FREE TRAFFIC METHODS? What works and what doesn't?

I utilize different traffic strategies for different niche blogs.

For my Gossip site, the major source of traffic are Twitter, Facebook ( Group and Fanpage), Instagram and a local entertainment news forum. The posts to Twitter and Facebook is automated while Instagram and the forum is done manually. Intend to build a list from the site and use blog broadcast feature to automate blog post emails to the subscribers, when a new post is made

others are Niche forum, email list

Youtube and Q&A sites...up to last year yahoo answers was the rage, now I believe quora is the goldmine if utilized correctly.

For me, YouTube has worked best.

More on that here: how to use short YouTube videos to drive traffic

Regards,
Daniel

Free traffic works well but can take time and when your first starting out its very limited. With paid traffic my money has full control over my business. Instead of spending 6 hours working on a free traffic method I can spend ten minutes and let my money go to work for me and do a much better and faster job.

Thanks for sharing guys!!!

Medium.com is a good place for organic free traffic because you have a built in audience.

Since I am in a business to business service privider I have found that posting and commenting in groups related to my field on LinkedIn helps me. Also, whenever I write an article and post it up on my website and then share it out via social media, my website traffic usually increases 3-4x. Hope this helps!

The internet is all about USEFUL CONTENT. Provide people with useful content and the traffic will come.

LinkedIn has always been my choice when it comes to getting free traffic for my business. You get to rapidly send out a couple thousand invitations per account, so you can expect to generate around 500-1000 connections per account. The other day I sent out 600 invitations in approximately 15 minutes, and after using my usual strategy, I had hundreds of "real" targeted business owners accept my invitation within hours. the key to my success comes from being able to send a message to my connections inbox using automated LinkedIn software, rather than promote my business through the status update. The bottom line is that you need an unfair advantage when it comes to getting free traffic.

What works for me:
- distribute free content
- fanpage
- forum
- eBay

What doesn't work:
- 5 buck traffic from fiverr

We rely on pure seo traffic and nothing else, the software industry isnt big on email or social media lately.

Most of my traffic come from Reddit. Once you post a good one on the right sub, it can go viral. I also have a Flip It account that gives me little traffic (but that's better than 0 right?). Pinterest works well too.

I haven't tried getting traffic from forums and blog commenting, but I'm trying now. XD

Social networking sites, blog commenting, Guest Posting and forum posting is one of the free methods to get quality traffic for a website/Blog.

I have found just putting quality content up and then encouraging others to share it on social media has really been driving me a lot of high quality, targeted traffic.

PPC = it's very strong

There are free ppc networks to use that seems to work very nice (from what I see in my tests)

Actually I'm getting nice ppc traffic without paying a dime

Thank you for sharing your methods. I've learned some new techniques to test out. Have a great day everyone.

For free, it's the use of parasite sites. Parasites are domains with high authority that tend to rank well in Google and that you can build a page or publish content on. There's a number of good parasites, including Youtube, SlideShare, FB fan pages, Weebly, Quora, etc.


I prefer parasites that not only rank well in Google but can also drive internal traffic. The sites I listed just above, except for Weebly, are not only parasites but also give you the opportunity to get traffic internally by getting friends/followers, etc.

I still love this video on YouTube that Anik Singal did about traffic.

He said he gets a question all the time about the best ways to get lots of traffic.

His reply in this 9 minute video is the best: https://youtu.be/rtO6ee9pzRc

It's all about hustling and being smart with your buys when you have a converting optin page.

For those of you still unfamiliar with Fiverr and their traffic buying...I don't suggest it...poor, robotic, and haven't wiggled a dime loose from any of it. Just FYI...

just don't use fiverr ...full of rubbish and junk traffic

There are tons of ways to get free traffic! Here are a couple of resources that'll give you more information....

(Some of these are for blog traffic, but also can be used for any website)

7 Proven Strategies to Increase Your Blog
Link Building Case Study: How I Increased My Search Traffic by 110% in 14 Days
The Ultimate Guide to Free Blog Traffic (This one is from my site, but it is relevant)

pay for it or work for it (SO CALLED FREE)

Anyways you want free right?? then feed your blog consistently....



whatever gets your audience to your site, track what they do on your site.

This is worth at least $1 WSO list builder. Thanks all, implemeting as much as I can.

There are many sites where you can submit your contents, like:

Reddit.com
Buzzfeed.com
Triberr.com
PromoteProject.com
BoredPanda.com
Small business news; tips; networking | BizSugar
Etc.

so the best compilation of the free method will be ?

i think only forum is best for free traffic.others methods are no so much working

Youtube, Facebook and Instagram.

