Sometimes traffic needs to be looked at with a specific goal in mind. What type of traffic are you looking for? You may need to concentrate on ways that will reach the main audience who will be interested in buying what you have to sell.
Someone with an affiliate program about dogs will concentrate their efforts on different sites to someone who is selling
seo services. Marketing products can use some ezine lists but other lists will hate getting marketing emails. The staple forms of gaining traffic remain the same but as with all things the specifics change.
A joint venture of some sort is the best option when starting a new program (in my opinion) but you will need to pick your jvs carefully to ensure that their lists match your product. Submission of articles will help you but only in time. Ensure there is something tempting you can give people in exchange for their email so you can start to build a list of your own when your traffic efforts do pay off. Start a blog and use this for updating your list to save time.
It is time consuming to the max, confusing as code, and frighteningly frustrating because you know that its a numbers game. A recent survey said that over 55% of traffic now comes from natural search results - so
seo articles are an important factor. I'm in a similar situation and wish I could help more but I too struggle to know where to concentrate my efforts, while at the same time updating and keeping everything else going.
I believe if you can spend your time on these things and outsource as much as you can (such as article submission and directory submission services) then you'll gradually increase your traffic. Good luck. Julie