What is Alexa? Alexa is an Amazon.com company that maintains information about website traffic. You can find out most popular sites in a variety of categories such as business, sports, recreation, and shopping.

How do I use Alexa? To access this tool, simply go to http://www.alexa.com. From there you can browse topic of your business or type in a specific website in 'Search Web' box.

Let's use gift basket business as an example. First, go to Alexa's home page and type in 'gift baskets' as a search. When your search results appear, look at end of description for link titled 'Site Info.' This is where you will find your research gold.

1. Generate Targeted Traffic from Online Discussion Forums.

Online discussion forums provide an excellent way to promote your website without paying any money. Nowadays, you don’t even have to lurk around before you begin to post. Just browse messages and you can start posting. There are basically three different ways to participate. You can ask questions, respond to requests for help or just post any useful information that fits with general topic of that discussion forum. To promote your site in online discussion forums, all you have to do is enter your website address or ad in your signature line at bottom of each message. Every time you post or respond to questions your ad will be displayed. If you post good content, people who read your threads will also check out your website. This is an excellent way to drive targeted traffic to your website at no cost to you. You can take this type of site promotion a step further by identifying active members in each forum and contacting them for joint venture arrangements.

2. Write Articles or Free reports for other webmasters to publish.