Lets face it, you can set up the most beautiful site in the world by the most professional web designers and still make zero profit if you do not know how to promote your site. What you need is traffic! Without traffic, your site is like a mansion in the middle of the Sahara desert and nobody will ever visit you. You need tons and herds of traffic that will cause a stampede and trample your site in an unstoppable manner! Only then can you earn money online non-stop and blow your profits through the roof.

But what happens if you are starting your online business on a shoestring budget and still need traffic. Well, the good thing about the internet is that it can allow the little guy to earn money online along with the big boys even with a low starting budget. With a bit of effort, the little guy can succeed as much as the big boys do. The following are some of the free methods to generate massive traffic to your site and let you earn money online with absolutely no costs at all.

1. Article Writing and Submission
This is by far the most rewarding free method and has stood the test of time as a powerful traffic generation strategy. Using your expertise and knowledge to write compelling and informational articles and submitting them to online article directories will reward you with more benefits than you can imagine. Your articles will come with your own resource box where you are allowed to place your own description and website links in them and allow the reader to click through to your website. Readers who like the information in your articles are going to perceive you as an expert in the field and are already pre-sold thus gaining you immediate credibility. By the time they reach your site, you are an expert in their eyes and whatever you sell on your site will seem like a million dollars to them and you will earn money online effortlessly.

Another huge benefit of article writing and submission include the backlinks that lie in the resource box. Many article writers who have no search engine optimization knowledge (SEO) will perceive the resource box as only a gateway to their site. But article writers with SEO knowledge will understand that backlinks are actually an important aspect of ranking high in search engines to earn money online. The text used with the backlinks known as anchor text determine what keywords your website will actually rank high in. This brings us to the next free traffic generation technique.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Contrary to what many people say, search engine optimization (SEO) is not rocket science. With a little study and research, you will discover that the common techniques to rank high for the keywords you want are actually very simple. Here are some simple tips to get you going with SEO to earn money online the free way.

SEO starts off with on-page optimization. The page that you want to rank high for the specific keyword you want should ideally be centered on that keyword. What do you mean by centered on the keyword? It means the topic of your webpage should be focused on that keyword. Your page title, H1 H2 header tags, image tag, first and last paragraphs should have the keyword in it. The keyword density which is the number of times your keyword appears in the total number of words on the page should ideally be between 3-5% according to SEO experts. All these will contribute to your page ranking higher for the keyword you are gunning for and allow you to earn money online with ease. However, on-page optimization is not the only factor. Another major factor is off-page optimization.

Off-page optimization basically refers to off the page factors that can increase your ranking in the search engines. This is the part where a bit more effort is required to gain the traffic you desire. The most important off-page factor that affects the ranking of your webpage is the number of backlinks and the focus of the pages that are linking to your page. The pages that link to your page should ideally have the same focus as your page and thus are highly relevant to the content of your page. The anchor text used to link to your page should also consist of your keyword and the more of such backlinks you have the higher your page will rank in the search engines. Combining good on-page and off-page optimization is a deadly strategy for getting floods of free traffic that will let you earn money online non-stop.

The above two techniques serve as a starting point to generate hordes of free traffic and let you earn money online successfully. So take action now and bring your site out of the desert and let the world see its beauty. Be sure to read part 2 of the article to find out more powerful free traffic generation methods.