It is difficult to provide precise numbers because there are so many different variables that can come into play. What we tried to do was keep variables as consistent as possible from one medium to next. The ads in business magazines were most expensive but they provided greatest audience reach (next to SEO) and because size of ad was larger than newspaper and yellow pages ad. Radio came in as next most expensive. We asked to run a 30-second commercial that would be aired 60-times in a month (the recommended number of airings was 100). Newspapers came in third only because frequency option we selected was one ad appearing once per-week (Saturday issue) and because size of ad was fairly small. The yellow pages came in around same cost as SEO, but what good is a yellow pages ad to an online business? SEO on other hand, had one of lowest costs, provided greatest audience coverage, and with a 24x7 frequency.

Which of these forms are you currently using? How effective have they been? Do your own research and see what you come up with. Because of variables, your numbers will be different than ours, but when you break them down to measure overall costs (CPA, ROI)... majority of you will see that hands down, SEO is best option.

It doesn't matter what form of advertising you are using... for online success, SEO really is most cost effective and efficient way to promote your business. That's why SEO is gaining in popularity with everyone from small one-person operations to large, multi-national Fortune 500 companies.

SEO lets you target your message to right people at exactly right time... when they are looking to buy... at a fraction of cost of other advertising media and a better ROI.

5. Make sure search engines can spider your blog easily

Set up your blog so that side navigation bar is present on all pages.

Make sure your archives and previous posts are accessible from all pages of your blog so they get spidered easily.

6. Get backlinks from other blogs or websites

Links pointing to your blog or posts are essential to build pagerank and make your blog rank higher in search engine listings.

I've seen many people recommend Blogrolling as one method of building links to your blog.

BlogRolling is a one-stop linklist manager for your blog or journal. http://www.blogrolling.com

But all this service actually does is give you a bit of javascript code that "calls" links.

As far as search engine rankings go, this method of linking is of little use, because spiders can't read external javascript code.

Instead I recommend that you focus your linking efforts on methods here.

* Submitting to Blog Search Engines and Directories:

Submitting your blog and RSS feed to blog search engines and directories is essential for getting high-quality links back to your blog. Here is best list I've found of places to submit your feed or blog.

Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/

* Link Exchanges:

Many similarly-themed blogs are often willing to exchange links with other blogs and form richly interlinked networks or communities. Link exchanges with other blogs are easy to implement with most blogging software.

* Trackbacks:

You can also get links back to your blog using trackbacks. One of disadvantages of using Blogger is that it does not automatically create trackback urls that others can use to link back to your posts.

Haloscan is a free service that will automatically add comments and trackbacks to your Blogger blog. http://www.haloscan.com

But if trackbacks are an important component of your linking strategy, I would advise using another software or system that adds this feature automatically.

* Comments:

You can also get back links to your blog by posting legitimate comments in response to posts on other blogs.

7. Update frequently

There's no better food for search engine spiders than fresh content.

Post and update your blog frequently using all rules outlined above and there's no reason why your blog will not get you top rankings in a short period of time.

8. Stay put

Once you create your blog, try to stick to same domain and blog host or system for as long as you continue to publish.

You could end up losing a lot of your traffic, your readers and all your search engine listings if you decide to move.

For more ways of building traffic to your blog, read article "How To Build Traffic To Your Blog." http://www.blog-maniac.com/build-blog-traffic.htm