I don't know if it will let me post this link because I'm new but this is a treasure chest of traffic that people don't even think to use. It's from Slidshare. http://www.slideshare.net/CullenCordale/underground-trafficblackbook?related=1 I'm pretty sure you'll find what you're looking for here in terms of traffic.
I have used all of your 3 traffic generating method, now I have one more channel for consistence traffic, everytime I post a new content on my blog, there are instantly hundreds of returning readers, yes that is email subcribe for latest post. I am using Feed burner, a free email subcribe service from google.
posting links on reddit bring in a ton of traffic, but that is just one way and gives you an idea of what to do. i just wrote a blog post the other day on this. http://www.niche.cash/blog/how-to-boost-traffic-to-a-website/ i am not the best blog writter but you get the idea.
I believe that building a list is the best way to get traffic ultimately. Once you have a solid list in your niche then email marketing can be a very powerful tool.
The ways I know off are, SEO for good rankings, social media i.e. twitter, facebook, youtube other video websites etc, forum posting and blog commenting, good content encouraging readers to share, emails, paid advertisements i.e. facebook ads, adwords, offline promotions i.e. leaflets, business cards etc, podcasts, seminars. Theres tonnes but I think the secret is getting a consistent flow of targeted traffic from various sources and keeping it.
Our suggestions based on experience. Do not waste time on facebook / twitter. Invest all that time in creating good quality content. On our most successfull website out of 75000 session visits in last 12 months we get less than 100 hits via Facebook + twitter. We spent enormous man hours on facebook and twitter.
I don't think so, even if it is cheap hahaha I'd rather invest my money in something that is more worthy.
Free traffic? My faves are; free ebooks (yep, I write short ones and give 'em away! With a link to my website at the beginning and end, of course), Slideshare (simply content from my ebooks) and classified websites (yep, classified website traffic is back and better than ever!) Try to think outside of the box here, folks. Any other free and sneaky traffic generating ideas?
There are a number of traffic channels that you can use to build traffic to your site, but each channel's traffic behaves differently. Channels and touch points should be decided based on the website's end goals and the customer (visitor) lifecycle. Paid search traffic is great for visitors with purchase intent. Display ads are great for reconsideration. Social is good for awareness and retention. SEO (organic search traffic) is great at each stage of the customer life cycle. I wouldn't recommend a specific tactic or strategy unless I knew WHY more traffic was needed.
I need to know more about your website's profile, but why don't you try referral campaigns? A referral campaign is based on word of mouth. With a small incentive you can encourage your satisfied customers (your influencers)to refer your site to their friends. Let your customers/visitors talk. This data explains a lot: "92% of consumers trust recommendations from family and friends (peer influencers) above all other forms of advertising."
I like YouTube for traffic generation in addition to some of the other ways mentioned in earlier posts.
I think it depends on the niche because some are better with certain traffic sources. For example, ecommerce loves Pinterest and B2B loves Linkedin. Personally, I have used a lot of content marketing because it is the most effective marketing method I have used. Social media is good if people approach it the right way, you do very soft sale with their audience. For example, you cannot just blatantly post your coupon code and expect people to buy from you, even if you are a big brand (unless that is what they coincidently are looking to buy). What we do is that we use content instead. Instead of posting sales stuff on their feed, we put something useful. Let's say, instead of 50% coupon at a Jeans shop, we say "how to wash this dirty stain out of your jeans" to jeans lovers. Let them come to our page and then make it obvious there that there is a 50% sale going on.