1. Create Something People Want to See

Question. What do Google, Amazon, and Match.com all have in common? Answer: All of their web sites draw millions of visitors, and they all do it by having online content that people want to come and see. Clearly both quality AND quantity are important here. How many visitors would Google draw if all of the links in their index were bad? How many folks would come to Amazon if they only had one book for sale?

While both quality and quantity are important, I'd have to say that quality is the most essential of the two. Your site might experience some success with one superb groundbreaking article on a popular topic ... or with one free download of an extremely popular program that you have created ... or a small number of great drawings you've done. If on the other hand, your site consists of 1000 poorly written pages that nobody wants to read, it probably will not do very well. Of course if you can come up with a high quantity of high quality pages, that's best of all.

2. Market As Appropriate but Don't Spam or Deceive

Sadly, one need not go far to see examples of what NOT to do in promoting one's web site - Bulk e-mailing ("spam"), deceptive "doorway pages", and other unethical, and in some cases illegal, tactics are commonplace on the internet. Don't succumb to the temptation! Sure, such techniques might bring a measure of success in the short run, but in the long run you'll get a bad reputation, search engine penalties/banning, or worse.

You'll probably want to submit your site to Google, Yahoo, and some of the other major search engines/directories, but you don't need to put as much effort into this area as you would have had to five years ago. The search engines and directories keep getting more efficient - Build a site that people enjoy visiting, and for the most part they will will find you. A few link trades from high-quality sites with content similar or complementary to yours can be beneficial too, but in general it's probably more productive putting the effort into developing your content.

Whether to spend money on advertising is a complex decision based on a multitude of factors - how much of an ad budget (if any) you have available, how effective advertising is likely to be for your type of web site, and how valuable the anticiplated traffic will likely be in relation to the ad dollars spent. When in doubt, it's best to go slow, experiment a little, and note the results.

3. Take a Long-term View

Most successful sites took a little while to take off. If you have good content that people find useful or entertaining, good things will tend to happen over time - Search engines and directories, large and small, will add your site to their indices. Visitors will become repeat visitors. Favorable word-of-mouth will spread. Other webmasters will decide to link to your site. All other things being equal, A two year old web site will probably draw more visitors than a two month old site.

Time will also give you opportunity to experiment with your content, note what is working and what is not, and make the appropriate changes. Expand a popular section. Start a new section. Drop an unpopular one if you feel it appropriate (Don't be hasty there, though - Give it at least a few months to see if it will catch on. Maybe it just needs a little tweaking). Don't forget to have some fun along the way too- Often the joy is in the striving!