101 way to promote your site (apart from SEO)

[temi]

We all seem obsessed with SEO this day, I bet there are lots of other ways to promote your site apart from search engine optimisation. I am attempting to compile about 101 other ways to promote your site, here are the 10 I have managed to think up so far, please add your own suggestion if its not already on the above list:

1. Advertisement on newspaper
2. Advertisement on other sites
3. Adsense and other online ads
4. Leaflet though the letter box
5. Signature in forum post
6. Starting a forum
7. Sponsoring a site
8. Sponsor a competition
9. Donate to a good cause so that you site name will be mentioned
10. Mail shot
11. Email shot to your existing customers
12. Newsletter
    The following tips was contributed by findgoodsite
13. Give away promotional products at various events. Especially t-shirts and caps that people wear all day and can be seen by everyone.
14. Pay some good article writers to work then submit the articles to various article websites, it's incredible how good this works.
15. Publish press releases about your business.
16. Add a sticker to the back of your van and always be the first in lines on crowded streets.
17. Creating few yahoo member profiles and adding some information about the business will certainly bring some visitors to the website, on a regular base (this is what I heard from a friend).
    
18. Paying some teenagers to spread small advertising to the car drivers waiting at the crossroads in a crowded city.
19. Offer prizes to posters in your forum
    
    Generating traffic using Pay Per Click contributed by Paul_KY
    
20. Do you have a medium to large advertising budget? Overture/Google Adwords (NOT ADSENSE, unless you like throwing money away).
    
21. Do you have a small advertising budget? Goclick, 7Search, Findwhat, Enhance, Search123. (GoClick being the best of the above 5 - Also, there's much more, 'stinky' clicks from the lower tier PPC search engines, but at as low as a penny per click, you can test your marketing campaigns on the cheap)
22. How about a model, which you send traffic to their site, they pay you 50 cents per valid game player who signs up and in addition to paying you, you receive free traffic based on your daily signups? cashbreak.com/webmasters.asp
    
    More site promotion ideas from InfoJungle
23. Offer a good affiliate/referral program.
24. Offer a free email service with your site name.
25. Submit your site to directories related to your site. Niche directories.
26. Word of mouth. Take time out to create a buzz about your site and people will continue to come back. I always tell anyone I meet about my site.
27. Have business cards printed with site info on them.
28. Post websites to classified ads. Some are still free.
29. Promote site at networking evenings. i.e Affliate networking events etc
    
    
    

 

[findgoodsites]

Also add:

Giving away promotional products at various events. Especially t-shirts and caps that people wear all day and can be seen by everyone.

Pay some good article writers to work then submit the articles to various article websites, it's incredible how good this works.

Publish press releases about your business.

Add a sticker to the back of your van and always be the first in lines on crowded streets.

Creating few yahoo member profiles and adding some information about the business will certainly bring some visitors to the website, on a regular base (this is what I heard from a friend).

There is some other option in my country. Paying some teens to spread small advertising to the car drivers waiting at the crossroads in a crowded city. Here colour ads cost around 5 cents each and for 10 dollars almost 500 of those can be spread.

I've seen websites giving prizes to their forum users for adding many posts that contain important information, this bringing a lot of good content to the site.

This is what I can think about right now, if something else appears, I'll come back.

Have a nice day !

 

[temi]

Findgoodsite,
Thanks for your contribution, I will add it to the above list, what country are you from BTW ?

 

[Paul_KY]

Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising is BY FAR the most effective advertising venue.

Do you have a medium to large advertising budget? Overture/Google Adwords (NOT ADSENSE, unless you like throwing money away).

Do you have a small advertising budget? Goclick, 7Search, Findwhat, Enhance, Search123. (GoClick being the best of the above 5 - Also, there's much more, 'stinky' clicks from the lower tier PPC search engines, but at as low as a penny per click, you can test your marketing campaigns on the cheap)

How about a model, which you send traffic to their site, they pay you 50 cents per valid game player who signs up and in addition to paying you, you receive free traffic based on your daily signups? cashbreak.com/webmasters.asp

Now, keep in mind the, 'free' traffic you'll receive from them is framed traffic, but if you're a keen marketer, you'll know how to convert the, 'framed' visitor without breaking any rules.

I like sending 1641 visitors and receiving 23,410 in exchange.

Date
Hits
Signups
Good Leads
Bad Leads

New Player Referrals

6/1/2005
74
8
5
1

6/2/2005
62
4
1
0

6/3/2005
44
6
0
0

6/4/2005
47
3
3
0

6/5/2005
54
7
1
0

6/6/2005
48
11
5
0

6/7/2005
75
10
4
0

6/8/2005
69
11
3
1

6/9/2005
67
3
4
0

6/10/2005
72
7
4
0

6/11/2005
63
5
4
0

6/12/2005
49
3
1
0

6/13/2005
65
6
2
0

6/14/2005
85
11
5
0

6/15/2005
68
10
2
1

6/16/2005
54
6
6
0

6/17/2005
39
6
2
1

6/18/2005
70
6
3
0

6/19/2005
60
10
3
0

6/20/2005
65
8
6
0

6/21/2005
54
6
5
0

6/22/2005
68
12
6
0

6/23/2005
42
6
5
0

6/24/2005
94
11
7
0

6/25/2005
76
5
0
1

6/26/2005
56
6
2
0

6/27/2005
21
5
2
0

Month Totals: 1641 192 91 5
New Sponsor Referrals

No New Sponsor Referral Activity Found for June - 2005

New Affiliate Referrals

6/3/2005
1
1
0
0

6/21/2005
1
1
0
0

6/25/2005
1
1
0
0

Month Totals: 3 3 0 0
Free Traffic Sent to Your Website!

