How do I increase traffic to my web site? That is the perennial questions in the mind of all web masters and Internet marketers. If you scan any webmaster's forum, there are hundreds of questions all related to increasing traffic because traffic is the bloodline of a website. Without traffic, your website is dead; lost in the Internet black hole.

If you are thinking about starting link exchanges as a first step for increasing traffic than you are dead wrong. If you plan to plaster your URL in all the forums and social media sites you encounter, than you are in the wrong track. There is a wrong way and there is a way that leads to the success. Choose the road to success by following the methods described in this article.

1. Create useful websites. Start with a website that provides value to its visitor. It does not matter if you are selling a product or giving information for free, it should be some thing that others desire. Once you have a site, create useful information, how to guides, and easy tools that benefit your site visitors.

2. Write articles. Writing articles and submitting to article directories exposes your site links to others and establishes you as an authority in your topic. The key to successful article writing is quality. After you finish writing your article, ask yourself if you would read the same article if a newspaper or magazine prints it. If you are not going to read your own article, why do you think others will spend their time on your writings?

3. Use forums. You site must have at least a forum. Forum is an excellent way to receive feedback from your visitors and customers. This helps you improve your offerings by using the voice of the customers.

Make it a routine to visit at least one forum related to general online marketing or your niche everyday. You should create your site link in the forum signature. Reply to a few threads with some insights and thoughts. Also, once a week start your own thread by asking thought provoking questions, writing a good how-to article, or sharing valuable information with others. Never try to sell any thing in these forums.

4. Blog regularly. Besides a forum, you should also start a blog where you can write about your thoughts and insights on the topic related to your site. You don't have to post every day. But make it a regular habit of posting one article a week.

Subscribe to blogs related to your niche and read them everyday. Share your thoughts and link to other blogs as references in your post. With out links, a blog is useless. Once you start sharing links of other blogs in your writings, others will start referring your blogs in their posts. Also take the challenge of writing guest posts in other blogs in the same niche as yours. This is an instant quality backlink to your site.

5. Participate in social media. Social media is the latest web traffic magnet. Encourage your readers to submit your posts to digg and stumbleupon by providing some means to easily submit your stories. You should also regularly submit relevant articles and sites that you think will benefit others. Create a facebook group related to your niche and also join a few groups in facebook that are relevant to your site. Participate and share useful information in these groups. Sign up with twitter and ask your visitors to follow you on twitter. Using twitter, inform your followers about the latest sales announcements, site maintenance schedules, etc.

Creating web sites that are useful to others and using article marketing, forums, blogs and social media will lead to sustainable web traffic.