This may sound dramatic but your business lives or dies by the amount of targeted traffic visiting your site. Not any traffic but targeted traffic.

You may have already spent a great deal of money getting a website designed and created and now, low on funds, you have yet to launch your site. You desperately need to increase website traffic but at little or no cost. Explore the following ways and you will discover many ways you can achieve this.

1. Offer free, original, and quality content on your site. This is the most effective means for increasing traffic to a website; offering people something that they cannot obtain elsewhere encourages them to return and probably recommend your site to others. Ensure your content is fresh and unique, avoid plagiarism.
2. Spread the word about your affiliate program by submitting it to affiliate program directories such as http://www.top-affiliate.com/ and http://www.affiliateranker.com/directory/ and contacting the owners of related websites.
3. Create a links page that will contain the links to other non-competing websites in the same industry. This will not happen immediately but as your list builds owners of other websites will welcome your proposal to create reciprocal links.
4. Post in forums. The internet abounds with forums on every possible topic. Join as many forums as you can, get involved in the discussions and post useful responses to people's questions. Introduce your website link discretely at the end of your post but do not make obvious overtures to promote it.
5. Comment on blogs. Search for blogs related to your business or website and read the postings. You are really only interested in blogs where comments are allowed for by adding a comment and leaving your website link you will have created a permanent link to your site.
6. Advertise your site with every email you send by adding a permanent email signature which could include your name, website and/or blog address.
7. Once you are established and have a list approaching say 500 names investigate what traffic exchanges have to offer. The basic idea is that you team up with other webmasters, and they send you traffic in exchange for you sending them traffic. Google "traffic exchange" to find those services.
8. Offer Freebies. People like nothing more that something for free, be it an ebook, video or a useful piece of information. Your giveaway must include your advertisement and your link, spreading the word about your website.
9. Writing articles, whilst time consuming have the benefit of advertising your website and also can get you established as an expert in your chosen field.  In each article, which you should submit to at least five different directories, you will include a link to your site in your author bio.
10. Join free safe lists. These are lists of subscribers who have opted-in to send and receive emails to each other. You can instantly reach potentially thousands of people by sending out emails, and you don't have to worry about receiving spam complaints either because everyone on the list has opted-in to receive emails.

Whatever types of free advertising you decide to pursue make sure that you use ad tracking software. This will allow you to track where your visitors are coming from, and what types of advertising are the most effective. You must also show some patience as results will not come overnight because search engines take time in evaluating sites. However, be determined and focussed and you will eventually see positive results.