Quick Web Site Start-up and Promotion
Guide For Extra Busy
Business Owners
by Milana Nastetskaya
WORD COUNT: 727
WRAP: 60 characters
PUBLISHING: May be published free
of charge with the resource
box intact.
The biggest problem I've always had
promoting my web site is
keeping myself focused. After
all, what should I be doing?
Publishing my own e-zine, placing
classified ads, looking
for link exchange partners, writing
articles... My head is
beginning to spin just from trying
to list all the promotion
strategies available today!
But when my friend who is just starting
her Internet
presence asked me, "Milana, what
should I do now?", it all
became very clear: don't spread
yourself thin. Choose up
to 2 ways to promote your web site
and do it for at least 1
month to see if it's effective.
I wrote a brief plan for her to follow
this month and I
wanted to share it with you.
Please, note: this strategy
is not appropriate for everyone.
It focuses on writing
articles, so you must be able to
communicate your thoughts
on paper. You must also set
aside approximately 3-4 hours a
week (which is nothing compared
to how much time most online
business owners spend) and stick
to the plan.
Do not try to implement any other
strategies at this time.
If you get an idea, write down and
try it later. If nothing
else, this plan will surely bring
your site steady growing
traffic. Ready?
1. Create a simple 2-5 page web site.
Use an easy-to-use
web page editor, such as free Netscape
Composer available
from Netscape web site. Place
your sales copy on the main
page, and use other pages for information
about you, your
other products and whatever else
you would like your
visitors to see.
IMPORTANT: for this strategy, please,
offer something free
on your web site via an autoresponder.
Use GetResponse.com
to be able to automatically follow
up with people who
download your free gift.
Since this promotion strategy will
generate a good amount of
traffic to your site, you MUST capture
your visitors'
e-mails or else you will waste all
this traffic. Mention to
them that you will be sending occasional
mailings and that
they can always leave your list.
2. Add TITLE and META tags to your
web pages and submit them
to major Search Engines. Make
sure these tags are short and
mention only what's relevant.
Ask yourself, what word or
phrase would I type in the Search
Engine if I was looking
for my product?
Below is the list of "Submit Site"
addresses for most of
them:
http://home.lycos.com/addasite.html
http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/addurl
http://www.google.com/addurl.html
http://www.excite.com/info/add_url_form
http://www.northernlight.com/docs/regurl_help.html
http://www.directhit.com/util/addurl.html
http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php
http://hotbot.lycos.com/addurl.asp
http://www.anzwers.com.au/cgi-bin/print_addurl.pl
3. Locate up to 20 e-zines that target
the same audience
that you are. Make sure they
accept articles. Create a
text file and record their e-mail
address (where you will
send your articles), e-zine's title
and publisher's name.
TIP: If you want to save even more
time in the long run,
enter all this data into a mailing
list program so all you
would have to do is click "Send"
button and your articles
will be sent to everyone on the
list.
Now your web site is set up and the
promotion strategy is in
place. The rest of the plan
will have to be implemented
weekly to be effective.
4. Write one quality and informative
article a week of
interest to your target audience
and do the following:
- Add a resource box to the article
about you & your product
- Add TITLE and META tags to it
and submit to Search Engines
- Post your article on your web
site for content
- Submit it to the e-zine list you
generated earlier
- Submit it to article directories
and lists
Here is the list of most popular
article directories and
lists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content
http://www.ezinearticles.com/add_url.html
http://www.AuthorConnection.com
http://www.internetclinic.org/contact/sub-article.htm
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/articlesubmit.htm
http://www.webpromote.com/suggest.asp
http://makingprofit.com/mp/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.mediapeak.com/internetmarketingarticleindex.htm
http://www.articlecentral.com/suggest.asp
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/auto
5. Locate up to 3 popular forums
where your target audience
hangs out. Post replies to
their questions up to 1 hour a
week. Leave your web site
link (or specific article link)
behind so people know who you are
and why they should listen
to your advice.
Follow this plan for at least 4 weeks.
Make sure your
articles are of high quality and
offer a solution to a
problem that you target customers
might be facing. If you
articles are published, expect increase
in traffic to your
web site. And your freebie
should take care of capturing
your visitors e-mails.
Your follow-up messages should introduce
your products or
services. As always, make
sure your subscribers can leave
your list at any time.
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Milana Nastetskaya is a full time
web developer and the author of
two books: "Create Your First Business
Web Site in 10 days",
"65 Instant Web Design Answers".
http://www.firstbusinesswebsite.com
http://www.instantwebanswers.com
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