Get Free Traffic

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Once upon a time, some crooner topped the charts with a little ditty called “Little Things Mean a Lot”.

The message is true.  The tiny CAN be consequential.  Free traffic generation is a great case in point.

Most of us have at least some idea of the bigger ways to generate free traffic.  Article marketing, for instance seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongues at all times.

But there are little ways.  Tiny, simple ways.  And these techniques can be almost invisible.  And their impact can seem trivial.  Until we start adding them altogether.  All of those little things produce a sum of visitors that can be very impressive.

What are these little things?  Things like forum profiles, blog commenting, and even using photos the right way to maximize their SEO value.  Those are just three of many examples.

If you want more traffic, you might want to consider mastering a hand of the little things.  They can make a very large difference.

In theory, it’s all rather simple.  You join a forum.  You set up an account with a signature line linking back to your website.  You begin posting on the forum, providing high-quality information and hoping to get some attention for your site.

Then you notice that the signature that appeared within your user control panel isn’t showing up on the actual forum site.  What’s happening?

It might be a forum rule.  They’re often overlooked, hidden in stickies on the top of threads or buried.

Many forums don’t allow new members’ posts to include a signature.

Others allow the signature, but apply a “no follow” tag to the photo.

There are many variations of the limitation, all of which are designed to stop would-be forum spammers from practicing their evil deeds.

If you’ve been trying to make something happen in at forum and can’t see your signature, start checking the fine print.  You might not be eligible.  You can either run off to another forum in search of a new link fix or you can wait it out and “earn your stripes“.

You’ve had it beaten into your head since your earliest days.  Nothing is free.  There’s no such thing as a free lunch.  There’s always a catch.

So, when people talk about free traffic, you begin looking for the hidden price tag.

And it’s not hard to find.  Free traffic isn’t free.  You just pay for it with time and effort instead of money.  Instead of pouring cash into your site’s promotion, you pour sweat equity into the venture.  You must consider the value of your time instead of thinking of it as truly “free”.  After all, your time has value, right?  Of course it does.

Free traffic isn’t really free.

But that doesn’t mean it’s overpriced.  There are several cash-free ways to drive traffic that produce results that more than justify the time expenditure involved in their implementation.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but “free” traffic generation techniques come about as close as you can get when you’re using the right ones in the right ways.

Everyone knows that video is hot right now.  It’s probably the best way around to drive traffic.  All you need is a short clip and a good distribution plan to start finding visitors to your site by utilizing a clever or fun video.

What makes the whole thing even better is the fact that video technology prices have finally slid enough that video production equipment is within everyone’s reach.  New laptops have built in cameras.  You can get a fully functional webcam from the store for $20.  Everyone has something around to make a video now.

And those who don’t can create computer based slideshows using free software and free/royalty-free images.

The excuses for staying away from video are dying.  If you’re not using video to drive traffic, you should start today.  The start-up costs are literally nonexistent and marketers in every niche are finding that a single quick video can make a great deal of difference in site traffic.

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.

Every now and then a blogger discovers that the best way to promote something would be to show their audience rather than tell about it. Video can be a very powerful medium, and not just because it’s gaining in popularity. Youtube, Vimeo,Viddler  and Blip.tv are just three of the many free video submission sites available on the Internet.

By creating an account at any free video submission sites, you can video blog about a product you’re trying out, share content that you would have otherwise blogged, or create a tutorial and instructional video blog on how to do something. Posting the video on your site as well on the submission site introduces you to a new network of readers and viewers. Keyword tagging helps viewers find your video page faster.

In order to get free website traffic back to your blog from the videos you create, add your url to the videos as well as your public profile on the video site. Many video bloggers include a line that reads “for more information…” and input their URL. Adding numerous video and building a channel are an excellent way to gain new readers and viewers on to your site.