So it stands to reason that if you are involved in trading online that you will require above anything else, a cost effective method of generating unique visits to your website which results in sales of your product, whilst at the same time increasing your prospect or opt in mailing list.

Before you even attempt to promote your business there are a two very important aspects of your business that should never be overlooked.

1. Ensure that you have facilities on your site to capture email addresses of interested parties.

2. In addition to your main product, have a back end product ready to sell to your mailing list.

How do you capture email addresses, and where on your website should you request this information from your visitor.

The obvious place for your email capture is normally at the end of your sales message when your prospect has read through your text and is now required to take some form of action to receive more information or purchase your product.

I suggest that this should not be the only form of email capture you use. Consider your sales message, and at relevant points throughout your message place a link in the text allowing your prospects to submit their details.

Do not place this link randomly as it will have no effect, you must use your message to draw the prospect to your offer, and it's at these varying conclusion points throughout your text that you should utilize your email capture technique.

Many websites, and I'm sure you have noticed this technique, are using a drop down box which appears moments after you have entered the site. This is akin to a pop up, and serves to annoy your visitor and distract them from your sales message.

Always, when composing your text message and your email capture method, place yourself in the shoes of your visitor, if the methods you are using annoy and distract you, then it's clearly obvious that the same will apply to your visitors. Always ensure that your site and your sales message are visitor friendly.

Once you have your prospect's details, and regardless of whether they have purchased the product you are promoting on your website, you now need a back end, or follow up product. Your back end product should be focused on the same subject as your original sales message.

This is simply because, your prospect originally searched your site seeking a particular type of product, so it stands to reason that this is the area of their interest.

For example, if you are promoting a weight loss product and you capture email addresses with this message then it would be pointless trying to back end sell a product on say, pet care to the same prospects.

Have your back end product ready and ensure that it is related to your main product.

Once you have all this in place your next step is the promotion of your business so you can begin building your mailing list. There are many effective methods of website promotion, my personal favorite is the search sub engine.

Search sub engines offer a very effective and dollar friendly alternative to the more costly methods such as pay per click.

With search sub engines you have the ability to double sell you product in that you have two opportunities to get your sales message across.

Also, by using this method you are guaranteed to eventually become the top search result for your category, due to the methods used by the search sub engine, which rotates your site listing and gradually pushes you to the top result. This is a massive bonus for any business owner and it can only be found within the search sub engine.

But you also have to play your part, and you can do that by informing everyone you know that your site is on the search sub engine. You may think that this is a way for the search sub engine to attract free visitors, and I suppose it is, but it benefits everyone who uses it if we all follow these simple techniques.

A search sub engine has multiple categories and sub categories and as such, thousands of unrelated businesses use it's services, but at the same time, each and everyone of those business owners are also potential customers for your product. And if every business owner informs their friends and colleagues, even though they may not be interested in their particular product, they may be interested in other products.

So, by doing this we are helping each other to make the most of this form of website promotion. And, anything that has the potential to generate more traffic to your site for pennies of even free should be helped by its users to promote its service.

The search sub engine, in my opinion, is set to become the new giant in website and online business promotion and should be seriously considered when compiling your arsenal of promotional tools.