8 Free Traffic Sources and How to Use Them to Grow Your Business
What to do when your advertising budget is $0
So, today weâre going to look at eight different free traffic sources bloggers and business owners alike can leverage to start growing their online presence.
Letâs get to it!
But First â What Is a Traffic Source?
If youâre new to digital marketing, you might be unfamiliar with the term âtraffic source.â Depending on who you ask or your industry, youâll also get different answers.
A website traffic source is really just a category of users coming from a source on the internet. When classifying traffic sources, you can stay pretty general or get granular depending on your goals.
For example, paid advertisers often distinguish between broad website traffic sources like paid, social, and organic.
However, they can also be very granular and get down to elements like mobile device type, geo-based traffic sources, or other narrow categories.
A snapshot of my traffic sources on Google analytics.
For this list of free traffic sources, Iâm going to include a mixture of broad and narrow ideas, but keep this range in mind when coming up with your own marketing strategy.
Time to break down some free web traffic sources you can start investing time into nurturing.
1. Reddit
Reddit is a news aggregation and discussion website that was founded in 2005. If youâre an avid internet user, youâve probably stumbled upon Reddit before.
On Reddit, communities are divided into whatâs known as âsubreddits,â or subs. Subreddits make it easy to subscribe and follow specific groups on Reddit, and Reddit is home to an absurdly wide variety of subs.
An example of several personal finance subreddits and some threads.
What makes Reddit an awesome free traffic source for marketing is that simple fact; subreddits literally group your target market in a single, easily identifiable place.
If you understand how to engage with a specific subreddit and provide value to readers, you can start pushing some serious website traffic.
Now, Redditors are known for being more tech-savvy and quick to spot a marketing ploy than most sites. In fact, Reddit users are actually the least valuable user group out of any social media platform.
This is large because Reddit is not immensely ad-heavy, and many users have an ad-blocker or a disinterest in advertising in general.
From the CNBC article linked above. $0.30 per user is incredibly low compared to other social networks.
But, while paid traffic isnât always easy to pull-off on Reddit, weâre luckily talking about free traffic sources in this post.
Here are some important tips to know about marketing your website on Reddit for free:
Read subreddit rules
Some communities allow self-promotion or link sharing, but many donât. Be sure to read the rules of any sub before you share content to avoid getting banned from subs.
Actually use Reddit
Many subs require an account to have a certain amount of Karma before posting. You gain Karma by receiving content or comment upvotes, so youâll need to add some value to Reddit in order to actually unlock certain features.
Get your name out there in a particular subreddit by being a valuable member and staying active.
Look for weekly self-promotion threads
Many subs have weekly self-promotion threads where you can shamelessly plug your content. Find threads that pertain to your niche, and jot the days in your calendar.
This can easily score you a few free opportunities to link drop throughout the week, potentially leading to thousands of free visitors per year.
An example of a self-promotion thread on a massive finance subreddit. A perfect example of an easy way to share your content for free.
Donât just link-drop
If you just post a link to your latest blog article, expect to get some negative feedback. Reddit is a value-add game. I suggest including a comment with your link posts to explain what readers can gain by clicking on your article, and ask for feedback/offer help. Basically, donât spam and add value.
Understand that Redditors are basically private investigators
Many bloggers use fake names on Reddit to disguise the fact they are self-promoting. Honestly, this is mostly a waste of time.
Reddit makes it easy to analyze a userâs post history, so unless you do an excellent job at burying your link posts in a sea of other content, people will figure out youâre self-promoting from a mile away. Itâs better to be honest and upfront from the start.
2. Quora
Iâve covered Quora marketing quite extensively, so Iâm not going to dive into this one too much.
[
How To Use Quora to Generate Traffic to Your Website
A complete guide on one of the worldâs leading social platforms
](https://medium.com/better-marketing/need-to-spice-up-your-marketing-mix-check-out-quora-f62deb403314)
But, I want to tackle two new Quora marketing strategies that Iâve been using lately, especially since there have been some changes to the platform.
Firstly, Quora doesnât display thread view counts anymore, only question followers.
I still recommend answering questions with high follower numbers where you can since this is more effective than answering questions nobody is looking at, but youâll have to go a bit deeper to find the really juicy (and trending) questions.
If you create a free Quora Ads account, you can actually use Quoraâs paid advertising platform to find high visibility questions to answer.
Quora Ads lets advertisers target specific questions on Quora and provides a âpotentially weekly impressionsâ metric to give advertisers an idea of the audience size.
This is a potential goldmine for a free traffic source. Just type in questions relating to your niche, make a running list of high visibility questions, and then get to work and answer them (while tactfully linking back to your resources along the way).
Want another idea on how to maximize the value from this free web traffic source?
Look for Quora threads on the first page of Google and answer those.
If they rank on Google, you already know the thread is getting some traffic, so thatâs an easy way to cherry-pick additional Quora threads that are worth your marketing attention.
