While this might be very basic, you need to start some place and really start to define what strategies you want to implement short and long term to build your online business.
When you are looking to drive traffic to your site, you can basically do it 3 ways:
Organic - This is where you focus on ranking keywords in the search engines and the more you have at #1, the more $ you can make. This should be considered your mid and long term approach as it takes time to build a site. (unless you have purchased one with rank, authority, and age.) Additionally to this might include Social traffic.
Paid - This is where you might use Google Adwords, Media.net or other ad services to drive traffic to your website through ads. (as noted Adsense and Adwords don't mix, so don't mess with that.). You can also pay for ad banners on other networks or individual sites.
Affiliates - This is a very broad view of affiliates as this can be where you pay for leads to come to your site, work with companies to drive referral traffic, or work with broader organizations like chambers, associations or affinity groups to promote your product(s)
Monetization of your website should correspond to the expected sales you can make at the site. I.e. most people (broad generalization I know) who target adsense will usually drive traffic through Organic means because you are relying on others to sell their products. While Paid traffic for adwords might work for a site carrying amazon or other product options where your commission can be significant.
You have to determine what will work best for you, but in each of these driving traffic areas, you have to research to form the best strategies for your site.
Does this help?
