Getting massive amounts of traffic to your site for free isn’t the stuff of myths and legends. Although it takes some time to accomplish, it can be done. If you want to generate lots of free traffic you can do that by engaging the online community.

It involves actually spending time on a variety of online platforms interacting with people.

You will have to invest a significant amount of time, but if you do it consistently, your efforts will be met with huge success and the free traffic you generate will be a game-changer for you.

Also, when you do this right, free traffic is way more long-lasting and sustainable than paid traffic.

This is because you’ve spent the time and effort to cultivate relationships with your audience in casual online settings, and you’ve developed friendships with no pressure or strings attached.

This inspires people’s confidence and trust in you and in the long run, it’s more likely to turn those people into loyal customers.

The Key To Sustainable Free Traffic

As previously mentioned, generating free traffic comes down to fostering relationships with people.

It’s the way to develop a rapport and build a reputation for being an authority in your niche. It’s about building a name for yourself and being perceived by your prospects as personable, honest, and trustworthy.

But even more than that, it’s about giving people real value. Without that, you will never be able to generate long-lasting free traffic.

When considering free traffic generation, most people immediately think of social media, but there are other powerful vehicles to accomplish this goal such as community engagement platforms, otherwise known as forums.

Benefits of Free Traffic From Forums

Forums have always been an important part of the Internet, and that’s not likely to ever change.

All you have to do is find the right one to get involved in. We, humans, are social creatures and each of us has an underlying need to communicate with others.

With the advent of the internet as a mainstay in our society, people started gathering there, too.

Where did they gather?

In forums, originally, and for the past couple of decades, these online platforms have been the places for people to meet and talk about their common interests online.

There, people develop relationships and friendships with one another, and sometimes those friendships can last for years. These online discussions cover every topic imaginable, from music and fitness to Internet marketing and any other topic you can think of.

No matter what niche you’re in, it’s easy to find forums where you can ask questions, post messages, and take part in the discussion.

You’ll be able to find forums for each niche or sub-niche known to man. Being on a forum is a great way to engage people, help them, and create a name for yourself and to get your offer in front of your ideal customers.

How To Find The Best Forums For Free Traffic

Forums come in all types.

There are the traditional forums that are still there and going strong, but on the whole, forums have evolved to become the effective community engagement platforms that we see online today.

The structure of forums is very simple. In every forum, you will find posts that were started by one user, and everyone can comment on them. These are called threads. They exist on the sub-topics of a niche.

Any member of the forum can start a new thread if they want to ask a question, share information, or get an interesting discussion going.

People in forums are hungry for knowledge on particular topics.

While many use social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter primarily, there are a lot of forums that are as popular as ever. To find the best forums to join in your niche, conduct a quick search of your ‘niche’ + ‘forum’.

For example, if you’re in the personal development niche, you could search for ‘Personal Development Forum’ and you will be able to find the most popular forums related to that.

Whether you’re in the fitness niche or survivalist niche, you will find a list of forums that you can use to get free traffic.

An example of a huge forum that has been increasing in popularity over the years is Warrior Forum for internet marketing.

Now Get Started

Once you’ve found an active forum to get involved in, you can start posting and responding to other people’s posts on the forum. Just remember not to try to sell people. If you come on hard you will have a hard time gaining their attention or trust.

In the beginning, just focus on participating, starting discussions and building some credibility. Everything else will fall into place.

Get Free Traffic From Quora

This platform is very unique.

It’s an astounding blend of a forum and social media, and it really provides a lot of value to users. On Quora, any question that you can imagine can be answered. How it works is that people ask questions and anyone can answer.

This makes it great for those looking to drive traffic.

Since you can discuss any topic on Quora in detail, you can have a really in-depth discussion that can boost your credibility and visibility online.

It’s very easy for a regular user on Quora to establish themselves as an expert or authority on their subject and to gain the trust of other users.

Getting started and using Quora is easy.

All you have to do is just get on it and look for questions that are relevant to your niche. It’s also a good idea to follow some of the active people in your particular niche.

Find and answer questions that are related to one of your blog posts, free reports, ebooks, or any of your lead magnets.

This is a simple and effective strategy where you just answer those questions with great information packed full of value and then link to your free report or blog post at the end.

Get Free Traffic From Yahoo! Answers

While Quora has undeniably improved on the model used by Yahoo! Answers, this site is still very useful.

It’s the original question and answer forum and it has been around for a very long time. On Yahoo! Answers there is a points system for the answers given.

More points are awarded according to how good your answer is.

Those who provide the best answers get to be featured in the Yahoo! blog. Now that’s some serious exposure and a great way to build your credibility.

Yahoo is much like Quora in the sense that you search for questions that are related to your free offers or blog posts.

Answer those questions and link to your content. That’s it. The best part is that you can copy the answers that you provide on Quora and paste them on Yahoo! Answers.

This will save you a lot of valuable time.

