First is the process of getting your Internet address and information into the major search engines. When we perform this function, each search engine is submitted to individually, taking advantage of the different requirements of the different search engines. This requires more time than using a general "catch-all" submission tool like Submit-it, but we believe that the results are worth the effort.

Second is the process of submitting electronic press releases to the various electronic publications and Internet-focused web sites. If the press release is accepted, it will be displayed to the readership and/or e- mailed to the subscribers. Also, we provide guidance on how to announce your new site using off-line methods. This includes print, TV, radio, direct mail, marketing collateral, industry associations, and business stationary.

Third is identifying the newsgroups that you will want to monitor and submit information about your site based upon the netiquette used by each group. This is important because newsgroups are read by millions each and every day. Your research may discover one or more newsgroups that you should monitor and participate in. Done correctly, comments and answers from you or your representatives can generate a tremendous number of visitors to your web site because you establish industry creditability to the newsgroup readers. See http://www.dejanews.com for listings

The fourth piece involves identifying compatible sites that might be good candidates for reciprocity, whereby you supply a link to their site and they supply a link to your site. You may also want to participate in a banner link sharing program like those offered at http://www.linkexchange.com

A note here about advertising on the web: The four items mentioned above can be called "free above the fee". That is, the receiving web site, be it a search engine, web site that publishes information about new sites, electronic magazines (e-zines), newspapers, etc. does not require payment to receive information about your site. They may or may not do anything with it, but it is free. You may pay a fee for someone experienced like us to submit this information. That’s why it’s called "free above the fee". On the other hand, there are many places on the web that charge for advertising. An example of this would be the Yahoo search engine’s banner ads. Advertising rates vary for the different web sites using the advertising pricing model called CPM ( cost per thousand impressions) These can range from $50 a month to $30,000 a week depending on the sites traffic. The thing to understand is that there are two ways to "get the word out". Our recommendation to clients, in most cases, is to start with the "free above the fee" promotion and then consider paid advertising. Like most other marketing tactics, advertising is a ROI business decision. We have the ability to advise on how to best spend advertising dollars.