Compworld - 11:50 am on Nov 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

Ok, I've done them all in some sort of way or form. Here's my breakdown.

1. Link Popularity - very important. Takes time and patience.
2. Good Domain (Branded or Optimized?) - If you do not have a good .com or .net domain, you will have an uphill battle.
3. Search Engine Optimization. - Important, but becoming less important as more and more of the search engine results are "sponsored"
4. Affiliate Program - Only important if your customers have their own website, and you can focus time on the project. It is very hard to do w/o spending a good deal of $$$.
5. Newsletter - Not that important. When you get 1000 plus members, then it might be and idea to send a site update every few months, if the customer opts in for the newsletter.
6. Bizrate.com - Skip it. Their bids are too high, and you are going one on one against major billion dollar companies that have a blank check towards these "shopping engines". Besides, it doesn't convert as well as you can imagine. Plus, there are dozens of other merchants that may be offering the same thing that you are offering at a lower price.
7. DealTime.com - See above statement.

Just stick with keywords linked directly with the item that you are selling. Stick with Adwords, Overture, and possibly Ah-ha (at extremely conservative bidding). All the others are crap. So do not even waste your time.

Hope that helps!

CompWorld