During the early days of internet access, it was a far easier matter to compete, mainly due to the relatively few number of websites. Today, if you hope to successfully compete with literally, hundreds of thousands of competitors, you've got to have a well planned and strategically sound online advertising campaign in place before you ever publish your website. If you've got all your ducks lined up, you'll get traffic directed to your site sooner rather than later. Maintaining your site does cost you money. If you're also paying for ads, the income you derive won't add up to much without sufficient traffic. The time you spend planning your online advertising campaign and developing the best strategies for your product or service will pay you big dividends, decreasing the time between launch and profits.