The Wealth Gang

Without question, the most frequent email I receive is asking for advice on how to get more traffic to a blog site. There is not a day that goes by that I have a message in my inbox from someone who says they started a website 3 days ago, have followed all the tips listed here, and can’t get enough traffic.

Here’s the deal. There is no big secret that I’m going to reveal to anyone through an email that isn’t already listed here. There may be specific pointers I can give based on your website and market, but for the most part this topic has already been discussed over and over again. If you were to visit an Internet marketing forum, you’d see the same thing — lots of people asking this question and receiving the same response.

The bottom line is that getting traffic to a blog does not happen by wishing for it. Your three day old site will not get any traffic unless you’ve:

1. Paid for it
2. Generated it

If you want to spend the money on advertising, there is no limit on how much traffic you can get. I’ve had days where I’ve gotten 40,000 new, unique visitors to websites before, but that wasn’t cheap. I’ve also built websites that took 6 months for a single visitors to come to my site by finding me on a search engine, but now that same site is receiving hundreds of visitors a day simply from Google searches — no promotion at all.

You can generate traffic on your own by working at it… the same way we’ve discussed before:

1. Visit forums related to your topic and become a contributing member. Leave your link in your forum signature.
2. Create YouTube videos with PowerPoint and Windows Movie Maker (both free).
3. Build your Twitter, Facebook and Digg profile by being an active member and post back to your website when you have an update.
4. Leave valuable comments on blogs and include your web address where asked for it.

Notice that none of these methods are suggesting your spam. Always provide valuable content that contributes to the community or conversation. A blatant link back to your website will always get your link deleted. For example, if you are going to join a forum (which is a great way to drive traffic to your site), you should become an active and recognized member of the community first. Then add your link to your signature once you’ve established credibility and have been around for a while.

In addition to these methods, the best way to get traffic to blog sites is to update your website frequently. Every day, take 20 minutes or whatever it takes for your to write a blog post, and publish. A three day old blog site with a couple blog posts will not cut it. You need to think long-term and big.

Think about this… Google’s biggest job is to make their search engine an easy to use tool for users. That means they have to eliminate spam sites, those that don’t provide value, and those that are not maintained. That means they are less inclined to give your new blog any real value because the likelihood that you will quite in a few days or weeks is high. The truth of the matter is most people do not have the long-term vision or wherewithal to actually create a blog. Most people try it out, don’t see immediate results, and that’s as far as they go.

Update regularly and you’ll eventually enjoy loads of free traffic from search engines. In the meantime, I’m sorry to say, but you willing and hoping for traffic to your blog will not cut it. You actually have to do something to make it happen. There are no secrets here, just the simple fact that the Internet rewards people who work hard.

By the way, I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with Google’s Webmaseter Guidelines. Read it, study it, memorize it. The more closely you stick to their guidelines, the more they will reward your site with better search engine rankings. Take it from someone who has had their fair share of sites banned from Google for violating these terms without even knowing it. You don’t want to go there.

The key to any successful website is to get and increase amount of traffic to that site. Regardless if you have an AdSense website, a  product to sell, or are an affiliate marketer, you need high quality traffic — and lots of it.

Generally speaking, there are two types of ways to increase traffic to your website. There’s paid methods and free ones. Which one works better? That depends…

It depends on the goal of your site, your niche, and what people in your targeted audience are looking for. Running a radio ad may convert really well for a website that sells a dog training service, but it might have horrible results for a website that sells a downloadable dog training eBook, for example.

The only way to really find out is to test, test and test some more. Test each method one at a time until your blue in the face and figured out how to get the most amount of traffic that converts to the most amount of money in your pocket, then automate the process and move on.

Increase Traffic to Website: Free Methods

These are called free methods because they require labor instead of paying for ad placement. That’s not to say that you can’t hire people to do this work for you…

• Blog Carnivals
• Forum Participation
• Article Writing
• Video Marketing
• Creating Partnerships with People that Have Your Targeted Audience
• Search Engine Optimization
• Link Exchanges
• Craigslist and Message Boards
• Twitter, Facebook, Social Media
• Posting Torrents and Free Downloads
• Creating an Affiliate Program

Increase Traffic to Website: Paid Methods

Paid traffic is bought traffic. You push a button and the traffic comes pouring in with an expense to your credit card. That’s not to say it doesn’t require work, but generally you it’s measurable traffic because you get as much as you can afford. With free traffic, you more or less hope that it comes.

• Google AdWords
• Media Buys
• TV, Radio, Newspaper
• Billboards, Bus Stop Benches

When it comes to building your online business and increasing traffic to your website, you always want to diversify your traffic generation strategies. At any moment, any success method can come to a screeching halt and slaughter your business. Both free and paid traffic methods have their benefits and can produce different results for different products, websites and landing pages.

Keep testing to find those that work best for you, optimize them to the best of your ability, and move on.

There’s no better website traffic than free traffic. When you know how to get website traffic, and loads of it, your profit potential soars through the roof. You could easily drop thousands of dollars on paid traffic and hope that it turns out to be a profitable move, or you can rely on free traffic that doesn’t dip into your profits.

There’s only a couple problems… When you get website traffic by using free methods, it does come with a cost. That’s because typically free traffic:

1. Requires an investment of time
2. Will typically be less volume than paid traffic

The benefit of paying for traffic through pay-per-click campaigns or other media buying methods, is that it comes fast. Your site and message instantly gets in front of millions of potential visitors. You don’t have to wait months for your site to get listed on Google or any of that nonsense… you can essentially get as much traffic as you can afford overnight.

Free traffic takes time and effort. Generally the harder you work, the more you will be rewarded. However, some methods work better than others overall and depending on your niche. In other words, video marketing may work great in say the acne nice but not work well in the dog training niche, just as an example.

So How do You Get Website Traffic for Free?

There’s a whole bunch of different ways to get more visitors to your website without spending a single penny. Finding the best one is up to you though… not because I don’t want to tell you, but because it depends entirely on your niche, your comfort level, and your skills – not to mention how much time you have to invest.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• Video Marketing: YouTube is the seconds most visited site in the world, and it is completely user generated. It’s not only easy to make a video, but I find that fewer marketers tap into this traffic stream because they are afraid to make videos. All you need is Power Point, some images, and maybe some music for the background, and you can create a video and instantly upload it to your YouTube channel.
• Traffic Exchanges: Websites like Traffic Storm provide a service where you visit other people’s sites on the network and they will reciprocate by listing your site for other people to visit.
• Social Bookmarking: Sites like Digg and StumbleUpon can get traffic to your site fast. Bookmark your own site if you like, but it’s also important to participate in the community for it to be effective. Build up your list of “friends,” comment on other people’s Diggs, and be sure to bookmark other people’s sites.
• Blog Carnivals: A blog carnival can provide a lot of high quality traffic to your website. This is some of the best traffic that can expose new readers to your blog that will become subscribers who come back to visit you regularly. That’s key! You can find blog carnivals to participate in at BlogCarnival.com.
• Search Engine Placement: Getting your site indexed in Google brings the best possible free traffic in my opinion. When someone actively searches for a particular topic or for a solution to solve their problem, and they find your site, that’s an extremely valuable visitor. Learn  SEO whenever you have the opportunity because it is an essential skill for an Internet marketer.