Imagine the sand on the beach. Each individual grain of sand represents an online business. Each individual business (grain of sand) wants you to notice as you walk along the beach. However, unless you know exactly where a specific grain of sand is you will never be able to identify it among the sand castles and dunes that surround you.



This really is a fairly accurate picture of how your website appears in the vast marketplace known as the World Wide Web.

Without site promotion tools you are simply another grain of sand on business beach.

If your business website is going to be successful you need to find a way to promote your website. In a best-case scenario that promotion will also include a buzz that will have visitors talking about it long after they leave your site.

Word of mouth can still be a very positive means of advertising on the World Wide Web.

You will see this when someone sends an email to a friend saying, ?You gotta check this out?. This is generally followed by a clickable link to a website that has a distinct cool factor. Then if the second person is sufficiently impressed the buzz can take on a life of its own.

For each person the cool factor may be different. It could be the result of a unique video stream or podcast, or it could be some solid knowledge-based content or web exclusive video game.

Site promotion is important because it takes into account a wide variety of tools. Site promotion can include the use of social media, blogs, forums, ezines, email marketing, video streaming and podcasting. Site promotion also relies on behind-the-scenes tools that include web branding, web design, Real Simple Syndication (RSS), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, list building and traffic building.

The notion that a site promotion tool is simply a matter of picking your favorite and finding unlimited success is a mistaken notion.

No one would try to tighten a screw with a hammer, yet the same common sense may not be used when choosing tools for site promotion.

Remember with site promotion there are many tools and they all serve a distinct purpose ? use as many as possible and learn how to use them well.