35 Clever Ways to Get Free Traffic to Your Blog - Work from Home Jobs, Online Jobs & Side Hustles

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To get free traffic to your site or blog, you’ll invest your time and energy instead of money.

Here are 35 methods to get FREE traffic to your blog:

1. Search engine optimization

Optimize your website or blog for search engines to get organic (free) search engine listings.

Do both on-site and off-site SEO. Even though search engine algorithms change frequently, you still need to know and apply at least the basics of SEO.

2. Build a list.

Use some of the powerful free traffic methods below to drive traffic to your opt-in page and build a list.

Building a list is one of the best online marketing techniques and the best way to convert visitors into sales.

Related: Find out how to build a list here.

3. Create a focused opt-in or lead magnet page.

The only purpose of your opt-in page is to entice your visitors to sign up for your list. You should drive most of your traffic to your opt-in page so you can grow your list more quickly.

Leadpages is one of the best-known tools and works very well to create attention-getting opt-in pages. But some of the leading email service providers such as ConvertKit and GetResponse are now including opt-in page templates too. You’ll save money when using one of these powerful email services because you don’t need LeadPages to create landing pages.

4. Be active on social networking sites.

Social networking is one of the most popular free marketing methods today. You should be active on social networking sites like Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, and others. Pinterest is especially great to drive free traffic to your blog. And any business should be active with Linkedin.

5. Pin your blog posts to your Pinterest group boards.

Pinterest is simply THE BEST and FASTEST way to get massive traffic to your site today. Use Tailwind, the best Pinterest scheduler to pin consistently. Using Tailwind will explode your Pinterest traffic. Read my Tailwind review here.

Pinterest articles and resources that will help you get started with Pinterest and improve your Pinterest reach:

How to Explode Your Blog Traffic with Pinterest and Tailwind
10 Pinterest Pin Design Tips to Draw Attention to Your Pinterest Pins and Boost Your Blog Traffic
How to Use Color to Get More Clicks, Repins, and Page Views
How to Create Beautiful Pinterest Pins Quickly and Easily with Templates
Why You Should Create Multiple Pin Images for Each Blog Post
Canva – The easiest software to design social media images.
See my Tailwind review here.
Grab your FREE Tailwind Trial here!

6. Write and give away a free ebook or free report.

Giving away a free ebook or report helps to build your list and to build credibility.

7. Create a sitemap.

An XML sitemap tells Google that you published new content and makes it easier for Google to index your pages.

8. Add new content frequently.

Google likes blogs that provide new quality content on a regular basis. You can expect a 30% increase in traffic when posting every day.

9. Use WordPress plugins to automatically post to social media.

Install WordPress plugins that automatically announce your new blog posts to your social media accounts.

10. Video marketing.

Create videos and put them on YouTube and other video sites. The more creative your videos are, the better your chances are that the videos will become viral. Also, demonstrating the benefits of your products with videos works well.

11. Drive free traffic to opt-in pages through video marketing.

Add call-outs with your links using video editing software such as Camtasia or Cam Studio, a free video editing software.

12. Add an exit page.

An exit page will increase your sales and subscribers. Many people who come to your site will leave and never come back unless you're able to get their email addresses so you can get in touch with them.

Here are some examples of what you can do with an exit page or exit popup. You can ask visitors to subscribe, offer a discounted offer, offer a one-time offer, ask them why they didn't buy, and more. Many people use exit pages to sell affiliate products. You will be amazed at how many people will give you their info or buy your product with this exit strategy.

Getresponse is one of the popular email marketing systems that provide exit popups in addition to a large variety of opt-in forms. All email marketing systems will provide some opt-in forms, including ConvertKit, Getresponse, Aweber, Mailchimp, and others.

13. Convert abandoning visitors into subscribers with lightbox popups, floating bars, slide-in scroll trigger boxes, sidebar forms, and after-post forms.

OptinMonster is powerful lead generation software that converts abandoning visitors into subscribers with its dynamic marketing tools and Exit Intent® technology. It is the best lead generation software on the market. It’s a WordPress plugin that allows you to create and integrate highly effective email signup forms on your website or blog. It works with the most popular email service providers including Constant Contact, Aweber, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, Mad Mimi, and more.

You can easily create lightbox popups, floating bars, slide-in scroll trigger boxes, sidebar forms, after-post forms, and in-line forms while giving you the ability to A/B test, add page-level targeting, and much more. You can use their pre-built templates that are designed for maximum conversions, or create your own. You can customize all the details with their easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder – no code needed. Check out OptinMonster here.

14. Do joint ventures with people in your niche.

This is one of the best ways to get targeted traffic.

15. Set up an affiliate program.

If you have your own products, set up an affiliate program for your products and have your affiliates promote your products or services. This is an excellent way to get extra traffic to your site and increase sales. You'll have to pay commissions but it won’t cost any money upfront as you’ll only pay commissions for sales (and optionally for leads.)

16. Be a guest blogger.

Guest blogging can be a great source of traffic. Guest blogging is writing original content that will be published on someone else’s blog. Find high-traffic, popular blogs in your niche, contact them, and offer to write unique, quality articles about subjects that interest their readers. In exchange, you will get a link that will give you more exposure.

NOTE: Guest blogging to get links for SEO doesn't work anymore. However, getting your content on high-traffic, quality contextual blogs can give you quality traffic.

17. Submit your blog to blog directories.

This article explains how you can benefit from blog directories.

18. Answer questions related to your products or services on forums.

Forum Marketing is still a great way to drive FREE traffic to your website. Find active forums related to your niche/content/topic. Post actively, provide good information and put your blog URL in your signature. Or link to an opt-in page to build your list. Here's a great article provided by Convertkit, a popular autoresponder service about how to promote on forums.

