8 Ways to Increase Your Traffic Without Spending a Fortune by Rob Dickson Everyone wants to increase traffic to their website, but it's often hard to accomplish that goal without spending a lot of money. Below are seven ways to increase traffic to your site. Each has been marked with a relative cost (Free - $$$), and the quantity and quality of traffic you can expect to receive. #1 - List your site on Yahoo! ($$$) This is by far the best way to have consistent traffic forever. The biggest drawback is the high cost. It costs $299 to be considered by Yahoo!, and if you are denied, you don't get a refund. If you design your site and listing in a good manner, you can expect a lot of traffic, all of whom are looking for what you provide (if your site came up when they searched, they probably are interested in what you offer). Yahoo! is expensive, but it could be a very wise investment. #2 - Post to message boards (Free - $) Message boards can be a great way to get the word out about your website, but if you aren't careful, you could just be wasting your time. Most message boards are free to read and post to, while others may have a fee for reading, posting, or both. Be sure to read a message boards' contents before you post to it. Many of them don't have any actual readers, and every post is an advertisement. When you post to a message board, be sure to include useful content, and don't make your post sound like an ad. Also, don't tout your site like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Users can see right through that, and it's impolite. The best way (as well as the most polite) is to join in the discussion at hand, and include a short plug for your site at the end with your name. This usually doesn't yield a huge amount of traffic, but it can get you some. The quality of the traffic will vary. #3 - Write an article for an eZine (Free - $) If you have a gift for writing, or have useful information that you'd like to share, write articles, and publish them to eZines or newsletters on the web. Most newsletter publishers love to have free content, and they're willing to let you get in a short plug for your website in return. Writing an article is easier than you might think, and the returns can be huge. In addition, writing about a topic makes you seem like and expert on that subject, helping you out in the long run. This can get you a decent amount of traffic, all of whom are interested in what you have to offer. #4 - Rent a mailing list ($$ - $$$) Plenty of sites have collected names and email addresses, and are more than happy to send a mass mailing to them on your behalf for a fee. This service can be pretty expensive, but most such sites have targeted lists, so you can be sure that the people who are getting your message are or were once at least remotely interested in what you offer. #5 - Advertise in eZines ($ - $$) This is usually pretty inexpensive, depending on the readership of the eZine, and where the ad is placed. The biggest drawback is that there is no way to be sure people will click on your ad. Offering an affiliate program (#7) could cause eZine editors to put your ad in their eZine for free, and you would only pay if someone bought your product. #6 - Chain Box (Free) This is a free, and potentially effective way to promote your site. Basically it is a box with a list of 5 - 10 ads in it. You enter your ad, and it gets put as the last one on the list. If you promote the Chain Box, others will put their ads on, moving your ad up towards the top, and increasing the people that view your ad. Potentially, thousands upon thousands of people could be viewing it by the time your ad gets to the top of the list. Not a bad deal. You can find a good one here. #7 - Affiliate Program (Free-$$) Setting up an affiliate program is a great way to increase traffic. .....and the best part is that you don't pay unless your affiliate makes a sale. By paying a commission, your free affiliates have every reason to promote your site as much as possible. The better the commission you pay, the more likely they will promote your site heavily. The only cost involved (besides the commissions) is the cost of setting up the affiliate program. If you are really computer savvy, you can probably set this up yourself, but if you are like most of us, you will need to purchase this service. Marketer's Choice ( http://www.1shoppingcart.com/ ) offers a great affiliate program for a pretty low cost. The returns can be well worth the price!! #8 - Pay-Per-Click Search Engine ($) The most well known Pay-Per-Click Search Engine is Overture.com. This is really a simple way to increase traffic. You bid on different key words or phrases that people search for. The higher your bid, the higher your listing on the search results. The best thing about these search engines is that you only pay for clicks to your site from targetd traffic. Remember, they searched for your site. They are interested in what you have to offer. Everyone wins. --ds