1. Search engines – SEO

SEO is probably one of the biggest things you can practice in order to get some traffic for your website (by the way, make sure to check out my complete guide to hosting for online business). Top ranking for a good, competitive keyword can mean the world to your blog or website.

2. Email marketing

Fancy name, but what it really means is sending emails to a list of people and leading them back to your blog. If you haven’t started to build your email list yet, it’s about time. Check out MailChimp as they are the only big player offering free services.
3. Co-registration traffic
This one’s usually not free, but it’s a part of email marketing, so I thought I might as well place it here. The basic idea is this: You find someone who already has an email list and try to convince them to place an additional form somewhere in their sign-up funnel.
This form/field/checkbox asks a new subscriber whether or not they want to subscribe to your list too. Something along the lines: “Hey. You might also consider subscribing to Karol’s list. He shares some interesting information about internet marketing. Just tick the checkbox and you’re good to go.”
In the end you get a new subscriber without any real effort on your part.

Social media traffic

There’s a couple of different things here.
Social bookmarking
In a sentence – you add your blog to a number of different social bookmarking services.
The services:
4. Delicious
5. Connotea.org
6. Blinklist.com
7. Faves.com
8. Mister-wong.com
9. Spurl.net – problems while loading the site
10. Netvouz.com
11. Diigo.com
12. Backflip.com – no longer with us
13. Bibsonomy.org
14. Folkd.com
15. linkaGoGo.com
16. Slashdot.org
17. Technorati.com
18. MyStuff
19. Buddy Marks
20. Connectedy
21. MyLinkVault
22. Google Bookmarks
23. Jumptags.com
24. OYAX
25. A1 Webmarks
26. Bookmark Tracker
27. myVmarks – no longer with us
28. Wirefan.com – no longer with us
29. Boomarking.com
30. Symbaloo
31. Karmalynx.com
You don’t have to do it by hand though:
37. One more trick you can use. Share your new post via Google Reader (the little share icon at the bottom).
Web 2.0 sites
Websites within a popular domain which you can build for free, and then use them to get some traffic back to your main blog. They are:
38. Squidoo
39. HubPages
40. Weebly
41. Webs
42. Jimdo
43. Yola
44. Webnode
45. Jigsy
46. You can also try to create a new community at Ning, or join an existing one.
Social news sites
Three main players here:
47. Digg
48. Reddit
49. StumbleUpon
If you’re in the design niche check out these sites as well:
Social networks
This one’s a no-brainer:
52. Twitter (how to create a twitter avatar)
53. Facebook
54. Myspace
55. LinkedIn
Free blogs
The idea is similar to the approach regarding Web 2.0 sites. Only this time you’re going to create some free blogs. Check these out:

Content spreading

A.k.a. submitting your content to different places around the internet.
62. Guest blogging (or posting)
This is the first biggie. Guest blogging (or posting) is one of the best sources of quality traffic. Try it yourself. Contact a number of bloggers and get some guest posting spots.
Article marketing
It’s just a fancy name for submitting your articles to various article directories around the internet. Each article has, of course, a live link back to your site.
You can start with these:
You might want to consider one of these services as well:
79. One more trick. Turn your article into a pdf and submit it to Scribd.
If you’re into this kind of stuff you can use spinning software to create some alternative versions of your articles. The best one of its kind is (as the name says itself) The Best Spinner.
Video marketing
Similar to article marketing, only this time you’re submitting videos.
The list:
You might want to consider one of these automation services as well:
Podcasts
You’re ahead on this one if you’re a radio-personality type. Of course, use your podcast to promote your main site.
Photo sites
This is one of less popular ways of driving traffic, but can be effective if you refine the process well enough.
102. Flickr
103. Picasa
104. One more trick. SEO-optimize the images on your blog. That way they have a chance to appear on Google Image Search.
Pinging
This is not a direct traffic getting method, but a way of notifying certain search engines that something is going on at your blog. After the pings have been sent those search engines update their listing featuring your new content. This in return can get you some new visitors.
Check out these services:
RSS directories and aggregators
Sites, where many different RSS feeds can be found in one place. Submitting your blog to such places can’t hurt you.
The list:

Community participating

122. Blog commenting
As you know every comment contains a link back to the author’s site. And a valuable comment can bring really good traffic when it’s published on a big blog.
Just a simple advice here. Go out there, find some quality blogs and start commenting.
123. Forum posting
Similar to blog commenting. Only this time you’re posting on forums, and the link is usually in your signature file.
124. Ning communities
Mentioned earlier in this list. You can either create a new community or join an existing one.
Getting a blog badge
A badge is a little widget that sits in your sidebar and displays various things. Mostly ads for other blogs. However, by displaying such a badge your blog gets featured on other websites that use the same badge.

Website and blog directories

They’re not as effective as they used to be, but there’s still some value in this.

Paid traffic

If you have too much money you might want to consider spending some of it on paid traffic.
Here’s a big list of various advertising networks (including social media advertising platforms, at the bottom).
First and foremost, check out this site: payperclicksearchengines.com
161. And a bonus – check out PRWeb for some press release marketing.
162. One more thing. Did you know that you can buy social media traffic and subscribers (Facebook fans, Twitter followers, YouTube views, and SoundCloud music views)? Check the site out.

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