Are you good at promotion? How are you with marketing? If you excel in these areas, it shouldn’t be too hard to get traffic to your paid membership site.

Word of mouth is the best advertising ever invented. The best way to promote on the Internet is to let your fingers do the talking. You can do this by participating in forums and discussion groups related to your topic. If you’re allowed to place personal links in your signature, then do it. Your site address will appear each time you post. 

But please, don’t post to a forum or discussion group just to raise your post count. People will spot that ploy from a mile away. It’s an annoying tactic that repels more people than it attracts. You want to show people that you’re helpful and knowledgeable about your topic.

If you’re a decent writer, you can also try article marketing. All you’d have to do is write a few 300 – 500 word articles on your chosen topic. At the end of the articles include a bio box encouraging readers to visit your membership site. Tell them what your site has to offer, and give them a reason to click the link – make it enticing.
When you’re done writing, just submit your articles to two or three of the hundreds of article directories available. It’s usually a good idea to write a unique article for each article directory. If that’s too much, consider rewriting one or two of the articles so they are slightly different from the originals. Not everyone does this though, so use your own judgment.

If your articles are popular, they will be seen by many people. And hopefully all of them will visit your site. Your article could also receive a decent search engine ranking, which will result in more traffic.

The three most popular article directories are:

EzineArticles
GoArticles
SearchWarp

Squidoo is another popular marketing tool. With Squidoo, you’re able to create lenses (small one-page websites) on just about any topic. You can create as many as you want, and update them whenever you want. Starting a lens will provide a great boost to your marketing efforts – if the lens is useful. It shouldn’t be a blatant invitation to join your paid membership site.

Most people on Squidoo prefer informative lenses. You’ll attract favorable attention by providing useful information on your topic. Perhaps someone will mark your lens as a favorite or tell their friends to check it out.

Focus on adding value to the site instead of beating people over the head with sales copy. Sales copy has its place, but it’s better to attract members to your membership site by showing them your expertise. Link to your paid membership site can be placed throughout your lenses.

You can also consider advertising on sites such as Craigslist or US Free Ads. And if you’re really ambitious, you can place small ads in ezines or your local newspaper.