9 Hidden Free Traffic Sources For Your Website

Traffic is the lifeblood of any web business whether you have your own website or not. Getting free traffic is an advantage over the paid alternative since you can test your channel without losing any money. However, it may require more work and take a longer time to test and analyze.

9 Hidden Free Traffic Sources For Your Website

Receiving fresh and targeted visitors to your website may result in more actions such as leads and sales which will bring more cash to your business if you have a right sale funnel in place. The smartest thing is to direct the traffic to an appealing squeeze page where you can capture emails and save visitor’s data for future communication. That way, you would not waste your traffic.

9 Hidden Free Traffic Sources For Your Website

Here, I’ve laid out “9 Hidden Free Traffic Sources For Your Website” which can help you get started and receive a ton of fresh and targeted traffic to your web pages. These sources have not been announced so much and that’s why they’re hidden and untapped.

These traffic sources may help you in two ways: one is getting direct traffic when you’ll get real visitors to your site through your content on these sources and the other one is getting better search engine optimization since many of these sources are highly-respected by the search engines including Google.

Go ahead and create account on each and every source, read their terms and conditions, browse them and start adding content and getting traffic!

Traffic Source #1: Quora

Quora Logo

Quora is a website based on questions and answers. In fact, it is a knowledge resource where users can ask questions and get real answers.

For a web business owner, it is an incredible opportunity to find new ideas to talk about, open communication lines with your prospects and build your presence by brand awareness. Whatever you do, don’t aggressively self-promote yourself!

Traffic Source #2: Soup.io

Soup.io Logo

Soup.io is blogging platform where users can add texts, links, images, audio, video, files, quotes, reviews and much more.

As a web business owner, you might create an account and start blogging in this platform by adding more valuable content. The more you publish, the more exposure you’ll get!

Traffic Source #3: Alltop

Alltop Logo

Alltop is a information collection source which enables users to create and share headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic.

As a website owner, you have to create an account and add feeds to your page. That way, you would get a lot of interested users to your topic. Recently, they don’t allow users to add their website feed, but you can suggest them here: http://alltop.com/submission

Traffic Source #4: RebelMouse

RebelMouse Logo

RebelMouse is a digital publishing platform where users can build an engaged community by creating vibrant content.

As an individual web publisher, you can organize all your content into a real-time social website that displays very beautifully in all devices.

Traffic Source #5: Klinkk

Klinkk Logo

Klinkk is a sharing platform and blogging community where users can share their knowledge by posting blog posts and website links.

As a website owner, you need to sign up and then start submitting new posts, create a blogging community and build connections.

Traffic Source #6: Tutorialized

Tutorialized Logo

Tutorialized is a web source for Photoshop and Flash Tutorials where user can submit a tutorial and link to his/her website if that fits in the category.

Although, it’s mostly a Photoshop and Flash tutorial source, but you can find many other categories such as graphics, web design, business development and much more. If you have a website that can take advantage of tutorials, go for this traffic source!

Traffic Source #7: APSense

APSense Logo

APSense in a nutshell is a business social network where users connect each other and share their businesses with the network. It’s an amazing source of free traffic to your websites.

As a website owner, you need to create a free account, build contacts, make a network, create articles, explore others content, join groups and discussions and get engaged. That way, you’d good to go getting massive targeted free traffic to your own web pages.

Traffic Source #8: IBOTOOLBOX

IBOTOOLBOX Logo

IBOTOOLBOX is an independent business owner social network where users can get connected to each other and build their brands by posting and sharing content.

For a business owner, this network is a unique opportunity where you can get huge amount of targeted visitors to your websites. However, this source mostly works for “Internet Marketing” and “Make Money Online” niches.

Traffic Source #9: Kingged.com

Kingged.com Logo

Kingged.com is actually another social website which enables users to share snippets and links to the Internet Marketing type content.

If you have a website within the IM or MMO niche, then go right ahead and create an account in this amazing social website, get connected with other people in the niche and receive fresh traffic to your websites.

What’s Your Hidden Traffic Source?!

I don’t know how many of the above mentioned hidden traffic sources were known to you. Anyways, I wanted to share with you something valuable and I would really appreciate if you could do the same and tell us what your hidden traffic sources are. Leave your precious thoughts right below!

