It is much easier done using the power of money but getting one's site to the top of search engine result pages (SERPs) and attracting targeted traffic can be achieved for free. Many, of course, have done this but not a lot of marketing beginners who have yet to master the craft.

Targeted traffic means those who are particularly interested in your site or what you have to offer. They use the same keywords in their search as the ones you use in your marketing. If you rank high for those keywords, your sites are more likely to be found by them.

A few months ago, I chanced upon this Blogger blog which is always number one on page one of Google SERPs for a very competitive keyword. It's about how to make money online. This blog is usually on page one for related keywords as well. The owner isn't keeping any secret about how he does it. The blog actually tells it all.

This blog alone, as the owner claims, makes a lot of money from AdSense and it has ads for paying sponsors as well. Having read that the number one sin of blogging is using free blogs, the success of this one is rather intriguing.

The blog owner doesn't seem to be into list-building. He doesn't post often and appears to balance content so as to appeal to both human readers and search engine spiders. Although he has so many friends, I get the feeling that he suspects this adversely affects his AdSense earnings. But the fact is that blog is where most other blogs would love to be.

Forex is another very competitive niche and keyword. Hardly any beginner would venture with that. Yet a new site took up this niche and made it to number one on page one within a few months . Like that Blogger blog, the main reason for this site's sudden dominance is having plenty of backlinks.

I am not an expert at SEO or backlinks. But I happen to be invited to a free system which is designed to amass, yes amass, quality backlinks. The owners are keen on helping beginners, like it's a mission to them. This may be of interest to new hubbers or bloggers like me. There is work involved so it's not entirely free. You will have to write articles and submit them, but in a uniquely different way.

(For the benefit of newer colleagues, allow me to describe what backlinks are.)

A backlink is a link at one site that leads to another when clicked. The backlink is in favor of where it leads to. The link can be in any clickable content but I would like to limit myself to so-called anchor texts.

Examples of good backlinks may be found in the articles or resource boxes of authors who submit articles to article submission sites. If you are promoting a blog about how to make money online, for instance, you might use the keyword "make money online" in your resource box. Then you will hyperlink that with your blog's URL or that of a particular post. In this case, "make money online" is your anchor text.

Using keywords as anchor texts is important for search engine optimization. It increases your chances of ranking higher for those keywords. As you rank higher for a keyword, your site moves closer to the top of the SERPs for that keyword. That's why, if you have a lot of friends, persuade them to use your desired anchor texts in linking to your sites or blogs. Even if they just want to read you and not to patronize your ads, at least, they can help to improve your search engine rankings for those keywords. This is also one reason why your main keyword should be in your domain name.

Of course, not everyone has friends that would be so obliging. If you are into social networking sites, you should take the initiative to use keyword anchor texts at every opportunity such as blogs.

Backlinks can be bought. Those who can afford just have to do it slowly so as to look natural to search engines. They can also hire ghostwriters to do the artcle writing and submission for them. Those who want to save on expenses have to do the writing themselves.

Popular article submission sites like Ezine Articles and Go Articles are favored by search engines. They get so much traffic and having an article or articles published in them is a great way to piggyback. By piggybacking on popular article submission sites, a well-crafted article can be in the first few pages of Google instantly.

Why would being in the first few pages of the SERPs be so desirable?

If that free Blogger blog I mentioned earlier is on the 10th page, I doubt if it will make as much money with AdSense. And it wouldn't be as sought after by paying sponsors as it is. I myself won't go farther than third page unless I'm doing research. Potential buyers are more likely to click on sites and ads at the first few pages than bother to go further. Being first means getting more traffic, more visitors. And these represent free natural search engine traffic. You can spend a lot of money on pay per click campaigns and, unless you're really good at it, not even come close.

Speaking of traffic, I'm an overstaying newbie so I know where we get stuck. As I said, one can spend a lot of money with PPC. But you have be really good at creating headings to get noticed. Same thing with classifieds. Besides, with ads you are already selling. There's no preselling part so your chances at getting targeted clicks are severely reduced. As for forums, well, I was like a sheep trying to wedge itself into a pack of wolves. On-page SEO? It takes time to learn, a long time for slow learners like me.

From my observation, most beginners who succeed at web promotion early either spend money on PPC or resort to article marketing. Many do both. I prefer the latter because it doesn't cost anything if I just do the writing and submitting myself. I did PPC on my first month as a newbie. I even got one of those softwares that tell you which placement-targeted sites are best. I didn't realize then that those who can well afford would also be using such a software. They were all after those placements which would naturally jack up the bidding prices. I simply couldn't compete with my Third World currency.

Beginners, especially those on a budget, are better off writing and using articles to promote their sites and blogs. Keyword anchor texts in articles represent the ideal way to build up backlinks as well as improve search engine rankings for those keywords. And there is a free way for other people to be doing that for you.

How?

By cooperating with other aspiring marketers. Of course, if they care to bother, even gurus can use the system to outdo their peers. But I doubt if a guru will even bother to read this so, perhaps, we can have a good head-start. I wish.

The idea is to write keyword-rich articles and keep submitting them to a site which I am about to reveal. Ordinarily, one article so submitted will be spun so as to have variations that won't look like duplicates to search engine robots. There is an on-site software to do that. These variations would then be posted at 60 participating blogs in the same or related niche.

Note that for one article, you get 60 quality backlinks, one-way to your chosen site or blog. If you submit a thousand, well, you can imagine. Sometimes the site holds a promo and may give you 120 backlinks for an article. If you submit 10 articles, that would be 1,200 one-way links.

You won't get all your links all at once. The system is managed so that search engines will find the build-up natural. Well, I suppose it's natural since people willingly link to you for free. If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog, you can participate in the cooperative hosting of posts and get an additional 7% more backlinks to your sites.

The site I'm referring to is the Free Traffic System. The forex site mentioned earlier is their test project. Forex is a very competitive keyword, but they got to number one on page one in a matter of four months I think.

From the perspective of a new hubber and blogger, I see this as a big possibility for beginners who can write simple articles to get ahead faster. Since it costs nothing more than one's time and effort, the decision to participate should be a no-brainer.

My Engish generally sucks but I can appreciate a lot of good writers at HubPages. Their talent plus the Free Traffic System will probably know no bounds.