Promoting
Your Business Website
The never-ending work to get traffic
Building and
setting up your website is an accomplishment for anyone, even
more so for a Newbie. All the things you had to learn, the never
ending study curve; the general feeling there's going to be a
"gotcha" just waiting for you. Looking back you see the mountain
of work you've done; feels good, doesn’t it?
Take a deep
breath, my friend, the real work is just about to start! Yes,
the never-ending job of promoting and marketing your website is
waiting for you. Though accomplishing the setup and building
phase is a feather in your cap, leave those laurels alone and
roll up your sleeves; your work is just barely beginning.
Just because
your website is there, doesn't mean you're going to get any
visitors. You must let the Search Engines and the Net at large
know that you are open for business. Other than the occasional
redo of your site, marketing and promotion is going to occupy
most of your time. Believe me, it is never-ending work.
The only way
your website will grow and provide a self-sustaining income is
to get traffic to it. The theory is that if your visitors are
targeted, some of them will purchase your products. Consider
these resources to get traffic:
a) Go to the
forums that are related to what you do and post knowledgeable
answers to questions in your area of interest. It will draw
visitors to your website because they will come to think of you
as an expert. As a side benefit, each posting will elevate your
Page Rank if you use a signature and include an anchor text link
to your website. On the minus side, some of the folks that visit
will be your competitors.
b) Do your
best to get indexed by all the major Search Engines and
directories. Many of your buying customers will be provided by
them. The easiest method to get indexed is to post in many
of the relevant blogs; they get spidered quite often and will
follow a link back to your website.
c) Once you have your website URL indexed, you must establish
relevance for a number of phrases. To read a more in depth
treatment of this subject, read my article "Keywords and their
costs to Newbies."
d) Write
articles and distribute them to all the online publishers that
will accept them. The good thing about distributing articles is
that you'll get to reach so many more people that will have an
interest on your subject matter. Make sure you provide a link
back to your website in the resource box.
e) Explore
all the other ways of promoting your website. There are traffic
exchange programs, business cards, word of mouth, Google AdWords,
ad networks, linking to relevant websites, etc, etc I would
advise to stay away from FFA (Free for All) and Safelist
advertising. If you use them, do it only to get contacts, not
necessarily to sell. Setup special email accounts for the
avalanche of incoming emails.
f) Schedule
your time and do each promotion activity on a weekly basis. You
must sleep, eat, think, dream, and live to promote your website.
Cary your business cards with you and pass them around. Develop
contacts and relationships and nurture them, join any online or
offline groups that are related to your website.
If you are
realistic and keep at it, you'll see results. It won't happen
overnight, it’s more like a steady trickle that will grow. From
everything I've read it appears most websites take about 9
months to a year to start producing an income. The one constant
will be your dedication and commitment to make it happen. Keep
plucking at it and the Internet horn of plenty will deliver.
by Francisco Aloy
(C)2005 Francisco Aloy
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