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is considered as one of the newest methods of getting traffic to your website and marketing a special product or service. Recently, this promotional channel has become so powerful that big companies and merchants are taking the most advantage of it, too. Maybe you should think about it, as well.

Social Media is a collective group of web properties whose content is primarily published by users, not its staffs and employees. Sometimes it is called Web 2.0 as the new era of Internet and World Wide Web due to the dynamic contribution of website users for adding content and managing the communities.

Because of this new feature, many websites have turned into networks and communities where visitors play a very large role for maintaining them. That´s why the number of users in these kinds of websites and networks is growing all the time and has become a phenomenon in our age.

It is very important to explain what Social Media is and what it is not. Sometimes, many people confuse it with advertising on social networking sites. Advertising that appears on these websites is mostly in the form of context or social action based. Networks monitor what the users are doing and place relevant ads next to them with the assumption that they will be clicked.

Social Media Marketing is not about spamming, copying certain links and pasting it in discussion groups and forums. It is essential to give value to the people with whom you are having a dialogue. It is about building relationship and getting credit.

Social Media Marketing is all about cooperation and association between Internet users. It is about participating with everyone and sharing with them ideas and information. It is as much about giving as it is about receiving from the group. The main goal of this type of  marketing is engaging with the consumer and providing value. Nothing more!

With that being said, the power of Social Media is so clear. However, I am going to  point out 3 reasons why it is an amazing method of branding and marketing:

1. The Traffic is Unlimited.

The number of Social Media sites and their users is increasing all the time. It means an unlimited source of traffic containing real visitors with different interests and various demographics.

2. The Traffic is FREE.

Apart from advertising on Social Media websites, this method is absolutely FREE. You do not need to pay anything for joining and contributing with these websites. As soon as you create your profile, you will be able to get as much as possible without paying a single dime.

3. The Traffic is Targeted.

The third feature of this kind of marketing is the ability to get targeted visitors. You can find groups, networks and communities created specifically around your desired topic and the only thing you need to do is to just get involved. Sometimes, the traffic is even more targeted than the search engines!

Social Media can take many different forms from forums, groups and blogs to photo, audio and video sharing websites. Marketing on these websites should be precisely performed according to the theme of the network. That´s why Social Media Marketing is an art and science, not a bunch of information.

While covering every aspect of Social Media Marketing is out of the scope of this website, I do my best to mention the most essential facts such as introducing the top Social Media Websites.

7 Forms Of Social Media Websites

I have categorized Social Media Websites into 7 forms and listed some of the top resources in each category. Hope you find it useful:

1. Social Bookmarking Websites:

These sites are especially created for users to help them bookmark their favorites and share it with others. In other words, these websites allow users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of their selected web pages on the Internet.

Top 5 Social Bookmarking Resources:

  • Diigo.com
  • PLURK.com
  • BlinkList.com
  • Delicious.com
  • StumbleUpon.com

2. Social Networking Websites:

These networks are focused on creating online communities of people who share their interests and activities and are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.

Top 5 Social Networking Resources:

  • hi5.com
  • LinkedIn.com
  • MySpace.com
  • Facebook.com
  • Plus.Google.com

3. Social News Websites:

These websites are resources where Internet users can submit and vote on news stories or other links and share them with others. These website also enable visitors to comment on submissions and even rate the news and stories.

Top 5 Social News Resources:

  • Digg.com
  • FARK.com
  • reddit.com
  • Slashdot.org
  • Newsvine.com

4. Social Multi-Media Websites:

These website are widely spread all over the net and used by millions of users each and every day. They are referred as Multi-Media Networks and can be categorized into 3 sub-groups:

4.a. Photo Sharing Websites:

Resources where people can upload, edit and share their photos and comment and rate other´s pictures. These websites are highly popular due to their value.

Top 5 Photo Sharing Resources:

  • Flickr.com
  • Pinterest.com
  • Snapfish.com
  • Photobucket.com
  • Picasaweb.Google.com

4.b. Audio Sharing Websites:

These are the resources where you can upload, edit, listen and share your audio and music files. Whether it is an mp3, Podcast or even live Internet radio, people love to listen.

