Interestingly there are plenty of sites that would have you look to blunt force trauma as a primary method of traffic building.

You could purchase lists from unknown third party sources and shoot off an email inviting these unknown prospects to give your site a try, however most of those emails will wind up in the spam folder.

Traffic building is best when it is based on integrity in approach, management, style and delivery. When you seek to cut corners you are likely to get burned either now or in the future.

The world's telemarketers have made life difficult for legitimate netrepreneurs in that consumers are conditioned to become quickly offended by unwanted calls, mail and now emails. Some are so conditioned that the hint of spam has them responding with either a cyber tongue-lashing or reporting you for spam.

This mentality has had both a negative and positive effect on email. It has provided a motivation for integrity and accountability in the practice of email marketing, but has extended the proverbial search for perfection in practice

You can gain the trust of prospects by making sure your site is worth visiting; that it is relevant, informative, clean and helpful.

You can gain traffic by making sure your site is optimized with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods that assist you in future site rankings.

You can gain subscribers by making sure you provide relevant information in your email updates. Never waste your prospects time. Remember: it is always a privilege to be invited to send information – do not abuse your prospect's good will.

I am a strong advocate of the use of press releases. A well accepted press release can go a long way in providing a feature on your site in either an online or print publication. These features can often provide a significant kick to your online sales and are very helpful in achieving marketing goals.

Do not hesitate to ask site visitors to sign up for updates, ezines or an ecourse. The growth of your site depends on your ability to grow a network of interested prospects. Your ability to connect with them will most likely hinge on your ability to be trusted. When you demonstrate the utmost in integrity those prospects are likely to convert to clients and they may provide significant word of mouth advertising.