Free Traffic Sources For Affiliate Marketing :

Best Free Traffic Sources For Affiliate Marketing

No matter how good your website is, without enough traffic it will fail. It doesn’t matter how compelling your offer is, if your stats counter is like Tombstone before the outlaws ride in, you are just wasting your time and money putting the website up in the first place.

The good news is there are so many different ways of generating traffic now, you’re bound to find at least one that does the job for you. Hold on to your hat; you’re in for quite a ride!

Free or Paid Traffic – which is best for you!

I want to explain the key differences between free and paid traffic. Both are important weapons to keep in your traffic generation arsenal. Both have their pros and cons.

Let’s start with paid traffic…

It’s often said that you get what you pay for, and when you pay for traffic you can get it in abundance. I suppose the main advantage of paid traffic is you can start getting visitors instantly. It’s just like flipping a switch. You’ll know exactly how much traffic you’re getting because (with most methods) you pay for each and every visitor. That means you can test your website’s conversion rate and tweak it right away. If your website has a pretty lousy conversion rate, you can pause the traffic while you make adjustments, then start it up again.

The downside to paid traffic is, of course, the cost. Sometimes you have to pay for traffic up-front, meaning that if your website isn’t converting well, it can be money down the drain. Even if your site is converting well, you need to have enough capital or credit to finance your campaign before the money starts rolling in. Some forms of paid traffic can be highly competitive, too. You may find yourself competing against large corporations with highly paid advertising agencies and million-dollar budgets.

All this might make you decide to opt for free traffic instead. Getting to the top spot on Google will mean that people see your site first. As long as it stays there, the traffic will keep rolling in.

However, there is a catch…

It generally takes time to achieve results. Oftentimes free traffic isn’t really free. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that “free” traffic is a myth. Even if it doesn’t cost you any money upfront, it costs time (yours or someone else’s). If you’re having to pay somebody to generate this “free” traffic, it’s not really free.

Here are some popular sources of free traffic!

Like I said, it can take time (and sometimes a little money) to get traffic this way, but it’s worthwhile. I want to talk about free traffic methods now, and I’ll cover some paid-for methods later.

When people think about “free” traffic, the most popular source that comes to mind is getting a high ranking on Google and other search engines. This is achieved via search engine optimization (SEO). This is where you make your website attractive to the search engines so they’ll rank it highly. To be honest, I’ve always regarded SEO as a bit of a “dark art”. As Google and the other search engines change their algorithms regularly, you’re better off hiring an SEO expert to do the job instead of doing it yourself. Not exactly free, but cheap in the long run.

Another way to get free (or at least cheap) traffic is to simply ask for referrals. Ask your existing customers to recommend you to a friend, and offer them an inducement – such as a product with a low cost but high perceived value, or a discount voucher against future purchases – to encourage them. Again, this isn’t 100% free, and you have to already be getting some traffic and sales, but when that traffic comes with a recommendation, it means the customer is more likely to make a purchase.

One method that is completely free (in financial terms, anyway) is guest blogging. Here you find a popular blog in your niche, contact the owner and offer to write an article for them (gratis) in return for a link back to your site. This is a win-win situation for everybody. The site owner gets a blog post they don’t have to write, and you get credibility and traffic by being associated with an “authority” blog.

Some popular sources of paid traffic!

Now! I want to tell you about some popular sources of paid traffic. Note that “paid” doesn’t necessarily mean expensive; in fact, if you play your cards right, the cost could be measured in pennies!

Probably the most popular type of paid traffic comes from Google Ads. This used to be called Google AdWords and are (basically) those want-ad style advertisements you see at the top and down the right-hand side of the search results in Google.

This type of advertising is known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC). As the name would imply, this means that you only pay when somebody clicks the link in the ad that takes them to your website. If nobody clicks, you don’t pay anything. Exactly how much you DO pay depends on how competitive the search term (or “keyword”) is. The more popular the keyword, the more expensive each click will be.

Facebook Ads are another great way of getting paid traffic. They are PPC like Google Ads and work in a similar way, appearing on potential customers Facebook Timelines.