Top 5 Audio Sharing Resources:

  • Chirbit.com
  • ccMixter.org
  • YourListen.com
  • SoundCloud.com
  • PodcastAlley.com

4.c. Video Sharing Websites:

These media websites are places where people can upload and edit their own video clips and watch and share them. It allows users to comment, rate and bookmark the movies and interact with other users and visitors.

Top 5 Video Sharing Resources:

  • Break.com
  • Vimeo.com
  • YouTube.com
  • Metacafe.com
  • Dailymotion.com

5. Social Publishing & Blogging Websites:

These websites are platforms that allow users to create, manage, publish and promote content in the forms of web pages, lenses, blogs  and micro-blogs. Basically, these websites are maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary which in blogs, for example, are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

Top 5 Social Publishing Resources:

  • Scoop.it
  • Gather.com
  • Zimbio.com
  • Squidoo.com
  • HubPages.com

Top 5 Social Blogging Resources:

  • Twitter.com
  • Blogger.com
  • TypePad.com
  • WordPress.com
  • LiveJournal.com

6. Social Learning Websites:

These are web pages where people can write, edit and read articles and essays or ask and answer question. Simply, these websites are considered as learning resources that enable the Internet users to contribute and modify content and help other people solve their problems.

Top 5 Social Learning Resources:

  • wikiHow.com
  • Annotum.org
  • Wikipedia.org
  • Wiki.Answers.com
  • Answers.Yahoo.com

7. Social Forums, Groups and Discussion Boards:

These communities are built for a targeted group of people around a specific topic where the users can start a new topic, ask questions, look for solutions, answer the questions and much much more. There are Forums and Message Boards for virtually any existing topic out there full of targeted people having the same interests and activities.

Top 5 Social Forums, Communities, Groups and Discussion Boards Resources:

  • Yuku.com
  • Spruz.com
  • Groups.Yahoo.com
  • Groups.Google.com
  • Answers.Microsoft.com

So far, you have had the opportunity to find out the most common Social Media Websites and the top resources in each category. Bear in mind that the above-mentioned list is only a fraction of what we call Web 2.0 and Social Media.

Also, remember that each website with a large user base that enables you to add, modify and share content with other users could be regarded as a Social Media Website and may not be overlooked. I have only laid out a short list, now it is your turn to find and locate other players in the market.

Hope you find this information useful. Why not subscribe to my RSS Feed and get the latest posts and articles?! Go ahead and do it now!

All the Best!

Hooshmand Moslemi

E-Mail Marketing

E-Mail Marketing is one of the most powerful forms of online marketing that empowers the usage of electronic mail and considered as the goldmine for most of Internet Marketers.

Having a list of targeted prospects is something that every merchant is looking for. It is regarded as a list that could bring you tons of money. That´s why many people state that the money is in the list.

E-Mail Marketing is a recommended way of getting traffic and promoting a website or product. While there are so many reasons that prove this fact, I am about to point out to only 3 of them:

1. The Traffic is FREE.

You do not need to pay anything. Once you build and grow your E-Mail list, it is yours forever. So, every time you send a message to your contact list containing a link, you will get FREE traffic to that web page.

2. The Traffic is On-Demand.

No matter you communicate with your list now or tomorrow, early in the morning or late night, middle of the week or during the weekend, whenever you send them a message, you get traffic. It is called On-Demand and gives a lot of flexibility to your business.

3. The Traffic is Targeted.

If you build a list of prospects for a special topic and send them only what they are interested in, then you have created and warmed up a list of targeted people that bring your targeted traffic. That´s why E-Mail Marketing is so profitable if done properly.

However, acquiring a list of targeted customers is not a simple job. Back in late 90´s, everyone was quite surprised by getting a single E-Mail message because it was something exciting. But today, it´s different. You would even wish your inbox to be empty. Frankly, many people are really tired of tons of commercial E-Mails that they receive day in day out.

With that being said, using E-Mail communication, as one of direct marketing methods, should be done very carefully to maintain its effectiveness. On top of that, you need to be more cautious and avoid violating the legal requirements. Sending unsolicited commercial messages to everyone is called Spamming and is now regraded as an Internet crime and requests very strict penalties.

