Here are 20 of the top, free, ways to generate increased and new internet traffic to your training website, which will help grow your business.
1. Email
Email is the platform to use if you want to retain an audience, so it’s almost always a good idea to get an email signup form somewhere prominent on your site. It’s also smart to incentivize signups with some kind of giveaway in exchange for an email address.
2. Facebook
While Facebook can still be amazing as a referral source. The most important thing to remember about Facebook? It’s a place where captioned images get shared, not a place where blog posts get shared. Let your blog posts piggyback on captioned images.
3. Twitter
On Twitter, images do far better than text alone. Twitter is also a good place to find and interact with influencers.
4. Forums
Internet forums are topically focused, meaning they have very relevant audiences. Many message boards allow you to post a signature with a link to your site, so as long as you use the forum in a way that other members can appreciate, they can become a powerful source of traffic.
5. Blogs
Guest posts, of course, are the most popular way to get traffic from blogs, but building relationships with bloggers or collaborating with them can be a powerful way to earn attention. Blog comments can also be a good source of traffic.
6. YouTube
While referrals from your YouTube videos can be relatively rare, these referrals also often tend to be more heavily engaged. You can build up a fairly loyal audience on YouTube with their own native subscription button, which is more powerful than a Facebook “like” in terms of audience retention. It helps to mention the link in the video and to offer an incentive to click it. YouTube also tends to send referral traffic for a much longer period of time than most referral sources.
7. Quora
Quora and other Q&A sites are much like forums in that they are used more frequently than people realize, and the traffic is much more relevant than many other sources. Quora referrals are also much like YouTube referrals in that they keep sending traffic.
8. Pinterest
Pinterest can be a massive source of referral traffic, and it is, in fact, responsible for more referral traffic than any social network.
9. Reddit
Reddit has approximately 330 million active users each month. The site exists almost entirely for people to post links, vote on them, and leave comments. Reddit has strong stances against self-promotion and marketing, so use it for your own benefit sparingly. When a link makes the front page, the results can resemble a small-scale DDoS attack, due to the sheer amount of traffic, so keep that in mind.
10 LinkedIn
If you’re B2B, this is the social network you want to be a part of. LinkedIn is a community of professionals who are ready to be educated about your business and what you have to offer. It’s a great place to build your personal reputation, brand awareness and a loyal network.
11. Podcasts
Podcasts can be a very powerful way to connect with an audience due to their more intimate nature. As with YouTube, the barrier to podcast subscriptions is also much lower than the barrier to an email subscription. The impact of podcasts can be expanded upon even more by embedding the podcasts on your site, and by posting your podcasts to YouTube.
12. Search Engines
Search engines send more web traffic than anything else on the web. On-site optimization, as well as smart promotion through other traffic sources, helps increase your visibility in the search engines. Google isn’t the only search engine out there. Several others exist, and many are actually used more frequently than you might expect. Some search engines are also designed around a specific niche. Many of these search engines won’t find your site unless you submit it, so this can be a good way to pick up extra traffic.
13. StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon sends more overall referral traffic than Reddit and has a similar demographic, but the traffic is typically less engaged. It’s worth submitting your content to StumbleUpon, but unlike Reddit, your involvement should stop there. StumbleUpon does not reward you for networking or getting involved, on the site. You are rewarded strictly for the percentage of stumbled visitors that upvote your page. When a page does well on StumbleUpon, it tends to send referral traffic for quite some time.
14. HARO
HARO, stands for “Help a Reporter Out.” You can use HARO to get in touch with real reporters, who can help expand your reach. If you can get accepted as a journalist, HARO can be a good way to connect with influencers by having them post on your site.
15. News Sites
Most news sites won’t allow you to write a guest post in isolation, but it is possible to become a regular contributor. If the site gets a great deal of traffic, these regular posts can be a consistent source of exposure.
16. eBay
You can link to your site from the About Me page on eBay.
17. Conferences and Meetups:
Meeting people in person is one of the best ways to solidify a relationship that will result in a larger audience.
18. Tumblr
This blogging platform can be a good way to pick up a bit of extra traffic.
19. Instagram
Using an introductory image to drive visits from Instagram can be helpful, and Instagram Stories has provided a new way for brands to get clicks and page views from their engaged Instagram audience
20. Triberr
Triberr is a site that publishes your blog posts and allows others to “reblog” them on their own sites. This kind of syndication can be very helpful when it comes to picking up some extra traffic.
