A well-optimized website is findable: if people are looking for you, they'll find you.

What if they're not looking for you? This can happen. You may have a new product, or a special service that people would value -- but they haven't thought about it yet. You may be selling a luxury item or an impulse item, rather than the kind of thing people go to the search engines for.

Then you need not only search engine optimization, which makes your site findable and usable, but also search engine marketing, which draws attention to your site.

Before we leave the subject of SEO, let's look at the borderline between SEO and SEM: search positioning. Sometimes you need to make your site findable not for the name of the product or service, but for the problem it solves or the benefit it conveys.

You have a new way to dispose of toxic waste? Optimize your site for the name of your product, but also for "toxic waste disposal" and "hospital waste management." You have a luxuriously scented dish detergent and no one's looking for "luxury dish soap"? Optimize for "making housework fun" or "biodegradable cleaning supplies" or  "housewarming gifts."

You need to to do research to find the right keywords, of course, but a change of direction can do wonders. 

Back to SEM. The internet is like the world's enormous marketplace. But for that very reason, people turn away from obvious advertising. Do some advertising, but consider these other options as well:

• Get involved in the community. 120 million people log onto Facebook every day. Does your product have a page there?
• Who are the bloggers that your target audience reads and listens to? Make friends, ask them for honest reviews of your products, participate in the conversations at their sites. If you have something great to offer, they'll want to share it with their visitors.
• What are the sources of information people turn to when they have the problem that your product solves? Online directories, magazines, and authoritative websites are often the first places people go for answers to their questions. Ask for links to your site. 
• Use your physical-world networks to spread the word. Put your URL on your business cards, your signs, your products. Share your expertise and information with people, and invite them to visit your site.

The rule of thumb for marketing in the physical world is that it takes five months to see results: anything that happens before that is just gravy. The internet can sometimes work faster -- but it's still a good rule of thumb. You just may get more gravy.