I consume a lot of my time online mainly with promotion and marketing of my website. Simply put activities which channel traffic generation to my website. So why do I spend more time on marketing and promotion than anything else?

Simply put it is the lifeline of my online business. If you would like to be successful online, there are going to have to be a few sacrifices you will have to make to succeed. These are what I call the "hidden costs" of traffic generation. Start off by watching less TV, steer clear of places like Facebook etc and you may have to spend a smaller amount time with your family.

Your online business depends on traffic generation and you have to be spending your valuable time on traffic generation if you want your online business to work and make you money online.

You might own the most stunning website in the world, but you won't make any money online if you don't drive targeted Traffic to it. Think about a car without fuel. It might be the most sophisticated car in the world and the fastest in the world, however without any fuel, it's going to go no were and be completely useless to you.

The same with the Internet you could spend hundreds of dollars with your website with the most professional looking graphics and your sales conversion to traffic rates could be as much as 15%, but with no constant stream of targeted traffic, making money online with your website is simply never going to happen. The only way you will ever make money from it I'm afraid will be selling the whole site!

As you can see there are lots of hidden underground costs to traffic generation. If you are working for free traffic, then the only thing it is going to cost you is time. That is the hidden cost. Of course if you are going to spend money, then your only cost will of course be the money you spend. Remember whatever you do you have to drive traffic online to your website, whether it's free traffic or paid traffic. Or you will be dead in the water.