How To Promote Your Website

And Save $1000's of Dollars

By Garnet R. Chaney

Last update: March 2004

NEW!

Want to discuss website promotion? Want more details? Visit the new Website Promotion Wiki. I'll be posting additional details there, which will eventually come back to this page.
I've recently added the check boxes to this page. As you are reading these tips, if there are items you would like my help with, just check the boxes, and at the end of the page, give me your name and email address. Then just click SEND!
If you received this page as a printed copy, just go to
http://www.garnetchaney.com/promotion.shtml for the online version.

Here is my easy checklist of ways to promote your website. All of these are proven methods, and many of them are very inexpensive, or even free!

No matter what your motive is for your website, whether it be the fame of a providing a free resource, the fortune of having successful sales, or making your existing customers happier, the key to any of those objectives is: Website Traffic!

More Visitors = More Success The following techniques will help your website attract more visitors. You're probably already doing some of these items. Make a commitment each month to add one or more items on this list to your website.

Easy Tips For Promoting Your Website

Check off all the items you need help with. The more items you check, the more visitors your website will have.

Put your website address, for example www.garnetchaney.com, on everything you print. This includes:
- Business Cards
- Letterhead
- Invoices
- Newspaper Ads
- Yellow pages advertisements
- Receipts
Hint: Let your webmaster see these things and double check your URL. Give your webmaster a proof copy of all these things, and ask if they have the correct URL. Once he approves the URL on one of your business cards, put a copy of your card in the file where you keep information about your website. Later you, or a tech savvy employee, can compare other things that you print in the future to what was written on that card.
Get more than one domain name for your business. Of course you should get your business name, and/or some catchy short name, like ChiroTX.com. But also get a domain name that includes keywords related to your business or service, like MyStretchCenter.com, or AwesomeRosesDirect.com.
Budget Saving Tip: Don't pay too much for your domains! I used to pay $35 per year for my domain names, but now I own so many names, I can't afford to pay too much. Visit my domain name registrar, GoGarnet.com and get your new domain names, or renewals of your domain name, for $10 a year, or less.
Get a domain name keyword consulant, like myself, to help you choose the best keyword rich domain names related to your business or service.
Don't loose your domain name! I've had some clients who have told me tales of misery and woe about how they bought their domain name early in the internet game, and then didn't know, or forgot, to renew it, and now some cybersquatter has their name and wants $1000 or more to give back their name.
So go ahead and pay for your domain name for the next 4 years. You can save a lot of money by transfering your domain name to GoGarnet.com. Right now, while you are thinking about, visit GoGarnet and start your domain transfer. When you transfer your domain to GoGarnet, you will get an extra year of registration when you transfer your name. You can also buy additional years for less money than your current registrar. Then, every year on your birthday, give your website a present and renew your domain for another year, or two. I pay my most important domain names 9 or 10 years into the future. You should to, at GoGarnet.com.
Most email programs let you have a "signature" that is automatically added to all the messages that you send. Be sure that you put your website address in your signature.
Send a message to your webmaster and ask him to verify the URL that is in your email signature.
Get an email address that looks like: yourname@yourdomain.com
Your webmaster should be able to set this up as a separate email box, or as a forward so that the email to that address is delivered to wherever you usually receive your email.
Proofreading Help List

e-Books & Docs: Lapsing Into a Comma: A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--And How to Avoid Them [DOWNLOAD: ADOBE READER]
A properly operating website is very important. You should have your website double checked for working links, working interactive forms, properly displaying pictures, and other quality assurance.
If you have uniforms in your business, put your URL on the uniforms.
Put your URL on all other promotional items. Make a t-shirt, or polo shirt, to give out to your best customers, and friends, and be sure it has your web address on it!
Put your URL in press releases.
Don't have any press releases yet? You should write one!
Website Press Release Checklist:
a. Write a press release about your website, and submit it to a press release distribution service.
b. Add your press release to your site.
c. Repeat every time you complete a major new addition to your site.
Put your URL on the side of any company vehicles that you have. Your employees might even like the idea of a bumper sticker to put on their cars too.
Put your URL on every page of your catalog or price list. You want to make it as easy to find as your toll free number.
Good content is king. Regularly add new content to your website.

Some great content for your website could be the addition of a complete online store. TheWebsiteMakers offer some great complete Online Stores, such as the Online Camera Store for your website.

Search Engine Optimization
Streetwise Maximize Web Site Traffic: Build Web Site Traffic Fast and Free by Optimizing Search Engine Placement by by Robin Nobles
THE savvy way to successful website promotion; Attracting on-line traffic; Guide to top positioning on search engines by by Derek Galon
Affiliate Program Guides
Affiliate Selling: Building Revenue on the Web by by Greg Helmstetter
The Complete Insiders Guide to Associate & Affiliate Programs by by Declan Dunn
Get your Amazon List at GarnetChaney.com

Make sure your site is properly submitted to search engines. Here are some places to submit your site.

