When it comes to making money online there are three elements that everyone must have in order to succeed:
- Something to sell
- A website that makes the sale
- People coming to that site and buying
Getting items 1 and 2 set up and in place are as easy as pie. In fact, you can have these in place in 20 minutes or so.
But, it’s the third element, getting real people to come to your site and buying something, that has most people stumped.
Getting visitors to your site is called getting traffic. And there is no other topic on which so much is written, and so much is wrong.
I like to keep things simple and easy to understand, so in that light, here are some thoughts on understanding and getting traffic.
There are basically two types of traffic.
This means that you are going to have to pay for traffic through either your efforts (free traffic) or your pocketbook (paid traffic).
Everybody pays. Some with time, others with money. I’m sure by now you know that the “three click” wonders don’t work for anyone, except the people selling them.
So, there is paid traffic and free traffic. Nothing more. Nothing less. Let’s take a look at each and see how they work.
I’m going to write about free traffic on this blog.
Here are some free traffic methods that work.
If ever there was a siren song of the digital age, “free traffic” is it.
Can you really get absolutely free traffic to your site and can you build a business based on this traffic? The answer is YES.
But, and there is always a but, you will have to learn how to get it and work hard as well. If that is okay with you, let me show you how it works.
The following are the main sources of free traffic.
Search Engines
Often touted as the # 1 way to get free traffic, the tactic here is to get your site listed in the venerated “top ten” search results. You can’t trick the search engines, like Google, so the best way to do this is to provide content and lots of content.
If your site is helpful to visitors you will do well.
If you try and outsmart the search engines to get the traffic you will go broke buying the latest and greatest thingy that simply won’t work.
Create a content rich site and the search engines will reward you by displaying that site when people search for the type of information you provide. But the content must be high quality and must be original.
Free Ads
Free ads are a mixed blessing. They are free, which is good and they usually don’t work which is bad.
If you can get a free ad in a place where ads are usually sold, like the free ad you get for subscribing to some ezines or classified ad sites that are visited by people, then it might be worth the time.
But, ad blasters and automated submitters do not work in testing and are to be avoided.
Articles
Without a doubt, marketing with articles is the #1 free traffic method. You don’t need to be a genius to do this. All you have to do is write a short article, about 700 words, that describes a problem people face and also provide ways to solve that problem.
Once your article is written, you can submit it to article directories, ezines, other website owners, and more to get the widest possible distribution. Write and submit an article a week and very soon you will get very interested visitors who are proven to purchase.
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing means creating something of value that others can give away while making sure you benefit from it being given away.
The key here is that you both win when the product is given freely. In most cases, the person who gives your book away for you wins by providing good information that they don’t have to write. It is important that the product contains links back to your site.
The most common form of this is a short e-book or report.
Lastly…
Participate on Forums
This is a free way to earn while you learn. The idea here is to visit forums that are specific to your site and post questions or make comments. This works well if you are willing to give a bit before you receive. It does not work at all if your forum post is simply an ad in disguise.
Once forum members get to know and trust you a bit, they will visit the site you list in your signature area. If you visit the forums specific to your topic of interest and get involved, you will get very targeted free traffic on a steady basis.
As you can see, there are many ways to get free traffic to your site and the methods I’ve mentioned do take some time.
But if you have more time than money at this point, these techniques will work to get traffic to your site.
Also, please check out my new training program, the Build Your Business Fast Academy and let me know what you think. This program can help you transform your business and learn from my years of experience and success, in which I created over 6 million customers.