Get Free Traffic

Archive for March, 2010

There’s an easy little way to drive free traffic to your website and, if you’re like most people, you probably aren’t doing it.

You should have the URL of your site, in the form of a clickable link, as part of the signature attached to every email you send.  It takes about 5 seconds to set up and it can deliver extra traffic to your site.

You’re probably thinking that the traffic production will be limited, at best.  And you’re right.  An email signature isn’t going to lead to any server overloads.

Over time, however, it’s significant.  Think about how many emails you’ve sent out in the last several years.  What if you would have spent those five seconds fixing up your email signature back then?

How many sales did you miss?  How many new clients did you accidentally avoid.

Five seconds.  That’s all it takes.  And in the long run, it does matter.

Put your link in your email signature right away.

When you’re running a website and are trying to make money in the Internet marketing business, you tend to think of things in terms of the Internet almost exclusively.  All of that old school brick and mortar stuff doesn’t seem all that important.  You look for ways to promote your site and to drive traffic on the web.

It might be a good idea to look back over your shoulder, though.  You may be planted in front of a monitor, but you still live in the “real world,” surrounded by real people.  Maybe it’s time to start thinking outside of the ‘Net.

Is your URL on your stationery?  Is your site clearly advertised on a business card?  Do you have physical items that those aforementioned real people can handle and use that remind them of your web presence?

Offline promotion strategies can be a great way to drive traffic.  Many of them are free.  Don’t get so lost in the Internet that you forget how much time other people spend out there in the brick and mortar world.

Only a few short years ago, directories had a lot of online clout.  Everyone was obsessed with finding a way to get their site into DMOZ.  People were handing money over to Yahoo in large bundles to get into their directory.  And thousands of little site directories popped up all over the web, offering the promise of an SEO-friendly backlink in exchange for a site submission.

Times have changed.  It would be premature to call the directories dead, but they’re headed in that direction.  The search engines once relied upon them.  Today, those same engines are downgrading the value of site directory links.  You’re better off making a comment on a “do follow” blog than you are submitting to another directory.

There is one exception.  Some of the niche-specific directories still have real value.  That’s not because Google still loves them, though.  It’s because real people end up bumping into them while doing research.  That’s right, the only directories that still really matter are those that are performing the traditional role of a directory!

If you can find relevant niche directories, submit your sites.  Don’t worry about the others.  Sure, you might as well submit to DMOZ, but don’t worry about your status as they wait for years to look at your link.  And keep your wallet away from Yahoo while you’re at it.

Directories.  My, how times have changed!

Craigslist has gone through the usual American media target cycle.  It finally appeared on the national media’s radar.  It became the darling of the press, the belle of the reporters’ ball.  Then, it quickly slid into disfavor.  Now it’s reviled.

Based on what you hear on TV and in the papers, Craigslist is nothing more than a shadowy netherworld where sketchy people meet to trade stolen goods for drugs or guns.  It’s the kind of place where women and men alike can find creepy dates with perverted soulless monsters.

They don’t mention the fact that it’s a good way to drive some free traffic to your site.  Your ad on Craigslist is free.  And if you write a good one, putting it in the right place, you can get some attention.  It’s a nice way to grab a few extra visitors for very little work.  It’s also a repeatable process.  You can do it again and again.

If you can get past the scary media tall tales and look at Craigslist with something approximating a rational perspective, you’ll see that it really does have a lot to offer–including free traffic.

If you want to snag free traffic for you site, you have a variety of options at your disposal.  You can do the Twitter thing.  You can get involved in the social bookmarking and networking scenes.  You can find busy forums filled with people talking about your niche.  You can find relevant blogs and comment on them.

All of these options have something in common.  If you’re going to make them work for you, it’s essential to understand the cultures involved. We’re not talking about the national or ethnic heritages of participants in these groups, we’re talking about the way the groups themselves operate.

They’re all little semi-insular communities.  They have their own mores and conventions.  They have unwritten rules.  There are expectations.

If you hop right on in trying like mad to sell, sell, sell, you’re probably going to find yourself an outsider, on the wrong side of the cultural divide.  Do your homework.  Learn the law of the land.  Find a way to exist within those communities and then (and only then) can you hope to generate free traffic via your participation.

You likely read a dozen articles and blogs a day right? If you’re like a lot of people, you have a lot to say about what you read. Beyond sitting and shaking your head and either nodding in agreement or silently thinking “no that’s not right,” you could be adding value to what you read and bringing direct traffic back to your site by commenting on the blogs you read every day.

Blog commenting gives you opportunities to not only share your opinion on what you read but it also introduces other readers and the blog owner to you and your own website. The best part of this introduction is that whether people agree with your comments or not, you’ve given them the key they need to visit your site and bring you new and unique traffic.

By visiting multiple blogs and leaving comments, you share valuable information and thoughts with a whole community of people. You may find them coming to your site simply to say thank you for the comments while other people may let you know that they found your site through a comment you left on another blog. Every person who reads your comment is potential free traffic to your website.

One thing that is known about the blog community is that bloggers are always willing to help a fellow blogger. Whether you’re trying to get your name known to the blog community or you are looking to increase the amount of free traffic you receive.

Often, a blogger may need to take a break from blogging but doesn’t want to lose traffic to their site while they are on hiatus. They may ask other bloggers to fill in for them as guest bloggers. Guest bloggers write related content to be posted on the other blogger’s home site. If you’re ever asked to be a guest blogger take advantage of the opportunity to find new readers and get new traffic.

Your posts will be read by the other blogger’s visitors and readers. Every day that you post as a guest blogger, you can blog about topics that have appeared on your own page and use those topics as click throughs to your own blog or you can simply add your URL to your bio in every post. Guest posting is a great way to introduce yourself to a new community and interact with readers and possibly gain new ones.