The most well known advertising method is search engine advertising using pay per click (cost per click) methods. These will bring you fast yet very targeted traffic to your site. Of course fast results dont come easy--it requires money. If money isnt an issue for you, ppc advertising is easy.
Many dont see satisfying results from search engine advertising, and all they see is their wallet emptying out. Many fail to keep on advertising on search engines because they end up spending their entire advertising budget without getting much in return. Once you are left with no money in your advertising account, you site will no longer receive traffic--unless you have repeat customers or have high positioning with natural listings. Looking for short term, fast result advertising can cause hard downfall and bring huge disappointment.
If you are looking for safe advertising method which will bring you never ending steady traffic, go look into submitting your site to web directories. This is what I call a long term investment. It requires a lot of time to submit your URL to each and every high traffic web directories, and it takes days, weeks, even months to see results from particular web directories, the traffic wont stop even when you run out of money for advertising. It doesnt even cost you to submit your URL to some of the most popular web directories. Its safe, but it wont bring you fast results, and you will most likely not get as much traffic as you will from search engine advertising--I guess you can compare this to investing your money into savings account for small percentage interest, and investing in stock market for huge return or loss on your side. Money can bring your satisfaction, but learn to cope without money when it comes to online advertising. Investing money is not everything; invest your time.
Start downloading Alexa toolbars and go hunting for web directories with high traffic. Start submitting your URL on high ranking web directories, and move your way down to around 200,000 ranking sites. Dont waste your time submitting your site to web directories that receive like 1 visitor a day.
To start off with popular web directories, go to http://directories.imbae.net
By Anthony Bae
Raising Money for Charity by Selling Links to Online Advertisers
It is not true that the best way to increase traffic is to attractas many new visitors as possible. They will come for a few seconds andgo.
Even if a visitor bookmarks you, he is unlikely to ever return once sheleaves. (Check your own Bookmarks or Favorites list to see what Imean!) No profit. The site is not popular. But when they come again,this means that your site is really needed.
Why is it important to attract people to come again
Thereare many reasons why you would want your visitors to come back to yourpages. If you sell banner advertising space, you can easily calculatethat a person who comes to your site, looks at five pages and thenreturns ten times within the next year and checks out an average of twopages per visit is four times as valuable to you than one who readsfive pages but forgets all about you after leaving.
Owners of online stores benefit from an increase in return traffic aswell, because in many cases it takes more than one visit to make thesale. The visitor might not need your product right now, but he islikely to buy from you when the time is right.
Another advantage that arises from such visitor loyalty is that thosewho regularly visit your site often mention it to their friends, familyand colleagues. This can easily create a so-called traffic virus, whichis born when people tell about you to their acquaintances, who thenspread the word to their own acquaintances and so on. While it mightnot sound like a very big deal, word-of-mouth is the primary source oftraffic for many larger sites and the reason they have become what theyare today.
What do you need to do to get people to keep returning to your pages
The first and main thing is to have high quality content. And to makepeople trust you. To make them believe that you are a real expert inyour niche.
Get links to your site. Get people with complimentary sites tolink to yours. Links lead to clicks onto your website and help toimprove your search engine rankings.
Get published. Write articles for publication on other websites.The author profile will link to your site. The article will show thatyoure an expert.
Publish yourself. Write articles for your own site regularly.This will help you to win on the search engines and gives your visitorsa reason to come back over and over.
Feedback. You need to talk with your visitors. It can be someforum, blog or even newsletter but it is very important for visitors tobe able to ask questions and receive answers. You never can see thefaces of your visitors, but you are to persuade them that your face andyour site are the most relevant for them. Ask for reviews.
Ask forreviews of your self-published articles on other webmasters websites.Ask for reviews of your website, your products, your software, yourservices. These will usually include links to your articles.
Visit for more.