One of the biggest roadblocks to success for many aspiring internet marketers is simply falling short of the revenue-to-cost ratio. One of the most common reasons for falling short is overpaying for traffic to your website. One solution to this problem is to focus on the free traffic. Here are 7 tips to do just that:
- There are only three major search engines to worry about: Google, Yahoo and MSN. Getting to the top of the big three begins with proper keyword research. Once you know which search terms you’re trying to target, it’s a simple matter of customizing your site to meet the needs of these search engines. For Google, you’ll need to have a lot of original content (i.e., large websites) as well as natural-looking inbound links. Yahoo is pretty much the same, except you can use republished articles (also known as duplicate content) to build your sub-websites. For MSN, you can get to the top with small mini-websites that just use the search terms within your domain. Incoming links are what you need to move up the rankings. Popular ways to get them include: social bookmarking sites. Posting comments and trackbacks. Submitting articles to article directories. Publishing your URL to directory sites. Exchanging links with other sites
- On social networks like Myspace, this usually means creating multiple profiles and being very active on the social networks with other people. Often, automation software is used to automate simple tasks like sending friend requests and comments and sending messages to other people much faster. Myspace allows you to sort their database by a wide range of demographics. This is very useful if you want to have a list of prospects that you can target to promote your products or services to. You also have access to members of groups that all have a common interest in a particular topic.
- Free classified ad sites. This is becoming one of the most effective free traffic methods, but you need to be smart and creative. Craig’s List is the leader in free online classifieds. A well-targeted campaign can get hundreds of targeted leads daily. Software is very useful for managing large campaigns.
- Video hosting sites are available to anyone who wants to generate sales leads. Nowadays, anyone can create a video on a video hosting site. You can use a digital camera to record your video, or you can use a free screen recording program on your computer to record your video. This is the place where the creative type will stand out from the crowd. You Tube is the leader in online video hosting. A savvy marketer can get thousands of views per day for his/her video on You Tube. All you have to do is direct traffic to your page. You can do this by commenting on your videos or other people’s videos, and you can also send friend requests. Software makes this process a lot easier.
- Questions and Answer Sites (QAS) are becoming more and more popular. Yahoo Answers is the leader in QAS right now. Anyone can ask a question, anyone can answer a question. As long as you don’t look like a spammer, it’s easy to drop your links into both QAS and AAS. It’s definitely worth your time and effort to market any niche on Yahoo Answers.
- There are forums on the internet for almost every topic imaginable. A quick Google search using “message board forum” and your topic will likely bring up dozens of forums where people are talking about your topic. You can join these forums, get active and helpful, and then use your username (or even your username) as a form of subtle marketing.
- Auctions. Auctions are a great way to find customers in your niche. eBay, for example, is a great place to do this. Write a ten-page report with a few helpful tips and a fantastic sales pitch about your product. Give it away for FREE (or charge a minimum of $1 per download) and hype it up with sales jargon that flows well. Collect the emails of people who download your book and include them in an auto-sponder service that allows you to keep sending them offers.
These tips are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to free traffic on the web. There are a lot of marketers out there who make good money without advertising a single penny. Will you be one of them?