Free Ways To Drive Blog Traffic

So you want more people to visit your blog, eh?

You want traffic to your blog but don’t know where to get it. You might be willing to pay for it, but you only want to pay for it if it brings real results. And who is to define “real results”, anyways? If you don’t mind me imposing, I vote that your best option would be getting traffic for free. If you don’t want free traffic, you have no reason to really be here, because that’s exactly what you’re going to learn in the following text: how to get people on your blog at no cost. The only cost to you is some time, but the methods that I have laid out are all self-explanatory and nothing you will be doing is complex. No HTML knowledge necessary or anything of the sort, just motivation to increase the traffic of your site.If you have a blog, you may want to increase traffic and make some cash off AdSense or an affiliate program. You may just want to get the word out about your blog to share your knowledge with others. Maybe you run an e-business (or want to run an e-business), but know that with no one on your site, your sales will barely be worth your time. Think of it this way. You have an e-business that sells, say, stuffed animals. If your store is on the first page of Google when people type in, “buy stuffed animals”, you’re going to get a lot of sales. If your site is on the 8th page and you get several hits a week, how many sales do you really think you’re going to get?

Please feel free to comment on how my suggestions have worked out for you, I would love nothing more than to hear. If you follow the steps below, I guarantee your web traffic will increase. As it’s free, it sure doesn’t cost much to find out for yourself.

1. Submit your blog to DMOZ.com, Google.com, Yahoo.com, and Bing.com. Then, submit your site to Allsitecafe.com/submitter/submit.html. This will submit your your URL automatically to the big players (i.e. Google, Yahoo, etc), then the search engine/web directory submitter will increase your online visibility to other, smaller search engines. Other search engine/web directory submission (such as the one I referenced) websites work as well, this is just the one I’ve always used and has provided me with results.

2. Create an account on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, and Digg. Create well-detailed information about why your presence online should be known, your mission, and who you are. Include a picture that people know you by, even if it’s a simple logo. These are all social networking sites which people can become interested in your site’s missions and goals. When people are interested in what your blog is all about, they’ll be rather inclined to check it out themselves.

3. Join sites like Traffup.net and TrafficSwarm.com. There are tons of sites out there that you can earn points for by looking at other people’s sites, watching quick videos, viewing advertisements, etc, and in return your points can be used to drive traffic to your site. While this traffic may not be the most targeted, if you have an excellent homepage that entices people’s interests, some traffic may convert into regular visitors.

4. Make a YouTube channel. Upload a video (or several) that gives people a non-textual explanation of who you are – some people are visual and would prefer to watch something more interactive. This does not mean you need to create a video of yourself, you can use simple free computer-recorders such as CamStudio (downloadable online) to capture your voice and your screen (i.e. as seen in online tutorials on how to use programs).

5. Sign up for Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter. You can find $75 free credits online for Google AdWords. With an average of around .20 cents a click (or less, unless your site is specifically about a very popular niche, then it’s more expensive), you can get a good amount of traffic for no cost (for the first $75, that is, and after that point, if the cost-per-click is in your favor, you can go from there!). If you purchase a book by Kevin Lee, “Pay-Per-Click Search Advertising”, which costs about $12 online, you are given $200 credit for Microsoft AdCenter. Both pay-per-click sites are simple to use and draw traffic to your site more heavily depending on the bid you specify for particular keywords. For example, if you offer to pay 20 cents for the keyword “looking to buy e-book on cooking”, then when people search that on Google or Yahoo, the ad is seen and you only pay if someone clicks it. eBay and Amazon also offer similar services and include free credits if you do a simple search for them online.

6. Add H1, H2, and H3 tags to your site. H1 tags specify the most important parts about your content, such as 3 key phrases of what your site is specifically based on. H2 are the secondary phrases that should be noted, and H3, the third most important. Tags are simple to use and look like this < H 1 > Keyword here < / H 1 >… only without the spaces. They work great with search engines as to signify what points you want to be highlighted on your site.

7. Create a Favicon. A favicon is the tiny picture next to the URL bar that makes your site look pretty and more memorable. Plus, when bookmarked, it’s easier to find. It takes only minutes to make one and you can use any picture you so desire (though it will be very small, so I would suggest something that isn’t highly-detailed). First you need to convert an image in to an .ico file (I use this site to do that: Iconverticons.com), and then if you use WordPress just download a “favicon plugin”; if you another web-editor such as Dreamweaver, GoDaddy, etc, just search for a tutorial online, there are plenty.

8. Write press releases. I would suggest writing two at first, and make sure they’re very well-written and targeted towards the crowd you want it hit. My favorite sites to use for the best results are Free-Press-Releases.com and PRLog.com. Press releases explain what you’re all about, some savvy information as to draw people in to the article, and wrapping it up with a link to your site to learn more.

9. Create an RSS feed at Feedburner.google.com. People can subscribe to your RSS feed and then they are informed when something such as a new article or blog is posted on your site. Don’t forget to submit your RSS feed to RSS directories!

10. Offer a newsletter. They work like RSS feeds too (if you’d prefer both, why not!) Adding a newsletter to your site is simple and people only need to submit their email to you to be added to it. Their email is forwarded to you to store (in to an email you signify as where you want to receive the newsletter subscriber’s email addresses), or you can use Mailchimp.com and it will store the information for you. They also have a great system to create the newsletter sign-up box, etc. When you want to inform your subscribers of something new, you have the capability to do so by sending one quick email.

11. Write knowledgeably and do it frequently. With it almost not needing to be said but at the same time is of utmost importance so I’ll say it, write well. Write knowledgeably and write interesting, new content. Don’t copy other peoples or you won’t get anywhere. Take what you know, write about it, and the target audience will come.

