Posted by SEO is terrific… if you have an established site.
Email marketing is fantastic… if you’ve already built a list.
Paid advertising is awesome… if you’ve tested and optimized your funnel and you have an ad budget.
But what if your website is BRAND NEW?
You don’t want to wait six months to build the content and links that will finally bring in SEO traffic. You have no list to turn to. And you’re starting out on a shoestring budget, too.
How can you bring in traffic to a brand new site?
By using these 20 free methods, that’s how.
Let’s get started…
Method #1:
Do Expert Roundup Posts
You can use this method even if you don’t yet have a single subscriber or any people coming to your website.
What you do is pick a highly relevant and intriguing question, and then ask other experts and influencers in your niche to answer that question in just a paragraph or two. You can do this over Zoom, via email, via social media or any method in which you can contact them.
Let’s say your niche is online marketing and your question is, “What traffic driving method don’t marketers know or use enough?”
You might start with lesser-known people in your niche. Once you’ve got their answers, go to the better known people and let them know you already have “X” number of experts who’ve participated, and you’d love to feature their answer, too. This simple method makes it easier for busy, well-known people to say yes because others have already done it.
Create your post by compiling the answers and placing a link to each expert’s website. Let all of your experts know that you’ve posted the article and ask them if they might like to tell their audience. Some won’t but in my experience the vast majority of them will push it, especially if your content is great and you make the expert look good.
This is free traffic to your site. Be sure to capture email addresses or ask visitors to follow you on social media.
Once you’ve done this, do it again and again with new questions, rotating experts as you go.
Here’s why I recommend you do this multiple times:
First and most obvious, you’ll get traffic from your fellow marketers who share your article with their followers and subscribers. Even if your traffic is zero right now, doing this can provide a huge influx of traffic as others push the content for you.
Second, you’ll become known as an expert yourself by association.
Third, you’re beginning to build a relationship with all of these movers and shakers. They now know your name, your site and there is a real possibility of getting a lot more traffic from them in the future.
Method #2
Do Expert Articles
This is like doing an Expert Roundup, except you’re going to interview just one expert or influencer and turn that interview into a podcast, an article and maybe even a free report.
Your expert is almost certain to share the interview with their followers, sending you free traffic. Articles like this will help your site to gain ranking in SEO, along with giving you extra credibility. And the free report can be something you offer in exchange for subscribing to your email list.
Imagine doing one expert interview each week, and then on the page where you host the interview, offer the free PDF report of all the best stuff from the interview.
Your site will become an authority site in no time. You’ll be going much further to establish a relationship with these experts in your niche. And you’ll get traffic from each expert’s own fanbase.
But what if you can’t get an expert to agree to an interview? It’s true that once you have a few interviews under your belt, it will be far easier to get more of them. The problem is in getting those first few, and here are two methods to handle that:
1: Start with lesser knowns or even completely unknowns in your niche. Even if you have to begin by interviewing someone with a list size of zero, do it. Your interview will show what you can do and will give prospective interviewees an idea of what they can expert.
2: Do a deep dive on one expert and then write what you’ve learned. Let’s say you want to do an article on the foremost authority on building sales funnels but you can’t get past his assistant.
Read everything he’s written and listen to the podcasts and interviews he’s done. Make extensive notes and then write up what you learned in an article, siting your sources.
Now send that article to him and invite him to share it with his followers. Odds are extremely good he’ll not only send it out over social media, he’ll also contact you to thank you, too. When he does, ask for the follow up interview.
Method #3
Partner with Other Content Creators
Now that you’ve established contact with other experts and influencers in your niche, collaborate with them one-on-one to create even more content. You might co-author an article, report, book, video, audio, course and so forth.
The bigger the expert and the larger their following, the more work you will likely need to do in this partnership. After all, they are bringing the large audience and you’re doing the leg work to make it happen.
This content might be shared for free, or a portion of it might be free with an upsell to paid content as well.
Again, your expert will be sending traffic to this content so be sure to capture email addresses when you can and also build your social media followers, too.
