Blogging is changing fast. The amount of new blogs being developed is increasing at a mind boggling rate, and there are more bloggers than ever before. There are, however, a few things that will never change. For instance, you’ll always need to write quality content, you’ll always need a user friendly theme, and, maybe most importantly, you’ll always need traffic.
Traffic is what makes the blogosphere tick, and, without it, your site will get nowhere. So, how do you get traffic? Well, you need to advertise your site. That said, I do recognise that some bloggers like to do things on a budget, and that’s why this article is dedicated to finding ways to advertise your site for free!
A Quick Warning
Just for the record, I said these were free – I never said they were easy. To advertise your site successfully, you’ll need to spend a lot of time on these methods. Traffic doesn’t come without lots of hours working your ass off!
The Methods
OK, enough of the chat, lets get down to action. Here’s my list:
Twitter – As I always say, Twitter is huge, and is a great way to advertise your site, especially if you can build up quality followers.
SEO – This is one of the biggest ‘traffic bringers’ you can find, and there’s too much information on it to put into this little paragraph… just Google ‘SEO’ and you’ll get your answers.
Facebook – Making a Facebook group for your site is an awesome method of getting targeted traffic, and, surprisingly, not many people are doing it.
Blog commenting – Leaving comments on other blogs in your niche will not only get you traffic, but also a back link. See my post on it here.
Exchanging – Exchanging links and banner spaces is a great way of free advertising, as you’ll get a lot of exposure from their site.
Guest Posting – I’ve written a long article will should tell you everything you need to know. See it here.
YouTube – Upload a good video to YouTube and watermark it with your URL. You’re bound to get some good traffic, especially if the video goes viral.
Forums – Do helpful, quality posts on forums and put your link in the signature. The more helpful your posts are, the more likely people are to click your signature link.
Article Marketing – Submit quality articles to article directories, and, as with forums, people are more likely to click your link if the article is good.
Directories – Submitting your site to directories will get you a decent amount of traffic if you put your site in the relevant category. You’ll also get a free back link.
RSS directories – Submit your RSS feed to the relevant directories, too.
Freebies – Give away a freebie such as an ebook or a Wordpress theme. Make sure you put your link in it somewhere though.
Social bookmarking – Get your visitors to bookmark your site on social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon.
Do A Service – If you do a service really well and have a site selling that service, you’re bound to get traffic (and even sales!)
Contest – Enter contests to win advertising space. It just so happens there’s one at Webmaster Peers. Click here for more info.
Phew!
I hope you enjoyed reading that, because I’ve now got cramp in my fingers from typing it out! I recognise that I didn’t really go into detail, but if I did this article would have been thousands of words long, so, if you want me to elaborate on any of the points I mentioned, please just leave a comment asking for help and I’ll be more than happy to go into further detail. Also, stay tuned for a part two!
Go on…
Have any to add to the next list? Have you tried any of the above ones? Did they work? Please feel free to leave a comment below discussing the article, or, like I mentioned in the previous paragraph, if you need any help with any of the methods.
Whoa ! Cool List.. everything is there ! and I must say all those are best and work very well !
Enk.’s last blog post..15 Free Amazing Wordpress Themes
Thanks for the compliment, Enk
Ah, that’s not it though. There are still some more, so stay tuned for part two! I’ll probably post it up in a around a week
WOW I am looking forward towards that second part…
Hami’s last blog post..Avatar Photo – A Free Avatar Creator
Nice list but the Click here for more info link does not work.
Farrhad A’s last blog post..Killing Time? Stay Productive!
Thanks Farrhad, all fixed now
Good writing. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed my Google News Reader..
Matt Hanson
Thanks Matt
In case you’re interested, I’m getting a new design (will be up in the next few days), so you’ll be able to subscribe by email really easily
Yahoo! Answers and Google Group are also two nice traffic sources
However, as you said in your posts, they’re not free: you need to establish a reputation there so people trust your advices / comments and follow your links.
Héctor | SEO Blog’s last blog post..What Does It Takes To Be A Good Blogger?
Definately. I didn’t want to make the post too long, so I limited this one to 15, but there will be a part two soon and those two will be included… thanks for the suggestion
Great tips.
SEO is my number one traffic preference for niche blogs that are aimed at earning income from adsense and affiliate marketing.
For my Blogging Tips blog, commenting seems to be working pretty well and it’s enjoyable…. By the way the blog commenting post link is not linked to the post
Forest’s last blog post..Musically Motivated Monday – In A Cage!
Yeah – SEO is particularly good for smaller niches as it’s easy to dominate them, but when you’re in the ‘make money online’ niche it’s really hard as there are so many other sites to compete with. That’s why, with this blog, I’ve focused more on commenting on blogs.
BTW, thanks for pointing out the error. I dunno why all the links went funny, but they’re all fixed now
Awesome posts Simon. Covered all the point in the above post
Harish | Blogging Kid’s last blog post..32 Things To Do For Bloggers
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Commenting on other blogs is my main traffic-bringer, can you explain more about the directories? I never heard of that before and want to know about it!
Maybe an idea for another post?
