Most of directories do not do direct links and instead use redirects, this is usually because link tracking is in place. Unusually LSblogs links directly to sites it lists which I believe will count towards your back links unlike redirects.

Besides LSblogs that I have just mentioned other directory that generated some traffic was Blogarama.

Unfortunately you do not know which directories are going to generate traffic until you have been listed. You can increase your chances of ensuring traffic by submitting to directories that already have a lot of traffic. I would suggest that as it takes little time and effort to submit your site to blog directories and as they are few and far between compared to generic directories it is a worthwhile exercise.

The experiment is far from over as I still have many blog directories to submit to and I will be looking at long term traffic from these sites. There will be an update to come which will include a list of all of blog directories.

Reciprocal linking has dropped off of my priority list of web site promotions but it can still be a very important means of web site promotion if done properly, and back links to your site are also essential to a good search engine ranking with Google. First of all you are not going to want to trade links with just anyone. Make sure page’s your links are going to be on are actually indexed by Google. If you do not have Google toolbar get it. It will tell you if a page has been indexed or not. Also ask webmaster you are trading links with how many links they have per page. If they put more than 30 links on a page chances are your link will be lost and never clicked on.

Free classified advertising is another way to promote your site for free. But as internet grows so too does amount of webmasters submitting to these free classified sites. And more people there are posting less likely your ad will be seen. The key to good free classified advertising is testing your results. Test everything you do. When you find a good classified site that is giving you traffic keep using it but follow their guidelines on how often you should post.

Last but not least you need to be collecting e-mail addresses from your web site. Start a newsletter and ask your visitors to subscribe somewhere on your site. Once you have built up a good subscriber base you can e-mail your subscriber base a weekly newsletter that has to do with your web site’s theme or subject matter. Always include UN-subscribe instructions in case your visitors change their mind and no longer would like to receive e–mail from you.

I have just touched surface on a few of different techniques that I have used to promote my own web site. There are actually hundreds of other offline and online methods to promote a web site. Use your imagination and do not be afraid to try new things. Test everything you do and when you find something that works keep doing it.