However, it's not just important to have a website. It is vital to be sure that your website investment pays off by being found by your customers.

If you are going to put up a website, only do so if because you feel you can drive traffic to your site. A site without traffic is pointless.

Traffic is the lifeblood of every business (e-commerce, e-business, e-zines, e-marketing, e-mails, e-solutions, etc). On the Net, it's all about information, information, information. People then go on the Internet to do search so that they can find the information they are looking for. This information, called content, is the backbone of every website. However, it is not enough to create content based website. There is much more to that. And that is traffic.

In marketing, e-commerce inclusive (the act of buying and selling online), it's all about traffic, traffic, traffic. If your ultimate goal is to increase sales, then you must increase traffic to your site so that more people will have the opportunity to learn more about your business and can make orders from any geographical location.

I'll show you how to generate a lifetime of unlimited traffic to your web pages using eight simple, proven systems. I call it, "the eight power traffic system". There are as follows:

1. Use your website address and e-mail in all your advertising.

   Tell everyone you meet about your site. Have the URL printed on your T-Shirt, bags and portfolio. I encourage you to affix your personalized e-mail and website address on your business cards, stationery, letterhead, fax sheets, fliers, brochures, direct mail, classified ads, magazine space ads, newspaper ads, radio / TV adverts, banners, posters, e-mail signature, SMS signature and whenever you sign your name. This would increase your home page hits.

2. Submit your website URL everywhere.

   Submit your website to as many search engines and directories as possible. In net marketing traffic matters a lot, and you must start where they start from, at the search engines. When people search for information (keywords) related to your products or services, they find you (your website), they click your ads and order your products or services. Registering or submitting your site to search engines will increase your traffic and literally shots sales above the roof. Search engines provide a listing of every web page by subject and keywords. When your potential customers do a search of keywords related to your site's products or services, your website would be listed along with other keyword-related web sites. From search engines' results people can actually find you and your customers' loyalty and trust will increase. This method turns a trickle of web page visits into a torrent. You can register or submit inexpensively on all the major search engines, including the magnificent 7, using search engine submission software. I recommend exploit, for a start.

3. Join and post messages with newsgroups, chat rooms, message boards.

   There are thousands of newsgroups and discussion forums. I encourage you to use your signature file and start posting to newsgroups, e-mail discussion groups, message board, chat rooms, communities and game rooms, etc. DO NOT SPAM these places and people post intelligent questions, intelligent answers, or intelligent information that is relevant to the group. Never just post any commercial ad, unless you are sure that is acceptable with that particular group. You'll get the hang of it in time. Always read messages left by other daring and savvy web site marketers and see how they are gathering their leads and attracting people to their web pages.

4. Rent e-mail lists, place ads in e-zines.

   There are thousands of e-mail mailing lists that you can utilize to invite people to visit your site. Email mailing lists are used for posting e-mail messages to the right lists. Placing ads in e-zines is another technique for promoting a site. E-zines are becoming very popular these days. Placing ads is very cheap and extremely effective. You can find thousands of e-zines owners that would blast your ads in their e-zines for a token.

5. Take advantages of free advertising.

   You are one single classified ad away from pulling unlimited traffic to your site for lifetime. There are hundreds of web sites on the Net where you can post a free classified advertisement. Free advertising can generate hundreds of home page hits daily and tenths of leads weekly. Take the advantage of placing free ads all over the Internet. It could make the difference in besting your web site income. 6. Use free links, link swaps, banner exchanges, cross promotions. Many search engines and directories will give you priority placement based on the number of other sites to which you are linked. Exchange banners and links with other sites, especially sites that are similar in content to yours are good places to start with. But irrelevant sites work also. I encourage you to develop a daily link acquisition strategy and stick to it. One of the most effective and free techniques that online marketers are using today is a daily link gathering strategy. This can have a compounding effect on the traffic coming to your site. Another most effective marketing method on the Internet today is cross promotion, which allows sites owners to endorse each other's sites.

