There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your website: You must have a steady flow of website traffic. If the lack of traffic results in the sites demise. It takes money to maintain an income generating site; it also takes money to make money. However, it doesn't take a whole lot of cash to generate web traffic for your site.

Ever wonder how these big hit sites drive traffic to their sites? Most of them are spending tons of money. They are investing in many advertising campaigns. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.

You don't have to do this if you don't really have their resources. There are many ways to generate low or no cost web traffic without having to spend what you don't have or can't afford. Many people have gambled on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt because of it.

Here are 5 ways you can implement right now to increase the level of web traffic your site receives. Even if you are only able to convert a small percentage of your traffic to sales, you will still be able to make money due to the sheer volume of traffic you can receive.

Exchange Links

This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more public awareness about their sites. You'll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.

A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or content as the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.

Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines ranks high sites that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic in your website without the high costs.

Traffic Exchange

This is like exchanging links but on a different higher level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging or trading links but could be made cheaper because you get to earn credits. You can use those credits when viewing others traffic, while you earn credits when someone views yours.

Traffic exchange services are the viewing of another's site or page. This is done vice versa where a site can use your sites contents and so can you to his or her site. You both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your sites existence is boosted.

Write and Submit Articles

There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias in the internet which provides free space for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs, you can do the articles yourself. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write for you for a small fee, but to save money, it is wise to do those articles yourself.

Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise on so that when they read it, they can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be eager to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines to the subject or niche your site has.

Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link them to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.

Make a Newsletter.

This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but on the contrary, this is not so. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well.

As your newsletter gets pass around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list that can regularly visit your site.

Join Online Communities and Forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.

Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are with the subject. As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people.

These are solid ways to get traffic to your site. There are others of course, but this will get your started. Once you have traffic coming and are making a profit you can then decide to spend some of your profit for paid advertising to drive traffic to your site. This way it will be a reinvestment instead of losing any of your money.