So you've built a website and you think it looks pretty groovy. You've monetized it and taken your time with the graphics and general look of the site - but how to get people to come to your website? By placing a simple tracker like Analytics on your site you will see that you are lucky to get even one visitor a day, why is this? Just by building a site will not guarantee visitors, you'll have to do some off-site work to start seeing traffic arrive.
So, how to get people to come to your website, what are the options? The first technique is to optimize your site for the search engines. Search engines have always been a reliable way to gain good traffic for free. And how do you properly optimize you site? In a nutshell - on-page SEO. It's important to scour the web and find as much reliable information on SEO and Keywords before you type a word on your site. Your finished website should be heavily optimized text on every page.
Another way how to get people to come to your website is to make sure the search engines are always 'aware of of your site'. The simplest way I know to do this is to frequently add new content to your site. There is a saying that floats around webmasters on the internet which is 'content is king'. This is so true, if you keep producing quality optimized content and frequently update your site with it you will see an increase in search engine traffic.
Another great way how to get people to come to your website for free is to take advantage of social bookmarking sites. Completely free to sign up for or join and reasonably easy to use. The great advantage of posting your URL on these sites is that it can go viral quite quickly if it catches other members attention.
Forums are a very handy place to find answers and information on just about any niche on the planet. A lot of people use these forums and this makes them ideal with regards to how to get people to come to your website. Once you find a forum that is closely related to your website's category you should sign up at once. With your membership you will receive a 'signature box' and in this box you may leave a backlink to your site. Every time you comment on someones post you will be advertising the backlink to your site for free leading to more traffic.