5 Ways to Get Traffic Without Paying

Traffic is the goal.

Traffic is how your website pays its way. High traffic results in more paying customers for you. Recognition of the need to improve traffic on your website is probably why you're here, reading this blog right now. And there's no shortage of people eager to take your money in exchange for promises of more traffic. Sadly, not all of them are worth the cost.

The good news

According to Longhorn Leads,

many methods of attracting viewers cost little or no money. Small business owners can spend a little time on promotion and get the same results as the big companies who outsource their internet marketing without spending fortunes on advertising.

Hannah Howard explains five ways to increase your traffic at little or no cost:

1. Join the blogosphere. Posting comments on blogs related to your business. They usually allow a link back to your site connected with your comment.
2. Exploit social media and guest posting. You can request links to your blog from other, related blogs. See our list of suggested blogs on the right as an example. Writing guest posts on others' blogs gains additional exposure and links.
3. Take advantage of free postings on classified websites. The best known of these is CraigsList.org, but Hannah lists others you should also consider.
4. Participate in article marketing. This isn't as strong since the Panda and Penguin Google updates, but if you write articles other webmasters use on their websites, the 'about the author' blurb can provide a highly relevant link back to your website.
5. Don't ignore the classic press release. If you have something newsworthy to say, by all means get the word out with press releases. There are several free online press release services that can give your story legs.

Check our Hannah's full article for more ideas on how to leverage these traffic sources.