Do you want to make money with your web site? Do you want to show the world your knowledge or artistic talents? Then you need a steady flow of website traffic. If no one goes to your site, no one will read your articles, click on your ads or buy your products. Sales is a game of numbers. The more people go to your site, the greater chance you have of generating income.
With the versatility the internet offers, there are many ways to jumpstart the flow of traffic leading to your web site. Although popular web sites usually have a monumental budget for marketing and advertising, some of us who start a new web site as a hobby or as a way to bring in a bit of extra income might not have access to such elaborate resources.
Well, here's a little secret: you don't have to spend a single penny to access 13 of the best free marketing methods for promoting your web site! All you need is the proper mindset and a lot of eagerness. You must have the drive and perseverance to invest some of your time doing the work and research necessary to generate more traffic for your site. Some of the following ideas are "set and forget", meaning once you have put them in place, they will keep driving visitors to your website again and again, and some of them you will need to actively promote, every week or every day in order to get the most out of them.
Honestly, I'm not saying that you will get 1,000 unique visitors overnight; getting traffic to your web site for free takes time and effort. By using the methods outlined in this article, you most likely will get a good amount of traffic to you site. Be patient and see your traffic gradually increasing over time.
Here are 13 proven methods to increase the flow of traffic to your website:
1. Submit Your Website To Search Engines
This might seem obvious to many, but it is often overlooked as one of the major ways to bring traffic to your website. No need to submit your site to 100 search engines or directories--like some of the site submission services would like you to believe--as long as you submit your site to the main players. (At the time of writing this article, submitting your site to Google, yahoo and the Open Directory Project should allow you to cover 60-80% of all web searches done on the internet since many search engines take their sources from these providers).
2. Content is King
This is THE most important of all the methods listed here for getting long-term high-volume traffic to your website. Combined with all other methods listed in this article, the traffic to your website will soar to unprecedented new heights if on your site you provide useful, interesting or intriguing content; articles, images, photos, tips, tricks, guides, how-to's, ebooks, products, reviews. People will actually do some of the work for you and link to it from their own sites or blogs. They will tell their friends about it and they'll even put links to specific content on your site on forums or social bookmarking sites (which have a HUGE potential of becoming a high frequency traffic source).
3. SEO - The Art of Search Engine Optimization
To maximize your traffic potential and get targeted traffic, you will want to use at least the most basic of search engine optimization methods: make the page title, filename, H1 tag and body text contain your most important keywords or key phrases. Make it easier for people to find your site. With the right keywords, you could get high rankings in search engine results without the costs of pay-per-click or other types of paid advertising.
4. Viral Marketing
Viral Marketing also known as Viral Advertising is a technique used to build the public awareness of a product or company. The idea is to use many forms of media to reach out to the public without actually promoting the product. You make it so outrageous, funny or weird that people almost feel obliged to pass it on to their friends and co-workers, with the product or company advertisement along with it.
Viral marketing has become a popular means of advertising and marketing because of its relatively low cost. Its main and foremost advantage is that you get a lot of publicity and public awareness about your site and your company. You get to generate a flow of traffic of potential customers. With a little ingenuity and imagination, plus some incentives or prizes, you can reach out to a great number of people and announce your existence.
5. Social Bookmarking Sites
Social bookmarking sites like Digg.com, del.icio.us, Slash Dot (/.), can get you a MASSIVE flow of traffic to your site if your story makes it to the front page of these sites. Warning: If you are planning on submitting one of your stories or videos to one of these sites, it would be wise to make sure that your site can handle thousands of request in a short amount of time otherwise it might go down. The effect has often been compared to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, as many many requests made on a short amount of time floods the server which crashes, or it uses up all your bandwidth for the month. For more info on how you can plan ahead, do a web search on "how to survive slashdotting" or "how to survive a digg digg.com".
6. Article Marketing
Write articles that could pique the attention of people and provide good advice and knowledge and then submit them to free article directories.
This can get you traffic from 3 sources: 1) the article directory itself; as people search for articles, they might read yours and there is a good chance that they will follow the link to your site to know more about the author, 2) someone that really liked your article might use it on their own site (if you allow it) and some of their users might click through to your site from there, 3) by posting articles on your site, you are providing valuable relevant content which people look for on the search engines.
There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias on the internet which provides free space for articles to be submitted. You will also find dozens of article directories which provide free content for website and ezine owners that will accept that you submit your articles for free. Use these resources for content and traffic.
Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site, something that you have expertise on so that when they read it, they can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be eager to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guides to the subject or niche your site has.
Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link them to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.
By having all those directories pointing back to your own site, most likely this will increase your site ranking.
7. Ezines, Newsletters and Autoresponders
Newsletters are really useful to provide people with a catalog of your products and interesting articles. If you do a good job of providing valuable content, more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people sign up for your newsletter, the more people are likely to go to your site, increasing your traffic.
This may sound like hard work because of the quantity of articles you may need to build a newsletter, but it doesn't have to be so. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in your newsletter. This will provide free advertising for them as well. Find out if they have a newsletter themselves; they might agree to publish some of your articles in it.
Find a good ezine service or an autoresponder and you will be on your way to growing your list of faithful followers.
8. Reciprocal Links
Another great idea is trading links with other sites. This is a sure and proven method. Rarely do you see a site where there are no links to other sites. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with other site owners to produce more public awareness about their sites. All you have to do is reach an agreement with another webmaster, and then all the traffic that goes to that site could potentially visit your site as well.
A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or similar content that complements the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic. See this as providing your visitors with additional content.
The efforts put forth by you and your link partner are doubly beneficial because both of you are working to generate more traffic. The more links traded with other sites, the more traffic could be expected.
Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines ranks high sites that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic to your website very cheaply.
9. Forums, Blogs, and Social Networking Sites
Join discussions on online forums and blogs by sharing your two cents on a theme related to your site and let them see how knowledgeable you are on the subject. As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable source of information and products.
If the forum allows it, you can put a link to your website in your signature. From then on, every post you make becomes a free advertisement! Social Networking sites like Facebook, MySpace or PeopleString can offer some creative new ways to get traffic, but I won't go into details for now.
10. Traffic Exchanges
A traffic exchange is simply a type of website that allows you to get traffic sent to your website in exchange for viewing other people's. Most traffic exchange sites give you a ratio of 1:1 (where for every page you view you get 1 view to your site) or 2:1. The people using traffic exchanges will view your site for only 20-30 seconds so you need a very focused landing page (or splash page) for it to be effective.
There is a lot of information out there in internetland on how to create an effective landing page, but basically you need a simple well designed attention grabbing page, with no distracting links, with only one main goal or specific objective (sale, newsletter sign up, website sign up, etc.).
11. Write a Press Release
Release your writing prowess and start up a press release that advertises your site! This is a free website promotion tactic that you can do anytime. Type a brief paragraph or two and email it to your friends, colleagues, internet e-zines, newspapers and other media and massive traffic will come to you pronto! Many of the article directories also accept press releases, so be sure to check them out.
12. Turn your email signature into an advertisement
Most email programs or online services offer you a way to create and display your own signature every time you write a new message (or reply to one). Simply add your URL (the internet address of your site or blog) and a little descriptive or enticing phrase. If you have a business, be sure to add your URL to your letterheads and business cards as well.
13. Word of Mouth
Word of mouth is probably the oldest marketing method. Just let the whole world know about your site! Insert your website, its URL and features in daily conversations and let the good news spread from one person to another!
All of these methods will drive more traffic to your site for free. It only takes a bit of effort and time. Work on increasing your website traffic every day or once a week. Learn all you can about these methods and before you know it, you will have a site with a traffic flow that you can be proud of and that you can profit from.
I have been a client of ING Direct for investments for a while and I must say I appreciate their services. Usually when I hear the word "bank", I tend to immediately think "Bleh, whatever", but with ING Direct, I must genuinely say that I actually like them! As of the writing of this blog entry, I enjoy 3% interest tax-free on my investments with them.
Here are some of the services they offer: Savings Accounts, Retirement Savings Plans (RSPs), Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), Guaranteed Investments (GICs), Mutual Funds, Business Accounts, Mortgages, great rates and best of all, NO FEES :)
Just know that you will need to send ING Direct a cheque addressed to yourself to the amount of 100$ or more. This will link your bank account to your ned ING Direct account so you can transfer money between your bank and ING Direct whenever you want. Once they have received your cheque and that it clears with your bank, your account is active and ready to use. ING Direct will then deposit your 25$ (which will be accessible for widthdrawal 30 days after the account was opened).
