Is it a great business plan? Is it dynamite web copy that sells? Is it super products and services for your niche market? Or is it ...?

And million dollar answer is ...

Drum roll please. Promotion! Your business can not survive without promotion.

But, not just a little promoting here and there. I mean consistent promotion. You should spend at least 80% of your work time promoting your business.

I'm sure you are asking yourself what I mean by promoting your business. Advertising and marketing your product or service. Branding your business name. These are forms of promotion.

Now I'm sure you are asking yourself why you should spend 80% of your time promoting. Well, how do you expect customers to find your product or service if you don't promote?

Just because you have a great product or service and killer web copy doesn't mean customers are going to come running to your website to buy.

Oh! And did you realize that a customer sometimes has to see your promotion up to seven times before they buy? That's why it is important that you get your message out over and over again.

Remember this:

More Promoting = More Customers

More Customers = More Sales

More Sales = More Profit

Finding enough time to effectively promote a business can be difficult, especially for online business owners who have to balance business management with promoting.

Business management usually includes such tasks as:

*Replying to customer emails

*Answering telephone calls

*Publishing ezines/newsletters

*Reading emails, ezines, articles, and web copy

*Website maintenance

*Finding fresh content, new promotion methods, and new places to promote

*etc...

A couple of months ago, I met with a client who launched their Web site in 1999. They were discouraged because their site was generating poor traffic. When I asked them if they had added their URL to their stationery and marketing materials, answer was no. To me, this should be a no-brainer, but it's not.

Don't forget to add your URL to following business and promotional pieces:

- Answering machine/voice mail greeting - Office stationery (i.e., letterhead, envelopes, note cards, business cards, invoices, receipts, reorder forms, etc.) - Company marketing materials (i.e., brochures, leaflets, flyers, post cards, etc.) - Fax sheets - Phone book listings - Sales letters - Storefront - Web decals - Uniforms and hats - Christmas cards - E-mail signature file - Promotional items (e.g., mouse pads, coffee mugs, t-shirts, pens and pencils, etc.)

STRATEGIC LINK CAMPAIGN

In my experience, second most important online marketing strategy (after search engine submissions) is establishing link exchanges. A number of key search engines--Google being one of them--rank sites according to number of high-quality links pointing to it. For this reason, links are becoming increasingly important.

Establishing reciprocal link partnerships with other Web site owners is time-consuming but worth it. There are tools to automate process of finding and requesting links, but I strongly advise against using them, because links pages often look generic, unprofessional and identical to all others generated by same software--so much for originality! Plus, I've read that some search engines ignore automatically-generated links pages.

So, how do you find Web sites to swap links with? One technique is to visit your favorite search engine and type "add URL" plus your keyword phrase in search box. Go ahead--try it! Before you know it, you'll have thousands of linking prospects. Be picky with whom you choose to link, though. Remember--one high quality link weighs more heavily than dozens of poor quality ones.

In my opinion, a good links page will add value to your Web site. It also provides content. There are some people who will argue that providing links to other sites is directing your hard-earned traffic elsewhere. Although this is true, do you really think people are never going to leave? Of course they will. And if they leave your site to visit another site that you recommend, that is certain to leave a positive impression on them. I truly believe a good links page will bring traffic back to your site.

If your goal is to rank well in search engines, I recommend that you put establishing linking partnerships high on your marketing to do list.

For more information, visit:

Links4Trade http://www.links4trade.com/

LinkMe http://www.linkme.com/

LinksManager.com http://www.linksmanager.com/

CLASSIFIED ADS

Although you can advertise in some media for free, my experience is that it's best to target your ads to audience you hope to attract. If you're selling horse shoes, for example, promoting your wares to people who do not own horses is not a good use of your time or money.

Online Classifieds--In early days of Internet, classified sites were very popular. I don't know how popular they are today, but they still exist. Although you might not sell a lot on classified sites, it doesn't hurt to use them--especially if they're free.

I've used Yahoo! Classifieds in past and was impressed with their services. When you post an ad there, it will be posted for 21 days, at which time Yahoo! will send you an e-mail asking whether you want to renew or delete your ad. Yahoo! also offers an online payment option called Yahoo! PayDirect, which allows you to send or receive money online.

For more information, visit:

Classifieds For Free http://www.classifiedsforfree.com/

Yahoo! Classifieds http://classifieds.yahoo.com/

E-Zines Ads--E-zines are another excellent media for advertising your products and/or services. Advertising in E-zines is relatively inexpensive. The hard part is locating publications to advertise in. Some E-zines have huge, targeted readerships, and obviously, those are ones you want to be in.

For more information, visit:

The Ezine Ad Auction http://www.ezineadauction.com/

In addition to fee-based E-zine ads, there are others that will publish your ad for free. For more information, download free e-book:

The Ebook of Free Ezine Ads http://www.freezinesite.com/ezdir/freeads.html

Newspaper Ads--Buying ad space in newspapers is more expensive than e-zine ads, but on plus side, some newspapers also post classifieds on their Web site, so you get two for price of one. If your business is located in a neighborhood that publishes a weekly newspaper, you may find their ad space very affordable--it's also a highly targeted audience.

BANNER ADVERTISING

The click-through rate on banner ads is low, so you will need to weigh pros and cons before going this route. On plus side, Web sites that rely on advertisers to stay alive are begging for people to buy ad space. You can probably get it for a bargain--as compared to a couple of year's ago.