Everybody wants to promote his or her web site. Nobody wants to spend much money doing it. Here are 10 tips to help bring visitors to your site.

1. Search Engines

While many search engines will find your site via a link to it from another site, submitting your site to the major search engines and site directories is of critical importance but there is more to it than meets the eye. Start with the Open Directory Project at www.dmoz.org and then seek out specialised directories that are appropriate for your site (travel, investment, shopping, country-specific, etc.). As with most things, however, doing your submissions properly requires an investment of time, so there are many out there offering to do it for you for a fee. Some are good, some are incompetent and some are simply scam artists.

2. Build it and they will come!

3. Add a signature

Look in your email program. Find the button to set up a signature file. Do it today.

4. The 'wrong' email address
Use only email addresses that are part of your site's domain. Don't use email address that include the name of your internet service provider or email provider, like mycompanyname@yahoo.com. It doesn't look professional and you are only advertising for them. Also, your contacts won't be able to email you at that address if you ever stop using them. Messages can still be forwarded to any other address using your 'normal' email alias without the sender ever knowing, but make sure your official addresses is '@yourcompany.com'. If you haven't already done so, change your default email address in your email program without delay.

5. Link Exchange
Request links on Industry related sites. You may belong to various trade associations that feature member sites. Ask for a link. Even if you have to pay something for a link on a busy site, it may bring you the kind of targeted traffic you crave. Watch out, though, that if you include a link on your site to some other site that you aren't inviting site visitors to prematurely leave!

6. Keep them informed!
It's very important that you have a newsletter or mailing list. Newsletters work wonders for sites that use them well. Give an incentive and a reason for someone to join your newsletter. People are not willing to just hand over their email address with no idea what they will be getting in return. The newsletter should always carry relevant, useful content and not just blatant advertising. As long as it is useful, people will appreciate it and pass it on to several friends. Again, remember to actively ask them to pass it on. If you don't ask them to pass it on, even if they are willing to do so, they may just forget or not even think about it.

7. Do not send spam!
While sending Newsletter mailing lists in very important, sending out spam emails could be the death of your business online. Sending out mass, unsolicited email is not acceptable, anywhere, for any reason. Only send marketing emails to users who have opted-in to obtain emails from you. There are hundreds of companies out there trying to sell you databases that you can use to send out mass emails but don't believe their promises. Spamming is a sure-fire way to lose friends and make enemies. It can also end up with your web site barred and emails blocked, crippling your business.

8. Web Visitor Statistics
Some wise man said, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Be sure to keep your web visitor reports safe, analyse them (or get someone to do this for you) and act on what they say. These reports can really help you boost your traffic by telling you how many visits are coming from each search engine, where other visitors are coming from and what keywords people are searching on to reach your site.

9. Blogs, Social Networking and Forums
The popularity of discussion forums, blogs and social networking sites has increased dramatically over the last few years. These social media resources present every web site owner with excellent opportunities to positively contribute to that online community while at the same time increasing their own profile. Irrespective of what your site sells or promotes, there are blogs, forums or networking sites out there in the same subject area where you can offer an expert’s view to build credibility. Once you've got credibility to your name, more people will visit your web site. A word of warning though – do not jump in and brazenly announce yourself or your wares as the saviour to everyone’s needs – blatant self promotion is frowned upon and you will be rejected immediately. Build it slowly and build it solidly.

10. Keep it fresh!
The major search engines (especially Google) not only rank pages upon relevant content but they love fresh content as well. To get to the top of the search engines and stay there, your site should not only be optimised (it is professionally search engine optimised, isn’t it?) but it should also deliver fresh, relevant content on a regular basis. Imagine you owned a book shop and you never sold the latest bestsellers. Of course, some people might want to come by once in a while to check out your old books but eventually your shop traffic would dry up. The same goes for your website. You need to constantly feed your site with fresh content or your visitors, and eventually your business, could dry up.

In Summary ….

Once the promotional process is started don't stop - keep up the good work. Repeated exposure of web site's address will keep traffic flowing to your site. Do not expect traffic to jump immediately. Remember, if no one knows where you live, no one will come and see you!

Here's the only plug on this page - we would be delighted to hear from you if you think we could help promote your site.

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