Promoting your website needn’t be a costly activity and there are many free online marketing methods that can bring great results. Unfortunately there are also many online marketing methods that do not bring in good results and that new webmasters may often get conned into. In this post we will look at some free, yet effective, means of promoting your website; as well as a few methods that you should avoid.
Article Marketing is a Great Online Marketing Method
One of the most effective online marketing methods is article marketing. Article marketing includes writing articles related to your website and then distributing these through article directories with an “Author Bio Box” at the end which includes a link to your website. Article marketing is free but if you have written good articles which are also properly search engine optimized then you can get great results from this online marketing method.
Search Engine Optimization – Perhaps the Most Important Online Marketing Method
Search engine optimization is perhaps the most important online marketing method you should use in promoting your website. By learning a few search engine optimization techniques you will be able to do much of this yourself and so can enjoy the benefits of search engine optimization for free. Most people use search engines to find what they are looking for online and so if your website is correctly optimized you will be found by a lot more people and this will convert to a lot more sales or click-throughs.
Forum Marketing – Time Consuming but Effective
Forum marketing is another excellent way to promote your website. Although this online marketing method is more time consuming than some of the others, if you have a bit of extra time to put into your marketing then it may provide excellent results. The trick with forum marketing is to provide plenty of useful information in forums related to your website and then include a link to your website in your forum signature. This way when people have read your posts and find them interesting, they will be more likely to click through to your website and make you more money.
Social Networking
Social networking has become another popular and free method of promoting your website. Be careful when using this to promote your website that you do not break the rules of your social networking site, but if used correctly this can provide good results for your online marketing.
Some Online Marketing Methods to Avoid
All the above free online marketing methods that we have discussed enable you to target the type of people that you will be reaching and make money by approaching people who are already interested in what you have to offer. There are a number of marketing methods however that do not allow proper targeting and are basically webmasters trying to promote their products. Some of these online marketing methods include traffic exchanges and safelists.
There are a number of free online marketing methods that you can use to promote your website that will bring great results. These include article marketing, forum marketing, search engine optimization and social networking. Avoid non-targeted methods such as traffic exchanges and safelists.
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Terry Didcott responded on 31 Aug 2007 at 10:12 am #
Hi, I can add another great free method of online marketing to that list that can bring some good results - Yahoo Answers.
By narrowing your categories to your own niche, you can find plenty of questions that you can give authoritative, informative answers to and include a link back to your site. A surprisingly large amount of people who are interested in your niche will read those answers - so traffic is very targeted.
-Tel
WhyDoWork responded on 31 Aug 2007 at 10:37 am #
Great advice!
I was looking in the analytics data for whydowork.com and finding referrals from answers.yahoo.com. Traffic has been regularly sent here for questions that have said “what are good work at home sites?” and someone intelligently says “check whydowork.com”
webtohuwabohu responded on 04 Sep 2007 at 6:57 am #
hey there,
first of all thanx for this article. But I do have a question on the first free online Marketing Method. What exactly do you mean by ‘article directories’?
Do you mean something like those press release plattforms? Or like blogger who have a broad reader community? Maybe you have a list of those article directories?
BJ
WhyDoWork responded on 04 Sep 2007 at 8:16 am #
Article directories are quite similar to press release platforms such as PRWeb, PRLeap, etc.
Here’s some more info and a few to get you started;
http://www.whydowork.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4772
WhyDoWork responded on 04 Sep 2007 at 8:21 am #
Here’s another good one:
http://www.whydowork.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=15311&hilit=&p=67276#p67276
webtohuwabohu responded on 04 Sep 2007 at 10:02 pm #
Thank you a lot - it will help me. Those directories I haven’t had in my list yet.
posseidon responded on 04 Oct 2007 at 2:20 pm #
I was wondering would you give me some info about good traffic exchanges program….
Thanks for your valuable time…
WhyDoWork responded on 04 Oct 2007 at 3:33 pm #
Hey posseidon:
http://www.whydowork.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=15701#p65899
Check out that thread!