URL:
Email:
Explore search engine marketing to get even better search engine traffic.
If your site has been online, with good content, for at least 6 months, you should get a search engine positioning for your site. This will help you see how your site is positioned for the search terms that would bring you targetted traffic. Some companies charge as much as $2000 for this kind of report. Budget Saving Hint: Visit my SeoMetrics.US, and learn why you need this kind of report, and see some examples of reports I can make for your website (and your competitors), for $50 or less!
Make sure you have good traffic reporting software as part of your site. You should study your traffic patterns, and also study the section that tells you what search terms people are using in search engines to find your site.
Learn about pay-per-click search engines like ah-ha, FindWhat, Searchfeed, and Overture. Set aside a small budget to explore placing listings on these search engines.
Tip: My new Website Promotion Wiki has URLs, phone numbers, and brief info, about the biggest pay-per-click search engines.
Register your site at Search.World11.com. They'll give you up to a 1000 free visitors for your site!
Launch a sweepstakes associated with any one or more of the following:
- Registering for your newsletter
- Customers putting their name and email on a clipboard next to your cash register.
The prize can be one of your products, or a promotional item.
Please note: Make sure that there is no purchase required for entry, and that you include "Void where prohibitted." There are also other rules that vary from state to state.
Put printable coupons on your website that people can bring in to your store.
Send out a once every two weeks newsletter to people who have registered on your site.
Offer free articles to other sites in exchange for them placing a link in the article back to your website.
Explore targetted email promotion. Make sure that the email list is a reputable list where all the members have used "double-optin".
Avoid SPAM and "bulk email" like the plague. They can work, but the amount of headache they can cause is not worth it. For some ideas about how to use email marketing, see my article about email marketing.
Create your own link exchange with sites that are complimentary and non-competitive to your own.
Do you have friends who have personal websites? If they like your website, ask them to write a mini-review of your website and post it on their site. You might even supply them with a sample keyword rich review they can use.
Start an affiliate program. www.cj.com, Commission Junction, is a great way to get started.
Actively participate in news groups and discussion groups. Join forums that are interesting to you, and try to help as much as you can. In every message you post, put your URL after your signature. Some forum software allows you to create an automatic signature that is added to every message that you post. Even Better: - edit your sig for each message to tell why your site is relevant to the message you responded to.
Include a catalog with all orders that you ship. Let your customers know that they can find special offers and coupons on your website, then put some there for them to find.
Regularly update the coupons, discounts, and special offers on your website.
Add an online survey to your website to see what kinds of information and additional content your visitors would like.
Add a questions and answers area, and put in the most common questions that your clients, patients, or visitors ask you.
Add a "tell-a-friend" feature to your website. This will let your visitors easily spread the word about your great site.
Place classified advertisements, and include your URL in them.
Do you have a niche site? Are there certain specialzed magazines you'd consider buying an advertisement in? Why not write a review of your website, and submit it to the magazine for publication? They have lots of copy inches to fill, and they are often very happy to receive articles of great interest to their readers. This can give you a lot more space in their magazine than you'd ever be able to afford.
Add a search the internet box to your site. FrontPage makes it easy. I also have an inexpensive script that will let you add quality, family friendly, search results to your website. When people click on those search results, you'll make money!
Do you sell products? If your website is advertising your service business, (for example, you are a chiropractor), are there products related to your service that you can sell? If so, add an ecommerce store to your site.
Have you followed the "content is king" step above, and written a lot of good articles for your website? Package them as an ebook, and sell the eBook on Amazon. Liberally sprinkle your ebook with links back to your website, so readers can get up to date information, and order products from any kind of store, or affiliate links, that you might discover later.
If you sell items in a store on your website, explore selling those same items on eBay. You could discover a new gold mine from buyers there who are looking to buy!
Subscribe to my Advanced Website Promotion

I can help you get started today with these tips, no matter what your budget. Promotion of your website is just as important as the design and hosting of your website. You should make promotion a part of your monthly online budget.

Just check the boxes above that you would like help on, and then fill out the information below, and click send. I'll look at your needs, and plan a promotion strategy for you at a price you can afford.

- Garnet

P.S. I added a dozen new strategies to this list within the last month. Don't miss out! Write me and ask to be on my newsletter list for website promotion, and I'll let you know when I add more.

"Garnet has forgotten more about search engine marketing than these guys will ever know!"
-Bob R.'s critique of a recent "free lunch to get you to buy our overpriced $5000+ e-commerce and internet marketing system" seminar.
Garnet :
First of all ... thanks a lot for being with us ... Thanks for excellent ideas and considerations that you provide to us in this thread. ..... I have read what you publish here with Great Attention, because these matters are "Life or Death" for me !!!
[There are] a few excellent people that I have met in this board and that would be wonderful as consultants and advisors for me, and I include you in those people with knowledge, science and programming to give sound advice to me ....
-Vicente Duque, website designer, September 2003

Please fill out all items. I will not share this information with anyone.
Name:
Your Website Address:
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If you would like to learn even more about web site promotion, I've added this list of website promotion books. If you find a technique in one of these books that is not mentioned on my list, be sure to write me about it.

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