Say its about cars post in a car forum. TOP lists are good too. If you want to pay google had paid advertising aswell.
References :

Getting traffic is a combination of a lot of things. The key to success is to create great content that visitors want to use, search engines will love and other websites will naturally link to. Of course, it's easier said than done.

You can use pay per click advertising in the search engines to reach audiences looking for your products. You can use Google Adwords http://www.google.com/adwords or Yahoo http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com

Here are some shoestring marketing ideas that can help you get the visitors you need at the least cost possible:

1. Create the best content you can with the best products you can possibly offer. Your content is your best advertisement - if visitors love your content, then they will go back and spread the word to others.

2. Make it easy for users to recommend your site. Viral marketing is very important — and easy to tap on the Web. But give your users the tools. Get a Recommend this Site script from websites such as cgiscripts.com and similar directories of scripts. Some even go as far as giving incentives to those who recommend the site to their friends. If only 10 people go to your site, but these 10 people invite 10 more - that's additional traffic that you get for FREE!

Recommend Site Scripts (various) http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Website_Promotion/Recommend_Site/
Big Nose Bird Recommend this Site http://bignosebird.com/carchive/birdcast.shtml
CGI Resource Index http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Website_Promotion/Recommend_Site/
Hostscripts http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Site_Recommendation/index.html

3. Rank well in the search engines (organic search results, not the pay per click). SEs can be a big source of traffic. The key is to create the best content in your niche. If you have good content, other websites will gladly link to you and offer your site as a resource to their audience. Check the on-page factors and be sure to get linked from authority sites in your topic area.

If you are going to read only one piece on search engine optimization, I suggest you read Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld.com's "Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone: 26 steps to 15k a day." http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm

4. Send out press releases. While outfits charge as much as $650 per release, there are free press release submission places on the Web. Press releases allow you to (a) attract media attention; (b) get more back links to your website without sending each website an email request; and (c) get more visibility especially if your press release gets in Google News or Yahoo News.

http://www.prleap.com/sign_up.html
http://i-newswire.com/
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.pr.com/press-releases
http://www.prfree.com/
http://www.clickpress.com/releases/index.shtml
http://www.theopenpress.com/
http://www.przoom.com/
http://www.prweb.com
http://www.newswiretoday.com/
http://www.free-press-release.com/

5. Submit articles. Write articles and submit them to websites accepting author submissions. You get exposure for your business; establishes you as an authority in your field, and allows you to get backlinks for your website. If 50 websites publish your article and it contains a link back to your website, then you easily get 50 links from a single article. The more links you have, the greater your chances for increasing your search engine rankings.

Here is a comprehensive list of where to submit your articles http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=AhzreGmnCUicOoyedqypscUjzKIX?qid=1006022407481

6. Post a link to your site for free where it is allowed (always read the Terms of Use). Examples are:

Craigslist http://www.craigslist.com
Google Base http://base.google.com
Classifieds for Free http://www.classifiedsforfree.com/...
Text Link Exchange http://www.txtswap.com/
Recycler.com http://www.recycler.com/
Yahoo Classifieds http://classifieds.yahoo.com/
US Free Ads http://www.usfreeads.com/
References :

i am just a rookie in the field of SEO, more or less i have less than 1 year experience of it.in my experience and researching and reading many books there are several ways to increase your site traffic.

ill share with you what i am doing.

1. like the experts says "content is king" create good contents and relevant contents for your site.

2. social bookmarking. bookmark your sites to nofollow and follow social bookmarking sites.
here are some social bookmarking sites:
PR9
http://slashdot.org
http://www.bloglines.com

PR8
http://www.del.icio.us
http://www.digg.com
http://www.furl.net
http://www.technorati.com
http://www.43things.com
http://www.fark.com

PR7
http://www.simpy.com
http://myweb.yahoo.com
http://www.backflip.com
http://www.blogmakrs.net
http://www.blogpulse.com
http://www.clipfire.com
http://www.icerocket.com
http://www.kinja.com
http://www.librarything.com
http://ma.gnolia.com
http://www.netvouz.com
http://newsvine.com
http://stumbleupon.com
http://reddit.com
http://www.rojo.com
http://rollyo.com
http://www.shadows.com
http://www.spurl.net
http://www.squidoo.com
http://tagsy.com
http://www.yoono.com/index.jsp

