How to get your first visitors

I just launched a new blog and I'm getting zero traffic. I know SEO takes time, but it's frustrating to write posts and see no hits. I have submitted to a few directories and added some social bookmarking links, but nothing is really happening. What are some ways to get that initial burst of visitors just to get the ball rolling?

You need to trade links. Find other blogs in your exact niche and ask them for a hardlink trade. Put their link in your sidebar, and they put yours in theirs. That's the fastest way to get your site crawled and start getting some referral traffic. Also, start commenting on other popular blogs in your niche. Leave a real comment, not just "nice post", and link back to your site.

Don't forget to submit your RSS feed to the Feedlists and to Thunderball. If your blog is new, you have to submit it to the main aggregators. That's where a lot of the initial traffic comes from. Just make sure you are posting consistently, otherwise they will drop your feed.