A few days ago I spoke with Elance CEO Fabio Rosati. It was an interesting conversation on many levels but one particular thing that he said stood out in my mind – he said (and I’m paraphrasing here) Salma you will always remember the day you and Ali chose to make the New Way to Work video and it will be a pivotal point in your business.

I believe what he was referring to was the ecstasy of reaching out to people and the power of a personal, yet universal story to inspire and evoke responses from all across the globe. The response has truly been overwhelming. Some numbers: over 1200 YouTube views in a month, a 233% increase in traffic to my website, scores of people sending me Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail messages, lots of potential clients and hopefully lots more people who have been inspired enough to want to take charge of their lives.

It seems like the New Year started a little early for me

So what have I learnt from all this?

Two things:

1. Build good content
2. Promote the heck out of it (but in the right channels)

Well, point #1 first. It goes without saying that the Internet is full of, pardon my expression, crap. To find anything relevant and meaningful you must sometimes sift through a lot of non-sense. That’s why good content is so valuable. Businesses shell out good money for compelling SEO web content that will drive more traffic to their site – they understand that it’s the content and its authenticity and uniqueness that will keep people coming back for more.

So if you want to build a successful online business, put out good content. You can do it in whatever way you’re comfortable with and good at, be it text, multimedia, video, audio, presentation, design, whatever – just make sure it’s really you.

Point #2. You know that old saying of build a better mouse trap and they’ll come? Doesn’t hold true any more. It’s not enough anymore to just put great content out there; you’ve got to make sure people actually see it.

At first I was shy, like many people, about self-promotion. I didn’t want to send out links, I didn’t want to send e-mails, and I certainly didn’t want to be that obnoxious person spamming links to friends of friends of friends. So I took the safe way out. I e-mailed a select group of friends and family members and asked them to pass it on if they liked what they saw. I updated my Facebook and Twitter statuses and posted it in the online communities that I’m a part of. That’s it. That’s all I did.

Google Analytics, my trusty web companion, tells me that to date I have had over 61% referrals to my site through social media channels and email referrals. That’s 61% more people who’ve been affected in some (albeit small) way who might never have seen my content otherwise, never gotten inspired and never known that there are business-moms like me out here (esp in Pakistan) trying to make a go at running an online business from home.

So I urge you, get out there, show the world what you’re doing, believe in your work, tell people who matter and they will promote you and your message if they find it to be sincere.

First do something that will get people talking and then ride the momentum with all you’ve got! Here’s to a prosperous 2010! *clink*