19. Answer questions on question-and-answer sites.

Question and answer sites are great to get answers to your questions. But answering questions on those sites is a great way to get free, quality, targeted traffic. And it's great for SEO too. The questions and answers pages will often rank well in Google and get a lot of traffic.

How this works: Go to Quora, find questions related to your niche, answer the questions, and mention your website. At the end of your answer, you can refer them to your relevant blog post. You are allowed to link to your blog but you need to follow the rules.

If you provide good answers, most readers will check out your blog. You can also use question-and-answer sites to find out what your audience wants and what kind of problems you can solve for them.

Ankit provides free, detailed instructions on how to use Quora to drive free traffic to your site. This is well worth checking out.

See an example of a Quora question and answer below. Also, check out the related questions. This is a gold mine to get ideas for creating content.

NOTE: Quora ranks higher than Yahoo Answers today. So, I only recommend using Quora now.

20. Be friendly and helpful online.

Other bloggers, internet marketers, and businesses can provide links, guest posts, recommendations, affiliate programs, and more.

21. Provide, unique content.

Make sure you have high-quality content on your site. Low-quality content will hurt sales and SEO. High quality will help you build credibility and improve SEO.

22. Get backlinks for each of your blog posts or web pages.

The value of backlinks for SEO has dramatically decreased. Today, only high-quality, contextual links have SEO value. So, make sure your links are contextual, high PR links.

23. Create profiles on popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. (Profiles give you links.)

24. Submit your site to free local directories, local review sites and specialized directories.

Having listings in important directories is a great way to get your website listed in search engines. For example, if you're a dentist, submit your site to dental directories (even if you have to pay for some of them).

25. Add your site to free Web directories.

Make sure your website is functional to increase your chances of getting accepted in directories. Check that all links work and that you don't have missing images. Make sure to read their guidelines before submitting.

26. Bookmark.

Bookmarking still works if you use quality bookmarks.

27. Join JV giveaway events.

JV Giveaways are one of the best ways for newbies to build a list. Most JV Giveaways are focused on Internet Marketing. Also, some of the leads are freebie seekers, but it's a great way to start building a list.

28. Do ad swaps and reciprocate with other list builders in your niche.

They email your offer to their list and you email their offer to your list. You will need a list of at least 300 to participate in an ad swap. Don't overdo ad swaps as you don't want to burn out your list's responsiveness. Once a month is good.

29. Write a compelling signature to use when posting in forums, posting comments in blogs, and submitting articles to any sites and anywhere else you're posting.

30. Use Email Signatures

Your email signature is a powerful way to promote your site. Most email programs have the ability to append an automatic signature (or “sig file”) to your outgoing emails. Just search in the help file of your email program under “signature” to find directions on how to create your email signature.

31. Leave useful comments on blogs in your niche with a link back to your blog or site.

Blog commenting can still get targeted visitors to your blog but has little or no SEO value today. So, mass-commenting is a waste of time today. But when you read a blog post in your niche, leaving a comment can get targeted visitors to your site. If you focus on high-ranking, popular blogs that receive a lot of traffic, you can generate free traffic to your website. You must provide relevant, useful comments to get approved by the webmaster of the blog and get clicks from your comments.

32. Be a guest speaker at teleseminars.

Interview someone in your industry or have someone interview you.

33. Be a speaker at life seminars and conferences.

34. Attend seminars and network with attendees.

35. Advertise on free classified sites like Craigslist and others.

36. Swap banners.

Make a banner ad for your site and ask another webmaster to do the same for his site. Then swap! I'm personally not a fan of using banners.

37. Word of mouth and offline promotions.

Tell everyone about your site. Mention your website, its URL, and benefits in daily conversations and spread the news!

Outdated Methods

The methods below used to be popular but don't work anymore today or don't work as well. I am mentioning them because you may have heard about those methods but may not know if they are still working today or not.

38. Submit articles to article directories.

Writing articles and submitting them to article directories used to be a great way to get links and traffic. But links from article directories are considered very low-quality today and submitting articles to article directories today is a waste of time. You still want to write quality articles but you want to post them to your blog.

39. Write and send out free online press releases.

This method used to work for SEO but is not effective today.

40. Traffic exchanges.

Traffic exchange sites (e.g. easyhits4u.com) will bring traffic to your site but it’s low-quality, low-converting traffic. This means that you will get NO conversions (or very few conversions) and you will NOT make money from your efforts. Traffic exchanges are a waste of time and money and it's best to stay away from them.

As you can see, there are many free traffic methods you can implement if you don't have money to invest or don't want to spend money until you start making money with your Internet business.

Once you start making some money, you may want to consider spending money on promotions and advertising in addition to using free methods to drive traffic to your site. The more you promote, the faster you'll build your internet business.

LIST BUILDING RESOURCES

Review of 4 Popular Autoresponders: ConvertKit, Aweber GetResponse, and MailChimp.
LeadPages – Create powerful landing pages to capture your visitor's email addresses.
OptinMonster is
Check out OptinMonster to convert abandoning visitors into subscribers with lightbox popups, floating bars, slide-in scroll trigger boxes, sidebar forms, and after-post forms.
How To Build a Profitable Email List on Autopilot and Turn Visitors Into Buyers.

BLOGGING RESOURCES

Recommended hosting for beginners: Bluehost.
WordPress themes: ElegantTheme, GeneratePress, Genesis & Thesis – DIYThemes.
Popular autoresponders: ConvertKit, Aweber, GetResponse, and MailChimp.
The best online spelling and grammar checker: Grammarly.
Best Pinterest scheduler: Try Tailwind with the free Tailwind trial.
Easy-to-use software to design blog and social media images: Canva.
30 Surefire Ways to Build and Grow Your Email List Fast.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing .