SITE PROMOTION: IF YOU BUILD IT, WILL THEY COME?

There's still a noisy debate about the most effective way to attract traffic on the Web. Moreover, the answers change as new data emerges and customer behavior changes; last month's breakthrough campaign often fizzles as soon as other Web marketers roll out copycat versions. Still, there are a few promotional tactics that most sites now rely on:

* E-mail: If there's one medium that almost everyone endorses, it's e- mail. Five of our top sites--Beyond.com, Buyonet, Corel, SmarterKids.com, and Ulead--advertise an e-mail signup option on their home pages, typically with a promise of a free newsletter. Other sites collect e-mail addresses during trialware downloads and contests or at the time of purchase. To avoid accusations of spamming, stores generally give customers a chance to "opt out" of future mailings, but even smaller companies find the opt-out approach leaves them with good- sized prospect lists: Ulead reports that it has almost 400,000 active names in its e-mail database.

* Banner ads: Web stores are heavy users of banner advertising, especially on other non-competing shopping sites. A few sites--for example, the Corel store--now buy keyword-linked banners on the major search engine sites, hoping to reach prospects who are actively searching for the type of products the store offers.

* Print and broadcast media: At times, traditional media campaigns can be the best way to attract new Web traffic. Lotus's Jim Gerace says he was able to boost response rates and traffic on his site by more than 50% with a simple postcard mailing followed by an e-mail reminder. A few Web stores have even tried mass market media to build brand recognition: Beyond.com recently put together a high-profile TV spot and a broadcast public relations campaign that reached an estimated 22 million people.

* Affiliates: On the Web, it's easy to create private label stores, either as complete front ends to other stores (thus, Beyond.com hosts the entire Symantec store) or as embedded "affiliate" stores that share revenue from referred sales. Buyonet has been especially active in creating an affiliate network; the company reports that it now has over 200 sites that send traffic to the parent store.

* Word of mouth: Finally, some stores have chosen to rely almost entirely on their reputation for good service to attract new buyers. Chumbo.com, with $10 million in online sales, does no advertising at all and instead focuses on making sure its existing customers keep coming back--and making sure they tell their friends. In a volatile marketplace like the Web, customer loyalty may be more a more important goal than a flood of first-time buyers who never return.