[Mz]

I know of some sites that started organically and grew because there was need/demand for it. If you regularly participate on email lists, it is usually ok to put a link to your site in the signature block. Same with a lot of forums. (On Hacker News, you could put the link in your profile.) As long as you are a genuinely participating, regular member and they have no reason to think you are simply spamming them, this shouldn't be a problem. Then try to not talk incessantly about your site. For the most part, just participate as usual and let people check it out if they find something you say interesting. Mention the site where it is pertinent to the conversation.

This is probably not a way to get big traffic quickly. But if you regularly develop the site so that there is new content frequently, it can become a fairly high traffic site over time. This method gets some traffic for a couple of my sites where the goal was to share information and there wasn't a business goal or financial goal at the outset. I am real bad about not putting up new content very often. The following for my sites has grown very, very slowly. But for the particular sites in question, I think that is okay and will likely change as I get to the point where I am ready and able to update them more regularly.

Good luck and wishing you many excellent answers from other members. :-)