Unlike most of methods for promoting your business, which came from offline world, this method is different. It's unique, and it is changing and growing at a rapid pace. By at least informing yourself of basics, you can make this a more effective method for driving traffic to your site.

Below are seven tips you can implement to get started:

1. Understand Relationships of Various Search Engines. Before you can know where to submit, you need to understand how all of various search engines are related so that you don't duplicate your work, or worse, get banned from submission.

Now, mind you, I am no search engine expert. However, I have been watching closely what is happening, and here is what I have seen so far:

Recently, Yahoo, a directory, acquired All Web, Altavista, Inktomi and Overture. Yahoo is no longer going to be using search results from Google as its backend.

Although it remains to be seen what role All The Web and Altavista will play, Inktomi will only provide limited offerings in Yahoo because Yahoo announced that Inktomi's paid inclusions would not be included in its results.

Overture, number one pay per click search engine, provides paid results to 80 per cent of major search engines and will continue to do so. It will also be providing backend results to Yahoo. Overture provides results to major sites like HotBot and MSN.

Yahoo is adding its own search engine and will continue to offer its paid directory at $299 a year.

Currently, MSN and Yahoo, number two and number one sites respectively on Alexa, are battling for supremacy. Bill Gates is also working on a new model for his search engine, but it remains to be seen what that will be.

Eventhough Google will no longer be providing backend results to Yahoo, Google is still a major player. It is also number one search engine in world. Google gets some of its results from Open Directory Project, a volunteer effort to create a directory of best sites on Internet.

Looksmart is still out there, but it appears to have changed its model to a pay per click. You can get started for free, but you'll have to pay for each click. (NOTE: I found this site hard to navigate to answer most simple questions. Maybe that's why it's least relevant of options available.)

Finally, you have Alexa, which is in a class all its own. You definitely want to get your site submitted here because it's a great way to find out who is linking to you, where you rank, and other statistics about your site. Back end results for Alexa are provided by Google.

The easiest way to track your site using Alexa, is to download a copy of toolbar. You can get it here: http://www.smallbusinesshowto.com/htmlfiles/alexa.html

2. Prepare Your Site for Submission. Now that you know where to submit your site, you want to prepare your site so that it gets accepted.

The best tool to help you is Good Keywords: http://www.goodkeywords.com This free utility will let you search for best keywords to use on your site.

Key words, however, are only part of equation.

You will also want to create a good title and description. Take your time when you create these. You want each to be key word rich, and right length.

Marketing strategies abound on internet. We all know that bad advice is floating all around net.

Your marketing department must work seriously, if you have intentions of making a decent e-income. How do you decipher junk from gems? I am not going to present a marketing plan to you. I am going to show you what, why and how every marketer should use a checklist, for effective marketing with every business plan.

First and foremost, there must be a real need for what you are trying to sell. If enough research has "not" been done, you will have very low chances of success.

O.K., let's assume that you already have a good product or service. The sales and marketing team is supposed to promote it after finding out "who" needs this product or service. If product or service has a target market, these people should be ready to promote for profit! Regardless of motive for starting a home business, product must be sold and always at a profit.

Here are a few things that you need to look for when you are wondering if your marketing plan will be effective:)

1. You will need a market summary to determine if there is a need for your offer.

2. You must clearly be able to explain your product or service definition.