In the world internet marketing there is nothing more important than traffic. Internet marketing is a valid and legitimate business much like a store owner with space in a large mall. The internet marketer needs people to see his store and his products. The store in this case is the website. Imagine having a store that no one ever comes into. It would not be long before you would have to close the doors for good.
The way an internet marketer gets people to see his website is to drive traffic to the website. There are two main types of internet traffic, Free and Paid. In either case, internet traffic is basically driven by keywords.
Keywords are descriptions that a person types into a certain internet search engine like Google or Yahoo to find information online. With both types of internet traffic there will be an investment. While free traffic will not pinch your bank account there will be an investment of your time in accordance to your desired goals.
Free traffic can be acquired by writing and publishing articles with any of several online article directories like Ezine articles or GoArticles and Article Base. You can also get free traffic by marketing your website on the social networks like Facebook and Twitter to name a few. Many people also choose to market their websites through publishing videos with YouTube.
Paid advertising is exactly what is implied. Through paid advertising you create ads that display on the search engine websites when people use keyword for their searches. The advertisements that are displayed are paid for in a few different ways. The most popular is called "Pay Per Click" where you pay a certain agreed upon amount to the search engine for every click on your ad. The costs vary and you will have to check with the advertising provider for current rates.
Both free and paid forms of advertising can be effective but choose the method that will work for your personal budget of time and money.