If you listen to me, I will suggest you to just write a quality content for people, quality content is only the key to get traffic. Otherwise there are so many methods to get free traffic but only few of them works properly without any harm.
Some method I use to get traffic are..
Join discussion on Q/A sites or fourms in our niche like Worriorforum, quora is really working best or you can search forums according to your post from google.
You should take help of social media site to promote your blog like Facebook, Twitter, google plus and yeah don't forget Instagram etc.
Youtube is really helping people to get a huge traffic, just make a video related to your post and upload it on youtube with your post link.
You should submit your post to some awesome sites like..
Reddit
Buzzfeed
Tribeer
Boredpanda etc etc...
You should use them atleast once and then feel the change in traffic.
Thank you.

Instagram , Facebook fan pages and Youtube videos work well for me..

I am using autosurf websites, where I get traffic for my websites, in exchange for surfing others.

Social media and Reddit.Huge long term traffic sources.

To my personal experience, free traffic sources don't payoff. It's always better to have a full control over the traffic you are sending.

Should update​ your product information in SOCIAL MEDIA SITES - also target people according to your business-

Instagram is the beast!
It's not expensive, it works for various verticals and it actually works.

My name is Harold Nartey from Georgia! Social systems administration locales, blog remarking, Guest Posting and gathering posting is one of the free strategies to get quality activity.
Thanks
Harold Nartey

I have read all the comments so far and have noticed that both free and paid methods are working for users but it is not obvious that it will work for you, I have seen some people using paid methods and all their money went into drain, It does not matter which method you opt but they key point is what strategy you use , how good you are in that strategy and a good mind to spot what you are doing wrong in order to improve it

Create website.
Create own FB page, twitter account, Instagram and Pinterest account.
Join FB groups and share your posts.
Join Google+ communities.
Forum posting.
Blogging.

I've had some success with commenting on YouTube and also targeting long tail keywords on Youtube with appropriate video marketing.

Blog commenting and of course article marketing have also worked for me. Targeting long tail keywords with articles is key. YouTube is much less competitive than Google's searches online however. I would recommend a combination of these and of course some social media marketing.

Glad to see more methods to try out thank you everyone who has contributed some value that can help us all grow our online presence.

Here's a technique to make you $$$$$$$ is "FREE + Shipping" Method using Dropshipping...
1. You find a few great products on AliExpress for less than $5.
2. Use Shopify as the platform to host those products.
3. Run Facebook Ad Campaigns for it advertising it as a Completely Free Product but with shipping and handling fees.
4. Make $ through automation.
5. Provide customers with more products and services through email marketing

I still use facebook for free traffic.

It worked for me and my business

Free traffic what works for me: forum posts, guest blog posts.
Paid traffic: FB ads, Email media

I've done all of these and continue to use most of these methods today.

SEO Traffic
Publish an ezine
Publish a blog
Guest posting
Article marketing
Press Releases Distribution
Email Marketing
Forum Marketing
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Youtube
Yahoo Answers
Safelists
Traffic Exchanges
Blog Comments
Banner Ads

I Hope this helps

I like social media traffic the best. Facebook, Instagram, and You tube work very well for me.

For traffic you can use Q&A sites

Hello, Warriors!

Can anyone please help me and tell me how can I target specific keywords for my tech support blog. My website is urbaneratrend.com

Linkedin is interesting, because of some high class people there.

Facebook groups are interesting, because of the size of marketing, mno groups...

Do both, and send out a lot of solos, great combination.

Trust me if you want to make good money nowadays, free traffic is not the answer. Facebook Ads is the best way to get good quality targeted traffic, since it has improved its advertisement platform. Even the top gurus are exploiting this ad platform today.

High-converting traffic source for me is monitoring & commenting on relevant topic conversations and pages on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

For me twitter was working really well to get readers, engagements and even clients to my services

Facebook and Twitter is Best for Traffic

1 million visitors means nothing if only 4 of them buy something. It isn't just traffic you're after, but quality traffic. Targeted traffic. People who have a desperate need for whatever it is you're selling.

How would you prefer to sell vacuum cleaners? Schlepping your vacuum cleaner door-to-door in one neighborhood after another hoping that the next door will be the one? Or posting a small add in the local paper offering a free report on "the top 10 things every housewife should know before buying a new vacuum cleaner" and including with that free report an invitation to attend a free demonstration at a local Holiday Inn banquet room?

There are many sources of free traffic today, Instagram, Empire.Kred, Pinterest, etc, etc, etc. The only question is, how many buyers are there in those groups and how can you best qualify them before presenting your offer.

Pinterest use to be a great method to gain more exposure. Sadly, the spammers move in. Their goal is to sell see ALICE as well as rorex reprica. Before, there were a lot of Pinterest clones, but most are gone. Full time job erasing spam posts and improper images. I have a forum with over 100,000 members and most of my time has gone to removing spam. The few good posts are drowning in a spam ocean. Have to scream at the top of your voice... there is so much noise. Wish the old DIGG was still with us.

Best traffic source is facebook,twitter,linkedin,instagram and etc.This is a free traffic method.

