Many businesses or entrepreneurs just starting out don’t have the money to pay for marketing, or don’t have the experience to do it effectively. If you have time to work on your business, maybe go with a free traffic method.
The following are my favorite free traffic methods, and I hope you get some use out of this guide.
Forum Marketing
Forum marketing is probably one of the more well known free traffic methods. Basically, you join a forum, post some helpful and witty content, and hope people click on your signature link. Although it is free, the traffic is low and it does take up a lot of your time. Not my favorite method, but I know some people who have achieved great success with forum marketing.
Forum Networking
Unlike forum marketing where you put your website link in a signature, forum networking is basically making connections in forums related to your website topic. You can use these connections to do joint ventures or advertising deals. You can also find people who are in need of your product or service. Most forums have a “wanted” or “joint venture” area for this stuff.
Viral Contest
Using a contest to get website traffic is probably my most successful free traffic method. There are several ways to do this. One, you can use a viral giveaway plugin like Kingsumo. This plugin allows users to enter a contest of yours and share the link to get more entries in the contest. I have seen a lot of success with this method. If you don’t have the money or the resources to start a contest like that, then another good method would be to encourage discussion or Facebook shares by offering a prize to a lucky commenter. Be creative with this one! Encourage others to share what you have to say in exchange for a prize.
Swaps
When you start to create a decent audience for yourself, one great method to exchange advertising with someone else in your field who has roughly the same size audience as you. This is called an ad swap. You can exchange featured post, an email to your subscribers, or even a text link. This will help build up your audience without spending any money. Great method for traffic when you are feeling unable to scale.
Guest posting
Guest posting is my favorite free traffic method. Although it is hard to scale, it gets your name out there and tells other people who you are what you do. The best method for getting guest post is to just ask. Find popular blogs in your field and contact the site owner. Show them your previous work and be polite. The blog gets some good content to share with their readers, while you get a link back to your website and reach a new audience. Everybody wins!
Bartering
Bartering is an awesome free traffic method. Do you have a skill? Can others benefit from it? If so, then you can barter your way to free website traffic. Find someone who has something you want and needs what you can do. Example: You come across a popular website but it has some design flaws and you are a web designer. Tell them you can make their website look better and will do it for free in exchange for a banner ad. Always be polite and show them your previous work.
Personal Follow Ups
When someone enters their email on your site, it means they are interested in your product or service. Sure, there are sometimes autoresponder followups in place, but when was the last time you sent a personal email to one of your subscribers? You can ask them if they have any questions or need any help with anything. You can also follow up with previous customers or people who have asked you questions before. Let out your inner entrepreneur!
Blog Commenting
Basically, blog commenting is commenting on a blog where it asks you for your website. So when someone clicks on your name, it will direct to your site. In order to do blog commenting properly, you will need to post something helpful/humorous to get ranked. The more people who like your comment, the more clicks you get. This is not a full time method, but a great way to reach new people who perhaps have never heard of your website before. The most common mistake is commenting for the sake of hopefully getting some clicks. Proper participation is key here.
Recruit Sales Agents
Some businesses have a great product, but don’t necessarily have the skills or the resources to promote to the audience they are trying to reach. There are people out there who love selling things, and will sell things for you in exchange for a commission. If you have a good product and offer a good commission rate, you will have no problem finding sales representatives to use their persuasive selling techniques to help you out.
Facebook Group Networking
Facebook group networking tends to work best for freelancers. There are so many Facebook groups out there; almost two for everything. In fact, I saw one for “orange cat lovers” just before I began writing out this guide. To become a Facebook group networker, find a group in your field. Start making connections! Help out the users of the group any way you can. See what problems they have and offer to fix them. Make them want to hire you. Don t go to the group just to sell your product or service. If you offer good advice and make good connections, you will get hired and hired yet again.