Free and Effective Online Marketing Techniques for 2009

Looking for some effective cost free online marketing techniques to jumpstart or grow your internet business? Online success for anybody is ALWAYS interrelated to the amount of traffic they can attract to their site. Whether your online business is new or established the more traffic the better. But how do we advertise to more customers on a shoestring budget?

Here are 5 low or no cost traffic generation techniques used with great effectiveness on the internet that should keep your business rolling along:

1st Technique – Launch a Blog

Start a blog with a theme based upon whatever it is you may be promoting. Thru the proper use of keywords you should be able to attract a significant amount of targeted traffic to your site.

An important note here is that in order for your blog to be an effective source of traffic generation you need to post to it frequently. With each new post comes fresh content and this is what attracts the search engines. The more they visit your blog the higher your site ranks in the search results. You are now developing 'long term' organic traffic for your internet business and it's free!

By placing the blog on the same server as your website (recommended) you're now going to increase the search engine ranking of that website.

2nd Technique – Article Marketing

By writing articles and submitting them to article directories you can create a flow of traffic to your site that can continue for quite some time. The key is to be sure your article contains some useful information and contains a link to your site in the article's resource box. Never directly promote anything in your article but instead focus on dispensing tips, instructions, or information of use to the reader.

Your articles can also be use by other sites on the internet but they must keep your resource box in tact. This now exposes your articles (with the link back to your site) to any visitor of that particular site creating another avenue of free traffic for you.

3rd Technique – Submit Press Releases

By submitting to many of the press release sites you'll once again be increasing your exposure.
Your website also gets a boost in the search engine rankings. SEO benefits are gained here in a similar fashion as they are with article directories. These high ranking PR sites and article directories help to 'pull' up your search engine ranking now that they have links back to your site.

4th Technique - Forums

The use of and participating in forums is encouraged for many reasons. Firstly you build up relationships with others who have similar interests which may result in an online business venture with them down the road.

Secondly you'll want to stay on top of what's going on in your niche. 

Lastly by participating in forum discussions you'll want to include a link back to your site in your signature file. Anybody interested in your past or present participation or comments may elect to visit your site to see what you're involved in.

Always be sure your comments are meaningful and constructive. If people identify you as a 'spammer' whose motivation is solely to siphon traffic back to their site you will be ignored and tagged with a bad reputation.

5th Technique – Get Social

With the availability of the many social networking sites online comes an excellent opportunity to generate traffic.

An advantage here is the ability to develop stronger bonds thru casual sharing of personal interest. These bonds naturally lead to a greater trust and loyalty making your marketing efforts all the more effective.

Much like forums however only get involved in discussions and leave comments when you can do so in a meaningful and helpful way.

These online marketing techniques we've discussed here are both cost free and extremely powerful. Wouldn't you like to boost your business without deflating your pocket book?