I am in the process of creating an online directory of the various
internet poker web sites.  I was wondering what would be the best
approach to attract visitors to this site and what advertising options
are the most reasonable and most effective?

Hello,

From my research, if I was going to do any single thing to
increase traffic to my website, I would make sure that it is
properly listed in the most popular search engines.  According to
a survey on GBU 'Net Inc.'s website, the best thing you can do to
promote your site is to get good search engine placement (See
below for a link to their page.) Riskfreemarketing.com also has an
article on "Why Search Engine Traffic Should Be Your #1 Priority
To Increase Website Traffic" :

http://riskfreemarketing.com/increase-traffic.htm

According to an article by Spider Food, effective website
promotion requires a marketing strategy.  Check out their article
at

http://spider-food.net/site-promotion.html

Here are a few companies specializing in search engine
placement--you pay them to keep your site near the top:

Positioned1
http://www.positioned1.com/index.html

morevisibility.com
http://www.morevisibility.com/index.html

GBU 'Net Inc. : Business Marketing Solutions
http://www.gbunet.com/search_engine_services.htm

Here are some resources you will find useful if you want to do the
work yourself:

About.com: Web Site Promotion Tips and Tutorials
http://webdesign.about.com/cs/promotion/index.htm?terms=website+marketing

Spider Food is an excellent resource:
Search Engine Optimization and Positioning - at Spider Food
http://spider-food.net/index.html

Achieving a top search engine ranking
http://www.top-searchengine-placement.com/


Additional Links:

Open Directory - Computers: Internet: Web Design and Development:
Promotion
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Promotion/

Using Banner Ads to Promote Your Website
http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/bannerad.htm

Note: Personally, I'm somewhat wary of the following sites, but
I've included them for the sake of completeness--they offer
services which are supposed to increase traffic.

Traffic Ace
http://www.trafficace.net/worth.htm

Web Hits Direct
http://www.webhitsdirect.com/

iFrame Exchange
http://www.iframeexchange.com/


Search Strategy:

Google search: effective website advertising -design
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=effective+website+advertising+-design&btnG=Google+Search

Google Directory Search: effective website advertising
://www.google.com/search?q=effective+website+advertising&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&cat=gwd/Top&sa=N&tab=wd

About.com search: website marketing
http://search.about.com/fullsearch.htm?terms=website%20marketing

Open Directory search: website promotion
http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=website+promotion


Best wishes,
bikerman-ga