The number one issue everyone online has had at least once is? If the title didn't spoil it for you the answer is clearly increasing traffic to their website, page, product, hub etc. People seem to think that the Internet is a machine on autopilot, that will instantly drive a butt load of traffic to their door step as soon as they have published something. WRONG. If this describes you, please quietly dive head first into a wall.

Thinking thousands of people will visit your page because you have one is like saying, "Since I have a birth certificate and a social security number, everyone must know me." How soft is that wall?

Those who are getting tons of traffic to their websites or blogs have put in an extensive amount of work getting the word out. The real secret to increasing traffic and getting unique visitors is to spend about 20% of your time building your website and 80% marketing it.

Now hear this. The hardest part is making the site (depending on how big you want it to be), shopping the site around is easy and oddly really, really exciting. I am going to tell you my favorite marketing strategies that have gotten the most results.

1. Write articles. Writing quality articles can potentially bring hundreds of thousands of targeted visitors to your site. By writing articles you become known as an expert, and like all experts you must produce a high volume of writing to become a household name. Articles reach more people and promote websites far more than any other online marketing strategy. Best of all it is absolutely free. People are on the Internet to find information, by giving it away free people will be more inclined to read your sales letters and buy your products. Also when publishers use your articles in their feeds or e-books your links pop up in their items further bringing you more traffic.
2. Google AdWords. If you have or have not come across the words, keyword or optimizing optimizing, here is one of the places it comes to play. Posting those ads that appear just about everywhere (more commonly on the left side of a google search), is a great place to grab the attention of search engine prowlers. They work using cost-per-click, meaning that you pay a small amount money, anywhere from a few pennies to a couple dollars, for each time your ad is clicked on. You can manage how much you spend advertising on google everyday, as well as view analytics to track if your ads are bringing in quality traffic. You do not need to be a SEO guru to get the most out of AdWords, you just have to make sure that you utilize the same keywords and tags used in everything linked back to your site. There are many keyword tools out there such as Word Tracker, which gives a 7 day free trial with its powerful related keyword generator to get started. A free keyword tool is google itself. Start with a blank search box, type in your keyword, and as you do so a drop down box will appear with the most commonly used keywords related to the one you have entered.
3. Viral Marketing. If you are serious about making money online, look into different viral marketing strategies. This is the best approach to promoting through word of mouth. Remember that crazy chicken from the Burger King commercials? Sure you do, that chicken was hilarious and also probably the most successful viral marketing strategy to date. That chicken started out as a hidden camera of a man in a chicken suit, it got online and the video literally blew up over night getting thousands and thousands of hits instantly. Other examples of viral marketing are your affiliate links being posted in e-books, emails, a friend telling another friend, and even those crazy chain text messages.
4. YouTube. YouTube is so useful it's ridiculous, and that's why you should take advantage of it. Recently, it seems that ads can appear on YouTube. It can also be used in the same sense as an article only it shows that you are a real person which people seem to like. Place an instructional series of short video's about playing piano chords or whatever and add your link across the video and in the box about you, as your videos get more hits so will your website selling piano lessons. Post a funny video or something to keep people chattering about and YouTube can be used as a viral marketing tool.
5. Stickers. I love stickers. Make a sticker with a catchy logo and your web address to get the visitors that you may not be able to reach via the Internet alone. This can cost a little bit of money to have printed but utilized correctly will be worth it. This can be really fun and you can get your friends in on it to spread the word even further. My personal secret for this approach is to make the stickers as annoying as possible. Literally go out and slap 'em everywhere, with enough of them out there people won't be able to get the image and URL out of their heads until they check out the website themselves.

Looking for the easy way out almost always takes a turn for the worst.

• If you are looking to publish articles, make sure that the work you submit is actually your work or that you have the rights to. Sites that publish your articles, like Hub Pages, do not take very kindle to this. Doing so will get you banned from such sites, which means you will lose out on traffic that can make or break a business. Articles are a great way to earn higher rankings in search engine, with that said stealing articles and writing articles that do nothing but promote your site will get you nowhere. People go online to either buy something or get useful information they can use, not to look for crap so don't crap on the Internet.
• When using AdWords do not create misleading ads. Do not place an ad about penis enlargement if your site is selling miniature statues. Although you may get a high yield of traffic it will not last very long. Google will not only remove the ad, but remove your AdWords account and remove your site from their index indefinitely. Your site will be buried in the google cemetery to never be heard from again.
• Stay within the legal boundaries. Infringement is illegal, defacing property (if caught) is illegal, promoting illegal substances is illegal, and fraud is illegal.
• If your line of work is SEO, do not use any black hat tricks. I mean keyword stuffing, hidden links, and hidden text containing millions of invisible keywords are bad news. You have to be on top of your game to do these and even if you are there are people working for search engines who know how to uncover this.