Article Avenue - free articles and downloads - Is That Traffic Really Free?

Website owners, net wide, all seek the same thing, traffic! Ideally, the traffic most sought after is, of course, highly targeted traffic. Traffic sources derive from numerous places online including, but not limited to, search engines and other people's websites.

Many claim there is free traffic to be had for the taking, but is this really true? Is it fair to call this traffic "free?" I think not. At a minimum, the website owner must pour hours, days, weeks, months and years into doing one primary thing - optimizing his or her website to receive quantities of this "free" resource. Grabbing the attention of the various search engines and surfers looking for your information is a critical component to online success. Time, therefore, becomes a key factor. Is your time really free?

Consider, for the moment, that the one thing no one can buy more of is time. Our time on this planet is predetermined. Time, therefore, has value. The particular amount one places on one's own time is, of course, different. But do not fool yourself. Even if you think, "I've got plenty of free time!" still the clock ticks and what you are doing is allotting that portion of your life to your online endeavor.

So when those "in the know" tell you it is easy as can be to reap the benefits of "free traffic" online, what it is they are really saying? What they are telling you is to optimize your own website so specifically to keywords and keyword phrases that apply to your website, that, over time, you stand the potential for being placed well in search engines and found by others.

What happens next? Well a website or blog fully created and functioning will not do you a bit of good if no one knows its there. When they talk about free traffic, and search engines indexing you, you need to make sure said search engines know you exist. Once developed, your marketing and advertising of said website begins. And, you will be doing yourself and your website a disservice if you believe this can be done totally for free.

Let's face it, the guy in the know recommending pay per click cannot possibly mean "free traffic." Done incorrectly, pay per click can end up costing the website owner a small fortune. Yes, ads can be placed around the internet for free, again with the idea of driving free traffic to your site, but without proper assistance the very placement of these ads will cost you - at a minimum - your time (if not the investment in technology) to work this one avenue alone effectively. Not exactly free.

Starting a blog is often said to be an effective way for a would-be online entrepreneur to gain recognition. This is most certainly an alternative to building and maintaining a regular website. However, to be truly effective, blog owners network and post, post, post to ensure the search engine spiders and bots find them. And, while blogger is free to create, the time one invests to grab that "free traffic" is anything but.

Just keep in mind when reading about "free" this and "free" that, that underlying it all is the message that while the creation of "it" may be free (yes there are free ways to host websites and blogs), there also is only so much one can do oneself. Highly optimizing your website and/or blog is the critical component to gaining the advantage of free search engine traffic. However, time - be it your own or the powers that be behind the spidering and indexing - is a valuable, limited commodity and should be treated as such.

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Theresa Cahill, owner of My Wizard Ads encourages you to arm yourself with the right free traffic information at Molten Marketing today.

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