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View Full Version : Ways to build up free traffic



seolman
02-07-2009, 01:39 AM
In my experience, the very best way to build up great long term traffic is good old fashioned organic SEO. However, organic SEO can take time and is sped up by visitors seeing your site and hopefully linking to your site or recommending it. Here are a few ways I have found to build up free traffic for a new site:

a) Forum Signatures
b) Twitter posts & retweets
c) Strategically placed links on other web sites
d) Meaningful comments on quality Blogs
e) Diggs, Sphinns and other promos (legitimate ones for quality posts)
f) Asking bloggers to review your site

I would love to hear ideas from you about how you have built up traffic to your site - or any interesting experiences you have heard about how others may have done so.

nealrm
02-07-2009, 08:36 AM
Seolman - good points. These are great ideas on how to promote your site on the web. But let not forget also promoting a site off the web. It's harder to find completely free advertisements off the web, but it is possible to find cheap advertising. You just need to be creative.

Sources of cheap advertising:
1) Adding your site to your business card.
2) Sponsoring local little league teams.
3) Being involved with the chamber of Commerce.

orion_joel
02-07-2009, 09:30 AM
Facebook and myspace updates could go in, depending of course on the interests of your friends on these services and what sort of content you are offering on your site. For example sometimes a status update on facebook will catch my attention where other times it wont.

Harold Mansfield
02-07-2009, 03:37 PM
Online, article marketing still holds a great deal of value for tackling low competition, or long tail keywords and phrases.
Most gurus say you have a better chance when the competition is under 6000 SERPS or less, but I frequently am able to get 1st and second page results for more competitive words and phrases when done properly.

Squidoo lenses and Hub Pages can also get you some good placement as they are highly respected in the eyes of the search engines.

Zimbio is also good for some looks and click throughs as well. You can basically create your own mini magazine in your niche.

Weebly, Wetpaint, and Freewebs allow you to open a mini blog for free to post your articles and they also get good love from Google. I wouldn't use them for a full fledged blog, but if you bookmark your article that you have created on them, and link to them from another article you can also get some serp love.

Interlinking these different tools is a great way to propel them to the first page for your chosen key phrase with a keyword rich article.

For instance I will submit an article to ezine articles, what for approval, and then submit a rehashed version to other article directories (changing the article headline and excerpt), using one of the links to point to the full version on ezine, boosting it's authority.

It is easier and quicker to get an article from a trusted site ranked on the first page, than it is to get your website listed on the first page for your given search term. - (read that again)

Also don't under estimate the power of keeping your linked in profile updated with information, many times I have gotten a few clicks from my linked in profile.

Online Classifieds are also worthwhile if you have products to sell. Getting good placement may cost a few bucks a month, but some get a lot of traffic. It's all about writing a better ad than the others competing from the same views.

For instance, US Free Ads will let you place an unlimited number of ads for around $10 a month. It's worth the $10 for me just to have a well ranked site where I can list my sites that sell products, throw up a few photos and link directly to my site.

Aaron Hats
02-07-2009, 04:13 PM
Don't forget that all these things take time to realize the true effects of your hard work. If you do it right you will see lasting results months and years down the road. I still have customers mention a newspaper story from almost five years ago.

Aaron

Harold Mansfield
02-07-2009, 04:30 PM
Good advice Aaron. They do take time. It's best to get a game plan together before jumping around placing links everywhere and take your time writing your copy, the last thing you want to have to do is backtrack and re-write, or correct mistakes....which is what I am doing now, and it's a pain in the butt..

When ever possible I use article writers, software submissions and bookmarking software to save time.

Your site or service description (I now know) is one of the most important things that you will write. You need it for everything that you submit. Put it together carefully and keep it handy so that you can just paste it up.
Try and write 4 or 5 versions of it.

seolman
02-07-2009, 07:15 PM
@ nealrm - business card is a simple but important item. Also goes for basically all collateral materials where it makes sense such as brochures, flyers, window stickers etc. As long as you are spending the money add the web site where you can. But I'm looking for sweat equity traffic (no $$ spent, just time on line or in the local community to get free traffic).

I have to admit, I hadn't really thought of the Little League angle. Interesting thought. I guess any type of sponsorship could be used to some extent but again, there is an expense there.

@orion_joel - Social sites are also a great place to drop a link now and again where it fits.

@eborg9 - Personally I have shied away from Squidoo simply because the amount of time I would spend on building a Lens I could do better on a Blog or another site I have more control over. But that's just me. I think it has it's place and lot of people who would have trouble building a web sit can build a Lens with no trouble at all.

That Zimbio site looks interesting. I haven't used that site before and plan on checking it out! Thanks for listing it.

Linked In is a great resource for individuals - I have friends that have truly benefited from it. Combined with a Blog it can really make a difference for personal reputation.

US Free Ads sounds cheap and I appreciate you listing it because it's a great low cost idea someone might use to build up traffic.

@Aaron Hats - good point - your newspaper comment reminded me of a time I wrote an article for a local magazine. It brought us business for years. These things sit in Dentist and Dr's offices for years. In fact I think I may write another soon.

Great ideas guys. Thanks.

Harold Mansfield
02-07-2009, 07:28 PM
@eborg9 - Personally I have shied away from Squidoo simply because the amount of time I would spend on building a Lens I could do better on a Blog or another site I have more control over. But that's just me. I think it has it's place and lot of people who would have trouble building a web sit can build a Lens with no trouble at all.
.

So it's not just me then. Thank God ! :)

Squidoo is painfully slow to operate. I thought maybe it was my computer or something.