Driving Free Targeted Traffic To Your Site
In a previous post titled Evaluating Your Online Advertising Options we looked at some of the ways Google ranks Web pages. We also examined methods for optimizing your own pages to take advantage of particular keywords and keyword phrases. In this piece we’re going to examine a couple of strategies for getting people interested in what you have to offer on your site.

Obviously if people do a search for your product or service and you rank high in the search engines, you’re going to get free traffic. That method is known as SEO which is known as search engine optimization. But that’s not the only way to get free traffic.

eMail Signature
Virtually all email services allow users to create what’s known as a signature. This little message shows at the bottom of every email you send out. A wise marketer will create a small blurb about his product or service along with a link to his Website and save it. Then every time you send an email to someone your message reaches another person, and they add up over time. Remember, this is a numbers game.

Forum Posting
Nearly every topic you can think of is represented online. And the more popular the topic, the more people you’ll find out there discussing it. If you really want to generate free traffic you’ll certainly want to seek out online communities where your product or service is being discussed. Simply do a search for the topic. For example, if you were selling pet supplies, you’d want to do a search for ‘pet forums.’ There are literally hundreds of them.

Obviously you can’t participate in all, so pick three of four popular forums and join. Be sure to pick a forum where they allow members to include a signature box with their profile. And of course, you’ll want to include a compelling little blurb about your business along with a link to your site.

This is free advertising so write up a little description that will make people want to check you out. That way, each time you post a message your link is there for all to see. Then, make it part of your marketing routine to contribute once or twice a day. You don’t want to write a novel each time but be sure to always add something of value to the discussion. Forum posting can be such a powerful way to generate free traffic, that some marketers use it exclusively.