One of the certainties about having your own Internet business is that if no one knows that your site is there, you can be sure that no matter how good your site is, no one will be able to find it.
So it is very important to think about how you might promote your new online business and drive traffic to your site.
I want to start this piece with a word of caution, that is to explain that you may come across a number of offers or programs that promise to send you millions of hits per month in return for a small payment.
Whilst these programs might send some traffic your way, it will undoubtedly be unqualified traffic that will not be likely to be interested in your service.
The best type of traffic to your site is the type of users who are interested in what you have to say or are selling.
So there are a few ways to go about this, it largely depends on your budget and expectations.
Since over 90% of Internet users polled claim to use a search engine to find sites of interest, it would make sense to start there.
Search engines offer you two solutions for you to be seen by your potential customers, one is the organic search engine and the other is the paid for listings, a la pay per click.
The organic searches are the results provided to you after you perform a keyword search, as long as your sight is indexed by a search engine you have a chance to rank for certain keywords.
Of course, depending on how competitive your main keywords are depends largely on where you will be found in the search engine.
You should take the time to understand how to optimise your web site for both on page and off page functions, we recommend that you have a look at the Google guidelines for webmasters.
Surprisingly, many web site owners have never read this very good document on how to rank well for Google.
A well optimised site has a much greater chance of ranking high in the search engines.
Many of you will know from your own web surfing experiences and habits that it is rare for someone to go beyond the top three results offered by a search engine, not less pages two, three and beyond.
This means that if your site is not ranked well, you may be missing out on crucial targeted traffic, so you may want to consider a pay per click program which are offered by the main search engine vendors.
Pay per click is exactly what is says, you bid an amount per click to have your site highlighted to the right of keyword searches.
This is a great way to highlight your site and drive immediate qualified traffic, the great thing is that you only pay when a user clicks through to your site.
So make sure that your site has quality content and a way for you to encourage your users to submit their details.
Once you have a collection of your users data, it is much easier and cheaper to market to them directly.