25 Ways to Generate Targeted Traffic to Your Website or Blog

I've been blogging for close to two years and have learnt many ways to get lots of traffic. There are ways that will get your site blacklisted by search engines ( read Black Hat SEO) and those by which search engines will place your site at a higher rank than others.
I decided to write this post after some of my friends and readers asked me how I get good traffic.


So, here are some of the ways to get traffic for free:

1] Optimize your site for Search Engines: This is the first thing you have to do once you get your site/blog ready. Search engines can get you tons of free traffic. Successful sites get a major chunk of their traffic from search engines.

2] Submit your site to all major Search Engines ( Google, Yahoo, Bing), directories and classifieds.

3] Article Distribution: Write articles about things related to your site content and distribute them to article directories with your link on every page.

4] Participate in forums related to your site's content. Post your opinion and overtime as you gain points you will be able to put your site's link.

5] Place related articles link at the end of every post on your blog ( there are free widgets to do this in case you do not know HTML).

6] Exchanging traffic with other bloggers will expose you to a new class of readers.

7] Leave comments on other websites/blogs with backlinks.

8] Answer questions at Yahoo! Answers and put your link at the end.

9] Optimize each page for particular keyword or phrase.

10] Place a link to your site in your email signature ( an easy way to get a bit more free traffic ).

11] Add a bookmark button on every page so visitors can come back and refer others to your site.

12] Place tell-a-friend form on your site.

13] Create mind-blowing content and make it go viral.

14] Give freebies (ebooks, e-courses) so that your readers keep coming back for more.

15] Add an RSS button, follow- by email form, etc.

16] Put a 'like' button for your site's Facebook page on your blog.

17] Make a viral video and to make your site visible to thousands of people.

18] Conduct and publish surveys.

19] Create free ebooks and submit it to sites like      www.free-ebooks.net

20] Do something controversial, but try to stay within the limits :D

21] Create fresh quality content not found elsewhere. Search engines will begin to love your site.

22] Maintain an online personality to make you look famous and important.

23] Treat your site's visitors as humans and reply to their comments. Be open to criticism and never lose your temper online.

24] Hold giveaways and contests in which people can participate by hitting the Facebook 'like' button and/or tweeting about your site.

25] Offline Promotion: Mention your site on your business card, your company's souvenirs and vehicles, start selling T-shirts with your site's logo, etc.

If I've missed anything, please let me know by commenting.
Good luck to you in your online venture.