There are so many ways to drive traffic to your website that it can be overwhelming to the point that you don’t know were to start. Well I find it easier to break it down into two categories, There are ways to drive traffic to your site that are FREE and there are ways that you have to pay for. Both are very effective but it depends on what is in your wallet, especially if you are just starting out. So of course I would choose free first, the free method that I find very profitable is Social Networking.A large number of internet users belong to at least one social network website.When it comes to social networking, there are many people who think of online friendships or online relationships. While these types of relationships are the most common, did you know that social networking is also used for businesses? In fact, that was originally how it got started. If you are a small business owner, especially one that operates an online business, there is a way that you can use social networking sites to your advantage.There are networking sites that are designed for business owners. These websites will not only allow you to share your business information with other business owners, but it will also allow you to develop close relationships with those that share an interest that is similar to yours. Essentially, this means that you could not only learn valuable business information, but you could also walk away with a new business partner or a new friend.Social networking allows the smaller businesses to grow as they are able to reach a larger amount of people with using these network mediums at a lower cost. However, it also allows the bigger companies to take advantage of the social networking to extend to a larger volume of customers, as well.Examples of this are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, this type of media has now increased to a volume of global social networks, which means that advertisement can extend to a broader range of customers because they are able to have multiple languages.If you are using your online website to make money with advertising programs, such as affiliate programs or Google AdSense, you may need to approach social networking websites in a different way. Since you will not necessarily have a particular product or service to focus on, you will need to approach these websites as if they were personal websites. If your website discusses being a cat owner, it would be a good idea to state your love for cats in your profile. After doing so, it would be acceptable and not necessarily considered spam to add a link to your online website. As with all other types of online websites, social networking websites should help to increase the number of page views your website receives. In most cases, more page views mean more clicks which means more money for you.Social Networking only works if people are drawn to it. So depending on what topic or niche that you are trying to promote on the social networks is going to depend on whether it’s a hot topic at that particular time. The goals that you are trying to accomplish are: an increase in link-ability, easy book marking, mash-up, inbound links, and helping content travel.Rule of thumb is you want to make sure that you participate with your users, you want to be active on blogs and the message boards. know your target audience. You need to know what appeals to a particular group of people. It is important to remember that not everybody will love you.I mentioned mash-up earlier, for those who never heard of the term or you don’t really know what it means, it is to combine content from more than one source into one experience. A mashup can be used to gather feedback on a project your working on whether it’s a website, blog or an article.Social networking websites are also popular because they come in a lot of different formats. Websites like Yahoo! 360 and MySpace focus on a wide variety of different topics. This means that just about anyone can join. However, there are other social networking sites out there that have a particular focus. These focuses may be on a particular religion, political following, or hobby. Most specialty social networking sites restrict the individuals that can participate in their network; thus, making your experience more enjoyable.Social networking websites can benefit all website owners, especially those who are looking to make a profit with their websites. This can be done one of two ways, by selling something or by relying on revenue from advertising. If you have a website that is selling products or services, you might find it easier to use social networking sites to your advantage. This is because, if you wish, you could do product or service spotlights. You could also showcase one of the products or services that your website sells. This could either be done right on your profile page or on a blog page, which is provided by most social networking websites.As you can easily see, there are a number of different ways that you can promote your online website, no matter what type of website you have or what you use it for. By keeping the above mentioned points in mind, you should be able to see an increase in your page views, in no time at all.