How to Promote Your Website for Free, Part II
Forum Posts
Forum posts work much like Yahoo Answers which is actually a type of forum. When you post in a forum you get to not only list the forum post, but you also get a personal profile with a signature. Usually you can list your URL in the signature tab and any posts you make will also be inbound links to your site. Also, when you post in a forum you are adding credibility to your reputation. Building credibility and a link to your site are two instant bonuses.
Fresh Content
Article marketing is becoming a very lucrative business. Many new search engine algorithms have changed to now look at the amount and quality of site content. In order to generate site content you could spend lots of time writing page after page of new information, but if you are like many you don’t have the extra time to spend on this aspect of marketing. There are several sites which offer fresh content on a variety of subjects and will allow you to use the information provided you include the author’s tagline intact. Offering this fresh information will give your readers a reason to come back and it will give them something to tell their friends about, thus increasing your traffic.
Opt-in lists
An opt-in list is the perfect tool for capturing important content needed to target your readers with sales and promotions. Anyone who is on your opt-in list has given approval to let you contact them with information about our products and services. You can use your opt-in list to promote new products that you will add to your site and to draw attention to your site’s offerings. When members of your list find something they like they will be more likely to pass that info on to their friends and after all, “word-of-mouth” is the most effective and most inexpensive form of marketing available to anyone.
These are just a few of the many ways to promote your site for free. If you think creatively and plan to save your advertising dollars, you can promote your site very effectively on the cheap end. Some methods will generate quick results while others will slowly grow to a steady increase in traffic. You can build on these steps for an added effect, however you will want to track the overall effectiveness of each method for your own situation so that you do not spend too much time on a method that doesn’t work for you. SEO should always be your first step in the process and if possible, should be considered in the site design stages.