3. Medium Content Syndication
Iâve always been an advocate for syndicating your content on Medium because itâs free, fast, and you can make money on Medium by doing so.
Thereâs nothing really groundbreaking here, but your style might differ based on your business type.
I think bloggers should simply make use of the import a story function to quickly syndicate their content on Medium to increase their reach and funnel back to their blog.
It isnât a ton of traffic, but itâs free and also pays me on Medium. Plus these readers are very engaged!
However, if you run a major publication or a business that isnât a blog, you might want to consider starting your own Medium publication to bring a bit more professionalism to this traffic source.
For example, Hubspot, The Economist, Twitch TV, and The Atlantic all have their own Medium publications and pretty substantial followings.
At the end of the day, Medium is a massive platform with high domain authority and tons of readers.
If you have limited resources, starting a blog or publication for your business on Medium might be an easier path to driving traffic and sales than building a blog from scratch on your own website.
4. YouTube
I blog in the personal finance niche, and it seems like a lot of content creators and massive publications alike are trying to diversify through video these days.
I think that starting a YouTube channel while blogging makes a lot of sense once you have the resources to outsource some of your workload.
Letâs face it: Video content is more engaging (when done right) than your average blog post.
Plus, converting a how-to article or listicle to video format is pretty easy; your blog posts basically act as scripts for your videos!
I only started my YouTube channel in March, but Iâm already seeing bits of referral traffic coming to This Online World from my videos, and people are sticking around for a decent amount of time:
Itâs pretty easy to generate some sort of traffic on your videos, even as a beginner. To get traffic on YouTube, I just use other free traffic sources like Reddit or Quora to promote new videos as they go live.
By using an intro screen in my video that includes my blog URL and by linking to my blog numerous times in my video description boxes, I think there should be a fairly linear relationship between how my channel grows and the referral traffic it drives.
Only time will tell, but I think starting a YouTube channel is an excellent way to diversify your reach, get some free traffic, and possibly make money down the line as well.
5. Email Marketing
Now, Iâm no pro at using email marketing to get free website traffic.
But, I have definitely learned a lesson or two and made several mistakes over my time running This Online World.
A properly managed email list is a valuable asset to have for any webmaster. It doesnât matter if you blog or sell a service, an email list can help prop up your traffic if you take a hit on organic or social channels.
So, the first lesson I learned after more than a year of blogging was that if you want to grow your email list, you actually need a strategy.
And no, that email subscription box in your footer is not a strategy!
After neglecting my email list for so long, I eventually signed up with Mailer Lite and made a free eBook grab. The eBook is a list of 50 ways to make extra money, so itâs pretty relevant to this niche.
MailerLite, or pretty much any email marketing platform, lets you fire a pop-up email grab to help collect subscribers.
I have mine fire after a minute of a new user being on the page, and it doesnât re-fire for an IP address for the next 90 days if they decline.
Here are the stats of the email grab so far:
Nearly 2,000 new email signups, not bad!
Itâs a pretty low conversion rate, so I plan on creating new email grab offers down the line and segmenting them based on article topic.
For example, I want to create a free blogging checklist for how to publish stellar blog posts, and Iâll have that fire on any blogging related content. The make money eBook can fire on everything else. You get the idea.
Iâve just started making an effort with sending out weekly or biweekly emails, and this is probably the second mistake Iâve made.
An email list is only a source of free traffic if you nurture it and actually give your readers something of value for giving up their email.
Iâm trying to include free resources, job postings, and ways to get free gift cards in my email blasts, alongside my own content. Weâll see if this pays dividends down the line!
But long story short: Donât neglect building an email list, and donât wait until you have a dip in traffic to start nurturing your list!
6. Guest Posts, Podcasts, and Collaborations
Another nifty free source of website traffic is to produce guest posts on other websites or to collaborate with a host of a podcast or YouTube channel.
Now, this is a tricky source of traffic to develop generally since unless you land a feature on a massive publication or channel, you probably wonât get much traffic.
For most people, I think the process of guest posting or collaborations is a bit of a snowball effectâŚyou want to generate more buzz about your website or business each month until something catches.
This strategy definitely works. I mean, guest posting hundreds of times is how Buffer acquired their first 100,000 users.
As a completely new blogger or business owner, this free traffic source is also not easy to develop since outreach will be difficult. People donât really want guest posts or to feature someone who is brand new with nothing to share, after all.
You can overcome this if you have a crazy story or you share your success from one industry to help break into a new one.
I see new bloggers coming from the Amazon FBA or investing world all the time who use their business success to help network in the blogging game, but you can go either way with this.
My only advice here with guest post/appearance outreach is to really know who youâre pitching to when you send an email.
If I get a guest post pitch that reads âdear adminâ or âhey!â I donât reply.
It takes 30 seconds to read my about page or to figure out who runs This Online World, and thatâs the case with most blogs or podcasts as well.
