Brian Provost wrote a great article outlining 8 simple steps for building traffic for your Internet startup. Here is his list…

1. Defensible traffic
2. Buy good domain names
3. Hire competent Internet people
3  Hold off on hiring MBA’s
4. Understand the cost of traffic
5. Build links
6. Engage your community
7. Engage social media
8. Push, pull, prod, and poke marketing

I’d like to add another one.

9. Usability - Nothing will keep a visitor from returning to your site more than poor usability. If they can’t figure out the value prop or how to use the site then you’ve just lost that person that you worked so hard to attract. And chance are they won’t ever return. It also helps if you have something of value in the first place.