If you do nothing to generate visitors to your website, you will receive very few visits...

You would be surprised at how many people launch a new website and wonder why it isn't getting hits and you would also be surprised to learn how many thousands of new websites are launched - every day!

There are a number of ways to generate website traffic. Some are cost-free and some are paid. I will cover as many different methods, with a brief explanation of each:

Traffic Exchanges

These are a guaranteed way, to get lots of immediate hits to your web page or web site. Just like Traffic Trader, you are able to promote your site at a number of exchanges, whilst viewing other people's web pages in return. It is a sort of a 'you visit my site and I'll visit yours' arrangement. To get visitors to look at your web page, you need to earn credits or you can purchase them. Those credits are then 'spent' in return for visitors to your web page.

The most positive aspect in using traffic exchanges is that they are mostly free to join and if you're willing to put a little work in, you are able to earn credits quite easily. Traffic exchanges do work, but you shouldn't expect miraculous results overnight. Your input should be consistent and persistent. If you are prepared to 'surf' for credits, for at least one hour per day - for thirty days, you should get some very good results.

If surfing for credits is too time-consuming and you aren't confined to a budget, you are able to purchase credits or even sign up for a professional account with most Traffic Exchanges.

A great free service that keeps gives you up to date information about the best Traffic Exchanges, is Traffic Hoopla.

Safe List Mailers

These are similar to Traffic Exchanges, but instead of members viewing each other's web pages, members agree to receive email messages from each other.

The two types of safe list programs are read-based and credit-based. Read-based mailers basically relies on the receiver of your email, actually opening and reading your email. This actually does happen, so the fact that somebody does actually read your email, means that they must be genuinely interested in what you are promoting. Credit-based mailers enable the reader to click a link from your email, which opens your web page or landing page. This earns them a number of credits, which they spend when sending out their email. This type of mailer generally gets you more clicks, but there is an element of people clicking merely to earn the credits. They are effective however and you get plenty of hits on your web page.

Once again, I can recommend Traffic Hoopla as a good place to find the current best-performing safe-list mailers.

Safe List Mailers do work and it's simply a game of numbers. The more people who see your product or service, the more sales or sign-ups you will receive. If you feel that a free account is a bit restrictive, you always have the option to upgrade to a professional account, allowing you to mail to greater numbers of people and more frequently.

Two credit-based mailers that have proved extremely effective for me, are List Joe and The List Auction. Both of these are free to join, with the option to upgrade.