5 Easy Ways to Get Free Targeted Traffic

Free targeted traffic is the lifeblood of any successful online business. 

Having the most cleverly designed and great looking website will only help you if you have a steady stream of prospects coming to look at what’s on it. 

Many business owners put all of their time and effort into creating their website, then sit back and wait for customers to come, but this approach rarely works. In fact, personally, I’ve still never seen it work.

You need to put just as much effort into driving traffic to your site and fortunately you can do that without it costing a fortune.

Why Targeted Traffic?

Of course any traffic on your site is better than none, but targeted traffic is the cream of the crop. 

It consists of prospects with a specific interest in what you have to offer, so they are not only more likely to buy but also to visit your site over and over again.

It’s the kind of traffic you most want to have and there are many ways that you can get it without it costing you a dime! So lets look look at 5 ways to get free targeted traffic.

Search Engines and Directories

Naturally, the first place that most people turn to find free targeted traffic for their site is search engines and directories. 

Since most people use these tools to find what they need on the internet, they are essential to any business. 

Submitting your URL to the main search engines and directories should always be your first step when it comes to creating free traffic.

Niche directories can also be a great tool, as they cater to audiences with specific interests.  Since you want to reach a targeted audience, getting your URL listed in directories where your niche is likely to be found is crucial. 

This way you can be sure that your information is getting out to the people most likely to have an interest in it.

Writing and Submitting To Reach Your Audience

Another way to draw free targeted traffic to your site is by writing and submitting articles to websites, blogs and newsletters that focus on topics that are similar or related to your website. 

The key with this method is to make sure that the articles that you write are of the highest quality possible.

That’s because the people who read them need to be convinced that you know what you are talking about and that it’s worth their time to visit your website.

So make sure you write well polished informative articles and then submit them to targeted websites, blogs and newsletters. 

Some popular places to submit articles are Ezine Articles, Article City, Amazines and Idea Marketers. These are established article directories. But don’t just limit yourself to article directories.

An article placed on a related website can bring in much more free targeted traffic than most directories.

You can also submit articles to well targeted newsletters and there really is no better place to find them than the Directory of Ezines. Ezines are simply online newsletters.

Regardless of what your niche is, you will probably find a newsletter that relates to it.

The great thing about placing your article in a newsletter is that it is seen by thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of highly targeted prospects.

And if your information is really helpful, the publisher may want you to write regularly for that newsletter.

The current owner of the Directory of Ezines used this method to raise enough money to buy the Directory of Ezines. It really is a powerful source of free targeted traffic. So it’s worth investigating and trying out.

Lastly, always remember to include a link to your website in the resource box at the end of every article you write, otherwise you won’t receive any traffic!

Hit Your Target With Video Marketing

Of course, it’s not all about the written word.  You can also create interest in your site and drive free targeted traffic to it by posting informative videos on video sites. The most popular video site of course is YouTube.

But it is not the only video site on the web. Far from it. There are hundreds of other sites where you can post your videos and get free traffic from. The obvious problem is that it takes a lot of effort to post your videos on all these sites. Fortunately there is a solution.

Two good websites to use to distribute your videos to hundreds of sites are TubeMogul and Traffic Geyser.

You may pay an initial small fee, but thereafter, you will continue to receive free targeted traffic for as long as your videos remain on those sites.

But the name of the game is not just distributing videos all over the place. You also need to optimize these videos with targeted descriptions, so that you can get exactly the kind of traffic that will be most responsive to your offers.

So the title of your video should clearly aim at your niche by using keywords they relate to. The title tags and descriptions should also use keywords that your niche members are searching for.

This is a bit like SEO but you are optimizing your videos instead of your website.

Ad Swaps

Once your website is receiving a reasonable amount of consistent traffic, it’s a great time to consider swapping ads with other website owners.

This could be one of the fastest ways to get free targeted traffic to your website.

All you have to is find other websites that already have your audience and that would be interested in advertising to your audience.

Once you find these sites, simply contact them and propose to allow them to advertise on your site for a week or month, while you do the same on their site.

Doing this will quickly double the exposure of both websites so most people will be open to such an arrangement. Imagine what would happen if you took the time to find 12 websites you could do ad swaps with.

You could line up a series of potentially lucrative ad swaps for one year. I

f you have a huge website, you could even do several ad swaps at the same time by allowing several websites to advertise on different pages of your website!

The key is to find targeted websites and to deal only with credible trustworthy people. Otherwise you might find your ad has been pulled down before the agreed duration has elapsed.

Infact, just make sure you keep all the emails that you send and receive when making an ad swap deal. That way you have some evidence in writing to fall back on if anything goes wrong.

But if you deal with honest people, you won’t have to worry about things like this. 

Forum Marketing

The fifth way to get free targeted traffic is by using forum marketing. This is one method that is vastly underrated.

I think the reason for this is that most people don’t understand its power. Done correctly, forum marketing can bring several well targeted visitors to your website every day.

The important thing to remember is to find forums that talk about the topic of your website. That is where people who are highly interested in what you have to offer will be.

For example, if your niche is internet marketing, then the Warrior Forum is a forum that has several members who are interested in internet marketing.

All you need to do to tap into the power of a forum is to become a member and start making helpful comments. Many people will ask questions that you have the answers to.

That’s a huge opportunity for you to show case your expertise and provide them with a thoroughly helpful solution. Try not to preach. Just act like a helpful friend.

Another great thing to do on forums is to find a question that people ask regularly but no one ever answers comprehensively.

Once you find that question, write an informative post that comprehensively answers it. This is a post that you would write without responding to any specific person.

In other words you would not wait for anyone else to ask that question again and then respond to them specifically.

You would just post the information as something that you felt like writing about that day to address an unsolved problem. Many people will find that extremely helpful so your reputation will start to head in the right direction.

Some forums even allow you to submit articles and that is a wonderfully effective thing for you to take advantage of.

Remember, I just said most people don’t understand the power of forum marketing. Let me show you why.

When you write an article and post it on a forum, or when you answer a specific question or make a helpful post on a forum, this is what happens.

If you used the correct keywords, search engines might pick up your information and present it to people who are searching for solutions like the ones you have provided.

I can’t count how many times I have searched for something on Google and found several posts from the Warrior Forum on the first page.

What this means is that when you answer a specific question on a forum, don’t think that you're only talking to the person who asked the question.

In reality, several other people who are not even members of that forum are searching for answers to the same question on search engines like Google.

So if your forum post shows up in search engines, it will do you a great deal of good if it contains thoroughly helpful information. You will receive free targeted traffic from search engines even though you just made a post on  a forum.

That’s one of the reasons that forum marketing is so powerful.

So start using these 5 free traffic methods as soon as you can. They are proven methods that will provide you with magnificent returns on the time you spend to implement them in the long run.

Remember, if you want to have a successful online business, you can’t afford to overlook the importance of free targeted traffic.

Traffic methods like video marketing and distributing articles are really durable. You work once and profit for a long time to come without spending any money.

 And that’s a Wonderful thing indeed!

You can learn even more about free targeted traffic here.

To Your Success

Bruce