Start with basis of good search engine and directory listings. Make sure you read and follow each search engine and directory's rules for submissions. Before making submissions, always verify that all your website links and pages work, with no pages "under construction".

Search Engines and Directories

Begin with Open Directory Project (ODP http://www.dmoz.org). ODP is free and provides secondary search results to many other search engines. (Secondary search results are search results that come up after primary search results of a search engine are shown.) Google uses ODP directory results in their search engine results.

It is preferable to secure a listing in ODP before submitting your website to Yahoo!, but it often takes time to become listed in ODP and may not be possible. If you can afford a yearly $299.00 subscription to submit to Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com), do so. If you are a non- commercial website, you may be able to submit your website for free. You will find rules about free submissions when you click on "suggest a site" link at bottom of your chosen category page.

Google is top search engine and one you want to be listed in. Google provides secondary search results to other search engines and directories.

If you do B2B (business-to-business) with other companies, Business.com (http://www.business.com) is a reasonable $99.00 subscription per year and gives you opportunity to list not only your home page, but four other pages from your website. The Business.com search results are used by many other business sites for search results.

Inktomi is a good choice for a reasonably priced link (yearly fee of $39.00 for first page, $25.00 per page 2-1000 for additional pages) and will get you into secondary search results for MSN search engine. Position Technologies has a good submission program available for Inktomi (http://www.positiontech.com/).

Zeal.com (http://www.zeal.com) listings are part of LookSmart directory, which provides primary search listings for MSN. You must sign-up to become a Zeal editor and pass a test before being able to add your non-commercial submissions to Zeal. Articles and tutorials are good choices to use when submitting non-commercial information from your website to Zeal.com.

Many of major search engines still include a free submission section for their listings. Paid Inclusion and PPC (pay-per-click) are always faster choices, but if your budget is limited you may want to consider submitting and waiting 6-8 weeks (or more) it often takes to see your listings show up.

Major search engines providing free submissions include: Google (http://www.google.com), AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com), and AlltheWeb (http://www.alltheweb.com).

Secondary search engines you can submit to for free include Gigablast (http://www.gigablast.com) and ScrubtheWeb (http://www.scrubtheweb.com). One smaller directory is JoeAnt (http://www.joeant.com).

Link Popularity Methods

Naturally, this is ALL it is: hype. There's no single 'secret' that will magically transform a fledgling business into a powerful money-maker. Instead, every business owner is responsible for testing and refining various techniques until he or she has developed a solid, effective base that produces desired results.

What works for one business may not work for another! Likewise, another business may have poor results with one method, while others experience great success. Here's a quick checklist of some of more popular -- and completely free -- marketing techniques to help you build your online business (note: this is a 3-part series).

PART 1: FREE ONLINE MARKETING TECHNIQUES

1. Build and use your own opt-in list of targeted and interested prospects. Offer a free newsletter that provides fresh, interesting, and relevant content. You'll receive feedback from your readers about what's important to them, and over time they'll come to know and trust you. Your products, services, and even recommendations will then be taken much more seriously because you've developed credibility with your readers.

2. Contribute to newsgroups or discussion boards. Establish yourself as a helpful member of a community. Other members of community who come to know and respect you will often refer you to others.

3. Niche directories or search engines. Find all highly-targeted directories and SEs for your market, and then work to get listed. You'll be surprised at how many niche sites there are! Good places to start looking are http://yahoo.com/ and http://www.dmoz.com/ .

4. Build your link popularity. For example, you can trade links with other businesses in your market so that you can 'share' each other's traffic. Most of major search engines take link popularity into consideration when ranking your site.

5. Endorsed mailings to other lists. Find editor of a great newsletter, and offer your product or service to him for free in return for a review or an endorsed ad to his list. Endorsements from editor can far outperform regular 'ads', since they come from someone they know and trust (the editor).

6. Testimonials. It's fine for you to say that your product or service is wonderful... but there's far more 'punch' when someone else says it! Testimonials show prospects that you have happy customers and helps them to make decision to buy.

7. Use autoresponders to follow-up with your prospects. It has been proven time and time again that autoresponders can dramatically increase your profits! They're also great time-savers, saving you from following up with each prospect manually.