In my efforts to advertise and grow this site, readership, and build solid clients, of course an important consideration is how to get the word out. Indeed, one of the most common questions I get is, "how will people know how to find your website?"

It's a terrific question, one that must be answered, if this site, or any other, is to be successful:

• Of course, one of the major ways to be noticed is to be very high on the search engine list, as in, you should be on the first page. More on this later.
• Another way is to build a following with a lot of netizens, and gain the advantage of "viral marketing" in which people forward your articles and sites to friends and colleagues.
• Still another way is to advertise the site directly, through online and print advertisements, even including flyers and word of mouth.

So how do you get high rankings on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc? Besides praying to the gods, doing a "search engine ranking dance," or just a simple miracle, one method is to pay for the ranking, using "pay per click" advertising through these sites. They often will allow you to bid on specific keywords, so that if someone is searching for "computer training," whoever has the highest bid gets a great position for their "sponsored" results, which usually appear on the top or sides of searches.

Another way to get high rankings is to secure a lot of one-way "backlinks." A backlink is when another site links to yours. A one-way backlink is when another site links to you, but you are not linked to them. The assumption is, you are so important that they are linking to you without the reciprocal link back to them. Search engines rate these kinds of links higher than when sites reciprocally link.

One terrific way of building a lot of one-way backlinks is through article submissions. Companies like Articlemarketer.com will submit your article to thousands of online databases, so that people who need articles can find you. The sites use your content, usually for free, and in return you get a link back to your site, as well as being seen as an authority on your subject.

The end result is, hopefully, higher placement in search engines, increased traffic, and theoretically more business. It's all win-win, if you do it right.

What I have shared with you here is the result of many hours of research. Those of you trying to grow your websites, check into this.

Good luck, and happy clicking!