There is, however, one key difference between Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Because Facebook collects so much information about each Facebook user, you are able to get really specific about who sees your ad. Not only does this mean that potential customers are more likely to click on your ad, but (provided your website converts well) they are much more likely to make a purchase. In the early days you can use Facebook Ads to tweak your site copy and get your conversion rates up because you’ll know for certain that only people from your target audience are visiting your site.

Finally, there are solo mailings. These work in a similar way to guest blog posts, but here you pay a mailing list owner (more about that tomorrow) to send your article directly to their list members’ inboxes. Just like with Facebook Ads, you can be sure only potential customers visit your site from such a mailing.

The money’s in the list!

Earlier I touched on mailing lists, and today I want to delve a bit more into this subject because your mailing list can be the most important weapon in your traffic generating armory. In fact, it’s no exaggeration to say that your mailing list could go on to be your business’s most valuable asset.

Let me explain…

It doesn’t matter how hard you try; you’re never going to get a 100% conversion rate for your website. It just doesn’t happen. Some people will visit your website, take a look around and then click away. Unless you give them a reason to return, they’ll likely never come back again.

The same goes for people who DO make a purchase. Even if they’re satisfied with the purchase, chances are they won’t come back and buy anything else from you – unless you remind them.

This is the key!

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “Out of sight, out of mind”. With a mailing list you can remind people about who you are. You can e-mail them useful information to establish your credibility as an authority in your niche. Perhaps most importantly, you can notify them about new products or services. This means you can encourage them to visit your website over and over again – even when they weren’t planning on doing so. Instant recurring traffic!

In case you’re thinking: Sending out all those e-mails is going to be a real hassle! Let me reassure you that’s not the case. You can use services called autoresponders to automate the entire process.

Get sociable, get traffic!

Now Let’s talk to you about why you should be using social media to get traffic to your website. According to Pew Research Center, today more than seven-in-ten Americans use social media to connect with one another, engage with news content, share information and entertain themselves.

Just take a moment to let that fact sink in…

A whopping 72% of people in the United States connect with social media. That rises to nearly 90% of people in the 18-29 age demographic.

That means if you want to get noticed, you MUST be on social media. We’re talking platforms like:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Pinterest

Linked-in

And so on…

Probably the easiest social media to start with is Twitter. These short messages of up to 280 characters grab peoples’ attention. They don’t take long to read. They don’t take long to write, either! This means you can stay active, build a following and share information every day without it taking up too much of your time. If your tweet is interesting enough, your followers may re-tweet it to their followers spreading your message far and wide. This can encourage people who may not have heard of you, or would not be otherwise inclined to visit your site, to stop by and check you out.

If you have a WordPress blog, you can get a plugin that puts your most recent tweets in the sidebar. This counts as new content for SEO purposes and can help your rankings on Google and other search engines.

If your site is more visual than wordy, consider Pinterest or Instagram as your preferred social media. Both allow you to share photos and memes. Like Twitter your followers can re-share them with their followers. If an image “goes viral” it can spread across the globe very quickly.

That’s one pandemic I don’t mind getting caught up in!

Make Facebook your secret weapon!

Most people have heard of Facebook. Millions of people are on Facebook – perhaps you’re one of them.

The thing is, though…

Not many people realize the full potential Facebook has to drive traffic to their websites. People check their Facebook page and sometimes share stuff with others, but you can do WAY more than that.

For example, have you heard of Facebook Groups?

As part of a Facebook Group you can share information about common interests and express your opinion. They allow people to come together around a common cause, issue or activity. You can organize, express objectives, discuss issues, post photos, and share related content.

You could participate in a Facebook Community. This is a Facebook page dedicated to a topic or experience and is owned collectively by the community connected to it. Just like Facebook Groups, a Facebook Community lets you connect with others who share similar interests and experiences.

Alternatively, you could participate in a Facebook Forum. A Facebook Forum is a bit like a regular online forum. If you have ever used one, you’ll already know how useful they can be to everyone. You can use a Facebook forum to discuss topics, ask questions or provide answers.

All this brings you to the attention of a lot more people than you would normally interact with – your Facebook friends etc.

Are you starting to see the potential here?

The trick is to build your authority by sharing your tips so people will get to know, like, and trust you. Just ignite their curiosity and that will lead them to your website.

Within the confines of this short e-course I’ve only been able to scratch the surface of this fascinating subject.

To your success with Free Traffic Sources For Affiliate Marketing!