PR6
http://www.listible.com
http://www.bibsonomy.org
http://www.blinklist.com
http://clipmarks.com
http://de.lirio.us
http://www.diigo.com
http://www.kaboodle.com
http://linkfilter.net
http://myprogs.net
http://tagfacts.com
http://www.rrove.com
http://scuttle.org
http://segnalo.alice.it/?
http://shoutwire.com
http://wists.com
http://www.zaadz.com/

PR5
http://unalog.com
http://tagtooga.com/db.tag
http://smarking.com
http://oyax.com
http://bookmarktracker.com
http://buddymarks.com
http://dinnerbuzz.com
http://favoor.com

PR4
http://aboogy.com
http://bookmarksync.com
http://connectedy.com
http://lookmarks.com
http://memestreams.net
http://sitejot.com
http://startaid.com
http://ulinkx.com - videos only
http://zurpy.com

3. directory submission. most of the directory sites has nofollow attribute on it but iregardless if its a nofollow, it still give you traffic to the site.
some directories
http://www.willadd.com
http://www.directory.ldmstudio.com/add/add.php
http://www.1800canada.ca/submit.php
http://www.phpld.info/submit.php
http://www.trackyourcompany.com/submit.php
http://www.1abc.org/submit.php
http://www.9dir.com/submit.php
http://webresources.akipus.com/submit.php
http://www.allthelinks.net/submit.php
http://www.allthelist.com/submit.php
http://www.anaximanderdirectory.com/submit.php
http://www.another-directory.com/submit.php
http://www.1stchoicesearch.com/submit.php
http://www.pegasusdirectory.com/submit.php
http://www.digitaldir.eu/submit.php
http://www.mygreencorner.com/submit.php
http://www.search-dir.com/submit.php
http://www.suggest-link.net/submit.php
http://www.urlmoz.com/submit.php
http://www.choiceww.com/submit.php
http://www.global-weblinks.com/addlink.asp
http://www.plentylinks.com/submit.php
http://opdir.com/submit.php
http://www.the-free-directory.co.uk/submit.php
http://www.bratseek.com/submit.php
http://www.sitemapped.com/submit.php
http://www.directoryvault.com/submit.php
http://www.linkarchive.org/submit.php
http://www.traffic-directory.net/submit.php
http://www.small-seo-dir.com/submit.php
http://www.ricusaseo.com/
http://www.jackool.com/
http://www.qassia.com/

4. create articles/blog and submit them to articles directories. the more your site is exposed to the net the more will increase its traffic.
some article directories
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://www.articlecity.com/
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/
http://www.amazines.com/
http://www.articledashboard.com/
http://www.article-directory.net/
http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/
http://www.magportal.com/
http://www.isnare.com/
http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/
http://www.article-hangout.com/

a rule of thumb in creating articles/blogs/contents; create articles that will enitce your readers to read it. as Google says, "Make pages for users, not for search engines." same as with the articles, you create articles for the readers.

5. engage in good forums/message board/community sites and create a signature or put the url within your post

for example, this yahoo answer, if i put these url's
http://www.smsjock.com/
http://www.ringtonedeck.com/
http://www.ugotbling.com/

i help the site owners to have traffic for their sites.

6. comments on blog and put your site url
rule: on creating comments on blog, make your comments and nice and on the topic. also on the name field you put your targeted keywords. it does help

for example if comment on a blog i input the following
Name: Free Mobile Marketing Solutions <– targeted keywords
Website: http://www.smsjock.com/ <– your site

Note: if you have questions, or you want a copy of the complete list of the directories,bookmarking sites and article directories dont hesitate to email me

oh by the way before i forget. you need a lot of patience! and test and test and test increasing your website traffic is not instant. i would take time for search engines like Yahoo, MSN and Google and others to crawl and to tell that your site has a good traffic
References :

Link exchange is the most successful way for increasing your visitor traffic without paying any money for advertising. Link exchange is also considered essential for the search ability of your website - search engines like sites with a great number of incoming links as these sites are perceived as more important than poorly linked sites.

In the ideal world, it would be great if you could only have incoming links to your site and no outgoing, however, in reality you can rarely have your link listed on a relevant site unless you link in return. That is why link exchange is so important. There are a few guidelines you should consider when swapping links: The greater the number of incoming links to your site, the more popular it becomes for search engines.

You can exchange links at : http://www.hyderabadrealguide.com/link-exchange.html