6. Use SEO: SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. In succinct terms, what SEO does is drive traffic to your site via a variety of techniques. One of the most popular ways to do this is via keywords.

Pay-Per-Click: Why It Works, but Why It Probably Won’t Work for You

Now, you can use pay-per-click, or you can rely on natural search. Pay per click is when you type a search term in your favorite browser (Google, for example) and click on an ad in the yellow box at the top of the page, or on the right hand side of the page in one of those boxes.

Advertisers have paid to show up in those spots. When a visitor clicks on one, it costs the advertiser money. As long as they are qualified visitors, it can be worth the investment. But, paid search is becoming more and more expensive and online marketers are relying more heavily on natural and/or organic search.

Organic Search: The Online Marketing Method That Works for All Freelance Writers & Bloggers

These are the results that show up when you type in a search term in the middle of the page; they are not paid for. But, usually, the webmaster or blogger has done some extensive behind-the-scenes SEO work to get a high position.

This is what more freelance writers and bloggers must do, as most probably don’t have the ad budget for a pay-per-click campaign.

Consider this: According to the InternetRetailer.com article, Burgeoning search advertising market grows new approaches:

"68% of U.S. online retailers supported search engine optimization efforts, which ranked search engine optimization as the fifth most popular online marketing vehicle. . . . Marketers are spending on search at levels bigger than expected. Their focus includes paid search . . . and optimizing pages for natural or non-paid [natural] search; that is, architecting the page and its content so that it is easily found and determined to be query-relevant by search engine spiders.”

How to Consistently Generate Traffic Without a Marketing Budget

What does this mean for the little guy (ie, freelance writers and bloggers) who doesn’t have a marketing budget? He'd better start paying attention to SEO techniques that don’t cost a thing.

This means learning what meta tags are and how to write effective ones; learning how to use online tools to find appropriate keywords; and writing articles and distributing them via free directories. All of these are SEO techniques that cost nothing but time and can literally keep you ranked right up there with the big boys.

Trust me, I know. I recently added meta tag writing and article submission to my list of SEO writing services. The meta tag writing has been extremely popular with my search engine marketing clients. I think it’s because many customers are coming to search engine firms wondering why their site isn’t generating any traffic, leads or sales.

The simple answer is, getting a website is the easy part. Getting people to find you is the hard part. Meta tags help you get found online.

So, every time you add a page to your website or blog, no matter what the subject matter, think “news” for immediate search engine traffic and SEO for long-term traffic generation. That way, you have both bases covered.