In Short you work hard on the basics It's a widely held belief that making money on the internet should be easy but in practice, it usually seems to be anything but.
I'm writing this article as I've been working at this now for quite some time and it seems I may actually be getting somewhere:-) The basics seem to be these Get involved - you need to be giving to get anywhere Chat on the forums - find a forum for your subject and get involved Use the online answerboards (sites such as Yahoo answer) - people recognise content Write articles - tell others about things you know and they will respect your knowledge Social networking - go and find people who are interested in what you do Pay your way - there are a number of methods that require payment (cover those in a bit) Get Involved Ok, this is one bit that I actually do understand.
You need to be giving to get.
In fact, the more you give, the more you're likely to receive.
So what do you give? Answers.
You will find that it takes little effort to see posts and messages all over the net from people who are looking for answers - these are your prospective clients and referral agents so it's as well to help them out if you can.
You must accept at the start that there are many, many people out there who simply take and never offer anything in return, such is life, just live with it and keep giving.
Chat on the Forums You will find that most things you're trying to sell have a market.
Most of these markets have hundreds of thousands of people across the world looking for answers.
What you do is go where the people are and interact with them.
Get known as a giver and you will find that in a reasonably short space of time you are recognised by your peers and they may even send people your way if they feel you can help.
If you do this enough (and no - I haven't yet found a quicker way) then you'll become something of a 'local' expert - if you write about your experiences on the web, people will find you.
Online message/Q&A boards The most obvious of these (and the one I've used most so far) is Yahoo Answers If you know something more than most people about a certain subject, go and find people who don't and are struggling and help them out.
My pet subject is relationships for example - so that's where you'll find me sharing my opinion most often.
Put yourself out there as much as you can, make sure people know who/where you are while you're doing it and that will help drive traffic to you.
Write Articles Ok, here I am now writing an article about getting traffic to your site but I have in the past written on other subjects I know about.
In truth, if you search EzineArticles for subjects you know, you're almost certain to find something to write about.
Share your knowledge, write from the heart, and do it often and you'll shortly be recognised all over the web as someone who is worth listening to - and this to is likely to add further traffic sources.
Social Networking This is my favourite way to drive traffic to a website.
All you need to do is get the right tools and then interact with the rest of the world on a regular basis.
At the moment I'm most active on Twitter but Facebook, MySpace and BeBo all have their uses so go and check them out and get involved - I promise you I've had more success here than I ever thought possible.
Pay your Way Personally my least favourite method of driving traffic to your site but in truth, there are many people who run their entire strategies via tools such as AdWords and AdSense and as Google has such a massive share of the internet search market, I suppose it must make sense.
All I would say is BEWARE - it's very easy to get little return from a reasonably large expenditure and that can be a demotivating factor Conclusion In order to get your site to make any money it needs traffic.
In order to get traffic people need to know you exist.
If I can sum it up in a simple way it would be this Find a market - Ask the market what it wants to buy? - Sell the market what it asks for That's it Happy traffic making