The great irony of the Web is that to be successful online you must promote off-line.

As evidence, consider the 1997 holiday sales reported by America Online. Which products did best? According to AOL, the five top sellers were offerings from such familiar names as 1-800 Flowers, Starbucks, Omaha Steaks, JCPenny, and Godiva chocolates.

Today and for years into the future the Web will receive enormous attention while traditional media will continue to draw the vast majority of all ad dollars.

For example, it is widely estimated that Web advertising will reach $5 to $8 billion by the year 2000. But what do these figures mean? Where is the context? According to Robert J. Coen, director of forecasting for McCann-Erickson Worldwide, US advertising expenditures totaled $186.7 billion in 1997 -- up $11.5 billion from 1996, an increase which by itself is greater than the ad revenues expected on the Web two years from now.

Why are advertisers pumping dollars into traditional media? Because results are predictable, audiences can be targeted, and because that's where most people continue to get their information and ideas.

For site owners, good online promotion translates into three core strategies:

• First, use traditional media. Include your Web address on stationary and envelopes, brochures, newsletters, magazines, news releases, programs, mailings, and ads. If a page and date can be at the bottom of every magazine page, why not your Web address?

• Second, promote online. Register with leading search engines, have a logo link button, and exchange links with members and allied organizations.

• Third, make sure your site has value. Have a members-only area with services and features that bring members to the site again and again. Register conference attendees both online and off. Start a news service with information delivered by e-mail -- and keep an archive on your site.