Method #4
Giveaways, Contests and Promotions
When you reach out to other influencers in your niche and offer their audience something valuable, they will often spread the word for you.
This could be something just for their audience, or it could be an internet-wide contest or promotion. You can give away courses, books, tools or whatever you want as long as it’s something specific to the audience you want to reach.
Let’s say your niche is online marketing. What you don’t want to do is offer anyone on the internet a chance to win $1000 and an iPhone because then you’re not targeting your audience.
But if you give away a stack of books on starting an online business, then you are targeting the exact people you want to sell to.
However, if you are doing a promotion JUST to a particular expert’s fan base, then you can give away anything you want because you already have a targeted audience.
Be sure to collect email addresses so that you can continue to market to them. And offer them extra chances to win if they refer others to your promotion, too.
Method #5
Push Notifications
This is by far the simplest way to get your new traffic to continue coming back to your website time and time again.
Under normal circumstances, odds are people who come to your site will not find it again on their own. But when you add push notifications, you can send out a message any time you release or update content, offer new features and do promotions. This will get people back to your site in a hurry and ensure the traffic you earned in the first 5 methods will continue to return.
With one click your new visitor can subscribe to your site without giving any personal information including their email address. This is a win-win for both you and your visitors and it’s something you want to start doing immediately. Use a service such as subscribers.com to do this.
Method #6
Free Paid Ads
Did you know that in many cases, Google Adwords will give you $50 or $100 in free ad spend? Just Google it and you’ll find a ton of offers. Use it to get started and get a quick boost in traffic.
And if you get some sales from this free traffic, then use those profits to continue doing paid ads without spending any of your own money.
Method #7
Be Controversial
How this works is going to depend on your niche, your views and your audience.
Your goal is to polarize an issue without crossing the line of being completely obnoxious. Take a stand you believe in, back it up with facts and stories, and then let the sparks fly.
Many new marketers believe it’s best to offend NO ONE EVER no matter what. And that is why they are as boring as watching paint dry and no one pays any attention to them.
When you take a stand, you’ll have two camps of people: Those who agree with you and those who disagree with you. Those who agree will become your ardent followers and they will spread the word about you to others and send you more traffic. Those who disagree will weigh in with their own opinions creating discussions and yes, sending you more traffic.
It takes guts to have strong opinions but it’s also one of the fastest ways to build your audience and your traffic.
Method #8
Guest Posting
I’ve seen a complete unknown marketer earn six figures from scratch simply by guest posting.
If you can get your posts onto major blogs, then you can also drive a ton of traffic back to your own site where you can build your email list and offer products.
The problem new marketers face is that a blog such as Huffington Post isn’t going to accept just anyone to write a post. How then, do you get through the those coveted (and profitable) golden gates?
This is a secret you truly need to know, and here it is: You’re going to walk right in through the back door. Find a writer on the website where you want to guest post. This should be a writer you truly enjoy reading.
Communicate with that writer, letting them know you love their stuff. Give them helpful ideas and tips to further improve their already great posts. Share news with them that they can then write about.
In other words, build a relationship with a writer at each of the websites where you would like to guest post.
Once you’ve made friends with a writer, ask them for an introduction to their editor and you are in the door. An editor is much more likely to welcome you into the fold if you are recommended by a writer they already know.
True, it does take time to build a relationship with the writers, but it is totally worth it. Once you do a good job of guest posting on a blog, you’ll likely be able to guest post time and time again, driving more and more traffic.
And if your writer friend is on other blogs, then they can introduce you to those editors as well. And you’ll be able to return the favor, too, by eventually introducing your writer friends to other editors on other blogs.
I cannot overstate how much traffic you can gain using this method. I know of one fellow in the online marketing niche who was completely unknown in his field.
He focused all of his efforts on guest posting for six months, driving traffic back to his own website where he was capturing email addresses and adding even more great content.
Within a year this guy was earning six figures and within two years he was earning close to seven figures thanks to the traffic he was able to bring to his own site just through guest posting.