Before you even think about creating an E-Mail list and start promoting your website through this channel, you need to educate yourself. You have to discover the basics, tips, tricks and secrets of E-Mail Marketing in order to harness its power and take the most out of it.

While learning E-Mail Marketing is like studying a scientific course and takes a long time to accomplish, it is not unreachable. However, I am going to cover the most important basics of this method and then let you continue the process of learning by recommending the best E-Mail Marketing courses out there. Hope you will find it useful.

The Basics Of E-Mail Marketing

1. The very first thing you need to do is to register for an autoresponder. An autoresponder is a program which automatically answers E-Mail messages sent to it. In other words, it is an E-Mail Marketing and management tool that automates the entire process such as getting subscsriber´s contact information, sorting them into certain lists, sending them pre-written messages and broadcasting.

There are tons of great autoresponders out there with amazing and powerful features which I am not going to get through all of them now. However, there are only 2 services which meet my criteria and I highly recommend them. GetResponse is one of them that I personally use and I’m very happy with this great autoresponder. The second one is AWeber which is also a trusted service used by many top marketers and web businesses. Both are very affordable.

2. Always collect at least 2 data of the subscriber´s contact information; preferably First Name and E-Mail Address (Of Course!). That way, you will be able to personalize your E-Mail Messages which is very effective.

3. Set your marketing campaign as Double Opt-In, not Single Opt-In which means that the subscriber must reconfirm his/her subscription by clicking manually a link in the first message. This way, you will have an incisive proof and avoid getting Spam complaints.

4. Try to sort and target your E-Mail contact list as precise as possible. Not only it helps you manage your list in a very easier way, but also your subscriber will get relevant messages. That´s how E-Mail Marketing should work.

5. Bear in mind that building and growing a list is one thing, warming it up is another. You cannot just create an E-Mail list and forget it and expect great results. You have to build a relationship with your list and get credit as much as possible. That way, you will create a responsive list that trusts you and takes your recommendations seriously which means more profit for you. Successful E-Mail Marketers have proved this fact by creating hugely warm lists.

6. Do not EVER exaggerate your E-mail Marketing efforts. Sending too many commercial messages to even a warmed list is not effective. Remember that E-Mail Marketing should be used as a form of communication, not a promotional method.

7. Try to personalize your messages every now and then. People see it as a direct E-Mail from you and pay more attention to what you are telling them. Treat them as your close friends and talk to them politely and personally. That way, your response rate will reach the roof and bring you great results.

You see how wide E-Mail Marketing is and how powerful it could be. On top of that, this method could turn into a very high-risky promotional method that would end up with trouble and loss. So, education plays a very large role.

The E-mail Marketing basics do not end here. As mentioned before, there are tons of other tips and tricks that you have to discover and implement in order to succeed. Besides, the rules and regulations are always changing and being an up-to-date marketer is a necessity. That´s why a proven guide comes to play.

I have been marketing on the Internet for more than 5 years now and seen a lot of E-Books, guides and courses come and gone. I have checked out lots of them and read the reviews. I have even tried some of them and got to know what they are about. Unfortunately, many of them are useless.

Hopefully, I found a course that delivers what it promises and it does it well. It is developed by a successful team of marketers that E-Mail Marketing is one of their expertise. I am NOT talking about some gurus that have collected their theories and sold it as an ultimate guide. I am talking about real experts giving away their most advanced E-Mail Marketing secrets to you.

So, if you want to move your E-Mail Marketing to the next level, then this course is for you. I highly suggest you to at least check it out now and give it a try. It is worth it!

The Insider Secrets to Email Marketing

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All the Best,

Hooshmand Moslemi

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) is another method of marketing a website that is based on paid advertising. In a nutshell, the advertiser only pays when his ad is clicked. Therefore, it is called Pay Per Click (PPC) and brings guaranteed number of visitors.

In this model, you do not need to worry about the unwanted costs. You are assured to get the certain amount of clicks you have paid for. So, this method can create a high traffic flow to your website in a very short period of time.

PPC can be used on search engines, advertising networks and content sites such as blogs. So, as you see, the resources are unlimited; you only have to learn how to control your PPC Marketing.