7. Social Media
Social media is the second-largest source of free website traffic for This Online World, and this is probably the case for a lot of blogs or businesses.
Now, thereâs no cookie-cutter answer I can give on what social media platform is best, or how to leverage each one.
Truthfully, I mostly focus on Pinterest and Tailwind to drive free traffic, and I donât really use Facebook or Twitter much except for networking purposes.
The last 30 days or so of Pinterest traffic. Keep in mind a lot gets filtered into âDirectâ from my understanding.
I know other bloggers out there who drive decent traffic from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even random websites like Mix.
Whatever you decide, I think there are two main lessons Iâve learned about using social media to generate free traffic.
The first is to simply not stretch yourself too thin.
When I started blogging, I wanted to be everywhere. Ultimately, for many people, I think this results in just half-assing a bunch of platforms. This is why I mostly stick to Pinterest now and SEO.
Secondly, make sure you choose a social media platform where your audience is already active or one that caters to what youâre selling.
I use Pinterest for blogging because personal finance pins do alright and can be a bit clickbaity to generate free traffic.
In contrast, when I ran a dropshipping store or my Etsy POD store, I made niche Instagram pages instead since Pinterest or Facebook wouldnât be as easy to reach a very narrow audience.
If I was selling a course, Iâd probably spend time building a Facebook group for course members to provide additional value and to use it as a selling point for the courseâŚyou get the idea!
We only have limited time, so make sure you use it wisely with whatever social media platforms you decide to use.
8. SEO and Organic Traffic
I left search engine optimization, or SEO, until the last point in this list of free traffic sources for a reason.
Donât get me wrong: SEO is awesome. In fact, organic traffic makes up the bulk of traffic for This Online World.
But, Iâm hesitant to call SEO and organic traffic completely free because the reality is, at a certain point, this traffic source becomes paid (and quite expensive).
You can only bootstrap your SEO game so far before you canât keep up with the competition in your niche. Eventually, you will probably have to reinvest into something to improve your SEO game.
For a lot of people, this means optimizing their website speed or hiring a link building service to improve their backlinksâŚor both.
This is a ton of money, and itâs an ongoing operational cost as well since you need to stay ahead of the competition.
So, I think itâs fair to categorize SEO and organic traffic as a free traffic source, but only to a point.
SEO is a business, and at some stage, it truly does become pay-to-play.
However, I think investing some time into basic SEO and content isnât a bad idea for business ownersâŚespecially if the alternative of paid advertising is expensive in your industry.
Free Traffic Sources I Donât Recommend
As I mentioned, our time is clearly valuable, so there are a few free traffic sources I really donât recommend spending too much time on (or any time, really).
Spam blog commenting
Commenting on blogs you read and enjoy is an awesome way to network and to potentially generate a bit of free traffic and awareness for your own website.
Spam commenting on other blogs, on the other hand, is an absolute waste of time.
I probably get five to six spam comments a day on This Online World, and it boggles my mind that this is still a thing these days.
In fact, I had to turn on comment approvals recently because of stuff like this:
Bonus points if your comment is in Russian!
I donât know if people are trying to link build, get free traffic, or how much of it is even automated. However, whatever the case, donât try to use blog comments as a way to improve SEO or gain traffic.
Use comments to network and learn or to just be a decent human being and connect with someone.
Social share exchanges
I used to use a website called Viral Content Bee when I started my blog, and there are a few other websites out there with similar premises.
The idea is pretty straightforward.
You gain credits for sharing content and posting your own content for other people to share costs credit. Itâs a social sharing exchange that is designed to foster reciprocity.
Itâs not that these channels donât do anything, itâs just that I think the opportunity cost might be a tad too high.
Sure, itâs awesome to have your content retweeted for free or to have a post that gets shared on Facebook, but from my experience, you donât get much free traffic in exchange and this makes sense.
After all, pages with massive followings wouldnât be giving away their mentions for free or spending their time on random exchangesâŚthis makes it highly unlikely that you ever get your content shared for free to a wide audience.
Just my opinion on social share exchanges, and I recommend that you always consider the opportunity cost of whatever platform you end up using to generate website traffic.
Final Thoughts
Personally, I stick to Reddit, Quora, Pinterest, and SEO. But again, thereâs no cookie-cutter solution out there.
Credit: Tom Blake
Important of all, the higher you rank on Google, the more youâll drive traffic, build brand awareness, and increase your overall ROI.
To illustrate exactly how critical SEO is for your website, just consider that 93% of online experiences start with a search engine.
And you donât want to miss out on that traffic potential.
Table of Contents
- Prevent Google from indexing certain pages
- Reduce the target keyword count in your post
- Add Amazing Meta Descriptions & Tags
- Link out to Other Websites
- Increase traffic by updating old posts
- Promote Your Blog on Pinterest
- Speed up your website
- Promote The Hell Out of Your Content
https://fatfrogmedia.com/seo-traffic-hacks/#link-out-to-other-websites
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