Get Free Traffic From Reddit

Reddit is as popular as ever. A lot of people spend a lot of their time on this platform which is set up in a very unique way.

It’s a huge forum made up of various subtopics that are known as ‘subreddits’. Each of these is connected to a particular niche, with each niche having multiple subreddits.

Whatever topic you can imagine, there’s a subreddit on it.

This makes Reddit a very valuable platform for those in internet marketing. Just find subreddits in your own niche and get involved or create subreddits yourself.

Just keep in mind that each of these subreddits has its own unique feel.

Some can be quite sarcastic or witty, while others may use slang that is niche-specific or structured and proper. Either way, get a feel for the particular subreddit before you engage in it.

Tread lightly and just engage with users.

If you try to make hard sales pitches you’ll only succeed in coming across as a spammer. Reddit users are very harsh with spammers, so only link to content that is not only relevant but valuable as well.

Make sure that it’s content that Reddit users will like.

Just by sharing the same interests and mindset of the majority of the users on this platform, your credibility will soar and you will successfully drive tons of traffic to your site.

It may take time to build your reputation on this site, but it’s well worth the effort in the end.

Get Free Traffic From Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are essentially forums since they offer a platform for those of similar interests to come together and interact with one another. Because people spend so much time on Facebook, this is a real goldmine.

With over 2 billion users spending an average of 20 minutes a day on this social network, you can see how this can be a source of never-ending traffic for you if only you knew how to tap into it.

Facebook users that belong to groups get notifications each time someone makes a post.

This means that there’s more visibility for someone posting in a Facebook group. Join a niche-related Facebook Group and get active.

The best part is that anyone can start a Facebook group in any niche they’re in, it’s an excellent way to build your credibility as well as to establish yourself as an authority.

4 Tips To Help You Make The Most of These Platforms

Now that you know about all these amazing community engagement platforms, it’s vital to remember that this is only the beginning.

It isn’t enough to just join these forums, you have to become a part of the community in a genuine way.

Here are some steps that you must take to ensure the flow of traffic from each of these sites:

1. Get Active on the Forum

The secret to getting massive amounts of traffic from these sites is to be fully active. Build a complete profile on the forum.

Make it genuine and include a photo.

Write a bio which includes some relevant skills and experience. Be very honest about who you are and the value that you offer to the community.

You should get a feel for the community that you’re engaging in, and find out how other members in that forum interact with each other:

• Is the tone of conversation casual or professional?
• Do the members use a lot of humor or are they more serious?
• Is there a lot of off-topic chatter or do they stick to the details of what’s being discussed?

The more you know the better you’ll fit in once you start to engage.

2. Each Post You Make Must Deliver Value First

Don’t post just for the sake of posting.

Your primary goal should always be providing value to the other members of the forum. This is the most important thing because no one is ever going to click on any of the links that you post if they don’t feel that your information is valuable.

So each comment or response, thread, and every other bit of information that you share has to be relevant, thoughtful and packed full of value.

Do this, and you will never have to think about the traffic. It will come automatically and continue to flow as long as you continue to provide valuable information on the forum.

3. Consistency is Key

When engaging in forums, the importance of consistency cannot be overstated.

You have to post on a regular basis and continue to build on the posts you make. You have to be active every single day if you want to succeed.

While this may seem like a huge commitment, it doesn’t really have to take up much of your time. With proper planning, you only have to spend about ten minutes in the morning and another ten minutes in the evening.

Read through other members’ posts, comment, provide great advice, answer questions, and start a thread.

Get into this routine and it will become easier and easier.

This is well worth the time and effort because, after a few months of doing this consistently, you will have a following of incredibly loyal customers who were gained at no cost.

4. Use Links Effectively

When it comes to community forums, links are your best friend.

You don’t sell directly in the posts, but when you include a link, it’s a subtle way to point your audience in the right direction, so use them whenever you can.

Link to your site in your bio and in your signature. Do the same in any relevant posts.

But be sure to read and follow the rules for links. They tend to differ for each platform. Some forums allow affiliate links or links to Amazon products but others do not.

If you always focus on providing great information first, you should never have problems putting links to your content on most forums.

The main thing to remember is that you want to use links to subtly direct them into your funnel and not to sell on the forum.

In Conclusion

Admittedly, it does take a lot of time and effort to drive free traffic through forums, but it’s truly worth it in the end.

You not only get loads of free traffic, but it’s traffic that is made up of an audience who you’ve built relationships with over time.

They trust you and have confidence in your recommendations and what you offer. That’s something no amount of money can buy. So get started now, and get your share of the huge amounts of free traffic that flows from these forums.

Feel free to post your comment below. An email address is required but it will not be shared with anyone, put on any list, or used for any kind of marketing, just to alert you if there are any replies. Thanks and happy hunting!

PlanetBizOp.com

->Steven

Updated: Originally published June 3rd 2018