There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your website: A steady flow of website traffic. If no one goes to your site, it hardly bares a chance of generating an income. It doesn't take a lot of cash to generate website traffic for your site.

Ever wonder how the big corporates drive traffic to their web site? Most of them are spending tons of money to build the traffic, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.

You don't have to do this if you don't really have their resources. There are many ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don't have or can't afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.

Here I present to you the top five ways to generate low cost website traffic. Even if you only get a small percentage of paying visitors these methods still work especially if you maximise the use of them and generate high website traffic.

Exchange Links

This is a sure and proven method. Rarely will you see a site without links to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they can produce more public awareness about their sites. You'll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.

A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or content as the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic. Although don't exchange links with your direct competitors, just focus on a similar niche topic.

Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engines. It is common knowledge that search engines rank sites high that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic to your website without the high costs.
Traffic Exchange

This is like exchanging links but on a higher level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging or trading links (mainly time) but you do earn credits everytime you view another website. You can use those credits to advertise your site to other traffic exchange members. You both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your sites existence is boosted.

Write and Submit Articles

There are many e-zines and online article directories on the internet which allow free article submission. Hiring a ghost writer to produce the articles for you is the quickest way to generate good quality articles. However, if you want to save some cash, you can write the articles yourself.

Write articles that follow or emphasise the theme or niche of your site. Write something that you have a lot of knowledge about so that when visitors read your articles you give them the perception that you are an expert in the particular field. This can only empower them to visit your site. A useful tip is to Write articles that offer tips and guidelines on the subject or niche your site is designed for.

Include a resource box at the end of your article that links back to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. Perhaps offer a freebie to entice the reader to visit your site to collect. At the end of the day, if you provide a light, information laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.

The beauty of this type of traffic generation technique, is not only do you entice people to visit your site, you also gain avaluable backlink to your site, which adds to the link building process already discussed. Except these are valuable one-way links.

Produce a Newsletter.

This may sound like hard work because of all the writing you may need to do, but on the contrary, this is not so. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well.

As your newsletter gets passed around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list that you can market to time and time again. (Don't overdo it though or people will un-subscribe.

Join Online Communities and Forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as advertising your website at the same time. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche as your site.

Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are with the subject. As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people.

Don't forget to put your site link in your signature. Again another backlink every time you post!

I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and I hope you realise that building web site traffic does not have to cost the earth.

Mention discount printing and a person may think twice about quality, especially with something as critical as working on your marketing materials. Rest assured though that most of these fears are baseless, and larger printing companies with more professional machinery provide prints cheaper.

In printing, a change in the way prints are done can spell the difference of as much as 50% of the price cost. Just compare the printing cost of online printing as against a small local printing company to get a clear picture of the price difference. There are several factors that affect the price of your printing.

Here are a few tidbits about how big companies can afford to sell cheap:
Economies of Scale:

In simple terms, an increase in the scale of production brings down the cost to produce individual units. There are several reasons why the overall cost per print goes down as the output of a printer increases.

1) Printing companies order their supplies like paper and ink from third party suppliers. The large volume can be used as leverage to get bigger wholesale discounts from these third party suppliers.

2) Large businesses have to maintain an efficient work flow to keep up with the printing demands. They have to train their employees, and with repetitive work, they gain more experience and skill in their specialized area. This minimizes wastage and maximizes productivity.

3) Fixed overhead costs are spread over a larger volume of print jobs. Overhead costs are sometimes unrelated to the print job itself, but should nonetheless be recovered by the business. The rent of the factory for instance, or the cost to hire management is spread over more print jobs.

New Technology:

4) Investing in new equipment allows printing companies to automate many tedious and laborious processes that cut additional costs. The computer to plate technology for instance cuts a big portion of the prepress process that used to involve manually developing plates, stripping the negative to plate, etc.

5) With the lighter plastic parts, the printing equipment is easier to manage and to set up cutting down related fixed costs.

6) Globalization allows a faster transport of goods and services across borders. Printers can simply outsource their customer service to call centers, or their design templates to graphic artists in other countries.

Gang Run Printing:

7) Gang-run printing combines different print jobs into a large plate and is run as one job so that the setup and plating costs is shared. And because a big part of the printing process is taken up by plating and setup costs, it gives customers bigger savings.

Competition:

8) As the prices of printing companies become more accessible and easy to compare, printing companies make sure they keep their prices competitive. They keep their overhead costs low, streamline their production line, and keep their profit margins minimal.

The small profit margin on each printing project is made up for in volume. These discount printing companies rely on providing the cheapest services to get the best value for customers. Next time you hear discount, be sure to take advantage of the cheaper costs.

Many people to the online business world choose Affiliate programs because they are the easiest to start online. They are the simplest and most cost effective for a beginner because there is virtually no

overhead. If you were to start any other online business you would first have to create a product or service, and then break your back filling orders. For a more experienced online marketer it is fairly easy,

for someone new to the business world it can be a daunting task.

Selling your own product involves creating a website, learning to and then writing ad copy, being able to accept payment online, then after all that doing the actual work. If you are selling actual product, then
you get the time consuming task of buying, packaging, and paying postage for the product on it's way out. If you are providing a service then you will probably have to give away free service just to get your

credibility built up and your name well know. Even then you will need to figure out how to provide such a service that you can handle without over doing it. This is a lot of stress and mind boggling work for

anyone, let alone a beginner in the world of online business.

