I recently launched http://www.comehike.com and promotion has not been easy. I currently have $0 promotion budget and am wondering where are good places to get free links, and some traffic?
Any tips or tricks would be appreciated? An example of what I am looking for is something like diystartups.com
Add content every week. Be patient. Look for links. If the content is good, you will be able to get links.
Actively post on other community websites such as forums and popular blogs and leave a link in your forum signature. You may gain a little SEO juice from this, but also if you have good content people from the community will stay.
At the very least you can do things like create a "business" page on facebook and make it open to search engines.
I'd say that provided Google has indexed you (which if you're using Google webmaster tools and have submitted a sitemap it most likely will have), just keep updating your site with content and to wait. Of course you can post in topic-relevant forums with a signature or profile link to your site, but I would recommend doing so out of genuine interest rather than littering other people's communities with spam.
Looking at the content you have on your site (Hiking events/meetups and trail cleanups). An easy way to get links/promotion would be to give your users an easy way to promote the event they just created (give them a copy and paste embed option for their own site, and or create a wordpress plugin that allows them to have new events auto posted on their sites).
If you don't have many users do research on clubs/organizations already planning trips, but not using another tool to effectively create events and contact them to see if a plugin or embedable version would be helpful to them and if they're interested can they join the test group (this will build your user base and help you build a better experience for your users).
Another option would be to look for groups that would likely want to help out and promote your trail cleanups. Contact them and let them know about the event and make it easy for them to promote to their members if their interested. This will be great for your users because it will generate more people at their event, and it will help get the word out about your site.
Those are the ideas off the top of my head, but if you take some time and think about the opportunities are plentiful.
The web app search engine directory and search engine I Want An App That... is a good place to get a free link and some traffic.
Some others directories include: www.crunchbase.com www.productivewebapps.com www.killerstartups.com
I'd also like to echo that creating content is the best long term traffic strategy.
