The Birth of a
Professional Web Site Part Ten Promoting Your Web Site
Creating a successful Internet presence involves much
more than designing a great web site or having the "perfect" product. Listing
your web site with the Search Engines is your first step; however, you must
not solely rely on the Search Engines to bring you traffic.
You must design a complete promotional strategy and work it every day. If
you're launching a new web site, your first step will be to submit your site
to the Search Engines and Directories.
Although there are many auto-submission software programs available on the
Internet, make sure you manually submit your site to the main Search Engines
and Directories:
Google
http://www.google.com/addurl.html
(Although you can submit your site map to Google, you will receive a higher
ranking by allowing their robots to find your pages on their
own.)
The Open Directory Project
http://dmoz.org/add.html
AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com/addurl
Lycos
http://www.lycos.com/addasite.html
Hotbot
http://hotbot.lycos.com/addurl.asp
Once you've manually submitted your main pages, visit SelfPromotion.com
http://www.selfpromotion.com
to automatically submit your pages to a number of additional Search Engines
and Directories.
A good way to organize your promotions is to set up a web page, for your
personal use, that will contain your complete strategy. This page should
be stored on your hard drive and not uploaded to your server. Your page should
contain four sections.
1. Daily Promotions
2. Weekly Promotions
3. Monthly Promotions
4. Miscellaneous Promotions
Each of these four sections should contain the appropriate information for
each of your promotional resources, such as web site name, user ID, password
(if applicable) and hyperlinked web addresses for each web site you plan
to use for your promotions. This will enable you to open your web page each
day and visit the sites you have listed.
Daily Promotions
Discussion Boards
Visit some popular discussion boards and share your expertise. Although you
may not advertise on discussion boards, you can include your signature file
with your post. Before you begin posting to discussion boards, make sure
you lurk a while and see exactly how the board functions.
Visit
http://www.web-source.net/web/Discussion_Forums/
for a complete listing of some of the top discussion boards.
Weekly Promotions
Ezine Advertising / Ad Swaps
Your weekly promotions should consist of placing a paid ezine advertisement
and/or arranging ad swaps with fellow publishers.
Visit the Directory of Ezines for a complete listing of hundreds of publishers
and contact information for advertising.
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=doe
To organize your ad placements and swaps, place the publication names, publisher
names, ad dates and hyperlinked web addresses within your weekly promotions
list.
Monthly Promotions
Your monthly promotions should include writing an article
in the area of your expertise, promotional exchanges with similar web sites,
and offline promotions.
To organize your monthly promotions, place the names and hyperlinked web
addresses for each of your promotional resources within your monthly promotions
section.
Writing Articles
Writing articles that may be freely published with your
bylines is one of the best promotional methods online. Your article may be
published in hundreds of ezines, on web sites or even in magazines.
For further information on writing articles, visit:
http://www.web-source.net/write.htm
Promotional Exchanges
Cross promoting is a powerful technique used by many Internet marketers to
increase the exposure of their products, services or publications. You simply
decide what type of promotional exchange you would be interested in and contact
fellow marketers to discuss an exchange.
The most effective technique used in cross promotions is recommendations.
By providing each other with a personal recommendation you can increase your
response rates tremendously.
Here are some popular cross promoting techniques you can use to boost your
business:
Link Exchanges
Exchange links with web sites similar to yours, but not in competition. Many
Search Engines are now utilizing a system that tracks and ranks sites according
to the number of quality links pointing to a particular web site. By exchanging
links with similar web sites, you will not only increase your Search Engine
ranking, but you will also increase your web site traffic.
Ezine Ad Swaps
Exchange subscription ads with other ezine publishers. Ezine advertising
is one of the best forms of advertising on the Internet. By swapping ads
with fellow ezine publishers, you can run your ad in other publications free
of charge.
Subscription Exchanges
Exchange subscription information with fellow ezine publishers. Provide
recommendations within your ezine's welcome message, thank you page and even
on your multiple subscription ezine form.
Ezine Column
Partner with a similar publication and provide content for each other. This
may be a weekly tips column, question and answer column or whatever you'd
like.
Ebook Exchanges
Partner with fellow Internet marketers and create free ebooks to freely
distribute. The ebook should mutually benefit and promote both of you, while
providing valuable information for your visitors.
Ride Alongs
A ride along is any extra information (advertisements) sent along with a
direct mailing. You can use this same technique with any ezine solo mailings
you may run by including an exchange recommendation within your mailing.
In addition, you can include recommendations within your thank you letters
you send out when you deliver your products.
Up sells
An up sell is used when your customer is in the process of ordering your
product. Another product is introduced, for a small additional cost, just
as you're closing the sale. This technique is used with many infomercials
when the customer calls in their order. The operator will introduce an additional
product for a minimal extra charge. You can use this same technique on your
order page by trading product recommendations with fellow marketers.
A quality recommendation will pull a much higher response rate than just
a link or banner. Cross promote with individuals you truly respect and believe
in, as your professional reputation is on the line.
Offline Promotions
Promoting your web site offline is another great way to increase your traffic.
Below are several resources to assist you:
IDit Plates
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=idit
Put your web address on your vehicle. IDit Plates are a great way to continuously
promote your web site. They're triple chrome plated and blend in well with
your vehicle.
Visit iPrint
http://www.iprint.com
for your printing needs. From business print items to promotional items,
iPrint has it all.
Place ads in newspapers, magazines, on the radio, or on TV. Visit these links
for complete listings:
Gebbie Press
http://www.gebbieinc.com
Newspapers Online
http://www.newspapers.com
For even more promotional products, PromoCity can add your logo to any one
of over 500,000 items.
http://www.promocity.com
Miscellaneous Promotions
Your miscellaneous promotions might include paying for
traffic, text and banner advertising.
Visit the following web addresses for further information:
http://www.web-source.net/ad_camp.htm
http://www.web-source.net/pay_traffic.htm
Once you've implemented your promotional strategy and continuously work it
each day, you'll be amazed with the results of your efforts. Consistency
will be the key to driving massive traffic to your
site.
Copyright © Shelley Lowery
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design
Mastery.
http://www.webdesignmastery.com
And, Ebook Starter - Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book.
http://www.ebookstarter.com
Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to Etips
and receive a copy of the acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net
You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print,
in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author
bylines are included.
Part Nine
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