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| Promoting Your Web Site |  |
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After submitting your website information to the search engines, there are a few more things you can do to promote your site. For many of you with a simple site, some of these will be overkill; but for you obsessives (or those with business sites), this information may interest you.
Announce on your ISP's Member Site List: Most Internet Service Providers (ISP) provide a list of their members home pages, either straightforward or categorized in some way. If you can add a description, use the one you wrote for the search engines, with special reference to the ISP, perhaps.
Post to Newsgroups: If your site is oriented towards a special interest area, search the usenet newsgroups for those where the readers would have an interest in your website. Begin answering posts in relevant newsgroups, being helpful, and just put your URL in your signature at first. If your site is non-commercial, post an announcement on relevant newsgroups, carefully. There are also special announcement newsgroups. If your website has regional information, post in the general newsgroup for your region. If your page is a commercial one, limit your postings only to newsgroups which are designated for commercial announcements. Read the charter for the newsgroups which describes its intended use.
Review the headers in the newsgroups and read some of the articles to be sure it is an appropriate place to post your website announcement. Tailor your message for each specific newsgroup. Make sure your post emphasizes the benefit the user will get by visiting your site. Remember, you are trying to build goodwill, not ill will by spamming. Post a single message, maybe repeat a few days later. If you start getting flames, listen and stop.
Press Releases: Your targets should include print, broadcast, and Internet media, both general and special interest. Your press release must be newsworthy to that outlet's users. About two pages double spaced is more than enough.
Submissions to Cool Page of The Day Type Sites: Get your website listed as Cool Site of the Day or designated a Point Review Top 5% of the Net, and you'll never have to do anything else. The best way to get noticed, reviewed, and recognized is to submit information to these sites just as you did to the search engines; use pretty much the same text, crafted into one good paragraph (50 words) emphasizing the benefits and uniqueness of your site.
There are over 300 review sites where you can submit your website, but only a few really valuable ones. Here are some websites listing them; follow their links to the submission points.
All-In-One Cool Sites Page: http://www.webcom.com/~tbrown/coolsite.html
Cool and What's New Sites: http://werple.net.au/~lions/secret.htm
Cool Central: http://www.webreference.com/cool/
E-mail to VIPs: When you hear some news about someone doing something noteworthy in your field of interest, drop them a line to tell them about your website.
Special Interest Groups: Notify other home pages dedicated to your subject that your website has arrived. They might link to your page. Look for user groups (SIGs), bulletin boards (BBs), etc. that are in your interest area and notify them, as well.
Communications: If you have a business website, put your URL on your letterhead, your business cards, your invoices, your advertising, etc. Business or personal, put a brief description or the website's name and its URL in your email and newsgroup signature files. And tell all your friends and acquaintances.
Reciprocal Links: Request, don't demand, reciprocal links; this is the word of mouth advertising of the Net. Provide a reciprocal link to websites that link to yours, if they're the kind of website with which you want to be associated. It's easy to get links if you have lots of free and useful information; people want to link to sites which are going to make theirs look good. Just write a note to the webmaster, saying you'd like to link to their excellent site, and that yours has some info. their users might benefit from, and you'd appreciate a link on their page. You want links on busy sites; go to a search engine, type in one of your keywords, and start with site on the top of the list.
High quality Links Pages (like Lamar's excellent Nuthin' But Links) are a great place to get linked from, though many are choosy and you must offer real value to be included.
When soliciting feedback (by email links or a guestbook form, for instance), ask your visitors to tell you how they found your page. This way you can see which of these techniques work best for you. And remember, the most important way to have a popular site is to provide real value--informative or entertaining, frequently updated, attractively designed.
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