Giving items away for free is a great way to increase traffic everybody likes freebie. If you give something different away each week, you are sure to have a steady stream of repeat traffic. When you have freebies or giveaways on your site, your pages can also be listed and linked from the many sites on the Internet that list places where where people can receive free stuff.
To find these listings of free stuff, simply go to search engine and do a search on "Free Stuff Index" or "Free Stuff Links". You will be amazed at how many people are giving things away online.
You don't have to give something away to everyone. You could simply have a drawing everyweek. You could then ask entrants if they would like to notify them of the winner, which again gives you permission to email them.
If you want to bring only people from your target market to your site then don't give away mainstream things like screen savers, shareware games, utilities, and so on. Try to give away something that only people interested in your industry would want. If you don't care what traffic comes your way, and any traffic is good traffic, then give away useful things that everybody needs. Try to have your logo and URL displayed on the item. If your freebie is something that has your URL on it and is something that is generally kept around a computer, it'll remind and encourage people to visit your site.
The best implementation of giving away freebies is by having a "Tell a friend about this" button near the freebie so site visitors can quickly and easily tell their friends. It's the ideal viral marketing opportunities.