So you have a new site, and you have your web site developed and uploaded and you are ready for the cash to start rolling in.Or perhaps you have had a web site up for a while and have been disappointed in the results of getting free web traffic. Perhaps you are now considering that now is the time to outsource web traffic.Then again you may be an affiliate looking for quick ways to get traffic to an affiliate program that does not involve using Google Adwords.For the majority of newbies, the results can be underwhelming. We put all our initial efforts into getting the website to look perfect, adding the options for people to buy our products, or getting the ads fitting in nicely with our content, or our CPA (Cost Per Action) offers ready to rock and roll, etc.But no matter how nice the website looks, it's not going to do you much good without visitors arriving to your website is it? This is a problem many beginning internet marketers make. They do all the preparation of the website first, including choosing the products, etc without doing any research. This can be a huge problem!And figuring out how to get web traffic is something they will get around to later.I'm going to suggest this is the wrong way of doing things. Instead you should follow the steps below.Step 1. Research your market and keywords first.This is the number one thing you need to do first. Spend time looking at your niche of interest, and find out what people are looking for, and then sell it to them. Sounds simple right, but again and again I see people developing or promoting products that they believe are of interest. Let me tell you it's not what YOU think is useful, it's all about what your potential visitor will find interesting and useful.How are you going to find out what people want? With Market Research. Spend time looking in forums, competitor websites, and other websites to see what people are talking about, what their problems are, what they have issues with and then sell THAT to them.Get it in your mind that you want to really help people. You genuinely should be aiming to help people, and not just try to make a buck from them. By putting the needs of your target audience first, you will find your results will improve dramatically.Remember the market will tell you what they want to buy. Don't second guess! Research!Step 2 Targeted web traffic.Now is the time to be figuring out how you are going to be getting web traffic to your website.You should have concrete idea(s) in mind. Here are a few suggestions. Article Marketing, Blog Posts, RSS Syndication, Blog post commenting, web 2.0 promotion, more traditional SEO (Search Engine Optimization).I will explain each of this in subsequent articles, but suffice to say if you do not know of many or any of these techniques, now is the time to be finding mentors to teach you how to do this.Keyword research is also vital. You need to do some proper research into the keywords you aim to use with a view again of web traffic. Which keywords are you going to target? How much traffic do these keywords get each day? How much competition do they have?These are questions you need to answer now before proceeding further.Step three is about conversion.In other words how are you going to make money from these visitors? e.g. converting that web traffic to customers.Are you selling a product? Do you have ads on your web pages? Are you aiming to get the visitor to sign up to a newsletter and promote to them via email?You should have succinct goals here of how you intend to make money, and also research what your competitors are doing. Do this before proceeding further.The reality is that in some markets you will have less than desirable results with a particular form of selling, and research is the best way to find out what does and does not work for your market.Step 4 - We get to the least important of the 4 factors and that is the product!You have done your research, figured out how you are going to get web traffic, and have a plan on how to turn those visitors into customers.Now you can think about the product! Most unsuccessful marketers start with the product first and wonder why the have no sales, or no visitors! They have not spent the time finding out what their audience wants and how they are going to get them to their website.I hope this article starts you thinking about how you are going to get web traffic to your website. With a plan and a clear direction you can achieve your goals.Make sure you invest the time to figure out a plan of how you are going to proceed before you go running off to produce a product. Do the research first!