Stefan | StudySuccessful.com’s last blog post..4 skills you have to learn
Yeah, I’ll do a post about directories. Thanks for the idea, Stefan
Entrecard is one good choice. It does not bring much quality though. But it helps you to increase your daily visits and also advertising with entrecard will help you gain traffic.
I don’t agree to you. Entrecard is now a fail community a mere useless (no offence), yes I am still using their widget at my blog but gonna end up with soon.
@teenius p.s. nice post…
Hami’s last blog post..Google Chrome Dual View Hack
Hmm. I’ve heard of Entrecards, but I must be honest and say I’ve never really used them or looked into them much. I’ll have to do some research and maybe include them in part two
Twitter – I once got about 200 visits from twitter because of my follower’s retweets (Thanks tweeps! I appreciate it!). Just be careful not to tweet your blog post too many times in a day, or not that would be quite annoying.
Facebook – Not much traffic from here because I’ve not much friends yet.
Guest Posting – I got about 300 visits when I first guest posted. I should do more guest posting LOL
Blog commenting – Yes, this has brought me some traffic
Especially if you are the first to comment on a post on a popular blog.
And do you know what?
A guy got 195 visitors by commenting
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/02/11/the-power-of-a-comment/
Gloson’s last blog post..7 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Blog (Most of which you haven’t done)
Now thats a cool informative comment here
Enk.’s last blog post..15 Great Comment Plugins for your Wordpress Blog
Thanks for the awesome comment, Gloson
Yeah, I feel that many people ‘overstep the line’ a bit with the amount they tweet their links. I mean, I don’t see it too much because I only follow quality people, but it is quite a big problem.
BTW, where did you guest post to get 300 visits?
Oh. On Darren Rowse’s Twitip (www.twitip.com) in November.
The guest post – http://www.twitip.com/4-constant-twitter-mistakes-you-should-avoid/
Gloson’s last blog post..Why Do You Unsubscribe from a Blog?
Wow! That’s a really popular blog, so I suppose guest posting on it was quite an achievement… well done!
Good one. I think the most best free traffic is blog commenting. No doubt =)
blinkky’s last blog post..What Is Your Name In Japanese?
I have to agree. It’s targetted traffic and there’s a good chance that you’ll get comments in return, which are, in my opinion, one of the most parts of any blog.
Twitter has been a favourite of mine recently! I got 1000 views on one of my post and i think the was mainly due to twitter!
Tom – StandOutBlogger.com’s last blog post..Your Twitter Questions Answered!
1,000 views on a single post?! Wow!
I find my most successful posts are the ones that people like on Twitter. They’ll be the ones that are lists, general tips rather than niche specific, and also ones Twitter related. People RT them and then they get spread to a wider audience.
Wow great in-depth post. I think I am doing most of these but there are some really good ones here.
teenwebguru’s last blog post..101 Web Tips I Learned
Hey nice one Teenius ! ..
Cheers !
HellBound Bloggers
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[...] #4 – Advertise – Getting the word out there about your blog is a really important part of blogging. There is actually no point in blogging if no one reads it – you might as well just keep a diary. I recently wrote a post entitled ’15 Ways Of Getting (Free) Traffic To Your Blog’, and you can check that out by clicking here. [...]
Awesome post, covers most of the things and my bad I haven’t been doing most of these
Well won’t miss the second part it’s worth it 
gg Teenu
Zawad Iftikhar’s last blog post..Need For Speed:Shift BMW M3 GT 2 Trailer
Yeah, SEO is probably one of the most important things you can do for your site as it brings organic traffic from search engines. With this type of traffic, you’re also likely to find that they’re more willing to buy products on your website or click an advert.
Thanks for these tips,,, really really useful.
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Nice post
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Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!
I will just add that this is not free free!
what take time and effort is not free my friend, we just make a value for our time that we spend on social networks and other websites that could bring “free” traffic for our blogs!
I like your blog, I love your ideas, I thank you a lot for the tips on your post, I have added a free 125 link image to your blog on my new social network for making money online bookmarks!
Hesham’s last blog post..How to Create a Forcing Comment Post and get more than 100 Comments?
Yes, that’s true, but I was saying that it doesn’t cost you any money. If we’re working by that philosophy, it suggests that every blog costs you
And, thanks for the banner space, it’s a great priviledge to be recognised in such a way!
Marketing is always the difficult part for me
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[...] For example (My comment on 15 Ways Of Getting (Free) Traffic For Your Blog), [...]
I find this post useful very much, and I’m doing my investigation for some more details
To be frank,what disappoints me here is all the points you said are I found in many of the posts. I expected something new here. Anyway this may be helpful for those who are new to blogging and haven’t read any posts like this.
free classified another good way for traffic.
I have had a lot of luck with stumble upon and even entrecard so far- my old blog would get good traffic but like a 98% bounce rate from both of those, with the new blog I get about 30-50 unique visits a day from both and my bounce rate is only at 13% – having a bounce rate that low has me amazed! LOL I just hope it lasts!
But social media, forums and Blogs are best than those of article and web directories. That takes lotta time for approval itself.
I think facebook fan page is much better than facebook group to advertise web…and its not it so easy to get many member in a group and very few people follow the link.
Great post and informative even though most of them I already know. I can not wait to read your part2.
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