Method #9
Comment on Other Blogs in Your Industry
Leave detailed comments that provide the author and other readers with helpful tips, information, advice and anything worthwhile that you can contribute.
When you leave a comment, it will ask for your name and website URL. People who like your comments will click on your URL and go to your website.
Have you heard of a ‘little’ website called Mashable? When its founder was just starting out, this is the exact method he used to grow his site’s massive popularity. So yes, this technique does work.
And if you don’t have time to leave these helpful comments, you can always outsource it to someone else to do it for you.
Method #10
Get Interviewed
Do you realize that a single interview can result in massive traffic and sales? I’ve even seen certain marketers close six figure deals that came from the right person hearing them being interviewed.
And thanks to the internet, the interview you do today could be listened to for months and years to come, providing not just one burst of traffic but ongoing traffic for a long time to come.
Multiply this by numerous interviews done over time, and you can bring an astonishing amount of new traffic to your site. Having listened to the interview, this traffic is already presold on you as an expert and half sold on any offer you want to make.
How do you get interviewed?
The secret is found in one simple three letter word – ask.
Find the podcasters who are interviewing people in your space and ask them if they want to interview you.
Here’s how you do it:
Step 1: Ask them for a quote. Do an experts roundup like we talked about earlier and then ask each expert for a quote. “Hey, I follow your podcast, love your work, and I’m wondering if I can quote you on…”
If you don’t want to ask them for a quote, find something they’ve written or said, paste it into the email and let them know that’s the quote you want to use.
When you publish your article, send them an email and let them know it’s live. Then maybe a day or two later, send them a second email letting them know you’ve received great feedback on their quote.
Now then, wait a bit before doing this next step. How long should you wait? A few days is probably good. Not so long they forget you and not so fast they think this was your primary goal all along.
Step 2: Send them an email telling them what you want to talk about (other than your business) that provides massive value to their listeners. You’ve got to provide value, meaning you’re giving their audience information they need and want.
For example, if you teach people how to do public speaking, then the value you can provide is showing how to become a much better public speaker as well as how to get paying speaking gigs, too.
Use your initial interviews on small podcasts to help you get interviews on bigger podcasts, YouTube channels and publications. For example, you might start out being interviewed by people who are brand new in your niche. This is going to be excellent practice for you, and when you approach the bigger players in your space you can link to interviews you’ve already done.
To find people’s email addresses for free, use http://Hunter.io or any similar service.
In your email you might write something like, “Hey Bob, I have to say I’m a huge fan of your podcast. I know you’ve been covering X, Y and Z topic, but you missed A, B and C which I know your listeners will love. I would like to come on your show. I’ve already discussed these topics at the locations on this page.”
(Have a media page on your site where you can show them the interviews and articles you’re already done.)
“Here’s why your listeners will love this content and here’s how it will benefit them. Let me know if you want me on your show, it would be my honor because I’m a huge fan of your podcast.”
This is a numbers game. The more podcasters, YouTubers and publications you approach, the more interviews you get. Some interviews won’t bring much traffic at all, but others will open the floodgates for you and create an avalanche of traffic that might even crash your servers if you’re not prepared for it. (Hint: Be prepared for tons of traffic when using this method!)
Pro Tip: Leverage your influencers to get more influencers. You’re quoting influencers on your site in your articles. And even if those influencers haven’t invited you onto their podcast yet, you can still use their names to get on other podcasts.
“I’ve worked with Joe Pinchakowski and Sara Wu; they’re featured on my site here. I love what you’re doing, and I’d enjoy the chance to talk about certain things we’ve been doing in the industry and discuss it on your podcast.”
This is such a little thing, but it opens major doors. People are simply more receptive to having you on their podcast when you name drop other people you’ve worked with, even if it’s just getting their quotes on your site.
This flat out works – try it.
Method #11:
Put This On Your Site For ENDLESS Targeted Traffic
You’re going to LOVE this method! It works night and day to bring in traffic and you only have to do it ONCE.
But you will have to wait until next month to find out what it is, along with 9 more free traffic methods especially for brand new websites.
See you then!