Think of your website as your storefront in cyberspace. Promotion is not just advertising. Yes, advertising is an important part of promotion, but it is only a small part of what you need to do to bring customers to your store. The best thing about advertising is that you can reach large amounts of people quickly. However, you must be careful to target your advertising to reach people who are interested in your product or service.
Advertising is very expensive . . .
If you do not target your advertising you are wasting your money. You have a satisfied customer and he in turn tells everyone he knows about the great product or service that he purchased from you. These are both examples of word of mouth promotion. Through the use of newsgroups and bulletin boards you can spread the word about your business very quickly, and best of all it costs you nothing. When you post articles to newsgroups and bulletin boards related to your business you are reaching the people who are most likely to buy from you.