Tried and True Ways to Promote Your Website

Website promotion is an area that has received volumes of attention both on and offline. However, it doesn't hurt to talk about it one more time. After all, if just one of the mentioned promotional vehicles helps you to spread the word about your site, it'll be worth it.

When I first started on the Internet, my newsletter (NL) had a subscription of me and my best friend. Since he wasn't a candidate for anything I was selling I not only had to increase my subscription base and raise the visitors to my site but I had to get honest to God buyers.

So, my first step was to contact the publisher of a newsletter to which I was subscribed. I told her I was a subscriber, why I liked her newsletter and mentioned my site and my newsletter. After a few email exchanges, she asked me to write an article for her NL.

Lo and behold, the magic of referral took place. Some of her subscribers actually subscribed to my NL. I had found a neat way to increase my subscriber base and not pay a penny.

I repeated the process with several other NL publishers and my NL grew from 2 to 2000. I had yet to spend a nickel on advertising. I was ecstatic to say the least.

Mind you, this was in the day before article marketing became the whiz bang means it is today especially with all the article directories now populating the Internet. Today, thanks to these directories it is easier and faster to grow not only a NL but a site.

Not to be outdone, old fashioned BTI (before the Internet) ways like in brochures and on business cards, on bumper stickers, on promotional products such as caps, mugs and towels, in your voicemail messages and on supermarket bulletin boards are still viable.

In fact, you now see website addresses in yellow page ads, on fax cover sheets, on print ads, on invoices/estimates, letters to the editor, specially designed post cards, radio and television ads, on envelopes, back windows of vehicles, on the sides of a business' trucks, license plate holders, on t-shirts, business cards and, of course, in signature lines of articles and emails.

Truly, website promotion is limited only to the imagination. No, I didn't forget word of mouth because like article directories of a few years ago, social networking sites have sprung up like wild flowers.

If you upload a video that is provocative, intriguing or different from the norm, word of mouth will make you a household name in what seems like no time. Even the big news outlets have people who do nothing but pour over these sites for material to air.

Remember, they have to fill air time and they are always hungry for filler material. Who knows, maybe your filler material will get played over and over and over making your material extremely popular.

Another area I didn't forget is the buying of advertising. Specifically, buy ads in those newsletters that cater to an audience with a subscriber base similar to people who would buy your product. For example, if you are into bonsai trees, chances are good a NL targeted to fencing instructors won't produce too many interested buyers.

Use your common sense and imagination and you should be able to grow your website. The areas mentioned above are proven strategies and should help you get a good start.