Having successfully set up your Web store you are probably ready to take a long vacation and wait for the money to roll in! Unfortunately your real work has only just started; your Web store is lying empty and you need to work hard to entice customers to enter.

Here is your (lengthy) "To Do" List:

Search engine and directory submittal
Start with the major search engines and directories - Alta Vista, Yahoo, Infoseek, Lycos, Hotbot, Excite and Webcrawler - and then carefully research and submit to search services specific to your industry. Beyond this you may wish to submit to the many other search services currently available or pay someone to do this for you.

Successful search engine submission and placement is a huge topic in itself beyond the scope of this site - take a look at Search Engine Watch for more detailed information.

Negotiate cross-links with other sites
Identify sites that are likely to attract the same kind of customer that you are looking for and negotiate a cross-link with them. Sites relating to products or services that are complementary to your own are likely to prove the best source of visitors.

Buy links from other sites Negotiating cross-links works well when both sites attract roughly the same amount of traffic. Clearly, you are going to have a hard time negotiating a cross-link with a site that has a much greater traffic level than your own (although its worth trying!) and in some instances it may be worthwhile paying for these links.

Set up affiliate program
Allow other Web sites to sell your products. You still fulfill all orders but pay your affiliate commission on each sale generated.

Promoting your store (2)