Low-Cost Website Promotion

Q:  I need help advertising my web site for free . . .I am on a fixed income SSI 600.00 monthly . . . I would like to advertise to countries that speak ENGLISH -USA-UK-CANADA ect . . . Can you assist me. . .

A:  The beauty of today’s world is that you don’t need a huge marketing budget to make an impact, and to get the word out there about your website. Here are some concrete tips, that don’t cost a dime (except for your time, of course!).

1. If you don’t already have one, start a blog! Use a free service, such as Blogger or WordPress. Post religiously (every day if you can). A blog builds credibility for your business and also boosts traffic to your site, over time.
2. Contribute to other people’s blogs by commenting and linking. You’ll start to see that there’s a community of like-minded people out there. By contributing to other blogs, people will start seeing you and linking back to your blog to see what you do (hence more traffic building). Linking to other, related sites is not only a nice thing to do, but you’ll see that many will reciprocate, thus boosting your rankings with the search engines.
3. Make sure that your website is easy-to-navigate. Can your customers easily contact you and/or order from you? There’s nothing more frustrating than getting lost when you’re surfing and truly interested in something. Most consumers will give up if the site is too hard to deal with.
4. Start networking. Give your cards out to everyone you meet! Go to related functions and talk about what you do. Your enthusiasm will come through loud and clear and a ‘buzz’ will be generated about you and your company.
5. Write some articles and get them published. Target a few industry magazines that reach your target market. Write an article that is interesting to them, but that also highlights your business. There’s nothing like being a published author to build credibility.
6. Implement a PR campaign. As you make news (introduce new products, pick up new clients, etc.) announce this news. Send out a press-release to pertinent magazines, newspapers and other media outlets. It’s not that hard to find the press contact for publications. Start a list and anytime your company makes news, let them know via a nicely written press release.

Hopefully the above six tips will give you some concrete areas to start advertising your website and your business. Good luck!