Generating excess traffic to your website is the key being successful online. This however is very delicate and hot subject for internet marketers, especially when it comes to generating free traffic, which seems to be the ultimate goal of all online entrepreneurs. But I can assure you that most sources of free traffic do not come free at all. Did you ever calculate how much time you take browsing these sites, and as you might have already found out by now, in our line of business time can be more precious than spending a few bucks on advertising your business.

The best solution is to try and find a balance between these two forms of generating traffic. When you combine the best free traffic sources with some of the best paid advertising, you are on the right path to get a result. Me personally, I will suggest three methods that will boost your online traffic, and if you put your mind to it and concentrate to these three methods of advertising, the traffic you need will come. Let me give you a brief description of my favorite three methods which are: (1) Posting and Contributing to forums; (2) Writing and Distributing your own articles; (3) Buying and Writing Ezine ads.

1. Posting and Contributing to Forums

Please try to understand that these places are not for posting ads. The primary scope is to contribute with your questions and answers. Forum spam is becoming more common, and above all it does not go down very well. If you ask me too many once good forums have been bombarded with Ads posted by online marketers. Therefore, your no.1 goal is to visit these forums, read as many posts as possible, and when you think that you have a good question or answer, then post it to the forum. This type of attitude towards forums will allow you to build certain credibility in that forum, and only by giving an honest and well thought opinion on the topic discussed will generate interest in your business from other members. As you build your credibility, you will generate free traffic, and most forums allow you to post a link at the end of your post where you can promote not advertise your business.

2. Writing and Distributing your own Articles

Articles can give you that much needed advantage over your competitor, and a good reason to write you own is that these have the potential of becoming viral once posted. In truth and honesty, I can say that this is my no1 method of diverting free traffic to my site. It is important to concentrate on creating a 500 word article which is relevant to the nature of your online business, and then at the end of your article it is important to include a resource box that displays a link back to your own site. When done, post your article to article distribution sites, (www.webmasterarticlesonline.com ) and also email groups (like http://www.marketingideashop.com/freestuff.html ). To see traffic from this method, it is important that you repeat the process continuously.

3. Buying and Writing Ezine Ads.

This is the method which is not free. However, this paid method of advertising works efficiently, because it is the most specifically targeted method of all three. Start by writing a good ad for your business, and link to your auto responder or directly to your site. The next step is to contact Ezines to place your ad. If you do a search for ezine directories, you will find enough lists to keep you busy for a long time. Once contacted, look for rates for both classified ads and solo ads. Solo ads are usually more effective because they out in a separate email, but for this reason they are more expensive. So make sure that you choose the right ezines which relate to your business and do not advertise in an unrelated ezine. Once this is done, you will need to track your results to see which ezines bring you the most and best traffic in order to repeat the process with different ads.

These three methods of generating traffic will keep you busy for a while, and if you do things the right way and most important of all stay focused, you will definitely see the traffic you need.

To Your Success,

Brian Camilleri