This offer is valid for Canadian residents who are not yet members of ING Direct. This type of offer has changed in the past (it used to be 13$ bonus instead of 25$) and could expire at any time. If you have -any- interest at all in the offer, be sure to act now, don't hesitate. English biologist Tomas Henry Huxley once said:
«Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation.»If you would like more information about financial services they offer, be sure to check out the ING Direct website or their FAQ.
Here are a few ideas to get you started into the world of online wealth generation:
1) Investing
If you have a job which brings a bit more than what you need for necessities, put aside 3 bucks every day and put it into a savings account. At the end of one year you'll have $1095 plus interests. With the help of compound interests, you can even stop putting money into your account after a while and it will keep making money for you over time. You will be making interests on interests.
You can also make other kinds of investments that may bring you more return on your investment. Be aware though, that the higher the possibility for return, the higher the risks. More secure, less return. You may be interested in bonds, stocks, realty, buying a business, etc.
2) Affiliate Programs
The great thing about affiliate programs is that you can sell products without needing to keep an inventory, do invoicing... All you do is promote your referral link, and get paid a certain amount on every purchase made through that link.
A good source of affiliate programs can be found through Clickbank or Commission Junction. You can also do a web search for "affiliate program" and you will find many, many opportunities, in many different niche markets.
3) Online Auctions
If you have your own product, or maybe you have items in your house which you no longer use but that may still be of value to other people, online auctions can be a great tool. Ebay is probably the most widely used online auction site, but there are others you may want to consider.
Some people have made quite a bit of money by starting their own "Ebay business". They buy good stuff that they find in garage sales or "offline" auctions, or they buy in bulk and sell at a profit. You can even set up an easy-to-use online store on Ebay or Yahoo. I suggest getting the book "Starting an Ebay Business For Dummies" by Marsha Collier if you are interested of going in that direction.
4) Sell your own product
You may want to write an eBook and sell it on your website, on Ebay, or on eBook libraries. If you manufacture or craft your own products, a website is definitely the way to go. You might also use a pre-made online store on Ebay, Yahoo!Shops or one of the many others.
5) Paid surveys
Most survey sites pay you 2-3 bucks for a completed survey, but some pay up to $50 or even $100 for a single survey that may take you 30-60 minutes to complete.
Since most survey sites will only send you a few surveys per month, registering to as many survey sites as you can will increase your likelihood of you taking enough surveys to be worth your time, and money.
6) Paid to complete offers, to surf the net
There are some sites like Treasure Trooper, Snap Dollars, Cash Crate, Instant Profitz that pay you to complete offers. You fill in a registration form, a trial membership, download an eBook, request a free sample and you get paid a few cents to a few dollars for every completed offer.
Some sites have more offers than others, and similar offers are often seen on different GPT (get paid to) sites. Most of them will also pay you when you refer people to them which is probably why young people with lots of friends tend to like these kinds of sites.
7) Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)
If you like selling, MLM might be for you. Most MLM companies offer you to sell a product and/or a business opportunity. You sell someone a product or range of products(like natural products, vacation packages, web site hosting, etc.), and show them how they can make money the same way you are making yours. Usually you will get paid a share of everything those under you sell.
If you are active to promote "your" business, this might be a profitable endeavor for you to look into.
8) Start a business
Have an idea for a product or service to sell? Start your own business! It can be a brick and mortar business, but you might want to take advantage of the internet and put your business online.
9) Sell advertising on your web site
If you have a popular web site, selling advertising on your site can bring in some hefty dough. The Adsense PPC (Pay-per-click) network is well-known and widely used. It is also very easy to implement on your site. Yahoo! Publisher Network(YPN) offers a similar system.
10) Accept donations on your site
Your visitors get some great information, tips or free tools on your site... why not give them opportunity to experience giving as well! :) Setting up a PayPal donate button is an easy thing to do and can be implemented quickly.
11) Sell your old stuff by having a yard sale
Just like online auctions, yard sales can be useful to rid yourself of stuff you no longer need or want. It might not be a stream that will last very long, but it's a great way to clean up your home!
12) Freebies/giveaways
Ok, not really a "stream" of income, more like a "possible sudden pile" of income, but who doesn't like free stuff?
Those were just a few simple ideas to get you started.
Having multiple streams of income will keep money pouring into your bank account whether you are at your desk, asleep or on vacation. No longer will you have to work at a dead-end job that you hate, working on someone else's goals rather than your own. You will have more time to spend with your family and live your life the way you want to. Make sense?
