Archive for December 2012
25 Ways to Promote Your Website or Blog
I have hand picked all of these resources based on their usefulness,
rate of success and overall quality. I have written this article to help
people find new sources of traffic for their website or blog and to
shed some light on some of the best resources related to each method of
promotion. I hope you find this article informative and useful! Enjoy!
Article directories are a wonderful way to get traffic and backlinks
to your website. There are many well established article directories
that have been proven to get websites traffic. People search for
articles in different categories and after reading the article they
usually follow a link at the bottom of the article to your website.
www.GoArticles.comwww.eHow.com
www.EasyArticles.com
www.ArticleDashBoard.com
www.Article99.com
www.ValuableContent.com
www.EzineArticles.com
2. Business Directories
Posting in business directories is still an effective way to get
backlinks and small amounts of traffic. Most directory sites have many
listings that are organized into. Being that there are so many business
directories, the best way to find one related to your site would be to
do a Google search or to use the websites below to find them.
www.dmoz.orgdir.yahoo.com
www.lii.org
www.stpt.com/directory
www.business.com
www.cannylink.com
3. Classifieds
Classifieds are a common way to easily make posts for free, and reach
large amounts of people. They tend to work better for business or
service-based websites, but you can also drive traffic to other types of
sites as well
www.Kijiji.comwww.craigslist.org
classifieds.myspace.com
classifieds.yahoo.com
4. Forums
Forums are another good way to get backlinks and traffic, but you
need to contribute to the forums and not just spam them with your links.
I recommend becoming an active member of forums that are related to
your site, as well as including your website link in your forum
signature. By making intelligent and informative posts people will be
inclined to check out the link in your signature because youve built
interest about yourself.
The best way to do this is to manually search for forums related to your site and then sign up to start posting.
Social networking sites are often overlooked as a way to market a
website or blog. Having lots of friends and access to groups can be a
good way to contact a lot of people in an easy and efficient manner.
Most social networking sites also have forums and classifieds that you
can post in.
www.myspace.comwww.facebook.com
www.linkedin.com
6. Social Bookmarking Sites
Social bookmarking sites can be an amazing way to promote your
website. What a lot of people will do is write a killer article and then
submit it to the social bookmarking sites to drive traffic to that
article, hoping it will get bookmarked a lot.
www.netscape.com www.digg.com
del.icio.us
www.furl.net
www.stumbleupon.com
www.reddit.com
ma.gnolia.com
de.lirio.us
myweb2.search.yahoo.com
www.simpy.com
www.newsvine.com
7. Search Engines
This is probably one of the most difficult ways to market a site, but
also one of the most popular ways due to the fact that the traffic you
get can be extremely targeted to exactly what your site offers. This is
especially important for sites that sell a product and are looking for a
high conversion rate. It is usually better to start off targeting niche
markets and low competition long tail keywords. Ranking well on Google
for a phrase like ‘graphic design’ in the search engines would be
extremely difficult to do, so look for longer keywords or more detailed
ones.
www.google.comwww.yahoo.com
www.msn.com
8. Word of Mouth
This is a very basic and old school way of marketing but it has
remained because it really is effective. All you have to do is tell all
your family, friends and co-workers about your new site or blog and let
them do the work! Be sure to have business cards on hand to give out to anyone you speak with.
9. Pay per Click Advertising (PPC)
PPC advertising takes a lot of studying to do right, and can cost a
decent amount of money, but if your site is well designed and converts
well, or you are just looking for traffic, it can be a very powerful
marketing tool when done right.
adwords.google.comsearchmarketing.yahoo.com
adCenter.Microsoft.com
10. Banner Advertising
The difficulty in banner advertising is simply creating a very
alluring banner design in the amount of space specified. Some sites
dont let you create animated banners, but if you have a very
intriguing static banner on a good site it can get you traffic for sure.
The best way to do this is to manually search for websites and blogs
related to your site and contact them for a banner exchange.
11. Text Link Advertising
Text link advertising is usually cheap and can bring in lots of traffic, but the traffic tends to be rather unspecific – which is ok sometimes. I find it best to look for sites related to your website to buy text links spots on. Or, if you are just looking for tons of traffic, you can go to major text link sites that offer spots on very large websites.
www.text-link-ads.com
www.adbrite.com
www.adengage.com
12. Print Advertising
Print advertising can be very expensive, but is especially useful
when advertising in a specific location. For example, if you are opening
a new restaurant in a city, sending out flyers is a surefire way to get
people to your website and restaurant. You could also drop off business
cards or flyers at local stores and start offering your services to
local people.
