10 great ways to increase your website's traffic

2. Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) takes a little effort but its benefits are permanent and free. Read the definitive guide to search engine optimization and follow every step - an increase in free traffic from search engines is guaranteed.

3. Post in forums

Write useful posts and embed a link to your website within the post. You can also add the link to your signature. If you write quality posts, people will click on the links and find your website.

4. Add your URL to your business card and email signature

Simple but effective.

5. Google Adwords

This is Google's advertising program. You choose your keywords and Google will serve the ads on relevant pages of participating websites. You buy a certain number of clicks at a price you make, and every time someone clicks on one of your ads, your money gets used up. This is a great way to get cheap, highly targeted traffic for your website.

6. Trade links with other quality websites

Classic but still-valid way of obtaining limited (but often very high-quality) traffic.

7. Press releases

Go to PRWeb and buy a press release package. The press release will include your links.

8. Craigslist

Well-written, search engine-optimized posts on Craigslist tend to appear at the top of Google's search results and can get you a lot of traffic.

9. Social networking

Tell your friends about your website, set up a MySpace profile for your business and link to your website, add your articles to Digg and other social bookmarking websites.

10. Submit to quality directories

dmoz used to be the directory to submit to, but now that it is (un)officially dead, Yahoo is the next best.