Like it or not, if you own a website (and you want ... own a ... It may be a large ... or a ... site, but it's a business ... You ... to visit your
Like it or not, if you own a website (and you want visitors),
you own a business. It may be a large corporation or a small
informative site, but it's a business nonetheless. You want
people to visit your site, and see what you have to offer. Of
course, if you're building a site for friends and family the
rest of this article may not apply to you... but even informative
sites may seek out advertising revenue.
Here are some tips to market your web site:
1. Promote Your URL: Place your url on:
-business cards
-letterhead
-brochures
-company folders
-notepads
-giveaways (like pens)
-invoices
-catalogs
-email signatures (that little tag at the bottom of all emails
should have your contact information and web site address)
Back when the Internet was in it's fledgling stages smart
companies began putting their web addresses in their commercials.
Many consumers AND advertising executives, who had no clue what
the Internet was thought these companies were wasting valuable
commercial time and resources on promoting some silly address
that noone in their right mind would go out of their way to see.
Boy, were they wrong. Anything that you distribute should most
definitely have your URL, as well as an email address for people
to contact you.
2. Offer a free service (can just be something small).
Just think, when a supermarket or other brick-and-mortar store
offers an item for free, people go well out of their way to pick
that item up, even if they have absolutely no use for it! Why?
People like free stuff, and on the Internet, it's even easier for
someone to pick it up! Easy to get, means more visitors to you.
Now, you don't have to go and give away a car, or some other
high value item. I've seen successful ad campaigns that will
give away a free e-book, or some other form of digital media.
The cost to you, for this, is next to nothing. (Wasn't this
article free?) So, free stuff is simply good.
3. Add an option to your web site where visitors can give you
their email address to be kept up to date. Create a periodic
newsletter that you send to those people with special deals.
Sending out a newsletter costs very little to its publisher
However, the publisher is able to promote and re-promote his/her
site every time a new newsletter is sent out. If you provide
valuable content, the recipient may then forward this newsletter
to a friend, and your promotion goes viral. Articles from
a good newsletter can be recirculated for years and years, at
no cost to you!
What's best, is that a popular newsletter can actually be an
income generator! If your newsletter has a strong base of
clientelle, you can charge other companies money for a small
advertisement within your letter. The cost to you remains the
same, and you might end up turning a small profit as well. It's
hard to beat that.
4. Request reciprocal links from other related web sites.
Let other websites promote your site, while at the same time
promoting theirs. Again, this costs you nothing, while spreading
your target audience to the other company's audience.
Now get to work, you have a website to promote!