Pay Per Click Advertising should be always considered as an important option for every site owner. Here are the top 3 reasons why PPC is so powerful:

1. The Traffic is FAST.

Almost everyone could create a PPC campaign very quickly and it would be up and running in a matter of minutes. No other method is as fast as this one. PPC is also a very good resource for quick testing a new website or product.

2. The Traffic is Unlimited.

There is no limitation on how much traffic you would get. As far as your budget allows, you could promote your websites and attract tons of real visitors to them. Just find relevant keywords to your web page and bid on them or locate related websites to your topic. You see, the traffic is unlimited. And the most beautiful part is that you can control how much you are willing to pay for every single click.

3. The Traffic is Targeted.

Nothing is more important than targeted traffic. When it comes to PPC, it is crucial to bring high quality and targeted traffic, real visitors that are looking for a solution which your website is offering. That´s how PPC works. Putting your ad in front of people who themselves are desperately looking for an answer to their queries. It is called a targeted traffic.

Even if you place your ad on websites where people are stumbling upon and browsing, your ad should be related to the topic of those websites and demographic of their audience. That way, you could attract their attention with your advert and drive them to your web page directly.

The Basics of Pay Per Click Advertising

Before we move on, you need to know some basics about PPC Marketing. I have laid out the most important and fundamental facts about Pay Per Click Advertising. Here you go:

1. Normally, there are 2 types of advertising campaigns; Search-Based and Content-Based PPC Marketing.

Search-Based is a keyword-targeted campaign that allows you to select and bid on some certain keywords, adjust your Cost Per Click (CPC) and drive traffic to your website. That way, your ad would have the chance to be shown whenever a searcher puts that keyword in the search engine.

Content-Based is a placement-targeted campaign that enables you to place your ads on blogs and websites. In this case, your ad would have the opportunity to be displayed on the related web pages to your website topic. Again, you can control your CPC here.

2. The very next step is to determine the language and location of your targeted visitors. It plays a very large role in your marketing efforts if you identify and select your targeted customers carefully.

3. Next part is the Ad Creation process. Whether you are going to go through the Search-Based campaign or Content-Based, it is crucial to create an attractive ad copy.  This is the section where the magic begins. So, be as creative as possible and put yourself in your customers shoes. Here are the basics:

Ad Headline or Title: Write something eye-catching and interesting, but at the same time appropriate and relevant. That way, your ad would stand out of the crowd and attract the attention of your prospects.

Ad Description: This segment of your ad copy is the space where you describe more about your website or product. Be informative and call to action. It means that in the first line you tell more about the features and benefits of the website whereas in the second line, you call the reader to action and persuade them to click through.

Display URL: It is the URL Address of your website home page. Again, relevancy matters even in this section. If the website is more than 2 words, it would be a good idea to capitalize each word. This part helps a lot especially for branding purposes.

Destination URL: This is the exact address of the web page where people will land on after clicking through your ad. That´s why it is called Lading Page and plays a very large role in PPC Marketing. This page should be as relevant as possible to your Ad Copy and so compelling that entices the visitors to take the needed action such as sign-up, download or purchase.

4. After creating your ad copy, next job is to choose the relevant keywords or related websites based on your campaign type. This part is very crucial because you are going to predetermine who will see your ad. If you choose the right keywords for your website, then your ad will be exactly triggered when people search those keywords.

Similarly, if you locate and select websites that are closely related to your site topic, then you will have better opportunity to get as targeted visitors as possible.

5. The final step is to set a certain price for every single click and your daily and monthly budget. You want to bid for your chosen keywords or placements and determine your maximum price you are willing to pay for each and every click. That way, you would not worry about paying more than your desired budget.

You, as an advertiser, are going to bid high enough to place well in the listing but still make a profit.  But, you have to be careful and do not bid more than you can afford.

So far, you have learned some crucial basics about Pay Per click Advertising. Now, it would probably a good idea to find out the best resources where you can get started, create and run your PPC campaigns.

