10 Free or Low Cost Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Webmasters are always looking for ways to generate free traffic to their sites. Therefore, you can find advice on this topic on thousands of websites. But how good is that advice?

Too often, any traffic generation advice is given with an ulterior motive behind it. Or they give you tips on some cool new system for generating traffic through some form of spam (spam blogs, search engines, email, etc.).

Here are 10 low-cost methods of generating traffic that will stand the test of time. They are based on giving value instead of spamming and taking advantage of others.

1. Post good keyword-rich content on your site

Search engine optimization is a popular topic and there are all kinds of experts ready to teach you exactly what to do. Systems have come… and systems have gone.

Publishing good keyword-rich content on your website has stood the test of time. While spamming techniques constantly fall by the wayside. Good content will continue to be the number one way to drive free traffic from search engines.

2. Write and submit good articles.

The Internet is based on content. I have used this method for a decade to drive traffic to my sites. Take some of the content you create and submit it to article directories and ezine publisher lists.

This is a primary traffic driver for a large number of businesses. Even when it’s not one of your primary tools, it still attracts some of the most qualified and valuable visitors you’ll ever have to your site. If you haven’t been producing articles, why not?

3. Post a Blog

Even corporations have jumped on the blogging bandwagon. This is based on the same principles already given. You have a simple tool to create and add content to your site. You are also provided with tools to network with others online and share each other’s information.

Start a blog. Add other blogs to your links. Visit and comment on the posts of others. Become a part of the blogosphere and participate in discussions by seeing where other blogs are going with their discussions.

4. Send out a press release

Very few small business owners take advantage of the media’s willingness to spread their story. Write a press release or hire someone to write it for you. Then post it on a site like Prweb.

Due to the low costs involved in sending out press releases, this should become part of your monthly promotional plan. What’s the big news this month? What great stories are in the media that you can lean on or identify with?

5. Participate in discussion forums

Find discussion forums in your niche. Participate in them regularly. Instead of promoting, be an expert helping those on the site. Give them advice. Answer questions. Help beginners in your niche.

At the bottom of all your posts, you can have a link to your website. When I’ve followed this, I’ve been amazed at the number of visitors he gets via these little links at the bottom of his posts. Plus, you’re building a relationship with these visitors before they even land on your site.

6. Start a link campaign

Do you want more search engine traffic? Create more inbound links to your site. Many of the strategies we’ve already mentioned do this…a blog, article submissions, press releases, and discussion forum links. They are all inbound links.

You can also go a step further and actively search for sites to link to you. You can do a simple Google search for “link:http://www.acompetitor.com” to find sites that link to your competition. Get in touch with them and find a way to get them to link with you too.

7. Create a “viral” video

Video is part of the future of the Internet. Where before we talked about viral ebooks, now we talk about viral videos. Create an informational or entertainment video and use sites like Google Video and Youtube.com to distribute it for you.

Be sure to include your web address in the video. Create multiple short videos. Look at the communities being built on these video sites and find a way to take advantage of ongoing video discussions.

8. A good offer on your business card

This is very simple. The entire back of my card is an offer for a free report that you receive on my website for signing up for my newsletter. It has the title and several bullet points along with the URL of the site.

This simple strategy is so effective that I have attended seminars where I have seen quite a few people get hard copies of my free report on the second day. They took my card and signed up for my list that night! Are you using this simple strategy with the people you know?

9. Start an affiliate program

If you don’t know about affiliate programs, then you have been hiding in a cave. For many successful businesses, the affiliate program accounts for much more than 50% of their sales. Running your own affiliate program is the best traffic generation tool.

An affiliate program gives you the ability to leverage other people’s traffic, other people’s lists, and other people’s customer relationships. No matter what you’re selling, you need to find a way to include an affiliate program in the mix.

10. Creation of joint ventures

Joint ventures include affiliate programs, but they also go further. Who can you trade an item with? Who could you run cooperative advertising with? With whom could I exchange advertisements? How can you help others while generating traffic for your own site?

You may have your “normal” offer on your site that all affiliates refer their visitors to. How can you set up a special offer with better prices, more bonuses, or some other type of special offer for customers on a large subscription list or buyer list? If you want a surge of new sales, find a way to occasionally create exclusive offers.