www.4over4.comwww.modernpostcard.com
www.vistaprint.com
www.clubflyers.com
www.alocalprinter.com
13. Portfolio Sites
There are many websites that host portfolios of designers and
artists. By submitting your work to their sites you will often get a lot
of exposure to your own site by way of a link.
www.behance.netwww.altpick.com
www.portfolios.com
www.deviantart.com
14. Tutorial Sites
Submitting tutorials is a great way to get traffic to your website
via a link. A lot of designers submit tutorials to sites like the ones
below, and get a lot of exposure. Most of these tutorials sites are very
well ranked so getting a link on them can be very good for your website
or blog.
www.pixel2life.comwww.good-tutorials.com
www.tutorialoutpost.com
15. Link Baiting
Linking baiting is when you write or post something that has the
potential to be blogged about, linked or bookmarked a lot. Good content
in general will help your website or blog out a lot, but you can step it
up a notch by producing videos or articles specifically for link
baiting.
16. Contests
People love entering contest, especially if there is a desirable
prize. Contest prizes range in types. Some sites will offer you exposure
and links and other sites will offer money or actual physical prizes.
The key to a successful contest is obviously getting lots of people to
enter, so make sure you promote your contest as much as you can on
forums, classifieds and more. Also, dont be afraid to enter contests
for a chance to win some money or prizes, yourself!
17. Link Exchanges
This is arguably one of the most important ways to rank well for
keywords and bring traffic to your website. It is important to exchange
links or get one-way links from relevant sites. Make sure you are using
an important keyword because your links anchor text and not a word like
‘click here’ or something you dont want to rank well for in search
engines.
The best way to do this is to manually search for websites and blogs
related to your site and contact them for a link exchange. Also, check
out the two sites below.
www.seopen.com/seopen-tools/blogsearch.google.com
18. Email Marketing
Email marketing can be very beneficial if done well. You do not want
to be a spammer or buy lists of emails, though. The way to work email
marketing is to have an opt-in email form on your website where users
can sign up to receive emails and special offers. Offering a free e-book
or tips is a good way to get people to sign up. Once they are signed up
you can send emails once in a while to bring them back to your site or
to promote something.
www.aweber.comwww.icontact.com
19. Viral Marketing
This is the hottest new way to market a website, but it is not easy!
You have probably heard about all these YouTube videos getting millions
of views, and articles on Digg getting thousands of hits. If you can
think up a really clever, funny or useful idea and tie it into your
website via a link or some other way, you can drive incredible amounts
of traffic to your site with very little money or possibly none at all.
20. Videos
Creating videos has become very popular since the creation of YouTube
and other video-based sites. This ties into viral marketing and is a
good way to get people interested in your blog or website. It is most
common to show or say the URL of your website at the beginning and/or
end of a video, or tie it into your video site profile some how.
www.youtube.comvideo.google.com
vids.myspace.com
video.search.yahoo.com
video.msn.com
video.aol.com
www.metacafe.com
21. Podcasting
This is basically creating audio files and then letting your users
download or stream them via a link on your website or blog or via RSS
feeds. This is a good alternative to creating videos if you donĂ¢€™t have
a video camera or donĂ¢€™t like being on film. I have seen many sites
successfully offer audio downloads as a way of bringing users a large
amount of information quickly. You can even post on craigslist.com and
hire voice over talent for your podcasts at affordable prices.
22. Blogs
Blogs are a great way to reach a lot of people in a fast manner. They
take a lot of work, and to make a blog really effective they need to be
updated with fresh content at least several times a week. A lot of
websites will have a blog in addition to a main website as a sort of
news system for their main site, or just as a way to drive traffic to a
website.
www.wordpress.comwww.blogger.com
www.twitter.com
www.squidoo.com
www.tumblr.com
23. eBooks
eBooks have become very popular and they tend to spread well in
downloading communities. You can even sell your eBook on eBay, via a
website or just offer it as a gift to get people to sign up for your
newsletter.
24. Press Releases
Press releases can be an efficient way to get media attention if your
website or product is newsworthy enough. There are several websites you
can do this on. However, more commonly press releases are mailed,
faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio
stations, television stations, and/or television networks.
25. Networking
Networking can have many benefits to promoting your site. I am always
adding people on instant messaging services and talking to people
related to my field. By networking and making friends in the business
you can learn from each other and help each other which will benefit
your site.
The best way to do this is to meet people in forums or on sites
related to yours and chat via instant messengers. I usually run 5
different instant messengers that are all filled with business contacts
and friends.
www.aim.comwww.skype.com
messenger.yahoo.com
get.live.com/messenger/overview
www.icq.com
Saturday, December 1, 2012