How to generate the INITIAL traffic?

[Robert]

Sitemaps are exactly what they say they are -- a map of your site. You are telling the search engines what's all there and where to find it. It's much quicker to get them indexing your site. The plugin referenced above will rebuild the sitemap and ping the search engines every time you make an update, so they can come crawling on over to see what's new.

[JeremyMorgan]

As for social traffic such as digg, you gotta have interesting titles and content, then pray to the digg gods.

[evelester]

Originally Posted by JeremyMorgan

As for social traffic such as digg, you gotta have interesting titles and content, then pray to the digg gods.

I like that! So true too!

[tyler324]

Yes, getting alot of Diggs. This may seem daunting for a new blogger so you may want to try blogengage.com first. It is blogs only, and was created by a member here.

[Yukinari84]

forum posts, social bookmarking/media sites, and definitely blog comment posting.

[ProBloggers Matrix]

Originally Posted by Inhibitor

Comment, comment, comment...leave comments sprinkled liberally on other blogs in your niche.

Just make sure they're not of the "good post" type; actually join the conversation, or ask a question, or give your view on the post topic you're commenting on.

You'll be amazed at the traffic you get from comments. (And if you become a regular commentor, you may wind up with some blogroll links on some of the sites as well...it's happened to me)

Great point, Inhibitor. Commenting on other blogs in your niche is a good way to develop traffic.

When I first started blogging, I developed the initial traffic from MyBlogLog. I joined communities there and commented on MyBlogLoggers' blogs.

Then I participated in Darren Rowse's group writing project back in August 2007, which effectively tripled my traffic.

One thing I would suggest, is to participate in group writing projects.

Comment on blogs, as Inhibitor suggested. Comment on forums such as this one. Try commenting on a couple blogs a day, then work up to five a day. Work at maintaining that commenting pace, while also commenting on blogging forums. This is a great way to develop initial traffic on your blog. You'll find more tips on my blog page entitled, The best of 2007 at the ProBloggers Matrix.

Your traffic will develop and build up. Over time, your traffic will compound and increase as you become more well-known and recognized in the blogosphere.

[veikoh]

I wrote my first article on the hot topic that wasn't actually my blog objective but had keywords with high KEI inside. So it's still producing me lot of traffic since I published it. See Sky Broadband is robbing customers? « Veiko Herne – lifetime entrepreneur with adventurous soul

[RonaldSu]

From my own blogging experience, the two methods that will bring in the most initial traffic are commenting on other blogs and submitting your articles to social bookmark sites.

My blog was first being noticed by comments on Johnchow.com and Shoemoney.com. Make sure you write good comments that have a point.

When you know that you have written a good post, submit it to digg or stumble upon. For me, stumble upon brings more traffic than digg, but definitely try both.

[MarketLeverage]

Start commenting on similar blogs and participating in forums.
Add Entrecard and Stumbleupon, those two should generate a little traffic on their own.

[Bloggeries]

Originally Posted by MarketLeverage

Start commenting on similar blogs and participating in forums.
Add Entrecard and Stumbleupon, those two should generate a little traffic on their own.

I'd say entrecard is the best way to get going before the engines find ya!