The most important thing to remember from this article is: get started right away! Don't wait until everything is perfect; the sooner you set up an automated system, the faster you will start making money, even if it may seem minimal in the beginning.
To the best of your success.
As you may know, PeopleString is a social networking site that pays back 70% if its advertising revenues to its members. Your share is based on your use of the site. The more you use it, the more People Points you accumulate, the bigger your share of the loot. With the following method, you can easily rack up 3000 People Points every month.
a) Not a member yet? Join up for free!
b) Invite as many new people in as you can; you make 0.50$ for every person that joins under you, then you earn 5% of their earning and 2% of the earnings of their referrals for 6 levels deep.
Ok, let's get started!
1) Logging into PeopleString - 10 points
You may want to make sure you log out of PeolpleString when you are done so you can do this again in 12 hours.
2) Google search - 10 points
Using the google search field (top right corner), search for a topic of interest, feel free to follow the links to any of the results if you wan to(optional), then close that window
3) PeopleString email - 10 points
Click on the peoplestring email (yellow guy, down right), check if you have any emails if you want to, then close that window.
4) Mailbox-Cashbox - 10 points (or more if you have paid surveys or offers in there)
Click on the Mailbox-Cashbox (down middle, blue letter icon), fill in any paid surveys or offers if you feel like it, then click the Home link to get back to the PeopleString home page.
5) Shopping - 10 points (even if you're "just looking")
Go down left to the Shopping area and click a category, then pick one of the shop now buttons, then when you're done, close that window.
Note: I read somewhere that you also get People Points for usimg the Social Networks and Instant Messaging links (bottom right corner of the home page) but I haven't seen my points going up after using them.
If you repeat these 4 steps every 12 hours, you will get 100 points every day. Multiply that by an average of 30 days per month, you will be accumulating 3000 People Points every month. At the end of each month, People String will deposit your share of the advertising revenues in your account (I joined at the end of march 2010, and for about 400 People Points, with no referrals, my share was $0.48).
Enjoy!
PeopleString is a social networking site (similar to Facebook) that pays you to do the things you are already doing. The site was launched back in September 2009 by the same company running BigString known for its Mailbox-Cashbox, destructible video mail. PeopleString offers pretty much the same things you may find on other Social Networking sites, the main difference being that PeopleString shares up to 70% of its advertising profits with its members. The registration is free and there are no monthly fees.
GETTING STARTED
1) Sign up to PeopleString for free
2) Set peoplestring as your home page (optional but highly suggested)
This will make sure you use PeopleString often. The more you use PeopleString every month the more People Points you get. The percentage of the advertising revenues you get every end of month is based on how many People Points you have. Find out how to get 3000 People Points every month.
3) Complete the quick $1.50 paid survey to setup your Mailbox-Cashbox (US/Canada only)
From the main page, if you scroll down about half a page, to the center you will find the blue and green Mailbox-Cashbox icon asking you to fill out your first survey which consists of a few questions to know what kind of e-mails and snailmail (and how many) you would like to receive. 2-3 weeks after completing this survey, you should receive a card in the mail with a confirmation code for you to enter and confirm your mailing address. That's when you'll start getting paid for mails.
4) Invite all your friends and get $0.50 for each one that joins under you
You will also get 5% of their income and 2% of their referrals' income 6 levels deep. Entrepreneur members earn 20% of their direct referrals earnings and 6% of all earnings on levels 2 through 6. Please note that more than one person per household can join PeopleString as long as they each have their own e-mail.
5) Fill in paid surveys, and offers in the Mailbox-Cashbox
A few weeks after filling up your first paid survey, you should get a card in the mail with a code. Once you've entered that code you will start recieving paid mails (emails and regular snailmail), surveys and offers.
6) Go on a shopping spree and get cash back
If you go to the lower left portion of the home page, you will find links to different shopping categories. Any purchases made through those links will get you rebates in the form of cash back into your account. According to the PeopleString FAQ: "online rebates typically appear as soon as 2-4 days after the item has shipped or up to 30 days."
7) Promote your referral link
There are many ways you can do this, I will go in more details in another post. You can find your referral link from the home page by clicking on the "Invite" button and then going to the "Get Invite URL's" tab. You can also find promotional banners by going to the "Tools" icon.
