I've had my web store for almost a year. I sell to a specialized niche market -- adults, teens, and kids who have braces on their teeth.

I really want to increase my sales, but I don't have big bucks to spend on advertising or marketing. I want to increase my product's exposure without annoying my potential customers with spam, banners, or pop-ups (all of which I hate with a passion). I've also been wary of "reciprocal links" or "link farms" because many of them are garbage.

In this past year, most of my sales have either come from my web store's informational "sister site", or from Google or Yahoo searches.

In this past year, I've done lots of "Guerilla" things on-line, such as creating links on like-minded sites, submitting to search engines, and optimizing keywords. I also wrote an article that appeared in an online orthodontic journal, increasing my credibility as a subject matter "expert".

I give my customers personal service, and so my Yahoo store has a 5-star rating. I added this to my site, along with some very nice customer testimonials. (I have a Yahoo store because it's EASY for me, although I admit it's not as flashy as other custom ecommerce sites).

Off-line, I send my customers magnets with a 10% off coupon code, and have sent out press releases, made brochures, and contacted various dental organizations and dental practitioners. Several dental magazines have featured my product for free, resulting in some sales leads from dentists. I even went to a recent dental convention and "worked the floor" at the trade show.

Now we're coming into the holiday shopping season and I want to try to increase my consumer sales. I've started a Google AdWords campaign. Although I get a halfway decent amount of clicks, no sales have resulted. I'm cringing, because over the course of two months, it could cost me a lot of money if it doesn't deliver!

(I tried SPRINKS for about a day, but they lied about the extent of their service and I cancelled it immediately -- it's a long story -- false advertising on their part IMO).

ANYWAY, I'm not sure what else to do to make my site more visible to my target market without spamming people or creating annoying banner ads. Many parenting sites deal with babies, and my market is tweens, teens, and adults. Most dental sites are created by dentists and don't have a links page.

BTW, for the holidays, I'm taking a new tack -- that my product makes a great gift or stocking stuffer -- and that is the focus of my Google AdWords campaign.

Any ideas from those of you who have been down this road? How do you promote without annoying people? Or is it just not possible?

Many many thanks from the Braces Lady! :-)