Many bloggers and online entrepreneurs seek to GET advertisers for their site. But advertisers aren’t interested in your site unless you yourself have compelling traffic numbers.
Ways to boost your site traffic numbers include using social networking, social bookmarking sites, contests, SEO and viral marketing campaigns. Advertising gets less attention because there is usually a smaller ROI (Return on Investment). But even the smallest of websites can find ways to advertise effectively and on a super-tiny budget.
The key is to plan effectively. There are plenty of free advertising opportunities out there - but if you don’t have a plan behind the campaign, you can waste your time and everyone else’s, too.
Step 1 :: Define Your Target Market
Who wants your product or service? What’s their age, gender, nationality, income level, and general interests? If you’re just starting out, make some guesses. As a company or site evolves, different target markets will emerge, and sometimes surprise you.
You can find out quite a bit about your target audience by analyzing site traffic origins, search engine keyphrases, polling current customers/site visitors, and by examining your competition very closely.
Here’s my target audience for eMoms at Home:
Work at home parents (40%+ are males - to my surprise!)
Age 30 - 50
Primary residence in US (according to Alexa and Google Analytics)
Household Income level >75K
Primary interests (while they are on this site): Business, Entrepreneurship, Online Marketing, and Work-Life Balance
Secondary Interests (in general): Personal Development, Parenting, Communication and Shopping
Step 2 :: Understand Your Target Market
This is where my background in psychology has helped me tremendously in business. What motivates your target audience? What do they care about? What does their generation value?
Put yourself into their shoes. Create a profile of the person that you think would be your ideal customer. Even better, if you know some people in this demographic, call them up and ask them a few questions - especially if you don’t know a lot about what is important to them.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project also publishes free reports about the way people interact with each other and businesses online.
Step 3 :: Research Your Competition
Your established competition has likely made some mistakes along the way. You can learn from them and skip the mistake part - study your competition carefully. Who is linking to them? Where are they advertising? Are they doing any offline promotion? Have they changed their approach over the years, and if so, how?
Call them up and ask for a quote if they are a service business. Google your top keywords to see who is on the first page of results. You could even find a ‘complimentary’ competitor to interview (someone who targets the same audience, yet sells something different than your business).
Also, look for sites in your niche that have a SiteMeter button like this: 
Some sites actually leave their traffic stats open to the public - which is a peek into way more information than they should be giving you about their company!
Step 4 :: Brainstorm Ideas
Get creative and keep your end goal in mind. You want people to come to you or your site who will be the most likely person to become a repeat visitor/customer/client. The higher the quality of the referring source, the better the possibility this person will turn into just that. Things to consider:
From a technical perspective: Alexa rank, Google Page Rank, Technorati Rank, mailing and RSS subscriber lists.
From a branding perspective: Reputation, relevance, location, authority, context.
Do a little homework:
Do you want to create a banner ad or text link campaign?
Do you want to tap the power of search engines? They may require a small learning curve, but they also have the ability to send you the most targeted traffic of all.
Is your business local, and are there ways you can advertise both offline and online?
What barter options are out there in your niche?
Step 5 :: Pick Your Best Advertising Ideas and Just Do It!
In the end, there is nothing that I can say that will predict the best advertising path to take. When I went to Elite Retreat, I was surprised that even the most experienced marketers on the planet always created several campaigns to TEST which one got the best results.
Regardless, your site or business will pick up more visitors and build brand awareness - which is critical to your long-term success. And if your site/blog is your business, investing time and/or money into advertising your site will do that, and make you more attractive to other advertisers. Search Engine Guide advertises on this blog - yet sells their own advertising on their site. The investment they make in building traffic creates more value for their own sponsors.
Remember - there is no failure, only feedback. 
For some free and cheap ways to kick off an advertising campaign, read today’s Entrepreneur.com post Ten Free Advertising Opportunities for Your Business.
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I’m super-psyched to see it come to life, and they creepily started about the same time I did - perhaps there’s something to be said about Jung’s Collective Unconscious after all?!
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