My best "secret" to generating high amounts of traffic from safelists and solo ads is to be consistent. I work everyday … no
matter what.
This usually means that you have to make sure that your business is truly as high a priority as you like to tell people that it is. Your actions speak louder than words. If you find the time to do the work, then it is truly important. If you give in to excuses and other "more important" tasks, then that will reflect in the results you get.
If you are committed to building an email list, then you should be able to generate at least 30 new subscribers each week from free traffic. That is assuming that you are spending about 3 hours each day, using the best converting sites and promoting a lead capture page that converts at around 100 visitors per signup.
Don't get distracted by "shiny objects" or by trying to find a shortcut to making money. You need to put in the work first to build an audience and all of those distractions cause you to build your list more slowly.