Traffic exchanges allow you to generate visitors to YOUR website or affiliate program’s referral links in return for you visiting other people’s sites. Although the conversion rates aren’t going to set your blood racing (many of the websites you’ll visit are in the same business as you), since the resource is free – unless you choose to upgrade – you have nothing to lose.

You do need to carefully consider how you word your headline and text in order to stand out from the crowd and get visitors to the exchange to click on your ad. This type of promotion has to get the reader’s attention and encourage them to click through rather than pass on to the next ad, and you have only seconds to achieve this, so your ad needs to be instantly persuasive.

Probably the most successful ad for a traffic exchange is one where when a visitor clicks the ad they are directed to a "teaser" page where they have to submit their contact name and email in order to get further information about the product. Using this method, even if they don’t buy the product you can follow up by email using your autoresponder. In your follow up emails, you can promote other similar products so that you create further opportunities to get sales.

Article Marketing

Creating articles related to your products (either your own or your affiliate products) can be a very successful method of generating traffic. There are many free article directories to which you can submit your articles, and while they will not immediately generate vast numbers of visitors to your site, they will build your traffic over time – your articles remain on the directories so as time goes by they are likely to gain more and more readers. Each article will have a link back to your site, which has a number of benefits:

* Every reader can click on the link to your website

* Each article you have will be picked up by the search engines and will feature in their search results (another potential visitor) and will improve your site’s search engine ranking.

* Each article posting will improve your authority and credibility

Many internet marketers use article marketing (sometimes referred to as "bum marketing") as their only traffic generation technique, and with great success.

Forums and Blogs

Forums and blogs can be a great way to generate free traffic; just do a search for forums and blogs related to your niche market and post relevant comments. Each post you make will normally include a link back to your site (and add to your search engine site ranking in most cases too). Just make sure that your posts are relevant to the topic to avoid being accused (rightly) of spamming.

Free Ads

Do a quick search on your favourite search engine for "free ads" and you’ll find plenty of places where you can advertise your business. Takes only a few minutes and while you shoudn’t expect earth shattering results, why not take advantage of these free traffic sources?

Offline Marketing

When you’re out and about try to create opportunities to directly introduce your business to friends and acquaintances.

Find local newspapers or periodicals that offer free advertising and take advantage of them.

It takes very little time to create your own business cards and flyers with your own PC and suitable software, so spread these around in your local community – waiting rooms are ideal for this (just make sure you have any necessary consent)

All the above resources are free to use, so why not take full advantage of them?

By: Richard Andrews

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Richard Andrews has been marketing for 20 years and is CEO of www.moneymaker4u.com, a resource centre for internet marketers. Visit the blog: How To Make Money Online. On the site: More info and links for Free Traffic

Triple Your Income, Start Making Money Today! – SixFigureYearly.com

Triple Your Income, Start… …   Read more…

Internet Marketing’s Players – Knowing Where the Money’s At

Internet Marketing’s Players…   Read more…