5. Join a link co-op. Co-ops such as one found at http://www.digitalpoint.com/ are an amazing source of valuable back links and free advertisement. What is a co op network? A Co op network is a network of site owners/webmasters that offer ad space to network. In return, ads they define are displayed across entire network. The best part of ad networks such as one found at digital point, is, they are free. Having your site in a co-op can literally mean thousands of back links for your site.

6. Buying ezine ads is a paid method of advertising, but it works, because it is most targeted of these approaches. Write a concise ad for your business, and link to either a lead-capture page or directly to your autoresponder. Then, begin contacting ezines to place your ad. (Do a search for “ezine directories,” and you will find enough lists to keep you busy.) When you contact an ezine, look for rates for both classified ads and solo ads. The advantage to a solo ad is that your ad goes out by itself in a separate email, but they can be more expensive. Because these ads are targeted (you should NOT advertise in an unrelated ezine), you will definitely see traffic, but you will need to track your results to see which ezines bring you most and best traffic.

7. Ad Swaps can be an exellent source of advertising. Start by writing some killer copy (to coin a phrase...there are many free articles and ebooks writen on subject). Simply use your favorite search engine and type in...how to write ad copy. I googled this as I am wriying this and it showed 12,400,000 results. WOW! Once you have your ad written, search out Ezines that are in same catagory as your business or service. Again use your favorite web search. Build yourself a list of ezines and then email them asking if they except ad swaps. Include your ad in your corrospondance with ezines so they can see what you are offering. Another place to check for ezines is to type in Ezine directories in your seach engine. Look up ezines in your catagory of business or service. Most listings will tell you if they except ad swaps and peramiters of ad such as how many lines and how many characters per line. Don't forget to ad your website url in your ad.

If you want to have a successful site, whether-it-be a hobby or for business, you have to understand how search engines work. Part of that understanding, is knowing about link development. Maybe in early 90’s idea of “if you build it they will come” might have been true. But in year 2005 internet is a far more competitive and complex place. To be successful today, you have to work at it. Without a quality source of back links search engines will all but ignore your site.

3. The “Direct Hit” Admittedly this is not really a search, but it is best outcome of all. The searcher types your address into browser and navigates directly to your site without side trips or distractions. The “”partial search” becomes a “direct hit” if you choose right name for your site and advertise it effectively. The golden rules are memorable, short and unambiguous in terms of meaning and spelling. Obviously memorable is big issue here and quality of your advertising will help with this issue.

The major plus with “pure search” is that it is a minimal outlay option - in fact, it can be done for free, but it takes a good while for search friendliest site to work its way up rankings. For a shorter-term return on investment (ROI) for client, fact needs to be faced that you will need an advertising budget of some sort. On line we speak of “push and pull”, pushing browsers to site with advertising and pulling them in by means of your good design. Options include banners, handouts of all sorts (pens, mugs and like), newspaper advertising, e-mail campaigns and like.

Do not overlook low cost but effective approach of every single scrap of paper that passes through your company’s hands carrying your e-mail and web address, and use of e-mail as much as possible on any pretext so your website can be advertised on every mailing and subsequent reply. It all gets you seen and helps you to ultimate goal of direct hit.

The Final Word.

In terms of short-term return on investment (ROI), a website requires an advertising budget of some sort. The money can be spent on improving your performance artificially on one specific search engine or on advertising your site by what may be described as “traditional” means.

Given time, a well-designed website will improve in terms of visibility. Regardless of promises to contrary, there are no dependable ways of improving your organic positioning assuming your site is reasonably well designed – HTML, non-dynamic and with appropriate meta-tags.

You can throw as much money at this issue as you wish – it will make no significant difference. In hands of a poor-quality or unscrupulous webmaster it may even do harm.