It might be that you're applying the wrong traffic method to your business. But make sure it's not one of the following reasons first.

1. Actually, it is working but you have unrealistic expectations.

Maybe you aren't going to get a million visitors a month. And that's okay, because it may not even take a million page views to get your traffic to yield a better income for you.

2. You've been inconsistent in executing it.

Meaning, some days you're gung ho, but most of the time you're not executing your plan. It ain't magic, hon. Someone has to do some work at some point. Either you do it or pay someone else to.

3. You don't have a plan.

You know what they say about a failure to plan. If you don't, trust me, it ain't good. Have a goal. If you don't know what to set it on, base it on an increase in revenue.

4. You're using the wrong plan.

Not every traffic generation method is good for every site or business. Some sites need to use RSS exclusively and extensively. Others are very well suited for blogs. Of course, if you're leveraging your traffic method to also help you get ranked well in the search engines, then that's a good way to measure it. One of my clients told me yesterday afternoon that 73% of his traffic was coming from the blog we built for him together. Delightful.

Who says blogging doesn't work?

5. You're flying blind.

Not everyone needs consulting. Not everyone needs to buy a book or ebook on the topic they want to study. Some folks have time to go out into forums or newsgroups, read everything they can find, and learn through trial and error. Other folks read blogs to get their learning on.

But whatever you're using as a method to learn more about the traffic method you've chosen, do it consistently, test and implement. If you want to hit the fast track instead, learn from people who have done, or are doing, what it is you've set out to learn. Why learn podcasting from a person who doesn't run a podcasting resource, or have a podcast at their site? Why learn about blogging from someone who has a blog no one likes?

On the other hand, you also don't want to become a traffic butterfly, floating to each new method you hear about before the first one has had the chance to prove itself.

There are other reasons why traffic plans fail in general. But those are the top five.