Youtube and facebook sites are my favorite source to get traffic.

great answers mentioned above me. viral method is one of the best I think. I still got free traffic coming in even I haven't done anything to my blog. it contains many valuable articles there. so make sure you put value on your article, post or anything to your blog. they love it.

As well as social media, I also find it is useful to engage in discussions on forums that are related to my niche(s)

One interesting and little used way is to find already high shared content using a tool like buzzsumo around your topic/niche, then change the link you're sharing using sniply which not only shortens the link, but allows you to add a popup to that content itself. This means you can use other peoples viral content (videos, pictures, articles) and borrow their high views and shares, obviously not everybody clicks through to your popup, but it's free... and you just queue it into something like bufferapp and you're set. If its a free offer, it gets some good clicks. Thoughts?

Hi there, #1 way...

Don't pick on 100 ways to drive 100,000 visitors to your blog, pick 5 or less. But this would be best...


1. Guest Blogging

You see your competitors somehow land an article on big sites and get huge coverage. Instead of feeling sad about it, you can use this to your advantage to get coverage for your own business or website as well.

When you see that someone in your niche has gotten a post on a huge site, you learn two things:

1.This particular site accepts guest posts.
2.The kind of topics they are looking for in their guest posts.

With this knowledge in hand you can contact the blog author to pitch them a similar idea for a guest post you they will be happy to publish.

They already published something similar so you know they would be happy to do so again. There is simply less friction. Just make sure it is not actually the same idea and that it is something similar that will add some value to their site.

Find blogs that are authorities in your niche and take a look at their posts that are guest posts.
-Make a list of similar ideas you can blog about
-and send them an outreach email pitching them a one
-or few of those ideas those ideas.

Mention the similar posts already published on their site and tell them how your post can help their readers...

OK - here's an obvious and a not-so-obvious response.

Obvious...

I'm surprised this hasn't been raised before, but there's no such thing as free traffic.

You either pay by $ or by Hours. The traffic method you select depends on which of those you have least of.

Not-So-Obvious...

ALL your traffic should be free. If it's not, you need to adjust your business model - or more accurately, your funnel.

Because if you're not making a positive ROI on your traffic spend (whether in $ or hours) you're going to go out of business.

More helpfully....

Before even thinking about traffic, you need to create a FUNNEL, and know exactly what you're going to do with that traffic.

Throwing up an optin-page with a freebie isn't enough.

You MUST create an "effective funnel" which will maximise the income from your traffic. And part of an "effective funnel" is having an irresistible low-cost offer right after you deliver your freebie to your signups.

And you must test and tweak all elements of your funnel until sales of that low-cost offer cover the of cost getting the traffic.

Hey presto - FREE traffic!

And if you were paying for the traffic in $, it's very likely that you can now SCALE the business.

Which is something very hard to do if you're paying for traffic in hours.

Alex

I Prefer Reddit, Stumbleupon, pinterest, Twitter, Craiglist to drive Free Traffic to my website. Thanks all for sharing your source of Traffic.

Facebook commenting, twitter hashtag etc are as like spamming and are not long term income source. If you really want to use social media to promote, then use facebook pages created by you, raised by you. Then try to advice people (follower) with your best offer related with your page.

There are many ways to increase your site traffic. You can use any ways as you wish. You should use more than one ways at the same time. You can use the Social media site, Youtube, Forum posting, Relevant blog commenting, Article submission & so on. Thanks for your interest.

Forum Traffic and Youtube has done well for me.

I saw a great way to get targeted traffic the other day where you don't have to pay for any 'Boosts' on Facebook.

You create a Fanpage on Facebook, lets say the Niche is 'Classic Novels'. Now everyone who joins is going to like Classic Novels otherwise they wouldn't 'Like' the page in the first place. You will obviously have to set up a great page with captivating content. Then the way you get them in is 'A FREE Giveaway!' e.g Top 100 Novels published by Penguin!. You then run a competition that lasts say 6 months. To qualify for the competition you must enter your E-mail address and name (on an opt-in form).

This way you have targeted traffic. You aren't paying to Boost your posts. Friends of Friends will see it and join. Not only will you generate fans buy you will be boosting your leads with actual e-mail address's.
You can also monetise this straight out of your Facebook page with your Thank You Page e.g Google Adsense, Affiliate links to related products etc. Set up your auto-resposner and DONE.

The competition will cost you a few hundred i'm guessing, but over a 6 month period, it's not much.
This can also be done with holidays or a wider niche.

Hope this helps my friend

There are so many free traffic methods you really want to see which one works best for your niche and your website. Yahoo answers is a great place to start people post a question you reply with an answer along with your website, offline you can hand out flyers at the mall. Twitter is a great place to build a following. All of these will generate alot traffic when used correctly. There are many ways to get the word out. Creativity is the key here.