Driving traffic to your site is probably the most important aspect when it comes to Online Success. As we know, without traffic, a well designed, pretty site will be useless. And, also, there are tons of ways to drive traffic to your website. For some, driving traffic to their website becomes overwhelming…
Traffic can be delivered to your site for free or you can pay for it. As we understand, anyone would rather spend cash on better things. And let us tell you that the quality of Free traffic can be just as good as paid traffic.
There are two types of Traffic we will discuss. Online and Offline traffic.
Online Methods:
*Online Optimization*
This is the most important method that can drive thousands of free visitors to your site from search engines for free. To emphasize on the importance… If you rank high enough in the most popular search engines like Yahoo, Google or MSN, you can forget about any (or all) methods below as the traffic from this method will be enough.
*Write A Free Downloadable Ebook*
You can write a free downloadable ebook about your website subject, activities and product or services you are offering. Encourage your visitors to download, read and forward you ebook to their contacts as a free gift. This method is called Viral Marketing as you will continuously receive visitors to your site without lifting a finger. This method can deliver a steady traffic to your site after a while, depending how quickly your ebook becomes popular.
If you don’t know how to write an ebook, you can pay someone to write an ebook for you for a one time fee. This investment from you would be very useful as this method will, both, advertise your services and deliver constant traffic for you.
One of the best and easiest ways to hire someone to write an ebook for you is at www.elance.com. Simply tell them what you want the ebook to be about and they will do it for you. You are looking at $100-$200 to have them write an ebook for you.
*Add A Signature To Your Emails*
Make a simple signature for your email, provide your website’s URL, provide the download link for your ebook and brief description what your website is about.
*Set Up An Autoresponder*
Many of your visitors will somehow come to your site, and leave right away and never come back. Having an Autoresponder is an excellent way to remind them to come back to your site as you captured their name and email from your site.
A good program to set up an Autoresponder is GetResponse.com. You can set up your account for free and test the waters. You will be surprised how responsive some visitors are.
*Exchange Links*
Exchanging links with other webmasters is a good way to drive free traffic to your site. However, be very cautious doing this. Exchanging your links excessively and with sites that are not related to yours, will put you in risk of search engines penalizing your site’s ranking. Exchanging links with approximately 20 websites (showing their link) on your home page should do the trick.
*Banner Exchange*
Banner exchange service have been around for a long time and is very simple to use. You can sign up to a banner exchange program for free, and install their code on your pages. Your advert will show on other people’s pages in exchange for you showing their ads on your pages.
*Forum Participation*
Participation in forums can be very effective as long as people see you as an expert in a particular subject. For instance, try to help out other people answering their questions in full, which will in return get people to be interested in what you have to offer on your site.
*Write Articles*
Write articles and submit them to directories. You may be intimidated by writing an article as it is not always easy to write a good copy. However, keep in mind that writing about anything is pretty easy if you are an expert in it and you can talk about it with your friends (for example). So pick a topic that you know about and make sure it is related to your website's topic as well. Do you have a topic in mind? Good, here is a simple format to follow when writing an article:
-Research A Subject (or you may know already what you will write about)
-Create A Strong Title (create a catchy phrase or a question relating to a need)
-Divide your article in 3-7 (or more) parts. Each part can contain only 2-3 sentences and/or brief explanation
-Pick a resource box before finishing your article (this is where you will place a link or advert pointing to your site)
-Write your article first and then proof read to edit
-Submit
*Submit Your Site*
This is missed by many, however, it is very important to submit your site to Web Directories. This is definitely a beneficial method as your site will be seen by potential prospects and your site's link is placed on another site which increases your search engine ranking.
*Create Groups*
-Create group in Yahoo, MSN, and Google. This is where you can create a community of people who are interested in similar topics as you. You can share knowledge and these are contacts that are willing to read your messages.
*Yahoo Answers*
Participate in Yahoo Answers. Search for questions that are similar to your website's topic. Answer those questions briefly and invite the person who placed the question to come and visit your website. This method is powerful because if anyone else comes across this same question and looks through the answers, he/she will probably follow your link to your website as well.
*Join Network Communities*
Join and submit your sites in Network Community sites. This is where you can chat, email, blog and make long term partnerships with other online marketers. A very good and effective website is Zion5.
*Join Traffic Generating Sites*
Free traffic exchange programs can be very effective ways to deliver quality traffic to your site. There are two traffic exchange programs that I would strongly suggest as you can target your ads to prospects only interested in what you have to offer. Recommendations are:
-TrafficSwarm
-TrafficG
Many times overseen... You can place comments on other blogs and invite browsers to check your site as well.
*Sign Up, Get Traffic*
-For a 5 minute work, you can get 1000 visitors to your site for free. Of course the more you work on this, the more traffic you can deliver to your site. There is a site which is designed to help everyone build referrals in their programs (free to join programs). For each program you join, you get at least one credit. You can use this one credit to drive up to 1000 visitors to your site by exchanging your earned credit for a Link Exposure. Click Here to learn more about this program.
Offline Methods
Although many of the offline methods may seem time consuming, they can be worth your efforts.
*Publish Flyers*
One way is to publish flyers in your area, and you don't have to pay for it. You can make flyers at home and with very little budget. Prepare a few hundred and distribute them every weekend. Your fliers will generate a few hundred visitors per month. I know it doesn't seem much but keep in mind that these people are usually half way to being sold by you and conversion rates of sales with this method are pretty high.
*Wrap Up Your Car*
Wrapping Up your car simply means that you would place a sticker on your vehicle to advertise your site. Many people sell spaces on their car to advertise your business. It can cost about $5 per month or less if you are willing to have people advertise your website. If not, you can place a sticker on your own car and have someone place it on your car, usually on rear window. Drive your car and you will notice a free resource of traffic to your site from this.
*Spread The Word*
Often overlooked... Tell your friends and family about your website and its activities. You will be surprised how far your word will go.
*Write Articles*
Article writing can be done, both, online and offline. Any article you write online, submit it to Newspapers and Magazines as well. You will receive a good about of traffic from this.
For a successful business, you have to do this on a regular basis and you will generate traffic to your site steadily.
