Five Simple Steps To Increase Your Blog Traffic Today!

Practically everyone knows the best way to increase your website or blog traffic is through SEO or search engine optimization. By using the proper keywords in your title, description, and other meta tags you can greatly increase your sites value with search engine web crawlers and bots. However, this can take significant time to begin to show results. In addition, if you are paying another company or individual for this service, it can be quite costly.

So how do we drive targeted traffic to our sites in a short amount of time with the least amount of monetary input? After reading several articles and tips, here are the five ways I think are the most effective (in no particular order):

Free Ad Share Networks
One of the best examples of this is AdGridwork.com. This service uses the same principle as other text based advertising in that relevant ads appear on relevant sites. It does not generate huge amounts of traffic, but the visitors are highly targeted.

Office Emails
We have all seen them. They may be jokes, videos, or inspiring stories but they can create a flood of traffic. Simply insert one or more links to your site at the top or bottom of the message (after deleting all the other unnecessary information first). Forward this on to as many friends as you normally do and there is a chance for some major traffic by the time the email finally stops circulating.

Business Cards
There are a number of sites offering free business cards these days. Simply do a search for 'free business cards' and pick the service of your choice. Place your site name and a short blurb on the card during ordering. When the cards arrive, give them to friends or leave a few in office lunchrooms, cafeterias, or near check stands at grocery stores (with permission, of course).

Email Signature Lines
Configure your email signature to include a link to and a blurb about your website. Every time you send an email to anyone, you are advertising your site.

Join a Forum Related to Your Topic
There are millions of forums on the internet today. As an example, if your site is about planets, you could do a search for astronomy forums. Begin posting and sharing your ideas. Each time you post you can leave your link there as well. Be careful with overdoing this method. You do not want to be accused of spamming the forum. Just take an avid interest in the topic and this will work wonders for your site or blog.

Many other free traffic methods exist. By following even one example from this list your traffic will increase over time. If you perform all of the examples above you will be surprised at the amount of traffic you can generate for your site. And remember, this traffic will be targeted and cost much less than paid advertisements.

-Tommy