1.

* A trademark or distinctive name identifying a product or a manufacturer.

* A product line so identified: a popular brand of soap.

* A distinctive category; a particular kind: a brand of comedy that I do not care for.

2. A mark indicating identity or ownership, burned on the hide of an animal with a hot iron.

Starting an online business? One of your biggest challenges will be getting noticed among the millions of other web sites. An online branding strategy plays an instrumental role in raising your site above the clutter. Toss out all those cheesy books with titles like 101 Online Branding Secrets and Internet Branding Strategy for Imbeciles.

In this column, we will explore the various ways to promote a brand name on the internet and how it can benefit your business.

As mentioned above, a brand is a mark indicating identity. Many times in the world of business, people will think of a brand name, such as Kellogg's, and instantly know that they are a cereal company. It is important to be able to do the same thing with your website.

Perhaps the simplest way to brand your website is to develop a logo with your URL (web address) included. Be sure to include this logo on EVERY SINGLE PAGE of your website. This allows your visitors to see your web address on every page, reinforcing your web address.

Another option is to give away free email addresses at your website. A company such as hotmail or yahoo is very well known, primarily because every time one of their users gives out their email address, they are reinforcing the hotmail or yahoo brand name. By using this strategy, even with as little as 100 users sending 5 messages per week, this means that there are 15,000 messages per year going out with your internet address in them, that's 15,000 free advertisements for your website every year. At one time, this was an expensive option for site owners, but with companies such as Everyone.net, you are able to include this service on your website for no charge.

Be sure to include a unique slogan on your site. If your site name was Echicken.com, a good slogan might be 'The Best Breasts on the Web'. A slogan like this would be sure to make your site memorable. Although this particular slogan could be considered pornographic by some, it certainly would not be in poor taste if you were marketing to the young and hip cooking crowd looking for chicken recipes

The absolute best form of marketing your brand name (as well as the most inexpensive) is to start an affiliate program. Study after study shows that by paying webmasters to place your banners, buttons, etc on their websites, that people will be more likely to visit yours. This gives you the option to place your logo (the one with your URL) on thousands of websites, reinforcing your brand name even more.

Finally, be sure to include your brand name in your newsletter (you DO have one. Right?) This allows visitors to sign up and be reminded of your brand name every time they receive your newsletter. In fact, email marketing has been proven by Forrester Research to be one of the most effective forms of advertising

By using these strategies, your business will grow and expand, as more and more people begin to think of your website for their internet needs.