Also, automate process of publicizing your ezine and submitting your articles as much as possible. One excellent software program that will do this for you (in fact only one I know of) is Ezine Announcer. Check it out here: http://www.ahbbo.com/ezineannouncer.html .

4. Negotiate Reciprocal links

Find websites that target same demographic as your site and contact webmasters of those sites for a reciprocal link. (This just means that each of you links to other's site from your links page or elsewhere else on your site.)

5. Submit to FFA Pages

Opinion is divided on effectiveness of FFA pages. Personally, I think they're a waste of time. Others maintain that although they're pretty useless in terms of people actually reading your listing, they can be helpful with search engines that rank your site according to popularity (i.e., by how many other sites out there link to your site).

If you do decide to go FFA route, make sure you use a free email account rather than your main email account. You will get a LOT of rubbish mail in response. You want to be able to delete it in one fell swoop without having to sort through legitimate mail first.

6. Identify Commonly Searched for Keywords and Create

Doorway Pages to Submit to Search Engines

What's a doorway page? Just a simple page targeting a particular keyword tailored specifically for search engine you're submitting to. How to create and submit a doorway page? You can do it manually if time is not an issue or you can use search submission software like Webposition Gold mentioned above (http://www.ahbbo.com/webpositiongold.html). Webposition Gold also gives you all information you need about what particular search engines look for in order to rank pages well.

How to find commonly searched for keywords? Use Word Tracker service. Dirt cheap but turns up excellent keywords. Click here for info: http://www.ahbbo.com/wordtracker.html .

7. Write Articles and Submit Them

Submit them where? Directly to ezine publishers looking for quality content for their publications, to article submission lists, to article databases that exist for express purpose of providing other people content for their sites and ezines.

The ezine submitter software I mentioned above can automate this process for you and save you literally HOURS of time each week. (http://www.ahbbo.com/ezineannouncer.html)

8. Remind Visitors to Recommend You

Include a short note in every issue of your ezine asking your readers to forward your ezine to their friends and family, sign up for Recommend-It service at http://www.recommendit.com and put button on your site and link in your ezine. You get idea. Word of mouth sells!

9. Monitor Your Search Engine Rankings But Don't

Obsess Over Them

Again, use software to take care of grunt work. Webposition Gold includes this function. And when I say don't obsess, realize that search engines are only one source of traffic. You will find that a LOT of traffic comes from sources other than search engines. Do things recommended here and you'll soon see that for yourself.

10. Negotiate Joint Ventures and Co-Ops

Find people to joint venture with - whether it be for ezine subscribers (you each recommend other's ezine on your "thank you for subscribing" page) or bundle your products together and each sell bundled package. There is no limit on types of joint ventures and co-operatives you can negotiate. Be creative and flexible.

11. Join Web Rings

12. Offline Promotion

Don't forget to promote your online business offline. For more on this, read "Offline Promotion Matters Too" at http://www.ahbbo.com/offline.html .

13. Host a Forum

Host a forum at your site and contribute to forum discussions. A lively forum (or bulletin board) will keep visitors coming back for more.

14. Contribute to Other Forums

Contribute to forum and newsgroup discussions run by others to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Remember, these are not platforms for blatant advertising. The most you can get away with is a short signature file.

15. Create Your Own E-book

Create your own e-book with links to your products and services or your affiliate programs and distribute it freely and encourage others to do so too. This is what's known as "viral" marketing - it spreads like wildfire.

The above activities represent a lot of work and a serious investment of time on your part. By no means are you expected to do each and every one of these things from get-go. Once you have an established online presence, though, they do represent a good range of activities that, pursued regularly, diligently and consistently, with discipline and patience, will truly grow your online business exponentially ... and your profits right along with it.

Let's say one of your absolutely favorite things in whole world is gardening. You've always loved to garden, you have ever since you first got your own place and you do it every chance you get. Think about how you might translate that natural interest into a profitable business endeavor.

Here's just one suggestion how you can turn your green thumb to your financial advantage: start a gourmet herb business! You could indulge your passion for gardening by planting a herb garden in your backyard, drying and packaging herbs you grow and marketing them to a niche market. Your niche may be gourmet market, for example. You might decide to experiment with various combinations of herbs to come up with some exotic gourmet herb blends that are truly original.

You would need to invest in a small greenhouse perhaps and learn about how to dry herbs and all other facets of a herb business. But once you've mastered that, and experimented with various blends to create a unique product, it's simply a matter of packaging them attractively for your market.

As far as marketing's concerned, this would take place both online and offline. You will, of course, have your own website from which you offer your exotic herb blends for sale. Your website would contain a profile of all various herbs, what they are good for, recipes and other resources that your site visitors would be interested in. In time, you may even expand into producing herbs for homeopathic market! You could supplement your website by publishing a weekly or monthly newsletter devoted to all things herbal, including hints and tips for your subscribers wanting to grow their own herbs or who are interested in health benefits of herbs.

Offline, you could approach local businesses in your area to stock your products and attend weekend markets to build your profile. By placing advertisements in local newspapers and taking an active role in your local Chamber of Commerce you would make contacts that you need to become known within your local community. Other ways to indulge your passion for gardening while at same time operating a profitable business venture include: growing your own vegetables to produce gourmet pasta sauces; starting a packaged seeds business or a garden design consultancy service. It doesn't matter. Just make sure it has something to do with what you are truly passionate about.

Gardening is, of course, just one example. Perhaps your passion is sewing, needlecraft, woodworking, computers, sports, parenting, travel, automobiles, leadlighting or any one of a million other things. There is absolutely no reason in world why you cannot take that passion and convert it into a money-making enterprise, particularly with internet as a marketing medium.

So, for those of you looking for right business opportunity "out there" somewhere ... STOP. Let go of coat-tails, reach inside yourself and grab one thing you are TRULY passionate about above all others. It is your ticket to a profitable, home business of your very own. And best of all, it's 100% all yours.