how did they drive traffic to their sites mark?
The way I still do it today.
It is on my business cards,emails, postcards, mailers, letterhead, side of my car and I tell people about it.
I do try and stick my link on many different website. But being on top of google is not what it is all about. If your website sucks, they wont stay on it. If the blogs that you make for seo are boring, who cares. They wont stay and read them.