At same time that number of Internet users is growing, number of Internet pages top 1 billion and list is growing rapidly every day. So chances of your site being found is like finding a needle in a very big virtual haystack, unless you actively market your site via Internet and traditional avenues.

In this column, we will address following question: "How do I drive traffic to my site? We will also take this question to its logical conclusion by answering following question: "Once I have traffic flowing to my site, how do I get them to return?"

Keep in mind that these questions are better asked prior to development of your site than after it is finished. It is far less painful to incorporate these features during development, than after site is completed. Doing this will save a lot of site redesign, not to mention ulcers.

When addressing question of driving traffic to your site it is important to look at who your target market is and identify top avenues for driving those individuals to your site.

The first step in this process is identifying different Internet channels available for driving traffic to your site. Some possible mediums are:

·Links with other related sites ·Web rings ·Affiliate programs ·Search engine optimization ·Internet Press Releases ·Listserves ·Newsgroups ·Opt-in e-mail lists ·Banner ads & site sponsorships ·Viral marketing (e.g. e-mail to a friend)

It will be important to research these channels in order to find right mix for reaching individuals you want to target.

But truth is a little different. As you know internet changes every day and so promotional methods and tactics as well. The promotional techniques that worked a few years ago are more or less useless today.

For example let us see a FFA pages. Submitting to FFA pages was something you had to do to promote your site. Today, submitting to FFA pages is waste of time. The Big guys know that and use them in other purpose. They don't submit their ads to FFA pages and classified ad sites, but they own those sites. They use a simple and very effective technique.

Every time when someone submit an ad to that sites, they send him/her a conformation with their promotional message included. At same time they get their links on thousands of other pages which brings them a better link popularity with search engines.

Submitting to search engines and directories is something you must do to promote your site. It's very hard to reach ranking in top 20 listings on search engine or directory because they change their programs for indexing pages very often. So you must learn a lot about meta tags and their optimizing for better ranking on search engines.

On other hand some search engines more then meta tags prefer a link popularity of your site - how many other sites have link to your site. My advice to you:

- provide a good content site and - do you meta tags properly.

Don't spend too much of your time in optimizing pages for search engines because there are still so many other ways to bring traffic to your site. But if you really want a high ranking though, you will need some work to do and some money to invest in a program that will help you to get top rating.

Visit this site:www.webposition.com .

Before continue, let us say a few words about domain names. Why you need your own domain name when you can get so many free pages as you want? Free pages are good for a personal or home page, but for building business on web you need domain. Not having a domain is biggest mistake you can make in creating business related web site. Domain is not just a name, it's much more: - it's cheapest way to start your own business, - business people take you more serious - you are recognized on web - you avoid disturbing banners from free web hosting companies. For $35 or less per year is most effective way to become your own boss. If you want to run successful online business, buying a domain is your first and most important investment.