One great way to generate traffic is to simply pay for it. Since Google pretty much dominates the PPC market, you want to focus your ad campaign effort on using Google AdWords. Google's AdWords Network not only includes Google's site, but also About.com, The New York Times, InfoSpace, Business.com, Lycos and a few others. So paying per click (PPC) on Google AdWords allows your ad to be featured on all the sites that are part of the Google network. Keep in mind that in most PPC systems, the top bid gets the top position.
PPC is the easiest way to get traffic to your website instantly. The only problem is you need money to invest in this method. You bid on keywords that are relevant to your product or service. They appear in the SERPs and you pay every time someone clicks on your ad. You can't just bid on any keyword though. You'll want to make sure that you target the right market so that your visitors convert to customers. Google Adwords is by far the most popular PPC advertiser which also makes it the most expensive.