10 Easy Ways to Generate Massive Traffic to Your Website or Blog

The internet runs on traffic. You can fine tune a website's copy, polish the product, and dazzle with design to no end, but without traffic, your marketing plan will go kaput.

You can pay for traffic through PPC or media buys, but why pay when you can get oodles of traffic for free through search engines?

Follow these ten tips and you'll have the search engines eating out of your hands!

You've probably seen this repeated on every internet marketing site worth of note, but content really is king. Unique content is even more important following the recent Google Panda update. Search engines are becoming increasingly clever at detecting duplicate content and penalize sites that follow this tactic.

Make unique content a priority for your site. Serve it as the main dish, not the appetizer or the dessert.

If writing isn't your strong forte, hire a freelancer from Freelancer.com, or just pay someone $5 from Fiverr for a unique, well written article.

Guest blogging is one of the most under-appreciated and under-utilized ways of getting quality backlinks and building networks. Find out prominent sites in your niche and offer to write for them. Most of them will be more than happy to get some new, unique content from a fresh perspective in exchange for a backlink.

Not only will this get you a very high quality backlink, but will also attract a lot of traffic. Just make sure that you put out only the best content you have to offer when you guest blog.

I like to maintain a directory of all websites I've guest blogged on and stay in touch regularly through email. Often, these emails have turned into very valuable partnerships.

Pro Tip: Use MyBlogGuest.com to find guest blogging prospects.

You know the reason why the Gawker Media network of sites (Gawker, Gizmodo, etc.) are among the most visited websites on the internet?

Because they know how to generate buzz by courting controversy.

Never be shy of calling a spade a spade. Few people have the sheer guts to say out loud what they feel. Become THAT voice in your niche, and you will attract a strong audience.

Plus, controversial content gets the most backlinks!

Nothing works better on the internet than lists.

Even better: write a top 10, 20, 50 or even 100 list for your industry and promote it heavily on social bookmarking sites and Twitter. For example: create a list of top 50 bloggers in your niche. Then email said list to these bloggers. Trust me, you'll get lots of responses and oodles of backlinks!

As good as lists are at getting backlinks, a list that stokes someone's ego is even better!

Also: 'Top 100' is the new 'Top 10'. People have become a little jaded of top 10 lists. Top 100 lists are still fresh and invite far more backlinks and bookmarks.

Ever since the Google Panda update, article directories have tanked in traffic. However, this doesn't mean that backlinks from article directories aren't worth anything. Article marketing should still be a part of your backlinking strategy. Just make sure that it plays a secondary, and not lead role.

Stick to the top 3-4 article directories like eZineArticles, GoArticles and ArticleBase. Leave out the rest. They'll hardly help you much in the SERPs.

Few people realize the power of these above websites for generating traffic and building up a reputation. Yahoo Answers is the tried and trusted leader in this category and can send you hundreds of visitors every day if you play it right.

Quora is a new and upcoming site. While you can't game it to get tons of backlinks, it's the best way to build a reputation in your niche. Quora attracts a very influential audience of top bloggers, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Being 'out there' in front of this audience can yield rich rewards.

The above also applies to LinkedIn Answers.

Nothing succeeds on the internet like funny. Get someone to create funny cartoons for your site, or grab one of those cat pictures and add a funny caption. Make sure to add your site's logo or watermark to the picture. Submit it to top social sharing sites like Reddit and Digg. Sit back and relax as you watch the traffic pour in.

One of the tried and tested ways to generate traffic in any niche is to create high quality, sharable, free content. Create a free eBook or report and share it on your blog. Submit it to sites like Reddit and Digg. Don't add any upsells or opt-in pages. Put your best content in this eBook and watch your site's following grow.

And don't forget: great free eBooks will be shared hundreds of times. That means a backlink for your site for every share and tons of publicity.

TL;DR is the currency of the internet. Few of us have the time to read a really long article. However, we still tend to perceive 'long article' with 'valuable article' (no matter if the article is actually filled with spun content from Chinese blogs). Write a really long article - more than 3-4000 words and promote it heavily. Trust me, people will be sharing it like anything, EVEN if they don't read it.

Infographic are hot these days. Every blogger and his grandmother is creating a giant infographic these days.

While it is certainly hard to create a top-notch infographic, the returns can be massive in terms of sheer backlinks. Make an infographic that sums up your niche, or promotes little known facts about your industry. If you are no good with design, outsource this. There area more than a few freelancers who specialize in creating infographics.

That's it! You don't have to master each and every one of these traffic building strategies. Just pick out 3-4 and become so good at them that you can do them with your eyes closed. That's all you'll need to generate massive traffic over and over again.

Further reading: Check out my hub on 5 common SEO myths and mistakes.

Although its from 2009, The Art of SEO by SEO God Rand Fishkin (of SEOMoz) is still one of the best reads on the subject. Check it out here.