More of the Fastest, Easiest and Free Ways to Get Traffic

April 30, 2010

Last week, I showed you how social networking, blogging and article marketing are some of the easiest, fastest and free ways to get traffic to your site.

In this post, I’m going to talk about two more fast, easy and free ways to get traffic online.

1. Blog Commenting

This is a super easy, and even fun, way to get traffic to your site. You simply go to other people’s blogs and post comments.

While this is fast and easy, it does have its disadvantages. For one thing, you cannot use anchor text. Well, technically, you could, by typing your anchor text instead of your name. However, that’s really spammy and the blog owner could delete your comment.

The other disadvantage is that blog comment links are usually no-follow links. This means your site won’t get any plus points from Google, even though the blog you’re commenting on links to yours. But I’ve seen other Internet marketers argue that no-follow links still DO count in search engine rankings.

Don’t get caught up in the debate. We’re here to get traffic, and blog commenting will do that for you.

As with other traffic-getting strategies, consistency is the key here. Try to visit a handful of authority blogs in your niche daily. Post a good comment as often as you can.

Important Points:

Comment on blogs that have plenty of traffic (check their RSS subscription stats, if visible) and active comments.
Only post a comment if you can give a thoughtful one. Either add to the discussion, or ask a question that moves the conversation to a deeper level. Never just say, “Great post!”
Blogs that provide do-follow links, Comment Luv and other ways to promote your own blog are a plus. But even if a blog doesn’t have any of these things, if it’s highly relevant to your niche, you enjoy reading it, and are able to participate intelligently in the conversation, then by all means, leave a comment.

2. Linking to Other Blogs

Did you know you could get traffic from other blogs by linking to their posts?

It doesn’t seem to make sense, until you remember that most blogs have a Trackback feature. This means each blog post has a list of other posts linking to it.

You’ll usually find Trackbacks either above or below the post comments. Sometimes, trackbacks can bring you more comments than blog comments can.

An easy way to do this is by publishing a post that responds to another person’s blog post. You could expand the discussion, take an opposing view, or make a list of posts that are related to yours.

Important Points:

Link to external posts that are relatively new and still get plenty of traffic.
Only link to another person’s blog post if it IS relevant to yours.
Consider making a regular round-up of the best blog posts around topics your blog covers. For example, some blogs have a Friday round-up of the best blogs from the previous week.

These two traffic-getting strategies show that the Internet is increasingly a social medium. Blogs, in particular, are the backbone of social media. This means that the more you engage in dialogue and interaction, the more you are rewarded — not only with traffic, but with real connections with real people.

To summarize, the fastest, easiest and free ways to get traffic to your site are:

1. Social networking
2. Blogging
3. Article marketing
4. Blog commenting
5. Blog Linking

Now I’m no website traffic expert; these are all based on my personal experience. So there’s a very good chance I missed a few things. If so, please be kind enough to let me and other readers know by sharing your thoughts in the comments below.

Thank you!

PS: If you want other ideas for attracting traffic as well as improving the engagement and conversion (aka “sales”) on your site, then I invite you to sign up for my free ecourse, “7 Keys to Attract More Buyers Online.”