To be successful as an affiliate marketer or in selling your own products online, it is essential that you direct targeted traffic to your website. It does not matter how much drive, diligence, or perseverance goes into the building of an affiliate business - without proper targeted web site traffic the business will go nowhere. Interesting content or a well-designed web site is a waste if no one is seeing it.

Unfortunately, getting more web site traffic is not easy, especially in the initial stages, given the steep competition and thousands of web sites vying for attentions. But according to successful affiliates and online marketers, the following six methods, applied consistently, can make a huge difference in both the quality and quantity of traffic to a site:

1.) Utilize Search Engines

The first step is using search engines to your advantage. To gain the maximum benefit from a search engine, aim at having your web site appear early in the results, ahead of other websites offering similar content. How will you accomplish this? See 2.

2.) Popularity Linking

To achieve high search engine results your site must already be attracting a considerable amount of traffic. One of the indispensable methods for accomplishing this is through connecting to other relevant via links. These "popularity links" help drive more website traffic, but if targeted to the right search queries they can also boost your status in the results displayed by search engines.

Link popularity always starts with finding web sites that are similar but do not compete with your own. You contact the webmaster and request a link to your site. To solidify your chances of having your link on someone else's site, offer a reciprocal link which would advertise their website on one of your pages, perhaps sweetening the deal by offering an incentive to the webmaster, such as unique content.

3.) Writing Articles

Write your own articles on topics targeted to your audience. Articles with rich content can help promote your web site, attract interested readers, and even increase the number of popularity links coming to your site (see 2.). You can place these articles on other sites, in ezines, or even in newsletters with a link going back to your site. However I find that submitting your articles to article directories is the top performing method. Just do a Google or other search and you will find many such directories. The advantage is that they are already ranked high in the search engines so your article will automatically be placed high as well because it appears on their site! Simple but effective. I know of no easier way to get your content to page one overnight!

Not only that but other webmasters and e zine editors will use your article and thus spread it far beyond what you alone can do. Your article will become truly "viral;" and spread on its own. A really effective use of your time. Your link will be spread around the internet far and wide and in fact once an article has been used a few times it becomes an unstoppable selling machine!

4.) Joining Affiliate Programs

Joining an affiliate program as a merchant, you can pay commissions to others to market your site. Even a small-scale affiliate program can help direct significantly more traffic to your web site. It is the the concept of duplication that makes this such a winning way of promoting.

If you concentrate all your hours into marketing your product you can only use 24 hours a day and that is if you dont eat, sleep or do anything else! But if you have say 50 affiliates spending only an hour a day that is 50 hours a day promoting your product! The really exciting thing is that many online marketers have hundreds and some many thousands of affiliates signed up to sell their product.

Of course, you need your own product to start your own program, but this can be accomplished through the use of private label content, product development ventures, and even through upsells.

5.) Creating A List Of Subscribers

A subscriber list is a valuable asset for any affiliate marketer. Using an autoresponder or a personalized newsletter can promote your site, build a repeat visitor base, and provide you with direct marketing opportunities for a long time to come.

6.) Understand Your Market

This seems like an obvious one, correct? Yet the truth is, few affiliates think through their target markets sufficiently. Different niches need to be sold in different ways. You can use the techniques described up until this point to reach people who will be interested. But how will you treat them once they get to your site? This will affect everything on your site, including the way you write your copy and even the colors you use.

Using as many strategies as possible to generate targeted traffic can make or break an affiliate. Relying on search engines is obviously important, but there are numerous other ways to generate traffic. Combining these methods will maximize the traffic you get, and will also protect you from losing traffic if one method falls short of expectations.

Good luck and happy marketing!