Ten Free Ways To Promote Your Website.

Often, website owners would like to promote their new business but are strapped for cash. What a dilemma! How to market your product if the public doesn't know your website exist? The odds are you will lack the flow of traffic to survive in the vast ocean called the World Wide Web.

You are shaking your head in agreement. A fancy promoter service is out of the question. It will not fit in with your budget. A viable alternative does exist. FREE PROMOTION HANDLED BY YOU!

By using the following *proven methods* you can effectively promote your site and announce it to the Internet.

1. Search Engines: Thousands of search engines exist on the Internet. But, you should only be concerned with the top eight or ten. You should manually submit to the top eight: Alta Vista, Excite, Yahoo, Hotbot, Lycos, Northern Light, Infoseek, Webcrawler, and use one of the FREE automatic submission services like *SubmitPlus* to handle the smaller search engines.

2. Directories: List your site here too. Directories organize sites into categories. Good examples of Directories: Yahoo, Magellan.

3. Ezine Listings: If you have an e-zine to promote along with your site. Why not list it with one of the many e-zine services on the Internet. E-zine Library is a good one to start with.

4. Free Classifieds: You will have to submit to a ton of FREE classifieds to get any significant traffic. Why? You are competing with thousands of other Ads. Remember to work on your Ad copy and make it attention grabbing. Go to one of the popular search engines, type in Free Classifieds, and surf to the top 20 classified sites for beginners. Often, these sites will lead you to several other Free Classified Sites. In response you'll get a stack of e-mail thanking you for listing your site while barking their promo. Best to get one of those free email accounts. Hot mail is a good one. So is Yahoo mail.

5. FFA Pages. Free For All's are worth a try. Be prepared for a avalanche of e-mails from FFA web site owners. If your title is attention grabbing you will get a few clicks. Good Attention grabbing headlines, FREE, Limited Time, Limited Offer, Proven, Secrets, and many more if you brainstorm. Check out the sales literature delivered to you by regular mail. Check and see what headlines grab your attention. And why? Incorporate them into your Online Ads.

6. Signature File: A short message you include at the end of your e-mail messages. Suppose you publish a gift e-zine list. You might use this sig to promote your e-zine:

   Jane Smith webmaster@gifts.com
   http://www.gifts.com
   Subscribe to our FREE Weekly Gift Ezine, by emailing: gifts@gifts.com
   

7. Ad Swaps: Swap Ads with other e-zine owners if you are promoting an e-zine. Best to swap with a zine that has a larger subscribership. Go to one of the e-zine directories and search for zines with a similar theme. Send them a short, polite, e-mail asking if they would like to swap ads. You will certainly increase your traffic flow if you hook up with the right zine.

8. Write An Article: Write an article promoting your site or product. Write an article on a hot topic many people would like more information on and submit it to various e-zines. How do you find out what's hot? Visit a few of the message boards and see what questions are raised often.

9. Tell Friends And Family: If your friends, family, acquaintances, have an Internet Connection, e-mail them telling them about your new website, and ask them to visit often. Offer a FREE incentive if they tell a few friends to surf over. Perhaps, a FREE Ad in your e-zine.

10. Leave Business Cards or Flyers: Leave these promo pieces with small businesses in your community. All relevant contact information; email address, URL, telephone number, should be included. Offer a freebie to anyone who visits your site. A free e-book, report.

Still think you have to spend Big Bucks to promote your site? This short article has disclosed easy, simple, solutions, to promote your site for FREE, and increase the hits on your site. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and Promote.

About The Author

Copyright 2001, SmallBiz Publishing.

BB Lee is Editor of SmallBizBits Newsletter. Join Our List Of Informed Subscribers Today! Receive Practical Advice And Homebiz Tips Monthly. Subscribe by emailing: Smallbiz-subscribe@topica.com