Getting Free Traffic: 11 Simple Methods

As my father used to say, "Money and Time are the only real assets in this world." Buying traffic is clearly the simplest means of driving traffic to your website. But you probably don't have a lot of money to use for building traffic. I didn't when I started, either. So, you will just have to invest your other asset - time.

I am giving you some techniques to build traffic that take a lot of time, but they are absolutely free and will result in a good amount of targeted, not generic, traffic. You will shortly be making enough money to buy traffic if your site is correctly optimized to produce profits. Once you have this rolling and can afford to buy traffic, you will have the time to build more websites.

So, here are the 11 techniques that are surefire free traffic getters:

Here is a tip that is so often passed up, I am not even numbering it: submit your website to as many search engines as you can including the big ones such as Google, MSN and Yahoo.

1. This technique is known as Bummarketing and has proven to work. Write a number of articles, say 5 to 10, and use free article directories to submit them. To make this work, you need to do two things: optimize the articles for at least one keyword that your site targets and be certain to include a link to your website in your bio box.

2. Leave relevant comments that include a backlink to your website on blogs you find that are related to your topic. Go to answers at yahoo-dot-com and find questions related to the topic on your site and answer them. Also, locate, join and become active in posting in popular forums that are focused on your site's topic. Be sure to include your site's link in your signature.

3. This can have a significant impact. If you are not familiar with press releases, take the time to research how they are written before you attempt it as they are not written in the same was an article is. After you know how, write a press release. Then submit a few variations of it to a few press release sites along the lines of prweb-dot-com.

4. You may know of a product or service you have used and like. Offer to write your unbiased testimonial in exchange for a backlink to your website.

5. This is a good one since blogs are so popular. Start your own blogs on wordpress-dot-com and blogger-dot-com. Be sure to put a link back to your website in them and submit your blogs to the many blog directories that are available for free. Keep your blogs updated regularly and you will pull in an abundance of traffic.

6. There are quite a few free classified ad sites such as craigslist-dot-com where you can post ads with your link. Live links can be posted in the best ones but post in the ones that don't allow it anyway. Write a good ad and people will be motivated to copy and paste or type your web address in their browsers anyway. Be sure you put your ad in the right category or it can't help you much.

7. Get traffic every time you send an email by putting your site's link in your email signature. This is an easy one!

8. Social bookmarking sites such as Myspace are good places for traffic generation. Start a page on as many as you can find and be sure your link is posted there in an easy to find place. Squidoo is another good option. Open some accounts and create relevant lenses to your site the include your link.

9. Youtube is a great place to submit a viral video. You don't even need to be knowledgeable in video production, just create a simple, relevant slideshow in powerpoint, include some nice background music and it will get the job done nicely.

10. Use Google to search your main keywords. This will help you find related sites in the top results that might allow you to exchange reciprocal links.

11. Write a short report or ebook up to 20 pages or so, or find one that has the rights brand it with your link and give it away. Then locate several free ebook directories and submit it. This can be repeated with several such ebooks or reports.

Though not free, this tip is worth putting a little money into. Make a list of variations or misspellings of your own domain name and/or those of some of your competition. Buy a good one that is available and use it to send traffic to your site through redirection.

Looks like a lot of work, doesn't it? It is but you don't have to do all of them, al least not all at once. Choose one or two you feel comfortable doing and do those now. Commit half an hour to an hour every day to free traffic building. Then choose another one or two once the first two are established and before you know it, you will have enough money to buy traffic. Then you will be able to focus your efforts and time to build up your internet business.

About The Author-- Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of Be Successful News, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business.

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