Perform a search for "traffic generator" and you will be overwhelmed with choices. From auto surfs to manual surfs, banner rotators to viral programs, from classified ads to free-for-all boards, from groups, forums, reciprocal link exchanges, to search engine directory submissions, the list goes on. The most common question is: "How do I know where to start and what are the programs I should use?"

This article has been written to give you the information you sorely need to make logical decisions while creating a massive traffic machine. To achieve this though you have to use pretty well all of the above systems in a combined and concentrated effort to reach your target audience.

First off, choose a reputable, long-standing auto surf generator such as autohits.dk. You can find out the longevity of any system by going to the Wayback Machine web.archive.org and tracing their history. The auto surf generator is simply going to drive a very wide audience, called "Shotgun Marketing", at your main advertisement page to generate traffic numbers.

The reason for a large volume of traffic is simply because you will use, in conjunction with your advertisement page, a few, well established banner exchanges, such as 1800 Banners, on that main ad page. The auto surf traffic system will rotate your ad page plus the exchange banners and then generate banner advertising credits for you to use with your own banners within the banner exchange. The banner exchanges allow you to be more selective in where your banner is displayed. E.g. If you were offering free writing resources you might choose to have your banner only rotated on writing sites.

Using your advertisement page within the auto surf generator you need to add a give-away incentive that is a viral marketing tool. A perfect example using the above free writing resources idea would be to have a free PDF file download. The download would contain five or ten pages of web site names and links that offered various writing resources, courses and products. Within that PDF give-away you will have inserted resource box ads about your own web site, encouraging the reader to visit. You will also encourage the reader to freely give-away the give-away to their friends, colleagues and associates and to make it available as a gift on their web sites too. Every time one of them gives away your PDF file your advertising is being spread to other parties.

An extremely important advantage of having a give-away on your advertisement page is that you now also have the opportunity to request that the user provide you with their name and email address. To "double opt-in" or confirm their address with a second email sent to them before they receive your give-away. Within this confirmation email can be an additional advertisement or two, plus the command to confirm their email address. This in turn builds a reputable mailing list for more advanced targeted marketing later on and offers you a further sales opportunity at that moment.

Try owning your mailing list software to avoid using a third party service. There are exceptional mailing list management packages on the market and one of them that is simple to install and easy to use, while at the same time relatively inexpensive costing only $195, is called ListMailPro. This allows you to guarantee your sign ups that you will never release their name and email to third parties and you will only send them email of your own making containing pertinent news and of course you'll use it to try and sell them "stuff".

Adding to your marketing efforts you will want to sign up for a manual surf system. With this system you will also become an affiliate and place an affiliate referral recruiting ad on your main ad page. The advantage of a manual traffic system is that an actual human being needs to click on your ad in order for them to earn credits to display their ads. The trick to using manual surf systems is to build a large referral downline to do the clicking for you because then you will earn a percentage of their clicks to display your ad without having to click ads yourself.

Combining your systems to make multiple revenue streams is your ultimate goal. Even though you started off with just one advertisement page, you now have in place an active auto surf traffic generator, a banner rotator rotating your ads, a viral marketing distribution line, a mailing list, and a manual traffic generator. It's at this point that you are now ready to add affiliate products or your personally made products.

As an example let's say that you choose 5 writing products to sell. You would create 5 separate main ad pages promoting your product (one/page) plus the banners and affiliate referral ads. You would then create 5 separate banners to be rotated on those writing sites mentioned above. You would also create 5 additional ads to place within your viral give-away and call it "Version 2" or "Edition 2" update. The mailing list becomes useful because you can now email the users about the new products, the new give-away and even further try to recruit them as manual traffic users to generate additional ad credits for yourself. To the manual system you would create 5 ads to represent the new products as well thereby in total creating 5 separate revenue streams and increased traffic still being expanded through your original advertisement, plus the extra 5 ads.

Being affiliated with a good brand name or well recognized products of good quality that sell for a modest amount brings you credibility. Don't underestimate the value of that credibility because we're going to use that later to add additional revenue streams to your already existing streams.

Having credibility through your mailing list is extremely important to maintain. Don't try and make quick bucks off your readers. Let them get to know you. Personally I tell them where I live, the weather, just chit-chat at times and then flow into the meat of the email. You can also learn from your list by using a few surveys to find out what it is that your readership need. Once you know that, then you'll want to go out and find products where you own 100% of the resale rights. Remember that viral give-away you're using? Companies that make software or e-books especially will make available to you ... no charge ... their product to sell and keep 100% of the proceeds. Why?

The reason is that as long as their name links back to their web site or advertisement pages from within the product you are selling they are willing to give it to you to sell because they make money off of some other product they sell. For example, a writing software manufacturer gives you the rights to resell their product and keep all of the money, but in turn they will make their money when the user upgrades the software to a better package or purchases a needed plug-in. Then the manufacturer keeps 100% of the proceeds. Sometimes, they'll give you a small percentage of the upgrade sale, but that is a rarity.

You now have your traffic being generated for you, multiple affiliate product income streams, and you have expanded your operation to include products where you have full resale rights to receive 100% of the money for every product you sell. It's time to get busy with your mailing list and another main advertisement page.

At this point you want to build your own affiliate program having other people sell those 100% proceed products for you. However, they are not going to do that for nothing. What you do is set up an additional program that sells them the knowledge you've just learned here for them to use selling your products. Give them 50-60% of all their sales. Your take is now 40%, however, while they are off selling your products, begin to find other products of interest to that mailing list of yours where you obtain 100% of the proceeds again.

Let's say 10 people are now selling your products. You're making 40% of the sales for doing nothing more than maintaining an affiliation software package. Packages such as eLitius Affiliate Software that tracks and maintains your affiliates for you. Then you are free to make 100% proceeds from the new products you have discovered and not yet supplied to your affiliates. Your income streams are multiple and when combined quite large, offering you a comfortable lifestyle.

In closing this article you can continue to repeat the cycles mentioned over and over until you're stinking rich or you can just lay back and let the money comfortably roll in while you relax and chase other pursuits. One thing to know about this type of Internet marketing and sales is that it does not happen overnight and you must be vigilant when markets change or new products that are hot are released.

Success takes a number of years to develop the right list of people, the proper give-aways and ad copy, the downlines in your traffic generators, and ultimately an affiliate team that are as willing to work as you are to make it all happen just the way you did.

Take your time, be patient, don't be afraid to explore new ideas and products, and most of all have fun with it. There are many out there making a good living at this and other Internet endeavours with almost all of them working from their homes and they're just like you and I. Hoping to making a living on the 'Net.

Good luck in all your endeavours!