You can easily do the right things in your traffic campaign and still get so-so results if you miss an important step. This is particularly true of online marketing.
If you choose the wrong site theme and/or the wrong keywords, you'll have unfruitful hard labor. You can spare yourself that pain -- Do a thorough keyword research.
How many people are searching for what you want to offer. A good research tool shows you search volumes for each keyword for a given period. There are free tools like the one at Overture (Yahoo Search Marketing). However, such free tools can be very misleading. Here's why. . .
Overture, for example, will return the same results for singular and plural forms of a keyword. Now, this may not be terrible if it is a one-word keyword, but imagine the situation where the keyword is a word combo like this...
"Picture story book"
In a case like this, you'll get the same results for...
Pictures story books
Picture story books
book picture stories
Stories picture books
Story picture books
Picture books story
picture book stories
The list goes on. This can be very misleading. You need a tool that will show you how many times a precise combination was used. Some great ones even go as far as helping you determine the supply (how many sites are competiting) and the profitability (How wise it will be for you to work on the keyword) and some even help you decide on the best monetization.
Get yourself a good research tool and have a head start in your traffic campaign.