So how do you plan to get people to your website without spending money?

Believe me, I've been there. And it ain't easy!

But rest assured, there are some great ways to get targeted website traffic online, without spending a dime.

Truth be told, I relied heavily on free web marketing strategies during my own start-up years. And many of the strategies and resources I used are still bringing me traffic today, some seven years later.

So if you're on a tight budget, take the time to try every one of the strategies mentioned today. You just can't beat the price...

Search Engines

Every month my sites receive thousands of visitors from search engines. Most of the traffic doesn't cost me a single penny. And you can enjoy the same benefit if you take the time to get it right.

Before you submit your URL's to the top search engines and directories on the web, you must be sure your site is search engine optimized..

And contrary to popular belief, it IS possible to get the web's best search engines to index your site without paying. Once you've optimized your web pages, I suggest you submit your site at the four following places...

Submit to Google

Submit to Open Directory Project

Submit to MSN

Yahoo Free URL Submission

Articles

If you can put together a website, you can write an article or two every month, about your area of expertise. Yet it still surprises me how many people don't use articles to grow their website traffic.

All it takes is a few hours each week or month to write about what you know and then have it looked over by someone with editing skills. Then, you tack on a small footer with your URL and fire it off to a list of ezine and magazine editors who publish material related to what you're marketing. That's it!

You can also post the articles at your own site with re-publishing permission for other webmasters. See this example of how I do this.

Anyone who reads my stuff regularly knows how much I like this promotion method. The fact is, it was responsible for a large part of my traffic early in my web marketing campaign.

So if you're on a limited marketing budget, you should start committing time to writing at least one article each month. Then read this issue of BizWeb eGazette for exactly how to use your content.

Traffic Networks

Traffic networks are fairly simple to use. Some are good, and some are lousy. Using a few of the better networks, I've managed to receive thousands of free website visitors.

You can join most traffic networks for free. You then earn traffic every time you either visit other sites via the network, or refer new members.

If it sounds confusing, it really isn't. Start networks utilize a basic viral marketing strategy to grow your traffic. And while it may not be the answer to all your traffic needs, it can certainly help.

There are a number of these systems available online now and I've tried a few. Of the handful I've tried, this traffic network has yielded the most traffic. In fact, it was directly responsible for $750 in sales the first week I tied it. That's pretty impressive.

I believe the quality of traffic from TS is higher than most similar networks for one simple reason... members choose what they want to click on, rather than forcing them to see one specific page they may not be interested in. That means better conversion since you have a much more targeted visitor when they click.

It takes just a few seconds to sign up and it can bring you quite a bit of decent quality traffic. So good in fact, I now pay $30 a month for their Pro membership which comes with more credits as well as commissions on referrals.


Links

You've probably read about how important it is to have lots of links on the web pointing to your website. Not only does it grow your traffic, it helps your search engine ranking as well.

There are lots of ways to grow the number of links into your site. Some webmasters simply search the web and then email related sites asking for a link swap. In my opinion that is too time-consuming and tedious.

And while there are lots of automated solutions available, such as link farms and the like, many of these are not search engine friendly. So you have to be careful when selecting a link strategy.

Your link strategy has to include a way for people to get a link from your site to theirs, as well as create a link from their site to your site. And if you can automate the entire process you'll save lots of time.

With all this in mind, I set up a link strategy using a type of directory. My marketing directory offers webmasters a chance to grab a high-profile listing at no cost.

Basically, it's my link growing strategy. And it works quite well. It has generated hundreds of quality links for me since I implemented it, which would have taken me quite a bit of time and energy. The links have brought fresh traffic to my site as well as improved search engine ranking. I wish I had set it up when I was first getting started online! Unfortunately, I did not give linking a high enough priority back then.

So learn from my mistake. Set up a link strategy at your site early on in your campaign. It will help you more than you realize as time goes on.

See ya in a few weeks... Jim Daniels
make-a-living-online.com - How to Make a Living Online

*** Jim Daniels is author of five Internet Marketing books and one of the few marketing experts that will consult with you personally. (And he's actually affordable.) You can hire Jim here.

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