Where To Really Start - traffic?

[Watapid]

Hey, I currently am working on a new website project. I planned everything out originally, how the site was going to be displayed and stuff. I have recently executed that plan. I run an "entertainment" site, no not porn, it fits in the game category. I have been building websites for about 6 years. The question that I have never been able to answer is where do I start to get traffic for a site like this?
Heres What I have done/do:
1) Try to update the site when I can. (More people come back when there are updates?)
2) Used metatags, descriptions, keywords.
3) Submitted my website to google and used a SE submitter in cpanel.
4) Tryed using a traffic exchange, didn't seem to really work.
5) Bought emails on a site where they are paid to read them.
6) Tried getting it posted in various sites.

Overall this has probably only got me 100+ unique users over a course of 1 week. I am not sure whether it was bs users or real. For the quality of my site I believe once I hit the maximum targeted traffic. I will have around 400-800 users constantly viewing it.

I didn't not whip up some random website and expected an instant community, I have put effort into as it is kind of relaxing. Then I hit the road block! I am stuck. I don't know what do next. What would be the most effective? Advertising on forums, irc, newsgroups? I am not expecting anyone to randomly run into my site on google as it probably would be ranked really low.

Thanks for your input!

[CanadianChris]

AdSense is great for getting targetted traffic :)

Aside from that, just push alot of content onto your site and update it daily. The search engines will start to notice and rank your site higher, giving you higher organic traffic.

[trillianjedi]

AdSense is great for getting targetted traffic

You mean "AdWords".

Other than PPC (pay per click) advertising, you need inbound links from other sites who currently have traffic. The more on topic to your site, the better, and the harder to get.

A inbound link campaign will also help your ranking in most SE's, which will have a positive effect on traffic you get from searchers.

I am not sure whether it was bs users or real.

You need a decent log file analyser. So, there's three forums for you to visit here to start with I think:-

Link Development : [webmasterworld.com...]

Tracking and Logging : [webmasterworld.com...]

Pay Per Click engines : [webmasterworld.com...]

Each of those forums, as with all WebmasterWorld forums, has a library of key, and/or exhaustive, posts and threads.

Happy reading!

What would be the most effective?

Inbound links and PPC.

TJ