More on Free Traffic and Free Traffic Sites

Even after I finished my post last night I couldn't help thinking about why people were still using free traffic sites - it seemed like a flawed logic to me. But I couldn't escape the fact that I had received some (ok minimal but some nonetheless) traffic from using these options.

I think the key is that you could have a thousand visitors per day but if they are not really interested in what you have to offer then you are not going to make any money. The key to making sales is getting targeted traffic and I think there are better ways of getting that than using free traffic sites.

One of the most common and effective ways of getting free targeted traffic to your site is article marketing. Now this entails writing articles based on your the main keywords of your site and submitting them to article sites like EzineArticles.com. EzineArticles is an article directory site and you can place your articles there for free so that other publishers can come in and use your content for free. Now before you start worrying about the whole free aspect of this - there is a good side to this. When publishers use your articles they have to use the whole thing, and they are not allowed to change it in any way. Therefore you get added exposure from an increasing number of people because the link to your site or special offer will be in the resource or author box that is attached to your article, and which publishers can't remove - you get exposure, you get credibility within your niche and you get a back link which helps improve your ranking in Google.

If you are dead set on the fact that you are not a writer and you can't afford to outsource the work then you can look at posting comments on blogs and forums. If you run a search for your keywords and "blogs" or "forums" you will find plenty of them. Simply read over those blogs and forums that seem to have a lot of members, make some useful comments and you will be leaving your link in the signature line - perfectly placed for other people interested in your niche to click on.

Throwing in a few posts on Twitter can't hurt either. Again it is free - you can put links in your posts (but try not to do that every time or people will just ignore your posts) and it only takes a few minutes a day to start building a following. RSS feed sites like FeedAge and Feedest are another two free places you can submit your blog URL to for more exposure. StumbleUpon can also improve your rankings and increase your targeted visitor count.

A really good IM I was watching the other day mentioned that building traffic in a community environment did take time but that in the long run it was the most effective way of doing it. If you are in your niche for the long term, and you need to use free marketing methods, then this is honestly the best way to go about it.

I have my IM call tomorrow night - please don't let this be another scam or sales pitch :)

Best wishes
Lisa