This might sound odd coming from a guy that runs an agency focused on search engine optimization and Google rankings, but anytime we launch a new venture within the agency, I aim to launch the business solely on the back of online advertising. In short, we pursue niches where we can buy traffic from search engines, convert leads or revenue, and make a reasonable profit at the same time - "free traffic" from Google rankings will come, but it will come later.

The short answer is because I'm impatient. Building up a large amount of traffic from SEO for a brand new online business can take 3-6 months or more, and that assumes that you're cranking and doing things right.

Having been in web marketing for most of my adult life, friends and family often ask for marketing advice that they can apply to their own business or career. In many of these cases, they're striking out on a more independent career path such as business consulting or independent sales where they will be responsible for generating sales for a firm.

While there are obviously numerous ways to market a business, my own experience has shown me that striving for expertise in a market and sharing that expertise in a constructive way is crucial- and it's often enough to build a steady stream of referrals. After all, the "product" of a business consultant is really their expertise in the area they're consulting in- clients are paying for their expertise for the betterment of their own firm. The same goes for someone in sales- prospects need to be confident in your expertise in order to trust the product(s) that you're selling.

You had a great idea for a web-based startup, have hacked together a prototype to test the concept, built a great team, and have ultimately produced a market-ready product (wow- that makes it sound a bit too easy).

But now you need users...

Let's face it, a startup isn't blessed with an endless marketing budget to be spent on every web marketing tactic in the book. To be effective in your web marketing, you need to ensure that your marketing budget is being spent in the most effective way possible.

Here's a stealth tactic your team should use that you may have been on the receiving end of yourself...

Through working with a lot of small business clients recently, I've realized that getting ranked "near the map" on Google is a pretty big request most of the time. And in most cases, it's something that I do recommend pursuing for the majority of my small business client's as it's generally not too competitive and also a "free" source of traffic (i.e. you don't pay Google anything).

In future posts, I'll go into local seo strategy in depth, but here's a few quick tips to make your website SEO friendly for local rankings.

This is what $1,000's in YellowPages online advertising in 2009 gets you.

• $1,000's in Advertising Costs
• 21 Website Visitors
• and ZERO new customers