6. Make us of targeted paid advertising online.

   There are thousands of web sites that offer paid advertising opportunities. The power of targeted paid advertising on the Internet could be rewarding. The key to effective paid advertising campaigns is to target your advertising. Placing your paid classified ads on these sites would expose your business to the very people who are looking for you. Imagine the kind of exposure you could have from paid advertising endorsement by trusted sites on the Internet. Your customers’ loyalty and trust will increase if you are found on these sites. The effect of this advertising is repeat visits by your customers.

7. Use powerful offline marketing techniques to drive customers online.

   You won't believe the result you can get from a hot direct offline marketing campaign designed to boost the traffic on your site. Direct offline marketing and advertising can be a great way to expose to your site potential customers who may not normally find you through online services. Some marketers most successful months online have been the result of combining online adverting with aggressive offline advertising such as placing ads in the commercial street corners, the office space, billboards, television and radio spots, the restaurants, the retail stores, the bookshops, newspaper ads, magazine space and word of mouth.

8. Word of mouth.

   Experts in marketing believe that word of mouth referral is the best free marketing tool any business can profit from. Tell everyone you meet about your website and business. Encourage your friends to invite their friends to your site. This would have a compounding effect on the traffic coming to your site daily. In online business you must make a web site, make an impact by building trust with prospects, growing your client base, strengthening customers loyalty, getting the jump on competitors, developing and stay "Top of mind", extend your reach and add new multiple streams of income through "traffic diversify".

As the Internet world continues to grow, many changes are occurring in the field of Internet marketing. After explosive growth in the last decade, pay-per-click advertising is becoming an obsolete method due to the high fraud rates. By October of 2006, 27% of advertisers had slowed or stopped their pay-per-click advertising. (Outsell Inc. 2006) More and more consumers report how much they dislike pop-up advertising. Arbitron/Edison Media reported in October of 2006 that roughly 71% of computers use pop-up ad blockers.

The new "fad" in successful internet advertising is in using email and blogs. These can both be used effectively at a fraction of the cost of traditional Internet advertising mediums. The Internet has in so many ways leveled the playing field for small businesses to market themselves into the realm of big business. But there are even better ways to gain visibility on a small budget.

The term "viral marketing" comes to mind here, with a twist. The best way to get involved with other businesses and consumers is to market to them directly. However, since door to door solicitation is as unwelcome as cold calls and spam, there are ways to get in front of your customers. One of the oldest tricks in the book is to become involved in your community. This allows your prospective customers an opportunity to get to know you. Many times, if people trust you already, they will more likely come to you when they need the product or service you sell over someone else whom they don't know.

In addition, when you really know your customers and what they need, you can then offer them personalized products and services. This is how you develop your niche. Tailor made services to your customers will earn more business through word of mouth referrals than thousands of hits on your website. Even if your business markets over the Internet on a national or even global front, remember your roots and get involved locally. These actions will not replace your online marketing, but simply enhance it.

By following this approach, you will establish name recognition and credibility for your business. Basically, you will promote your business locally through joining the Chamber of Commerce, other local business networking groups as well as several service organizations as a volunteer. Volunteering in local non-profit service organizations such as Kiwanis, Rotary or serving on the local Church or Hospital board will do several important things for you.

One, it makes you visible. If people see you out in the community and then they receive your advertisement via a regular email newsletter or your listing in the phone book, they will have that personal connection that you seek.

Second, because you are in this group and that group and you participated in this activity that was covered by the newspaper, people will begin to become familiar with your name. Your name will appear in the newspaper and the newsletters that normally are put out by these groups.

Your business will have opportunities to sponsor local charity events which again, will be covered by the newspapers and get you even more name recognition. The organizations that you will become affiliated with will have websites that you can reciprocate links with. And, remember those newspaper stories? Those along with the pictures that were taken make great content for your website, promoting your local connections and activities. All of this helps build your credibility on a professional level.

This works for just about any business out there. Businesses such as massage therapists, pet groomers, bakeries, retail businesses, day care providers, bookkeepers, online, marketing or auction product businesses all can benefit from becoming active in their community. Not only do you feel great and help others, your customers get to know you as the face behind your business. In a big way, selling yourself is just as important as selling the products themselves. People like a connection when doing business.

Sell yourself as trustworthy and committed to the community in which you live and you will establish a foundation of credibility. Not only will you gain loyal customers, those same customers will promote your business exponentially. The cost? Just a little time and a smile!