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!