Article Directories
Article directories are a wonderful way to get traffic and backlinks to your website. There are many well established article directories that have been proven to get websites traffic. People search for articles in different categories and after reading the article they usually follow a link at the bottom of the article to your website.
Business Directories
Posting in business directories is still an effective way to get backlinks and small amounts of traffic. Most directory sites have many listings that are organized into. Being that there are so many business directories, the best way to find one related to your site would be to do a Google search or to use the websites below to find them.
Classifieds
Classifieds are a common way to easily make posts for free, and reach large amounts of people. They tend to work better for business or service-based websites, but you can also drive traffic to other types of sites as well
Forums
Forums are another good way to get backlinks and traffic, but you need to contribute to the forums and not just spam them with your links. I recommend becoming an active member of forums that are related to your site, as well as including your website link in your forum signature. By making intelligent and informative posts people will be inclined to check out the link in your signature because you have built interest about yourself.
Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites are often overlooked as a way to market a website or blog. Having lots of friends and access to groups can be a good way to contact a lot of people in an easy and efficient manner. Most social networking sites also have forums and classifieds that you can post in.
Social Bookmarking Sites
Social bookmarking sites can be an amazing way to promote your website. What a lot of people will do is write a killer article and then submit it to the social bookmarking sites to drive traffic to that article, hoping it will get bookmarked a lot.
Search Engines
This is probably one of the most difficult ways to market a site, but also one of the most popular ways due to the fact that the traffic you get can be extremely targeted to exactly what your site offers. This is especially important for sites that sell a product and are looking for a high conversion rate. It is usually better to start off targeting niche markets and low competition long tail keywords. Ranking well on Google for a phrase like ‘graphic design’ in the search engines would be extremely difficult to do, so look for longer keywords or more detailed ones.
Word of Mouth
This is a very basic and old school way of marketing but it has remained because it really is effective. All you have to do is tell all your family, friends and co-workers about your new site or blog and let them do the work! Be sure to have business cards on hand to give out to anyone you speak with.
Pay per Click Advertising (PPC)
PPC advertising takes a lot of studying to do right, and can cost a decent amount of money, but if your site is well designed and converts well, or you are just looking for traffic, it can be a very powerful marketing tool when done right.
Banner Advertising
The difficulty in banner advertising is simply creating a very alluring banner design in the amount of space specified. Some sites don’t let you create animated banners, but if you have a very intriguing static banner on a good site it can get you traffic for sure. The best way to do this is to manually search for websites and blogs related to your site and contact them for a banner exchange.
Text Link Advertising
Text link advertising is usually cheap and can bring in lots of traffic, but the traffic tends to be rather unspecific – which is ok sometimes. I find it best to look for sites related to your website to buy text links spots on. Or, if you are just looking for tons of traffic, you can go to major text link sites that offer spots on very large websites.
Print Advertising
Print advertising can be very expensive, but is especially useful when advertising in a specific location. For example, if you are opening a new restaurant in a city, sending out flyers is a surefire way to get people to your website and restaurant. You could also drop off business cards or flyers at local stores and start offering your services to local people.
Portfolio Sites
There are many websites that host portfolios of designers and artists. By submitting your work to their sites you will often get a lot of exposure to your own site by way of a link.
Tutorial Sites
Submitting tutorials is a great way to get traffic to your website via a link. A lot of designers submit tutorials to sites like the ones below, and get a lot of exposure. Most of these tutorials sites are very well ranked so getting a link on them can be very good for your website or blog.
Link Baiting
Linking baiting is when you write or post something that has the potential to be blogged about, linked or bookmarked a lot. Good content in general will help your website or blog out a lot, but you can step it up a notch by producing videos or articles specifically for link baiting.
Contests
People love entering contest, especially if there is a desirable prize. Contest prizes range in types. Some sites will offer you exposure and links and other sites will offer money or actual physical prizes. The key to a successful contest is obviously getting lots of people to enter, so make sure you promote your contest as much as you can on forums, classifieds and more. Also, don’t be afraid to enter contests for a chance to win some money or prizes, yourself!
Link Exchanges
This is arguably one of the most important ways to rank well for keywords and bring traffic to your website. It is important to exchange links or get one-way links from relevant sites. Make sure you are using an important keyword because your links anchor text and not a word like ‘click here’ or something you do not want to rank well for in search engines. The best way to do this is to manually search for websites and blogs related to your site and contact them for a link exchange. Also, check out the two sites below.
Email Marketing
Email marketing can be very beneficial if done well. You do not want to be a spammer or buy lists of emails, though. The way to work email marketing is to have an opt-in email form on your website where users can sign up to receive emails and special offers. Offering a free e-book or tips is a good way to get people to sign up. Once they are signed up you can send emails once in a while to bring them back to your site or to promote something.
Viral Marketing
This is the hottest new way to market a website, but it is not easy! You have probably heard about all these YouTube videos getting millions of views, and articles on Digg getting thousands of hits. If you can think up a really clever, funny or useful idea and tie it into your website via a link or some other way, you can drive incredible amounts of traffic to your site with very little money or possibly none at all.
Videos
Creating videos has become very popular since the creation of YouTube and other video-based sites. This ties into viral marketing and is a good way to get people interested in your blog or website. It is most common to show or say the URL of your website at the beginning and/or end of a video, or tie it into your video site profile somehow.
Podcasting
This is basically creating audio files and then letting your users download or stream them via a link on your website or blog or via RSS feeds. This is a good alternative to creating videos if you don’t have a video camera or don’t like being on film. I have seen many sites successfully offer audio downloads as a way of bringing users a large amount of information quickly. You can even post on craigslist.com and hire voice over talent for your podcasts at affordable prices.
Blogs
Blogs are a great way to reach a lot of people in a fast manner. They take a lot of work, and to make a blog really effective they need to be updated with fresh content at least several times a week. A lot of websites will have a blog in addition to a main website as a sort of news system for their main site, or just as a way to drive traffic to a website.
eBooks
eBooks have become very popular and they tend to spread well in downloading communities. You can even sell your eBook on eBay, via a website or just offer it as a gift to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
Press Releases
Press releases can be an efficient way to get media attention if your website or product is newsworthy enough. There are several websites you can do this on. However, more commonly press releases are mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and/or television networks.
Networking
Networking can have many benefits to promoting your site. I am always adding people on instant messaging services and talking to people related to my field. By networking and making friends in the business you can learn from each other and help each other which will benefit your site. The best way to do this is to meet people in forums or on sites related to yours and chat via instant messengers. I usually run 5 different instant messengers that are all filled with business contacts and friends.
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