Stand Out From the Web Clutter

Posted on 27. Mar, 2008 by Dave in Business

In 2007, it is estimated that there are 143 million websites currently in existence; this means that there are untold millions of web pages over the internet. Now, the good news is only a small percentage of the 143 million websites have active owners that actively promote them. However, letting your site rise above this clutter is a challenge every web owner face.

If you want people to find your site from the millions of websites out there, you should use strategies that will promote your website, your products, and your services to get traffic. But remember that there is no use in reinventing the wheel so you might want to try of the primary methods of site promotion that is already proven to be effective.

Search engine optimization (SEO) ? a website will rank higher in search engines with the careful choice of keywords in your title, meta tags, text, and incoming links from social bookmarks, directories, and related websites.

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) ? this is the paid search on search engines. Your text links will appear at the right corner of the search results when a searcher look for information on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. You will only need to pay when a searcher actually clicks on your ad. The downside to this is it can be quite expensive depending on the keywords you choose.

Affiliate programs ?your affiliates will promote your site and they will get paid when a searcher click though or purchases a product from you. Affiliate programs can be quite effective but it is difficult to find a large number of motivated affiliates who will actively promote your site.

Advertising in newsletters ? your ads can appear on existing newsletters that are already being sent to your target market. This is a moderately effective approach to get people to visit your site.

E-mail campaign ? your e-mails can be sent to subscribers of an ezine list or even a rented list. With a well-written copy, a good landing page, and the right list, this kind of promotion can be highly effective but costly.

Online communities ? you can expand your network in online communities by becoming an active member. Try to participate in forums, blogs, and other discussions; put your site using your “signature”.

Viral marketing campaigns ? make people want to share your site to their friends and acquaintance by creating something so unique and compelling that they cannot help but to pass it on.

Joint ventures ? basically, it involves a cooperation among websites wherein other people will carry your marketing message and you will carry theirs in return. This can also involve sales commission and other forms of incentive. With the right joint venture partners, this can be beneficial to everyone.

The wrong question to ask is “Which is the best promotional strategy?” This is because there is no right answer to that question. Various marketers have found success using several of these techniques without touching on the others while others. It also does not follow that a strategy that worked incredibly well for one person will do the same for another. So it is up to you to find out which strategy is the best for you.