"If you build it, they will come."

Hogwash. This only works in the movies. No matter how beautiful the build, your web-based business will fail if you don't generate enough traffic to your site or sites. How can you get it? By learning how to promote online.

1. Start with SEO - search engine optimization. This is the core of any good website promotion plan. SEO involves using keywords and the words they are associated with (look up LSI for information on this), as well as inbound links, to create relevance and importance with spider-based search engines. Something like 75% of all traffic to websites comes from a person searching on Google and clicking a link. You do not want to miss out on that traffic.

2. Create relationships at social networking sites. A huge part of your promotion will be involved in getting inbound links, which build your reputation with search engines. Many people use public social networks like Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, or community forums to get those links. The trick is including your inbound link with appropriate anchor text on every post you make. However, never post just to get that link out there; every person reading your comment is a potential customer, and your job is to make them like you. How do you feel when someone barges into a conversation and tries to sell you a vacuum cleaner? Same thing.

3. Write articles and give them away. Seriously. A good article given away for free stands a fair chance of being reproduced on multiple websites. The trick: your articles should each end with a resource box containing a little about you, and good anchor text with a link back to your site. More free links, more potential customers.

Write ebooks and reports and give them away. It's all about information. The power of giving away ebooks builds instant credibility and in each book you can add our website address. If they like the ebook, they will come to your website. It becomes viral, because if they like it, they will pass it on. More ebooks given = more visitors to your website.

5. Get other sites to link to you. Through article marketing, you will get a ton of inbound links. You can also offer other free stuff, ebooks, reports, online tools, free software downloads and more. You may ask to submit on your niche to a another's blog or you can simply comment with backlinks. All of this turns into traffic.

6. Giveaway free services, recipes, calorie counters, charts and exercise kits and reports. Free content and tips are always appreciated and used. If they can post it on their site, so much the better. Ask yourself, what can you offer for free in your niche?

7. Create an affiliate program. Affiliates are like your salesman and cheerleaders. They get a percentage of each sale they make, each referral gives them a little. You, in turn, make more sales and they will do promotion for you.

8. Run contests with real prizes. There are dozens of contest clearinghouse sites, and if you let them know you have a contest, they'll link back to you. Think carefully before running a contest; your prize offering should be targeted to bring in the type of traffic who will stay to buy, not who are just coming out to make a few bucks.

While there are plenty of ways to get traffic flowing for our site, these are just a few to get you started. While Field of Dreams was content to just build it, you need to take the saying a bit further: "If you build it AND promote it correctly, the will definitely come. And come. And come."