I’m sure by now that you already have a plan and strategy in place for your site’s marketing campaign, if you don’t have one, I suggest you read my previous posts, Integrating Short Term and Long Term Traffic and Targeted Traffic first.

Before moving on to specific traffic methods and techniques, I’ll give you the list of all the basic traffic methods that I use and tell you the benefits and differences of each one (I won’t go into details here as each one of these methods need a whole new post). Don’t get overwhelmed by the huge list though…remember that you don’t have to do all this in one go. Take it slow and steady.

The list below is divided into two categories, free traffic and paid traffic, and they are arranged and sorted out further by speed in descending order, meaning the first one in each list category is the fastest method to acquire traffic.

Paid Traffic

• Pay-Per-Click Advertising
  • Instant traffic literally! You will see results within minutes after setting up your campaign
  • Can be short-term or long-term, depends on how much you are willing to spend
  • You only pay for results (clicks)
  • Gives you, as the advertiser, the power to control the costs.
• Banner or Text Link Advertising
  • Second to PPC when it comes to sending traffic
  • Same with PPC advertising, can give you short and long-term results depending on your budget
  • You pay for exposure (usually on a monthly basis)
  • Good for bringing highly targeted traffic if you choose well for the sites to advertise on
• Newsletter or Ezine Advertising
  • A short term method – will give you a sudden boost of traffic in a short time
  • Still works but you have to find a newsletter or ezine that is directly related to what you are offering
  • Payment terms differ as some sites charge per newsletter and some charge per month
  • Can give you high quality traffic if you know the right way to do it (right ads to create, methods to use, etc…)

Free Traffic (some of them have a paid option where you get a lot of cool features)

• Article Marketing
  • Really effective in building long-term traffic
  • Slow at first but once set up, it will give you continuous flow of traffic
• Video/ Audio Marketing
  • Good for those who enjoy talking than writing
  • Can bring out your personality more than an article or blog post
  • Videos can be viral if done right – will be passed on throughout the internet
• Submitting Press Releases
  • Can give you short-term traffic (once the press release is published) and long-term traffic (a really good press release that is keyword rich can go a long way)
  • Get your press releases published once and your content will be distributed to several sites
• Classified Advertising
  • Gives more space than PPC and e-zine advertising
  • You can give your ads a boost with a really small fee
• Forum Posting/ Marketing
  • Can also give you instant traffic, however, there are so many variables to consider such as :
    • Forum’s activity
    • Traffic of the forum
    • Forum’s SEO
    • Forum’s posting rules
  • There are millions of forums in the net – you can easily find one that is targeted to your niche/ offer
• Blog Commenting
  • Same as forum posting as it also depends on a lot of factors
  • There are a lot of blogs out there that allows you to leave a comment, it’s just a matter of choosing the right blogs to comment on
• Social Networking
  • Places where you can build relationship with your prospects and subscribers
  • Some of these sites give you the chance to create your own page (hub pages) where you can post your content and your links
• Blog Traffic
  • Blogs are loved by the search engines so expect your blog to be indexed a lot faster than other type of sites
  • Has a built in RSS feature where it automatically submits your content to several sites
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Although this is the last in the list, as it will really take time to rank well in the search engines, this is probably the best and one of my favorites that can give you the highest quality of traffic there is – organic search!
  • Not that hard as what others are saying, you just have to do the right thing
  • Once you are in the search engine’s front page results, competitors will be having a hard time to knock you off…unless you start gathering targeted links that is.

These methods are just the basics, there are more out there but I want you to start with the basics as this will build your website traffic’s marketing campaign’s foundation. Don’t worry if you don’t know any or one or more of these stuffs as I will teach you each of these methods in my next future posts.

The key to building long term and steady traffic is to start with the basics, master only one method at a time, simplify and automate as much work as possible and always track and measure your results.

Others who read this post also read:

• April 17, 2010 -- IMade500 Review and Bonus – Anik Singal (17)
• January 16, 2010 -- Targeted Traffic – The Key To Maximum Conversion (0)
• January 11, 2010 -- Integrating Short Term and Long Term Traffic To Your Website’s Marketing Plan (3)
• December 27, 2009 -- Website Traffic – The Lifeline of Your Online Business (1)