After all the debate over website design, shopping carts and credit card processors, every website owner eventually comes to the startling realization that they need one more thing to survive - website traffic!

Without website traffic it's the same as building an expensive billboard and, instead of placing it alongside a busy highway, hiding it in your basement where nobody can see it.

Upon realizing they need traffic, most website owners run out and start blowing chunks of money and time trying to

get "hits," but they fail to grasp that there are really only three (3) reliable ways to get traffic to any website.

First : Buy Traffic

Currently, the fastest way to get traffic to any website involves using the little classified ads on the right side of search giant Google's results pages.

Called Google AdWords, the system allows any advertiser to open an account with a $5 activation fee and start seeing their ads appear on Google within about 15 minutes.

Advertisers only pay when visitors actually click through from their ad on Google to their website or affiliate link.

Overture.com also sells traffic by the click, but they make you wait three to five days to go through their editorial

review process before allowing ads to appear on their network.

You can also buy advertising on dozens of other pay-per- click search engines.

They all follow the same basic model of only charging advertisers for targeted visitors who read an ad based on a

keyword search and decide to click through for more information.

Log on to payperclicksearchengines.com for a list of over 600 choices ranked by market penetration.

A word to the wise on pay-per-click advertising: Watch your costs and track and measure everything. Even though you can get traffic for as little as a penny, you should track your results by search engine and by individual keyword if you want maximum success.

Many a company has lost its entire advertising budget paying only a nickel or a dime per click, but not watching

their conversion rates and pouring money into keywords that don't convert... while neglecting the keywords that do

bring sales (mainly because they don't know which is which!).