We all know that traffic is most essential for a successful Internet business. There are several ways to jumpstart your traffic flows which have been proven reliable, though most of them would cost some money. In this article I’d like to tell you about my favorite web promotion tactics, which wouldn’t cost you a single cent. Moreover, some of them will save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The first tactic alone can generate the equivalent of over $2,000 of free targeted traffic for you.

Per-per-click ads

Free pay-per-click (PPC) advertising works, especially Adwords by Google, Yahoo’s Overture and a number of other PPC search engines provide great sources of targeted Web traffic. They are very popular among web marketers. However, as the PPC search engine managers need to expand their customer base they obviously must convince people like you that pay-per-click advertising really works.

Here is the good news. There are dozens of PPC search engines who will give you up to $100 in free credits to prove that pay-per-click advertising will work for you. To claim your credits all you need to do is visit the various engines and web directories and sign-up. There are no catches and it won’t cost you anything except your time.

It couldn’t be simpler to obtain such free PPC advertising. The table at this page: http://www.affiliated-business.com/promotion/Pay-Per-Click5.html lists over 60 Pay Per Click Search Engines offering in excess of $2,000 of free web promotion credits. One after another select the PPC search engines from the list, click on the links to open the corresponding sign-up pages and sign up for your free advertising accounts.

Popular keywords

Using profitable (the more popular a keyword or key phrase is, the more profitable it is, generally) keywords or keyword niches for your site’s content. Generally speaking, Internet users utilize search engines to find what they are looking for. Search engines in return use keyword rankings to give away relevant search results. If you’d like your site to appear at the top lines of search engine results, you must use proper keywords and keyword phrases.

Try to employ the most profitable (or highest in-demand) keywords in your site’s content. You can write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you. If you’re writing content by yourself you have to make it more entertaining as well as informative.

In doing so, you can get high rankings in search engine results and strong incoming traffic without any costs.

Link exchanges & article writing

Exchange links with partner sites is another great idea that works well especially when both sites feature the same niche, precisely because such link trading or exchanging could result in both of websites benefiting. When one site features another site’s link, they will provide one another with the traffic they both generate.

The efforts are doubly beneficial because it seems like both sides are working to generate doubly enhanced traffic so, in essence, he more links exchanged with more sites the more traffic those sites could expect to gain.

And again, you don’t have to spend a red cent. All you have to do is to communicate to another webmaster and come to an agreement with him/her covering the terms and respective responsibilities of the mutually beneficial transaction.

Write articles and publish them across the Internet is an excellent traffic-generating strategy, especially in view of the fact that there are many sites that offer free article submission and posting of your articles. You’d do better to submit articles to sites containing the same subject that your site deals with. If you sell computers write press releases and articles about computers and computer parts. Try to provide helpful tips guides and good advice. Writing articles that contain good service and knowledge would bring the necessary mileage your traffic flow needs.

When people find in your article is something of interest, you have good chances of following the track by finding out where the article originated. It’s best for you to just to attach a brief description of your site or service at the end of the article and to include a link.

Online communities

Here is a strategy that eludes many website owners. When you as a website owner join forums, blogs and other online communities you can really take advantage of these web communities, because the great thing about them is that you can target a certain group that fits the specific demographic that you are looking for. You can discuss lots of things about the products and/or services merchants you represent or offer yourself.

With online communities and forums you can build a reputation for your company. You must capture the market niche you represent and show your expertise and credibility. When you create a good foundation for your site, people will trust you and your web business. Your customers will pass on their trust and credibility to many people all over the Internet. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.

Newsletters and ezines

When Web marketers have offered newsletters and eZines in their marketing campaigns they have been extremely successful which indicates that if a newcomer were to learn the methods used to employ this strategy s/he can also make use of newsletters to drive traffic to his/her website. And the steps are relatively simple. Provide people with a catalog of your products along with interesting useful articles, and if your content really interesting and entertaining, more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people who signs up for your newsletter, the more people will be willing to visit your site. So, if you arouse the curiosity of your customers they would be pushed to help you grow your traffic.

The viral marketing edge

There are many advantages a website owner can gain with the use of viral marketing. It is a promotional method that allows you to spread the word about your company and product without any costs, and all it takes is to bring a great idea, a good addicting game, or funny story and let the Web do the rest. Many ideas are still out there, and if you can create a gossip or a buzz, you will likely benefit from the many web projects that are advertised by using scandals and rumors to make them more popular.

Also you can provide your web site visitors with content they wouldn’t read anywhere else. People will stay longer at your web site to read the original content. With this method, people get infected with the creativity and entertainment of the website content and they will pass it on to many people.

Each of the methods mentioned above can drive streams of free traffic to your website. All it takes is a bit of effort and extended man hours. Learn all you can about the techniques discussed here and you will soon have a site with a great traffic flow without the usual costs that come with it.

Establish a sound affiliate program

If it is just another affiliate program, then don’t expect to have different results. Focus on building a sound affiliate program, with the tools and materials to support affiliates to promote a program easily. After all, affiliates work like clockwork and should be seen as a team. Provide them with the right promotion tools and they will more likely promote the program.

Give the customers an option to join the affiliate program after purchase. Satisfied customers are one of the best marketing for any business. Spread the good words through word of mouth. Best of all, they are paid just for doing that.

Follow-up after first purchase

The hardest task in any business is acquiring the first sale. Make sure that capturing customers’ names and email addresses are the least information gathered from any sale. With that information in hand, follow-up with existing customers, probably through an automated mechanism like timely autoresponder.

This effort has been proven to decrease refund on products and increase customers’ satisfaction. Every once in a while, mention a related product that might be of interest to the customers. Write a review and provide real results. Such promotion is extremely inexpensive, but very effective in practice. The product can be anything, including an affiliate program.

Up-sell techniques and coupons

Just before a customer check out to the payment gateway, prompt for optional upgrade to the better, bigger, or nicer product for a fairly steep discount, preferably not available elsewhere. A certain number of customers will choose the option, which translates into additional sales, almost without additional effort.

Provide discount coupons in an effort to urge customers to come back and shop. Promotional coupons work for both advertising and some forms of joint venture. Customers love to know that they get lower price for what they buy. Coupons make it so real and tangible.

Cross-promote

Cross-promote with other related products and, truth be told, there is no limit as to how this could be accomplished. Joint ventures with other business owners or even competitors is feasible as long as it brings a win-win situation. One example would be to give away samples of other products or services as part of the whole package. As long as the sample is relevant to the customer, this promotion would be seen as only an added value instead of pure advertising.

There are many other tactics to increase sales but those techniques outlined in the above paragraphs have been proven to work again and again. Choose one at a time and take action. Good luck.