After your company's internal organization is taken care off and besides having a good line of products or services to offer, it would be the right time to find out the basics of generating traffic and prepare a detailed plan of action because, as we all know, traffic is at the core of your online business.

If you already have a site and you want think that you're not getting the traffic that you're supposed to be getting, then its time to reconsider. If you are contending in these very competitive business, you should always be a step ahead of your competition, increasing your traffic flow should have been done starting yesterday.

Be on your toes and look several days ahead of everyone else. Crush your competion by thinking future when it comes to generate traffic to your websites. Proper timing is very important. Always make sure you are not just thinking of today or tomorrow with respect to traffic, when you should have done this yesterday!

Here are 7 proven ways to attract traffic to your websites. You should have done this yesterday... but do not despair, start now.

1) Invest in good advertising with search engines

The most popular ones in this area are Google's Adwords and Yahoo's Overture advertising programs. It costs money to bring in visitors to your website using this way... though this is one of the top ways to attract instant traffic. There are other pay per click search engines out there that could much less expensive.

Many website owners are using this method to drive instant and highly targeted traffic to their websites because every penny that is paid is worth it's weight in gold. Search engines like Google and Yahoo are very popular and get millions of visitors every day and by advertising to these people, you can reap the benefits quickly.

2) Exchange or Trade Links with other sites

It is a win-win situation for both the sites. By trading links with each other, both the website owners are benifitted by getting those precious back links. Traffic that one site attracts can flow into the other and vice versa. More the traded links you have, more the traffic you can expect.

3) Use Viral Marketing

This is a sneaky technique that allows you to reach hundreds of thousands of people in a very short time. The technique works just like a virus, spreading itself to other people, though voluntarily. Create your own special report, a video, an audio clip or even an entertaining game and "brand" that with your website URL and give people a strong and specific reason to pass it along to others.

4) Find out the right keywords and keyphrases for your website

Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you.

5) Keyword rich articles can drive visitors to your website

Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell car parts write press releases and articles about cars and car parts. Attach your site's description and services at the end of the article as well as the link.

6) Join forums and form online communities

Contribute to the general discussion and become an obvious expert by answering other people's questions. This will create trust and credibility that helps you get targeted traffic to your websites. Word of mouth referrals will drive visitors to you.

7) Publish your own newsletter.

By publishing your own newsletter, you will get a steady stream of loyal subscribers who already know and trust you. Provide valuable information in your publication and be consistent in the frequency. Always make sure that you have proper "call-to-action" in your offers.