Thinking of getting tons of free web traffic to your blog or other online property?

Here’s what you need to know first – there is no such thing as “free” traffic.

Wait, what?

Yes, it is true. While you don’t pay for it like you would with paid traffic ( e.g. Google Adwords, Facebook ads), you still pay for free traffic with your TIME… and your effort.

Make no mistake. There are always costs.

As they say, time is money. You have to invest a lot of time when using free methods to drive traffic to your website.

The good news is that your efforts will pay off many times over in the future, and organic traffic converts better than cold, paid traffic.

Now let’s look at the 7 basics you need to master…

The 7 Best Traffic Strategies You Must Master

Strategy#1- Value matters

Whether you’re using YouTube or Facebook groups or Pinterest to build a loyal audience that likes and trusts you, you MUST deliver outstanding value.

This requires producing content that is beneficial to your target audience. Freely share some of your best tricks and techniques. If you do that, your audience will believe that what you are selling is even better.

In addition, they will not want to miss your other tips. What does that mean?

That means they subscribe to your YouTube channel, follow your Facebook group closely, etc. They want to keep up to date with your latest content. So give them your BEST!

Strategy#2- Frequency

The more content you publish, the more attention you will get to your videos, posts, etc. If they are well optimized for the search engines on the platforms, you will sooner or later receive organic traffic.

So try to post daily. If you’re using YouTube as your free traffic method, one video a day is awesome…or if that’s too much, how about 2 videos a week?

They MUST be consistent and relatively frequent. The aim is to publish at least one piece of new content per week.

Strategy#3- Focus on ONLY ONE traffic source

Spreading your efforts across multiple traffic methods will only weaken your results. The key to being successful with free traffic will be to focus on just one method at a time.

For example, let’s say you’ve chosen YouTube as your preferred access method.

Now you should focus on creating engaging videos that get views, optimizing those videos, aiming for high “watch time” so you can use monetization effectively, and so on.

Once you’ve mastered YouTube and are getting consistent results, NOW you can move on to testing another traffic method ( e.g., Facebook groups). Ideally, you should generate enough revenue from YouTube to be able to outsource some of the tasks.

This gives you time to work on the next traffic method. The goal is to sustain and increase traffic from YouTube while trying to increase traffic from your Facebook groups.

This is how you systematically drive free traffic. Always focus on one method and get it working before moving on to another.

The YouTube example above is just to give you an idea of how to go about it. But the principle applies broadly to whatever free traffic method you choose.

Strategy#4- Engage, Engage, Engage

When you use a Facebook group to drive traffic, interact with the people in your group. It’s not called social media for nothing. You MUST be social.

When you post videos on YouTube, reply to comments on your videos and thank the people who engage with your content. This is how you earn people’s trust and loyalty.

While you don’t have to reply to all comments, if you only reply to the first 5 or so, you show that you are present and listening to your audience.

Strategy#5- Patience

Free traffic, as effective as it is, is a “long game.”

Unlike paid traffic, where you get quick feedback, free traffic takes time to gain ground. But when it does, it snowballs.

So many beginners stop after 1 or 2 months thinking what they are doing is not working. In reality, they only need to give him around 8-12 months.

What? Is that too long?

Although Rome was not built in a day, bricks were laid every hour. You build your online brand and empire with every single block of content you publish.

It will take time and effort… but nothing of value comes easy. So stay tuned.

Strategy#6- Always be “natural”

Most platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. are sophisticated and even intuitive. The algorithms can spot people trying to trick the system from a mile away.

So avoid taking shortcuts by posting multiple duplicate videos with different titles (on YouTube) as you want to get more free traffic with less work. Your channel may end up being closed.

The same applies to most platforms. Always be “natural” and avoid keyword stuffing. Think like the audience on the platform. Don’t think like a marketer.

People like to watch interesting videos on YouTube. Give them that and you will be successful. Likewise, Instagram and Pinterest users love attractive images. Give them this and you’ll get loads of likes and repins.

It’s all about giving your audience what they want… and the platform’s algorithms will reward you with increased reach and favorable metrics for your efforts.

Strategy#7-Build your email list

Here’s a mantra to repeat: “I will NOT build my house on leased land!”

While you’ll need the high-traffic platforms to divert traffic, it’s wise to remember that you’re playing in someone else’s sandbox. They can close your account in a second if they feel you are not following their rules.

This is a very real scenario that happened to thousands of marketers who lost entire YouTube channels, Facebook accounts, etc.

The best way to mitigate this problem is to have links in your various web properties that direct viewers/readers to your landing page so you can capture their emails in your autoresponder like ConvertKit or AWeber.

Your asset is your list. Always give visitors who come via your free traffic multiple chances to join your mailing list.

Not only will you be able to develop a relationship with them, but should the social media platform (or whatever platform you’re using) shut you down, you still have your list.

All is not lost. You can continue to market to your list while it rebuilds. Sounds harsh, but that’s just the state of online land.

Conclusion

Keep these 7 free essentials in mind as you work to get free traffic. They may seem simple and almost obvious at first, but so many marketers neglect them.

If you get them right, you’ll see a trickle of free traffic coming in at the beginning, turning into an avalanche of traffic in a year or two. Get started today.

 

To Your Success!