Do you know what is required for any affiliate program to start generating money for you? It's the most fundamental secret for any online business or online affiliate marketer promoting a product or service to succeed.

It's Traffic! Online Traffic! Online Targeted Traffic!

However, online traffic can come with a price, sometimes a big price. For the average internet marketer, it can be an overwhelming task most budgets can't handle when they are using pay per click, paid directory submission or search engine services to name a few. This can be a strain on a tight budget even if they can afford one for online advertising.

I am going to discuss some methods that will help bring traffic to your websites with no advertising expense, mostly only your time. These can be simple yet powerful methods to providing excellent targeted traffic on the internet.

1. Subscribe to online forums

I have found this one of the best ways to indirectly promote a web site. You join a number of forums that are related to your affiliate program or online business. When you sign up to forum, there is usually a place you can add your own link for your website with a brief description of interest that would encourage a click to your website. Search Engines such as Google and Yahoo love forums because there is often new *threads and posts submitted daily allowing a person to rise in the ranks for certain keywords that people search on.

Look through the categories within the forum that would be of interest and start posting up to 5 posts a day. This is very important because the link to your website will be indexed by the major search engines. You should try to be an authority on the subject you are posting to and not just a 'me too' reply to a *thread in any given category. This will also encourage a click back to your website which is the ultimate goal.

2. Write Articles

If you are knowledgeable about certain subjects related to your website, online business or affiliate program, writing articles is a great way to get traffic back to your website. You should try to target certain keywords in the headline of your article because the major search engines will index your article. When you add a brief description and website link to your resource box, people will click on that link and visiting your website. It is important to create a description that will encourage interest from people to visit your website.

3. Blogs

Blogging is a favorite amongst millions of people today because it offers fresh ideas, knowledge and the latest articles. Blogging is a series of comments often updated daily and can include graphics or videos. I would recommend blogging at least once a day because search engines such as Google and Yahoo love blogs and are always in search for fresh blogging daily. This is definitely a great way to get free online traffic back to your website.

Don't wait, get free traffic to your site today!

• A thread is essentially a chain or series of posts like a conversation where you have a question or comment and a series of replies in response.