During a recent radio interview, one of the callers asked for several ways to get fast, cheap, sustained website traffic. She added on top of that "tall order" that she didn't want to use pay-per-clicks!

Digging deeply into my toolkit of traffic generation techniques that had actually work beautifully for me, I suggested joint ventures and article marketing. Then I had to admit that article marketing often doesn't produce an immediate flood of traffic but that it can be sustained and highly targeted.

Joint ventures get you fast and cheap traffic because you're arranging for those who already have the attention of your ideal customers to send them to you. You're convincing those who already have the trust and respect of your ideal customers to point out to them that you can help to solve their pressing problems.

My "answer" to the question of the quickest way to generate sustained, inexpensive website traffic still is joint ventures. As a joint venture broker, and Executive Director of The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers, I've seen first-hand how large, successful joint ventures with just the right partners can deliver 7-figure days.

However, the joint ventures that so typify product launches in the Internet marketing niche often miss delivering real "sustained" traffic. They are mostly "flash in the pan" launches where the traffic flow dies-off even faster than it builds up.

A better option for generating inexpensive, sustained, targeted website traffic is an affiliate program, or strategic partnerships. The strategic partnerships can even be an affiliate program, where the partners have agreed to promote certain products within that affiliate program contributed by various members of the alliance.

In ultra-competitive niches, such as Internet marketing, where you often see dozens of new product launches per week, strategic alliances are almost a "requirement." It's sometimes so difficult just to get noticed that the secret to breaking through the clutter is teamwork.

You often need to find a group of likeminded individuals, and then work to jointly develop, launch and promote group products and projects.

An example of a product launched using this model is the ebook "20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online". This ebook was written by members of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, then group members created the buzz that got the product noticed and eventually started other affiliates promoting it.

The "20 Ways" ebook had a viral twist to it too though, and that's what created and will sustain it's growth. That viral aspect is the customer-only affiliate program. A customer is eligible to register as an affiliate, and then use their affiliate link to sell the ebook at 100% commission.

The 20 Ways Ebook was indeed launched via a strategic alliance, an affiliate program, and viral marketing. It's a launch formula that you could easily model, and use to generate a steady stream of quick, inexpensive traffic.

Some would look at the "20 Ways" ebook though and ask "What's the point - if you then give away 100% commission?" The answer is that you need to build-in backend sales. Add links to your product that drive repeat customer back to you, or offer additional products to those customers on your download pages.

When I further contemplate the question of the fastest, easiest, cheapest ways to generate sustained website traffic, I would still have to say joint ventures... and an affiliate program. An affiliate program fits the "inexpensive" criteria because you only pay for performance. If the traffic doesn't convert to sales, it costs you absolutely nothing. Any costs involved in an affiliate program comes from revenue that you wouldn't otherwise have anyway.

The only twist missing from the "20 Ways" model that I would incorporate in hindsight... is to perhaps make some part of the ebook rebrandable. Perhaps use software such as Viral Document Toolkit to allow customer who buy resale rights (as an upsell) to change links within the ebook. No kind of resale rights are offered for the 20 Ways ebook, but it is a twist that you might want to consider for one of your products.

Anyway... joint ventures, an affiliate program, and releasing viral rebrandable products are all proven methods of quickly, easily, and cheaply setting in motion a sustainable flow of traffic!