There once was a man who developed, ?Ye Ole Grand Website of Renown?. It was a lovely site and he was well proud of his accomplishment. The navigation of the site surpassed Viking tales of old. Each section of the website sported a beautifully crafted signboard and Old England flare. Tidbits of knowledge were placed liberally throughout the site and the owner thought to wax fat and happy as he estimated the value of the site to his own family wealth. Lo this was a beneficent day in the life of the owner ? the day when the masses would be welcomed to his ?beauteous beyond reckoning? website.

Alas the masses did not arrive. They did not bring coin to cast into his personal treasury and the site languished under the labor of silence and disuse.

The owner lamented his misfortune and stood in the middle of his room in the midst of wailing and gnashing of teeth. So much work had gone into the site yet no one had bothered to notice.

?Hear ye, hear ye,? he called from his high-back leather office chair, ?I would that ye would come to my site and traverse its many byways. This site hath much to offer. Turn aside and ye shall see.?

A fine soliloquy to be sure, but this in and of itself did little to encourage the masses although there may have been a rodent or two that found his speech mildly amusing.

Then a wise man arrived at his door and simply said, ?If you want people to know about your site you must go to the people for they do not know the way.?

A revelation, simple yet profound.

The repercussions of this thought continue to be felt in all online business.

Many online business owners believe that to improve their business they simply need to concentrate on their own websites and hope people find them. The truth is most people will NOT find your website without your direct intervention.

Internet marketing is important to the success of your website. This includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of the website, but it also requires that you leave the pages of your website from time to time in order to encourage others to come in.

This can take the form of blog, forum and social media posts, but it can also take the form of applying for directory listings and finding alternate sources for advertising (i.e. Pay Per Click or Banner Advertising).

The growth of your business is directly proportional to how you manage Internet marketing. If you don't spend the time to advance strategies that get your site noticed its really no different than our fictional store owner calling to online customers from his office chair ? it does your site no good.

Internet marketing may be easy to overlook simply because it seems the most expendable in the arena of online business, but when you let the marketing slide you are more likely to see a sure and steady decline in online visitation and business growth.