I know everyone is going to describe building something people want or building something that is easy to use or excellent. And this, of course, is the best strategy as it encourages word of mouth marketing (free and effective) and has a wonderful product to fall back on (i.e. it isn't vaporware).
However, something else you should really focus on is bloggers. I don't me spamming them or anything like that. I mean determining exactly what benefits your product offers and who would care about it. Chances are there's a lot of good blogs and bloggers out there that will. Way before launching you should contact them. If they are writing about something that interests you or you think you have something to offer email them or comment. Build a relationship, just make sure it's not forced - anyone can tell if you're being fake. Make sure you're providing value of some sort to them. Then when you have your product or site or whatever run it by them. Even if they don't end up writing about it the fact that they have a decent blog is indicative of their willingness to express their opinion and offer articulate feedback.
As I mentioned in my post, it's not just about getting linked. It's about receiving articulate feedback and/or spreading the word spread. If a blogger in your industry writes about you, you're directly reaching out to your target audience. Emailing bloggers is free and quick. Showing up high in a search engine or building huge news aggregator following normally takes lots of time or money.
I get quite a lot of traffic from when I'm mentioned in a blog, and even from when I've leave comments. I say "a lot" in relative terms, my blog is only a few months old, but to me its a great start. I also put the site in my sig on the forums I use, which has meant crazy traffic the last few days (my blog is about the iPhone).
I think links from blogs are less effective nowadays when it comes to SEO, but in terms of driving traffic to your site, having a blog review you or mention you is still very important.
1. AdWords. AdWords is a no brainer. Find out the average revenue per visitor from AdWords and set your CPC below this. Instant profits(after some trial and error). The great thing about AdWords is you can get visitors and feedback within hours. You can launch a site in a day and get a sample of how well it will work.
2. Organic Link Building. This is the creme de le creme.
2a. Getting a blogger to write about you. New blog posts get picked up in search engines pretty quick, which will improve your SER. Also initial visits from a well read blog can be substantial.
2b. Social news sites(Digg, Reddit, Twitter, etc.). I haven't mastered these yet, but are pretty effective even when you're just starting out. Not only do they drive some traffic, some of them help with SER.
2c. Commenting on blogs. This seems to also drive some initial traffic and improve SER.
3. Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter. Same as AdWords except less traffic. However, often the visitors from these sites will earn you more/sign up more often.
4. Viral strategies. Email campaigns, referrals, making silly YouTube clips.
5. Main stream media. Gives you a short burst and then improved SER.
That is right, but most of the time what is being built is really not anything revolutionary. Then you end up being stuck trying to sell the same idea 50 other people are selling.
I guess that is where creativity comes to play.
There is a difference between exceptional and revolutionary. You don't have to change the game you just have to build something that's better that what is out there, look at google and search or flickr and photos. Neither of those were revolutionary by any means but they were exceptional examples of what they did.
That question is way too broad. What are you selling and to whom? What are your goals - brand awareness, memebership boost, etc?
There is no one solution for every company and every product; web-based or otherwise. [oversimplified:] I wouldn't recommend a racy viral YouTube campaign to a company selling a revolutionary denture adhesive but it may work wonders for a dating site...
I have found for my kind of business (www.Muziboo.com in music space) that widgets that users put on their blogs drives good traffic back to the website. In some ways widgets is like WOM .. if your friend puts one, you get a feeling that he/she would have done some research abt the site
However, something else you should really focus on is bloggers. I don't me spamming them or anything like that. I mean determining exactly what benefits your product offers and who would care about it. Chances are there's a lot of good blogs and bloggers out there that will. Way before launching you should contact them. If they are writing about something that interests you or you think you have something to offer email them or comment. Build a relationship, just make sure it's not forced - anyone can tell if you're being fake. Make sure you're providing value of some sort to them. Then when you have your product or site or whatever run it by them. Even if they don't end up writing about it the fact that they have a decent blog is indicative of their willingness to express their opinion and offer articulate feedback.