the hard part

Quite frequently I find that the hardest thing to do with your webpage is to generate traffic to it. Although there are literally thousands of ways to do this, I am yet to have found a way that is truly great. Even if there isn't one "end-all" way of doing it, there are the good old sure-fire ways of accomplishing this.

search engines

Definitely the most popular way to get traffic to your site. Submit your site to all the major search engines without a second-thought, and go ahead and submit it to the minor ones too. I know, submitting your site to the search engines is a boring and frustrating task, but it has to be done. There are many ways of making this easier on you though, such as Submit It!, where you can submit your site to several major search engines for free.

link exchanges

The second most used way to gain popularity is probably link exchange programs. By joining one of these, you get a pre-defined code to put onto your page that will display a random banner of another site. You get certain amounts of credits for each banner shown, and they automatically will exchange your credits for banner views of your very own banner. The problem with this sometimes however is creating a banner that people will want to click on to get to your site. Of these link exchange services, the most popular ones are Link Exchange and SmartClicks.

do work

The way I really like to do in order to get more traffic is to do work for other websites. Go ahead, make a graphic or two for another site in exchange for a link on the main page of their site. This is sure to bring you in a lot more hits, especially if you do work for popular websites.

everything else

Always just try to give everyone you can the URL to your website. If they like your site, maybe they will give it to their friends, and then their friends and so on. Always try to trade links with other websites, if you put up a link to their sites maybe they will do the same for yours. Remember: Every hit does count, and that one person might just come to your site 100 times over a period of time!