Best Pay Per Click Search Engines:

There are dozens of popular search engines out there that allows you to run PPC campaigns, but in my personal point of view, here are the best ones. So, I would prefer to stick with these search engines:

Best Pay Per Click Advertising Networks:

If you are planning to advertise on other websites and blogs on your choice, then you need a PPC (CPC) Advertising Network. I have searched a lot on the Internet, found a lot of CPC Advertising networks, joined them and given them a try. Only a few of them worked great for me. Here are the best ones:

You see, there are tons of tools and resources that help you get your site up and running in the advertising world. If you feel you need more information, tips and tricks about Pay Per Click Advertising, I suggest you to check out the guide below.

Hope you find this post helpful and informative. If you want to get more information, subscribe to my Blog RSS Feed. You do not want to miss any post here, do you?!

To Your Success!

Hooshmand Moslemi

Marketing a Website

Marketing your own website is the second most important step of site building process and is defined as techniques and strategies that get traffic to your web pages. Traffic means visitors; people who see and visit your website. Therefore, without traffic, your website is like a dead web page on the world wide web.

It is traffic that may bring you profit. If your website does not get seen, how would you be able to sell your stuff on your site or promote other´s products and services? So, in other words Traffic = Money.

While this step will determine your future success in some extent, you should know that marketing a website is not a simple job. In fact, getting traffic is a very overwhelming task and if you don´t exactly know what to do and how to do, you are wasting your time and money building a website.

To be honest with you, getting traffic and website marketing is achievable. The point here is not actually getting traffic. It is important to receive high-quality traffic and targeted visitors to your website. That way, you can convert that traffic into profit and earn too much money.

So, I would not prefer to recommend you to buy bulk traffic which many beginners do these days. Trust me, it does not work. Do you really think some page views or hits to your website is traffic? Your site should get real and highly-targeted visitors. Period!

Like I said before, marketing a website should also be started and monitored from the very first steps of building your web pages. It is true that I have put this step as the third one of the entire process, but you should follow all steps together from the starting point. Later on, you will find out why it is important to do so.

When it comes to marketing a website, there are literally thousands of methods, techniques and strategies that may help you get traffic and market your web pages. In my personal point of view, you don´t need to implement all of them. Actually, you won´t have enough time, money and energy. Just focus on one or a few methods and you will get better results. 

I am going to introduce some of the best and most effective marketing methods and then let you choose the one that suits you, your needs and resources. In the next posts, I will cover each and every method more deeply.

1. Search Engine Marketing (Search Engine Optimization = SEO)

It is by far the best and most effective method of website marketing. In this method, you will actually get FREE traffic to your website from search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN. So, the volume and quality of traffic is too high and your visitors are much targeted. This method is based on a number of actions that help you optimize your website for search engines and improve your site rank for specific keywords in the search results.  

2. Search Engine Marketing (Pay Per Click Advertising = PPC)

This method is also based on getting traffic from the search engines, but not FREE. In fact, you pay for this kind of traffic when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit your website. This marketing model can also be very effective because of the volume and quality. But, you need to act very carefully in order to reduce the risks of money loss. The largest providers of this kind of advertising model are companies like Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.

3. E-Mail Marketing

In fact, this method is one of the most profitable methods of Internet marketing that uses e-mail as a means of getting traffic to your web pages. If you have a list of subscribers that allow you to send them e-mails, then you have a great opportunity in front of you. The volume and quality of traffic in this method is totally based on how well you have built your list and developed trust. If done properly, it can bring you incredible results.    

4. Social Media Marketing

This advertising method is the newest model of Internet marketing and it is defined as a number of actions that achieve branding and marketing goals through the participation in various social media networks. This technique can integrated with other forms of marketing such as search engine optimization, viral marketing and word of mouth marketing. Therefore, this method gives a huge opportunity to advertisers and marketers. If you do it properly, the volume of traffic will be extremely high, so will the quality . Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Squidoo, Wikipedia, Digg, StumbleUpon, Flickr and Second Life are just a few examples of social media networks.

As you see, the sky is your limit. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of marketing methods that can help you get traffic to your web pages. The above-mentioned methods are the best ones to get started and focus. There are even more effective methods that I will cover later such as Article Marketing an Forum Marketing. So, stay tuned and subscribe to my RSS Feed in order to not miss the latest posts and updates.

Regards,

Hooshmand Moslemi