Cross-promote using online Auctions, especially eBay!

If you have discovered online auctions and sell your wares there, by all means cross-promote! If you buy but don't sell yet - start selling! Not only will it help jumpstart your new business but it will support your buying habit! haha... Now, eBay has strict rules on this so you can't be too obvious by displaying your web address on your auction pages but I do have a few tricks that ARE EBAY LEGAL. Email me and I'll explain about that. In meantime, everyone who wins an auction from you... send them a thank you email and tell them about your website! Don't bore them or solicit them with a long ad, just mention that they may find other items of interest on your website and give them URL. A better way to do this is with a signature file (details below)

Create a Signature File in ALL your Emails!

In your email program there is more than likely a place for you to create what they call a signature file. This is a permanent signature that you can customize with your short ad or at least title of your website with a link to it. Be sure to not only include hyperlinked title of your site but actual web address below that and a short desciption of your site (just in case people don't realize it's a link... there are always newbies out there so be understanding). You'll be amazed at how many people will be curious and go check out your site! This is how I get a lot of new customers so be sure to do this!

Join groups and post on message boards!

This is also time consuming but worth it! The groups don't necessarily have to be about your business topic and it's probably better if they aren't. It can be another interest group or hobby, etc... IMPORTANT: Talk to people, don't just post an ad! BAD! BAD! BAD! You'll get kicked out of group for sure! Try to join groups who have a lot of members that post frequently so you'll get most exposure for your time. Now, like I said, you don't have to post ads to these groups at all... Just use a signature file as previously described above! People will be interested and visit. Many groups also allow you to post a banner so a good banner could get their attention too! I get tons of exposure this way! Ebay groups have been especially helpful for me.

Write articles and press releases!

This is a great way to advertise! Hey, you're reading this so obviously it works! Hey, don't get mad at me, I'm trying to make a living here too! haha... There are lots of places for you to do this on web. Some of my personal favorites are Alumbo.com and Searchwarp.com but there are many others and you should search for them according to topic you're writing on for more options.You can put out a press release on your new website or business, write an article on something you're good at, an opinion piece, whatever! Put your thinking cap on and be creative! You have something to say, you just don't know it yet! A word on writing... if you're just not good at writing or don't want to do it yourself, get someone you know who IS and have a ghostwriter (No, I don't have a ghost writer... wish I did sometimes though! They might be better than me!). If you write your own, please use your spell checker to make sure you are at least spelling words right. It doesn't look professional if you misspell words. (Gee, hope I don't misspell anything in this article... haha... let me know if I do. I'm a perfectionist and a grammer freak!)

Okay, you knew it was coming sometime... get ready for pitch!

Okay, yes, I have somewhat of a sales pitch here but it IS an HONEST to goodness valuable marketing tip and it's FREE... I get tons of traffic from hosting contests and sweepstakes and have started my own sweepstakes site. I'm always looking for good websites to join my group of sponsors. If you have a website you're proud of and you sell a product or service (or want to) just pop on over to my sweepstakes site and enter to win a free 1 month sponsorship. You get so many perks and new customers, increased sales, I can't even begin to describe them all here. If your site isn't quite ready yet and you need help I am willing to critique and offer suggestions so make sure to check out my website for details. If you don't have a website yet, you can still enter many sweepstakes run by my sponsors who give away great merchandise every month. You can win 1 or more each month!

Go to: http://www.a-slip-of-a-girl.com/sweepstakes.html or email me for more information on this at: hostasweep@hotmail.com PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR URL SO I CAN ENTER YOU IN THE CONTEST, TYPE A LITTLE NOTE SO I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT! I GET A LOT OF EMAIL AND USE JUNK MAIL FILTERS SO I DON'T WANT TO THINK YOURS IS JUNK MAIL! ALSO BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR MOST USED CONTACT EMAIL SO YOU'LL GET A REPLY FROM ME. There is so much more I could say here but this should be enough to spark your creativity, get you going, and make you realize that YOU CAN DO IT! YOU CAN START AN ONLINE BUSINESS WITH A $0 BUDGET! Hey, If I can do it anyone can! Good Luck! Please email me with your comments or if you'd like more information on anything. I am always willing to share my knowledge and resources. All best to you for your online success! Mindy Riddell

The most important aspect is to make your banner highly targeted and not general. Moreover, make sure exchange program will target your banner topic to sites that attract visitors within your target market. Otherwise your efforts will not prove fruitful. You may have traffic but not from people interested in what you offer. Banners GoMLM is one of more popular exchanges. I personally use http://www.superbannertraffic.com and have had modest success.

(3) Reciprocal Linking - Trading links with other web masters can generate traffic from both individual site and through better search engine ranking. The later takes time and cannot be rushed. The SE has to crawl a site in order to locate reciprocal link before index is updated.

Above all else, you must be diligent, patient, and track what methods work. You must put in time and care to learn about and tailor them to your particular purpose. If you prefer to dish out bucks for traffic there are numerous fee-based systems. Pay-per-click is most popular and can deliver highly targeted visits to your site. Although, whether you benefit or not from visit, your money is already spent.