Actually,  there are more than 3 and none are really free. They all cost you at least your time.

Write A Blog

If you want free traffic, you create a blog. Write posts on your subject that are at least 250 words long. Try writing posts so that they are in a series of 5 or more posts.

Then Comment on Other Blogs

Find other blogs that are close to your target audience and comment there, linking back to your own site. Each time you comment, click that little thumbs-up from stumble upon and if you are the first to hit the site write the past name as a description and include it in the correct category. Include as a part comment of your comment that you stumbled the post. This will give the blog owner reason to visit your site and hopefully pay you back with a stumble.

Create Articles

About a week after posting your blog entry or series, submit each post as an article. Either:

1. just submit to ezinearticles – the best place for articles on the net
2. submit to multiple article directories
3. use article submission software.

All 3 cases you have at least an author bio box that points back to you. Done right you have have either links back to your site or refer to your site by name for article directories that don’t allow links.

Then Use Social Media

Form (or join) a social media group. Having a dozen or more people in a list that you can share your links with means that other people can regularly submit your blog posts to the different social media. Better yet, join at least 2. Give yourself the largest support group possible.

I have an account in just about every major social media site (114 different sites, I just counted). Every time someone asks that I do a social media thing for them, I do. I also have no problem asking for return favors. I have one login “richmcl” an email alias from a company I no longer work for. When I started using it I searched Google and it was on the internet a dozen times. Today Google shows 17,600 results. Make an unusual login that you can track. Great for proof, I am using it here to prove that I post A LOT.

Last, don’t submit your own site to too many social media sites, have others do it. I have 2 IP addresses so I can use one as a posting address and one as a submitting address, but it is better to always ask someone in your social media group to submit for you.

Join StumbleUpon Exchange.

The standard social media, sphinn and stumbleupon are great for getting traffic, and easier than article writing or blogging. The traffic is not as targeted as we would like, but better than nothing. 5 good visits out of 100 people from stumble is better than 0 out of a million.

Use Forums

Join forums.

Join more than one.

Link to your blog and to your articles in different article directories. Forums are also a great place to meet people that will start a social media group with you. Make sure that you have links to your site in your bio box and in your posts link to your sites.

Consider asking forums for help on a site – this is an old trick and a lot of forums don’t like it, so make sure you see others doing it before giving it a try.

Make a List

As often as you logically can, make a post about the top 100 of something related to your market. Here is a site (A European Marketing Resource List – PowerAge Europe 110) that took the AdAge top 100 blog list and made a list of the top 110 European blogs on Marketing and Sales.

People love to be called out for being great at something and I am sure this list has been referenced by nearly everyone on the list (Hey! Look at me, someone thinks I’m great!)

Don’t Forget Entrecard

Low end, use Entrecard. This also takes a bit of time, but not much. There are sites like mine (Entrecard Drop List, or the You Drop I Follow List)  that have ways to ‘drop’ your Entrecard quickly. The dropping is not important – getting on the drop-list is important.

Search people that make these lists and follow whatever small requirements they have and you will be getting a lot of traffic. Entrecard is like Stumbleupon, not every targeted traffic.

Ask Others to Help, Offer Them Your Help

Want to form a social media group with me? Mail me that alias I listed above richmcl at live.com and we can start a new group today.

Ask For A Stumble

Liked this post? Stumble it.

Great content, good keywords and a product that kills. Yepp, these are the things you need to make it on the internet.

But how do you get people to your site?

Pay Per Click? It works, but you have the risk of not breaking even paying for your advertisements.

Posting comments on blogs and forums? This also works, sometimes. It is hard to know who will follow a link back to your site.

Social Media? Probably the best way for someone without the budget to advertise and you can be pretty sure to get traffic, even if it is not always targeted traffic. You sell and Apple computer and people searching an apple  pie may land on your site.

But, for the time and money it is probably still your best bet. Since you can never have too many visitors to your website, even if they are not always the perfect.

I don’t even remember how, but I landed on a site called StumbleUpon Exchange. Go  to the site and sign in and post links that you want stumbled, and stumble sites for people.The members to go through each other’s blogs, and if they happen to like a blog, they Stumble it.

You earn points each time you stumble other user’s sites and these points give you the oppertunity to post more of your posts. You get one point for each site you stumble and you ‘pay’ 3 points for each site you post.

You are mailed each time someone claims to have stumbled your site. You can verify, or not, and then approve the stumbler. I don’t verify because it is a waste of time. I’d rather approve the few that cheat than troll through my stats. Your call, do as you wish.

You start sith 3 points on sign up, so you can automatically post once. You will need to stumble a few sites to ‘pay’ the people that visit yours. It can become a never ending loop, but it does get you traffic. I always give a quote for the first reviewer to use and ask for a specifi category. Some people do as I ask, others ignore me. Life’s like that.

I joined and have made some stumbleupon friends that I didn’t have before, and often don’t use the system, I just ask the new freinds to stumble for me.

If you want to increase your blog traffic, this is not a bad way to do it. Sign up using any of the links here and I get 10 points for your having signed up – the mini-afiliate program.

Join StumbleUpon Exchange. Every bit of blog traffic helps.