12. Sign up for Google.com/webmasters/tools and XML-sitemaps.com. You can create a sitemap on XML-sitemaps very easily (it does it for you), and then you can submit it to Google’s webmaster tools for it to be picked up more easily by Google. Other large search engines (Yahoo, etc) have alike tools to take advantage of.

13. Link to other people; more importantly, have them link to you. It’s important to have people linking your site to theirs as to increase your visibility If you know friends with websites on similar topics as yours or are willing to reach out to others online, you’d be surprised that people may actually be willing to help you out. The more links online going to your site means more people have the potential of checking out your content.

14. Answer people’s questions relating to your blog’s subject matter. Places you can do this in are namely Yahoo Answers and Ask.com. Some common questions that people ask online become very high on search engine results and when you answer them as well as provide a link to your site as a reference, the results can be very beneficial. Why? If someone has a question on your subject matter and you answer the question thoroughly, you are seen as more of an expert in your field.

15. Sign up for forums on your subject matter. Create a signature (which goes under your posts) and on popular, informative posts, chime in. Provide your knowledge. People will instantly see your signature which has a reference to your URL. As when answering questions online, if your posts are intelligent and relevant, you are seen as more of an expert in regards to the subject you’re writing about.

16. Add Google.com/analytics to your site. This in itself will not increase your traffic, but you will be able to see your hits go up and what works and what doesn’t. If your traffic is going down, you know what you’re doing isn’t working. The same goes for the opposite situation, if your traffic is increasing, then you know you’re on the right path.

17. Reach out to your own network. Whether it be friends, family, or anyone else in your social network, reach out. They are bound to have accounts on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, etc, and if you ask them to put a quick blurb about your site, a chain effect can occur (they tell their friends, their friends tell their friends, and the reaction continues to grow).

18. Keep your site clean and simple. Not that you need a white background and a small amount of text, but stray away from putting things on your site that will increase the time to load your page (several embedded videos, lots of images/java/flash). Your page will be ranked lower if it takes people a long time to load your page. This is not to say pictures are bad because they aren’t – in fact they’re good and draw people further in to what you’re writing about (such as pictures in a book).

19. Make sure you have no broken links. If you have multiple pages on your site, double and triple check that every link is working. Broken links will hurt you. Link all pages to one another so people can navigate themselves through your site with ease.

20. Check how your web page looks on different browsers. Specifically check Safari, Windows Explorer, and FireFox. These are all widely used and if your site looks horrible on a specific browser, all of the people tuning in from that browser will instantly leave upon arrival.

21. Have your domain name be relevant. The first thing people see is your domain. If your site is about making pizzas and your domain name is How-to-make-sandwiches.com, you may want to consider starting from the ground up.

22. Create an email account that people can contact you at. Owning a blog means you are bound to get emails. If it’s an e-business, you will get questions regarding sales, support, etc. If you are blogging about a topic, people wanting to know more about the topic will send you a message. If you have several email addresses all over the place they will be unsure as to how to contact you.

23. Make a mobile-page. The world is becoming more and more tech-savvy, and with so many people using their phones to go online nowadays, you can customize your site in a simple manner so that when people view your page(s) from a phone, they’re much more readable and accessable. Simple tutorials on the several-step process are found throughout Google & YouTube. Keep in mind, changing how your site looks for mobile viewers does not change how it looks for people on regular web-browsers.

24. Offer something for free. You want free traffic, why? Because it’s free, and as humans, we love freebies! If you’re selling something on your site, for example an e-book, offer part, or a full one for free. If you’re not selling something on your site but rather providing people information, offer a free PDF download for your latest articles or insider-information in to your expertise at no cost. While it may seem counter intuitive offering something free on a site you’re looking to make money on, you have to think long-term and realize the benefits of the increased traffic.

25. Guest post on other people’s blogs. While you may think writing only on your blog is beneficial, guest posting on other people’s blogs that are alike to yours is very beneficial. It gives you some “SEO juice” improving your search engine ranking, plus when people visit these other blogs and read the post, if they appreciate the content they may end up jumping over to your blog and checking it out as well.

26. Write reviews on Amazon. Read anything related to your blog’s content? For example, say your blog is about weight loss. Read any good books about weight loss? Write a review and make your username the URL to your blog, or add something like this to the end of your review: Matt G., YourSite.com. When people are looking for information on weight loss, then, if they look for books on the topic and see you wrote a knowledgeable review about the book and see your blog, viola! Free traffic!

27. Comment on people’s blogs pertaining to your subject matter with a link back to your site or post. Remember, don’t sound “spammy” or it won’t get accepted by the author. Include valuable information and only include the link to your site if it will genuinely provide the reader further-related content.

28. Create link bait which is unique content that is created to draw attention such as Facebook “likes” and Twitter “tweets”. Link bait isn’t easy to create, in fact it’s very difficult but when it’s successful you will receive an extraordinary amount of traffic from it. Think outside of the box. Create something no one ever has before, perfect it then launch it to the world.

29. Reach out to fellow bloggers that discuss topics in the same niche as yours. They may never respond, but some may enjoy friendly emails and mutual promotion of each other’s content as in form some sort of partnership. Creating these bonds, especially with blogs that are higher page rank and have an already-built community can reach jump-start your own following.

30. Write an e-Book and provide it to visitors for free for “liking” or “tweeting” your site. Think about the chain-reaction that it can cause. I use a tool called CloudFlood to do this, and another is PayWithATweet (both are free). Visitors are allowed to download a file instantly, like an e-Book, instantly after the “like” or “tweet” sends. Pretty sweet, huh? While you receive no monetary revenue from a single download, the individual puts your URL in front of hundreds (and potentially thousands) of other people. Imagine how many people will see the link to your website if 100 people download your e-Book — or 1,000!