Affiliate Programs are the best way to begin an online business, to dip your toe into the water. There are even those who are labeled 'Super Affiliates' who have learned to make a very good living from affiliate

programs. So depending on what you want from such a program you can use it to make you some extra spending money, as training wheels into the business realm, or if you are very ambitious you can make a

lucrative income from it.

Affiliate programs allow you to sell another company's product or service from the safety and convenience of your own home. They generally pay you by commission on every sale or lead, depending on the

program. You do not need a website, nor do you need to handle the transaction. Your sole purpose is to drive traffic to your affiliate link. In essence you are like the man standing on the street with a sign

adverting cheap oil changes at the next filling station. However, unlike the man with a sign on the side of the street, you get to advertise from the anonymity of your own home and at the same time reap the

benefits.

You drive the customers to the affiliates link, which is a special URL code that will tell the company which consumer came from your advertising. It is usually the website address along with a code attached at

the end. There are also affiliate programs that have tiers, which means if someone comes to their business interested in selling the product, and they have your code attached to them then you could get a small

share of their earnings as well. Every opportunity to make more money is always a great incentive to jump in.

By researching the popularity of the different programs you are interested in, you can find out which ones attract the most attention from the public. If people are buying a service or product online then it may

be a program you would profit from joining. You can use different sources online to find these details out. One such source is the Overture keyword tool. By simply typing the subject and then affiliate program

into the search engine you will see which programs have services or products for that area.

When you have found a program that looks promising, make sure you read the terms of the affiliate program closely, No one should enter business blind. You will want to make sure that the payouts are not

based on a high commission, if this is true you may never see your money. By taking advantage of all that the affiliate programs have to offer you will have the opportunity to make money while getting a course

in how to conduct online business. It is a wonderful way to get your feet wet in starting an online business, and may eventually lead you to bigger and better business opportunities.

Blogs are an integral part of Web 2.0. Companies who were once skeptical about the effectiveness of web 2.0 are quickly acknowledging the value of blogging on the internet.

While setting up a blog is relatively easy, many companies struggle with ideas on how to make their blogs grow.

Here are three simple steps that will help you increase your blog readership:

Post regularly - Post unique
Giving your readers new and interesting content to read everyday is the best way to convert occasional visitors into regulars. Though simple in word, it's not so simple to make the commitment. You must get into a regular pattern of writing unique content and posting it regularly.

Ideally, your blog should have at least three posts a week, if not more. Don't make the mistake of posting three on one day and then none the next week. Most visitors will skim for new content and then move on. They don't have time to determine if you've posted new content. You either did or you didn't.

With the explosion of existing blogs and new ones being created everyday, readers have an endless selection of articles to choose from. If you don't stand out from the crowd, your viewers will go elsewhere. Keep your readership growing by giving them content they are unlikely to find anywhere else. Breaking news prior to a major release will lead to more readers, more comments, and more links to your blog.

Encourage comments - Discourage abuse

While comments are a core blog feature, it is important to carefully consider what your company policy is concerning comments. Allowing comments to be posted un-moderated can generate increased participation but it could also lead to increased chances of offensive remarks and spam comments.

The best way to balance the interaction with your readers with the need to have control over comments is to add a verification tool such as CAPTCHA.

If you choose to moderate comments, make sure you have the resources to regularly approve comments, or note, in a timely manner. Readers hate to be kept waiting and will lose interest and if it takes too long for them to be heard.

Acknowledge Comments - Reply to those who comment

If your reader has taken the time to leave a comment on your post, it is common courtesy to reply, especially to questions. If several comments drift around a single topic, address them all in a single reply.

Starting a blog is easy. Maintaining a blog is much harder. Take the time to develop a complete blog policy and structure before starting. Make sure you can dedicated the time to both posting regular content and for replying to comments.

If you are an online marketer, you probably already realize that time is money. When you use your time wisely, it can greatly benefit your profits. It will take some time and experience to find the best way of marketing but implementing a few simple steps will help you. Especially if you are just beginning with online marketing, you will gain some good points here to help you not waste time.

As I mentioned, if you are just beginning, the first thing to do is decide on a product, a downloaded product or a service you want to sell. Another option is to use an affiliate product where you will promote it for someone else.
To choose which type you want to sell or promote, you may have to do a little research to determine what is needed and in demand. The important point is that when you have decided on one, move on to the next step. Using your time to choose more than one or confusing yourself with deciding among several choices will only waste your time and your profits for your business. Adding products will be better saved for later.

Now that you have a product or service, it is time to make a presentation of it. Usually the main way to do this is to create a website about it. You want the website to be appealing and full of content. But again, do not spend a lot of time making it perfect. Put together what you think is important and move on, leaving possible changes for later. What you have done so far will be meaningless if you don't promptly go to the next step of promoting your product.

You have a product and a presentation, now how do you let people know about it? You will again need to learn from experience what works best for you and your product. But to get started try using a newsletter, ad, e-mail, pay-per-click, a blog, and/or new web pages. In this step, you also mainly want to get the information out there in a clear manner but do not overspend time in any one area. Changes can be made later.

Your product or service is out there and you are now getting traffic to it. So you now can begin to track your results and find out what you can change to increase your profits. This is where you will find out what and where to make changes. You will need to compare your costs with your profits from sales. You can determine where your time spent was most profitable.

When tracking results, a spreadsheet is an useful tool that is an organized method to show you how efficient your business is being run. You can organize your time in a wise manner when using the spreadsheet also.

After going through these steps, you will have a solid start and can then add more products and make improvements on your presentation and promotion. Incorporating these suggestions will prepare you to build your business and to use your time wisely in your internet marketing venture.