The biggest problem I've always had promoting my web site is keeping myself
focused. After all, what should I be doing? Publishing my own e-zine,
placing classified ads, looking for link exchange partners, writing
articles... My head is beginning to spin just from trying to list all the
promotion strategies available today!
But when my friend who is just starting her Internet presence asked me,
"Milana, what should I do now?", it all became very clear: don't spread
yourself thin. Choose up to 2 ways to promote your web site and do it for
at least 1 month to see if it's effective.
I wrote a brief plan for her to follow this month and I wanted to share it
with you. Please, note: this strategy is not appropriate for everyone. It
focuses on writing articles, so you must be able to communicate your
thoughts on paper. You must also set aside approximately 3-4 hours a week
(which is nothing compared to how much time most online business owners
spend) and stick to the plan.
Do not try to implement any other strategies at this time. If you get an
idea, write down and try it later. If nothing else, this plan will surely
bring your site steady growing traffic. Ready?
1. Create a simple 2-5 page web site. Use an easy-to-use web page editor,
such as free Netscape Composer available from Netscape web site. Place your
sales copy on the main page, and use other pages for information about you,
your other products and whatever else you would like your visitors to see.
IMPORTANT: for this strategy, please, offer something free on your web site
via an autoresponder. Use GetResponse.com to be able to automatically
follow up with people who download your free gift.
Since this promotion strategy will generate a good amount of traffic to your
site, you MUST capture your visitors' e-mails or else you will waste all
this traffic. Mention to them that you will be sending occasional mailings
and that they can always leave your list.
2. Add TITLE and META tags to your web pages and submit them to major Search
Engines. Make sure these tags are short and mention only what's relevant.
Ask yourself, what word or phrase would I type in the Search Engine if I was
looking for my product?
Below is the list of "Submit Site" addresses for most of them:
http://home.lycos.com/addasite.html
http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/addurl
http://www.google.com/addurl.html
http://www.excite.com/info/addurlform
http://www.northernlight.com/docs/regurlhelp.html
http://www.directhit.com/util/addurl.html
http://www.alltheweb.com/addurl.php
http://hotbot.lycos.com/addurl.asp
http://www.anzwers.com.au/cgi-bin/printaddurl.pl
3. Locate up to 20 e-zines that target the same audience that you are. Make
sure they accept articles. Create a text file and record their e-mail
address (where you will send your articles), e-zine's title and publisher's
name.
TIP: If you want to save even more time in the long run, enter all this data
into a mailing list program so all you would have to do is click "Send"
button and your articles will be sent to everyone on the list.
Now your web site is set up and the promotion strategy is in place. The
rest of the plan will have to be implemented weekly to be effective.
4. Write one quality and informative article a week of interest to your
target audience and do the following:
- Add a resource box to the article about you & your product
- Add TITLE and META tags to it and submit to Search Engines
- Post your article on your web site for content
- Submit it to the e-zine list you generated earlier
- Submit it to article directories and lists
Here is the list of most popular article directories and lists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articleannounce
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content
http://www.ezinearticles.com/addurl.html
http://www.AuthorConnection.com
http://www.internetclinic.org/contact/sub-article.htm
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/articlesubmit.htm
http://www.webpromote.com/suggest.asp
http://makingprofit.com/mp/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.mediapeak.com/internetmarketingarticleindex.htm
http://www.articlecentral.com/suggest.asp
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/auto
5. Locate up to 3 popular forums where your target audience hangs out. Post
replies to their questions up to 1 hour a week. Leave your web site link
(or specific article link) behind so people know who you are and why they
should listen to your advice.
Follow this plan for at least 4 weeks. Make sure your articles are of high
quality and offer a solution to a problem that you target customers might be
facing. If you articles are published, expect increase in traffic to your
web site. And your freebie should take care of capturing your visitors
e-mails.
Your follow-up messages should introduce your products or services. As
always, make sure your subscribers can leave your list at any time.
About the Author
Milana Nastetskaya is a full time web developer
and the author of two books: "Create Your First
Business Web Site in 10 days", "65 Instant Web
Design Answers".
http://www.firstbusinesswebsite.com
http://www.instantwebanswers.com