Promoting Your Website Online and Offline

Search engines aren't the only way that people will find your website. There are many opportunities to promote your website offline as well as online. Here are just a few of both:

• Get your website placed well in the search engine rankings for your key search words. This means within the first three pages and preferably within the first page. Recent studies show that only 3% of surfers will go beyond the first three pages of returns during their search.
• Get as many links as you can from other websites. This is the second most popular way that surfers will find your website, search engines being the first.
• Become a member of as many blogs as you can find that relate to the subject of your website. Post to them often. This method can bring you a lot of traffic to your website.
• Offer a free ezine or e-newsletter. The newsletter doesn't have to be long and it doesn't have to be often. Once or twice a month is plenty for most newsletters.
• Add your website address to your answering machine or voice mail message.
• Add your website address to your signature on your email. Most email programs offer a tool for an automatic signature to be added to every outgoing email. Take advantage of it.
• Add your website address to every piece of hardcopy advertising you do. Newspaper ads, magazine ads, your letterhead, business cards, car signs, billboards, banner signs, all your signs, clothing like baseball hats and teeshirts, and any other promotional printed items such as keychains, balloons, calendars, should all have your website address on them.
• Insert your website address on your mailing envelopes. If they're pre-printed, get some address labels, print your website address on them, and stick them under the return address or use them as a seal.
• Always give people a reason to visit your website. In the beginning of the WWW just having a website was sufficient to draw traffic. Now there are billions of websites and people need to have a reason to visit yours. Each time you advertise your website address also add a grabby invitation. Examples are "Visit my website for ALL the real estate listings for sale in Chicago", "Visit my website and get a free Tarot reading."
• Write articles for magazines, ezines, and newsletters that are related to your subject. Add your website address to the "about the author" info.
• Send out press releases about your existing products, your new products, your services, or any other newsy type item you can think of to any magazines or newsletters that are related to your product or service.
• Ask visitors to your website to bookmark your website. Let them know that there are always new things happening on your website and to come back to see what's new - sales, new products, new articles, etc.
• Ask visitors to recommend your website to a friend and offer them a simple form to fill out to make it easy for them.

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