How to promote commercial websites

I've done non-commercial, but I need a clue on this

[aschrage]

I've had pretty good success this year with a non-commerical site using search engines to promote it (PR7). However, I'm now working on my first commercial site and I just got it officially rejected by Zeal. The site has considerable non-commercial value, but regardless, it was rejected. In hindsight, I guess I should have started it out as purely an informational site.

Any advice on where to go from here? It appears to me that if I want online promotion, I am going to have to pay for it. I have very little knowledge of paid methods except for the obvious banner ads, and the "pay per click" search engines I have heard a lot about on this board. I have also wondered if I should look into getting some good targeted email lists (although I have no idea where). Another thing to consider is that my site is very regional and I think offline promotion methods (i.e. direct mail) might be very effective. Any hints would be much appreciated.

[Travoli]

I don't think I've had the chance to say hi yet, aschrage. Welcome to WebmasterWorld.

Have you considered using search engine optimization to get free listings in the search engines?

Lots of webmasters do build info sites and later switch them to commercial, after building their link popularity.

One thing you can do is to e-mail other webmasters and ask if they would like to exchange links.