6/1/2005
646
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/2/2005
1354
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/3/2005
1
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/4/2005
1400
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/5/2005
398
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/6/2005
485
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/7/2005
1518
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/8/2005
1199
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/9/2005
1270
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/10/2005
884
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/11/2005
1205
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/12/2005
182
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/13/2005
354
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/14/2005
996
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/15/2005
816
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/16/2005
1012
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/17/2005
400
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/18/2005
220
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/19/2005
1776
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/20/2005
1483
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/21/2005
1197
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/22/2005
1249
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/23/2005
452
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/24/2005
1937
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/26/2005
291
N/A
N/A
N/A

6/27/2005
685
N/A
N/A
N/A

Month Totals: 23410 N/A N/A N/A

 

[temi]

Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising is BY FAR the most effective advertising venue.

Do you have a medium to large advertising budget? Overture/Google Adwords (NOT ADSENSE, unless you like throwing money away).

Paul,
I am a but lost, I though adwords = advertiser e.g. if I want to advertise
and Adsense = publisher e.g. the displaying the type of advert I have on this site

So I am a bit confused by your assertion about please enlighten me.

 

[findgoodsites]

I was thinking the same about Adsense-Adwords thingie.

Temi, I live in Romania, Bucharest.

Paul,
I am a but lost, I though adwords = advertiser e.g. if I want to advertise
and Adsense = publisher e.g. the displaying the type of advert I have on this site

So I am a bit confused by your assertion about please enlighten me.

 

[Paul_KY]

Google offers two types venues for advertisers (Actually three).

When advertising through Google's adwords, your adds are displayed on Google's web search results and more importantly on those of AOLs, Earthlinks, Askjeeves, Netscapes and more. This is PPC at it's finest. The user is searching for something, types in a keyword and BAM, there's your site right at the top, or off to the side, targeting to the visitor at the very moment he/she is looking for a service you may provide. Translation - Excellent conversion.

Another option the advertiser has is to be included in, 'content' based ads. These ads are shown on webmaster's sites with the, "Adds by Gooooogle" below. So the visitor is at your site, to see about what YOUR site has to offer, so the clicks to the Adsense ads are most likely, 'curiosity clicks' or, 'generousity clicks', as most know the webmaster will be paid if they click. Then end result for advertisers, horrible ROI. This is why webmasters, who were once making a bundle through Adsense, are now seeing their checks getting smaller and smaller. Reason being, advertisers are becoming hip to the Adsense craze, and are dropping this option.

All the above is JMHO based on my personal experience and in reading thousands of others' accounts throughout various Internet marketing related MSG boards.

 

[Infojungle]

Other ways to promote your site

Temi, I will add the following:-

1) Offer a good affiliate/referral program.
2) Offer a free email service with your site name.
3) Submit your site to directories related to your site. Niche directories.
4) Word of mouth. Take time out to create a buzz about your site and people will continue to come back. I always tell anyone I meet about my site.
5) Have business cards printed with site info on them.
6) Post websites to classified ads. Some are still free.
7) Promote site at networking evenings. i.e Affliate networking events etc

Will come back and add more if and when I think about them.

 

[temi]

I was thinking the same about Adsense-Adwords thingie.

Temi, I live in Romania, Bucharest.

Thanks for that info

Temi

 

[temi]

Temi, I will add the following:-

1) Offer a good affiliate/referral program.
2) Offer a free email service with your site name.
3) Submit your site to directories related to your site. Niche directories.
4) Word of mouth. Take time out to create a buzz about your site and people will continue to come back. I always tell anyone I meet about my site.
5) Have business cards printed with site info on them.
6) Post websites to classified ads. Some are still free.
7) Promote site at networking evenings. i.e Affliate networking events etc

Will come back and add more if and when I think about them.

Thanks for this suggestions Ade, I have added your suggestions to the master list

Temi

 

[Paul_KY]

Spam Internet MSG Boards?????

 

[temi]

Spam Internet MSG Boards?????

No, we are looking for ethical promotion not spam

 

[Paul_KY]

Here's some examples where NOT to buy traffic (IMHO):

trafficexcess.com
topchoicetraffic.com
all-marketing.net <---15,000 targetted <Cough>, "Visitors" for $49.95 - Yeah, right!

 

[findgoodsites]

Another good ideea is to start a web directory, with free inclusion, and with a special inclusion, something like reciprocal, but ask the submitters to add a link to your website in return for that special link (like it will show up in a premium position). 500-1000 one way links to your website can worth a lot, if not for google, for other search engines surely.

Also, build a directory, ask them if they want to join your newsletter when they submit, then send them e-mails with promotions and other goodies from all the websites you own.

It is important to have a newsletter for your website, you can even offer a discount for joining as a member (receiving newsletters) and e-mail all these precious customers and members once or twice a month with useful information and offers, only things that anyone will appreciate, otherwise they will unsubscribe.

If you sell various merchandise, don't hesitate to use stickers or even custom made scotch tape and imprinted boxes with the name of the website. As more people see the box, there' s a chance for a new visitor to your website. Throw in each box few vouchers with special products, those may reach customer's friends.

People's foreheads tattoos - as in some ebay's listings

Some cheap advertising in vouchers that are free at the cinema (multiplex type), they have information on contacting them for advertising rates. Better, print your own small advertising magazine and ask the cinema staff to leave those where people buy tickets.
Example:
I bought some movie tickets, and also took a thin magazine of a travel reservation company, while waiting in the mall for the movie to start, I choose a hotel I liked and reserved a whole week with them at the sea. They also had a big website text, of course I visited their website as soon as I reached home, and also sent the info to some friends.
Don't forget to leave few of these magazines at the dentist, people read such things while waiting

That's all I can think about right now. Hope to have more ideas.