they also tell their friends
about it. And here's an added bonus. Search engines love blogs. Why? Well, the
short, simple answer is because of their constantly changing, high content
value. But it goes much deeper than that. This is what Fredrik Wacka of
Corporate Blogging Blog had to say in his article, Why Blogs Rank High In Search
Engines:
"If I wanted to pick one single reason I would actually choose this one: In a
blog you talk. You engage in conversations. You think out loud, in a way. The
things you say are (hopefully) everything but the standard corporate bullxxxx.
This means you are filling the engines' databases with relevant keywords -
relevant because most of us search for the words or phrases we use daily. The
same words you use in the blog because you talk instead of sending messages to
the target audience." (Source: WebProNews)
Fredrik makes a lot of sense. Relevant keywords is indeed one of the primary
reasons why blogs do so well in the search engines. By the way, if you'd like to
give blogging a try, both Blogger and WordPress make it relatively easy to get
started.
Okay, once you have a blog, what should you blog about? That's really up to
you. I'm knowledgeable about marketing, so that's what I blog about. My advice:
Blog about something you're passionate about. Blog about what you know.
6. Social Networking
During the last presidential election, Barack Obama used social networking
sites far more effectively than John McCain. Obama's campaign brilliantly used
sites like FaceBook, MySpace and YouTube to target young voters, and generate
massive free traffic to his website. As a result, Obama won the youth vote by a
substantial margin. You could reasonably argue that social networking helped get
Obama elected president. Is that possible? Are social networking sites really
that influential?
In a word, yes - because there's power in numbers. And social networking
sites like FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace and a host of other social networking
sites have huge a huge number of users - tens of millions, in fact. So, how can
you use those numbers to your advantage like Obama did?
Well, if you use social networking sites strictly for business purposes like
I do, you can quickly build up a network of serious business contacts, and keep
them informed of your business activities. For example, notification of new
product launches, special sales, updates, announce seminars and teleconferences,
etc.
I'm a Twitter user, and one of the ways I use Twitter to generate free
traffic to my website is by posting free marketing tips for others to benefit
from. I also post links to my latest articles. Giving away something of value
for free is a highly effective marketing technique, and an excellent way to
build up your credibility and develop followers - as well as grow your mailing
list. In addition, whenever I make a new blog post, I post a link to it on
Twitter.
That being said, while social networking sites can generate significant free
traffic to your website, it's important to follow certain rules of etiquette.
One major rule is "no blatant self-promotion!" Spamming will kill your
credibility, and reputation, and sabotage your promotion efforts. Don't
spam.
7. Yahoo Answers
About a month ago, I joined Yahoo Answers. For those of you who are
unfamiliar with YA, it's a free question and answer website that allows users to
submit questions that are then answered by other YA users.
How popular is Yahoo Answers? Well, as of October 2009, YA had over 179
million users - making it the second most popular reference site on the Internet
after Wikipedia, according to marketing research specialists Comscore.
So what's the verdict after one month? So far, so good. Analyzing my traffic
data, I've noticed that whenever I answer questions on YA, I receive an
immediate surge of traffic to my website. In addition, several colleagues of
mine who are also subscribers of YA, have told me they also notice a spike in
traffic, whenever they answer questions at YA.
In conclusion, while I've listed seven free traffic methods, there are, of
course, many other ways that you can generate free traffic to your website.
Perhaps, I'll write about those in another article. In the meantime, I hope I've
given you some good ideas, and helped get your creative juices flowing. Good
luck!
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