One of the greatest challenges for any webmaster is usually not the creation of the website or even the content for that matter. These things are actually fairly easy when compared to the level of difficulty associated with trying to generate traffic.

Traffic generation is the key to any successful website or blog. Without it, virtual existence is almost meaningless. There are, however, techniques that can assist you in this seemingly overwhelming task of driving traffic to your website. One of these techniques is the production of a free report.

A free report can be on any subject, but for yourself, it will be on the subject that your website is about. For instance, TheBitBot Organic SEO & SEM Blog is about search engine optimization and marketing. As a means to advertise this site, I can produce a free report or eBook in the form of a PDF file on the subject of search engine marketing. Ideally, the report will be very useful and entertaining. In addition to genuinely useful and entertaining content that answers a question, it should have a title that solicits a curious response. For instance, which report would you be more likely to open, one with the titled “Free Report” or one with the title “Learn How to Drive Traffic With This Free Viral Method”? I am sure there are even more effective titles, but you get my point.

The key to benefiting from your free report, should it go viral, or even be spread around the web at a modest pace, is to load it up with links that point to your website (some people add affiliate links as a means to make money but that is not within the scope of this post). These links should point to three things: useful content, sales pages (if you have any) and most importantly, squeeze pages that require an email address for another free report that also contains useful information, links, and an irresistible title.

One really, really nice thing about digital giveaways is the fact that they can propagate themselves for you with no additional work very easily. In many cases, copywriters fear the viral propagation of their work, but in this case, that is the goal. For instance, if someone downloads your report, likes what they read and find it useful and informative, they may re-read and/or refer to it on multiple occasions and click on the links within it. Ideally, they would forward it via email to a friend or business partner who,in turn, may do the same, thus beginning it’s viral infestation of the marketplace.

One very nice aspect of reports such as these is the fact that they can drive targeted traffic with little to no investment. All that is required is a little research on your subject and an afternoon to write your report.

Additionally, free reports, especially when shared, can be seen by individuals who would never have visited your website on their own. This is a very common phenomenon within communities such as forums where individuals share information freely.

So let’s recap. If you have a website, you need traffic to survive. One potential method to drive traffic to your website is through the use of free reports that can spread through the internet on their own. To produce a free report, pick a subject, research it and write about it in a way that answers an important question or solves a problem. Add links to it that point to your content, landing pages, and most importantly, squeeze pages. Give it a flashy title that invokes a curious response. Save it as a PDF file. Release it on the internet by linking to it in blog posts, blog comments, forum signatures. Tweet it, post it on Facebook…the possibilities are endless. You just have to get the ball rolling. If your report contains quality, it will build speed on it’s own. In the world of free reports, quality is THE key.

If you are interested in learning more about viral internet marketing, click on the link in this sentence.

As always, I am interested in what you have to say.