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BUSINESS BASICS CHANNELS 
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The Beginners Guide to This article is going to make a few assumptions right at the start, so lets set up our opening scenario and you can take it from there. Assumption: You have a website, either professionally designed, or done by yourself. It doesn't matter. Assumption: No promotional effort has been made on your behalf, either by your designer, yourself or a paid promotional company. Assumption: You want to tell the world about your site. The web site is done. Or is it? You've slaved over your design, you've tweaked, and fiddled and you're finally happy with your website. But the real question is.... is it really finished? Its important when designing your site that you don't succumb to that feeling of "oh well, this will do for now". To make it easier on you, we've provided a simple list below for you to check your site against. You know your website is done if.... 1) All links are working correctly... If you can say yes to all of these questions, then you're ready to proceed. If you've said no to any of these questions, we strongly urge you to go back and fix it, do not proceed to the promotional phase until you can answer yes to all of the above questions. Attempting to promote a website before its finished can have disasterous results.
Promoting a website isn't an easy task, its not even a fun one, but its critically important for a website to succeed. During the course of this article we are going to take the promotional process and break it down into a series of steps, each step highlighting some particular aspect of the promotional process. Whenever possible, we will provide detailed explanations for each step, and in some cases make specific recommendations. Before we dig into the details, lets get one myth out of the way right now. Just because there are literally millions of people online, it doesn't mean your site will bring in millions of visitors. For one thing, not all of those people online are interested in what you are selling. For another, you have to judge what you're doing compared to what your competition is doing. If you are the only person selling Gizmos in the whole world and there are 1 million people interested in Gizmos, then the odds are good you will attract most of them eventually. However if you're selling something that is in a more crowded field, like real estate, then you are sharing that limited market with your competitors. When you first promote the site you have effectively, zero traffic. If you can get to the point of 100 visitors per day in the first 6 months of being online you're going great. If you can push that to 1000 or more visitors a day in 12 to 18 months you're doing fantastic! Traffic doesn't happen overnight, so please don't expect your site to turn on and immediately start raking in orders. Thats fantasy, what we're talking here is reality. This article will be broken down as follows; Search Engines Search Engines: Ah, the search engines, one of the primary sources of traffic, these behemoth databases contain millions of url's. Submission to the search engines should be your first step, and you should do it by hand. Fortunately for you, there are only a few search engines you need to hand submit to, less than ten of them in fact. These include; Alta Vista The search engines are perhaps the easiest to submit to. Why? Because there are so few of them, and they ask for the least amount of information. Basically a search engine is an automated data base that indexes your website so that people who are searching either by company name, or by topic, can find your site. Searching for a company name isn't a bad way for you to see if you made it into the search engines. But remember this; few Internet surfers know about your site, let alone your company. If you can find your site in a search engine using the company name, but can't find it topically, then its time to go back and readdress the website content and design. Its not difficult to submit to a search engine, simply visit the search engine and look over the main page for a link saying "submit a site" or "add a site" or even "suggest a site". Sometimes the link can be very well hidden, but its usually on the main page. Visit each of the search engines below, and submit your link to them. For your convenience we've included the url of the Submission Page for each of the search engines.
The short list of links below includes the submission pages for all the major search engines. Whereever possible, bypassing any references to the paid associations to outfits like Looksmart. These links will open to a new browser window, so click on them to submit your link, then close the new window to return to this page. Alta Vista Some of these systems have secondary submission systems, which we will talk about later in this article, for now ignore any references to paid submission systems. It's important that you visit these systems and submit yourself! Some of these systems, including Alta Vista are making it more difficult for an automated submission system to submit to them. That means that if you pay someone to submit your site and they are using a program to monitor and control the submissions, or you buy the program yourself, Alta Vista will ignore your submission. So take an hour and perform these critical submissions by hand, via your browser, using THEIR add/suggest function. Directories: Many people confuse these systems with search engines. They aren't search engines. By definition a search engine is a system which uses an automatic method to locate, and rank your website. Directories do not do this. Directories are the "yellow pages" for websites. When you submit to a directory, you provide the details, such as site title, site description, site owner etc. Its also important to realize that many directories resort to alphabetical listings in their final formats. So if you do not like your listing in any particular directory, you have no one but yourself to blame. Another principle difference between a directory and a search engine is the human factor. When you submit to a search engine, the entire process, from submission, to ranking and inclusion into the database is handled entirely by computers. Submission to a directory means your submission is forwarded to an "Editor" who (according to the theory), visits your website and makes the final determination if your site is acceptable to the directory. It's only at that point will your site be included into the directory system. This is the reason why we strongly urge you to follow the checklist at the beginning of this article, since the editors can use any browser, you better make sure your site is readable and navigable in the most popular browsers. If you fail to impress the editor, or they find your website lacking in some manner, your site will not get included into the directory. The three most important directories (in our opinion) are Yahoo, LookSmart and Dmoz. Of these, two are commercial systems (Yahoo and Looksmart), the other is a non-profit open source system. Both Yahoo and LookSmart require a $299.00 fee for all commercial submissions. Both LookSmart and Yahoo say that the fee is only for a guarantee that someone will look at your website. There is no promise of entry into the directory. If you've failed to make it into either Yahoo or Looksmart, you need to go back and take a serious look at the content of your site. Sites that contain little content rarely make it into either directory system. Dmoz is a high penetration system with a difference, it's non-commercial. Dmoz or the as it is sometimes called, the Open Directory Project, also provides a Yahoo sized directory to a large number of systems. Dmoz is an open system, so even small companies can provide access to a directory system. It doesn't cost anything to submit your site to Dmoz and considering how many other systems are using them for directory services, its well worth the submission. The key to submitting to a directory is simple. FIND THE RIGHT SPOT!!!! All directory systems work off the idea of a hierarchal structure. Meaning that you start at the top of a directory and work your way down through a series of topics until you find the one that best suits your site. Of all the directories, Yahoo's is probably the most complex, so we'll explore the Yahoo directory structure. If you learn to navigate this one, you'll know how to find your way around the others. Yahoo's main page starts with the following top-level categories; Arts & Humanities Each of these breaks off into many thousands of categories, far too many to list here. However, if you have a business website, then your first choice should be Business & Economy. This will bring you to a page with more options, but the two you are concerned with are "Business to Business" and "Shopping & Services". Now at this point, stop. Ask yourself, are you selling an item, a service to consumers, or are you offering a Business-to-Business type service (for example, a business broker). Your answer determines the path you take. Its important that you carefully work your way down the directory tree, at each point carefully questioning which path you want to take. Yahoo, like most directories, requires you to be at the page you want your listing to appear in before you can even start the submission process. If your not sure which page your listing should appear in, try searching Yahoo for your competition and see what category they are listed under. Sometimes you'll find yourself laughing because your competition is under an entirely inappropriate category, so don't assume if the competition is at a particular category, you should be there as well. They could have picked the wrong one! Your selection of category is key for all directories. If you pick the wrong one, you probably will not be able to change your mind at a later point in time. Yahoo is probably the worst directory when it comes to making corrections. Case in point; Under this directory tree Regional > U.S. States > Idaho > Cities > Sandpoint > Business and Shopping > Business to Business > Communications and Networking Yahoo lists our old URL, a URL now more than FIVE YEARS out of date. Despite numerous emails, forms, calls and complaints, Yahoo has never changed the URL. Fortunately for Northern Webs, we're listed in multiple locations in Yahoo. The moral to this little story is submitting it correctly, the first time, or you might never be able to get it fixed if you don't. Now that you've found the page you want your link to reside on, look for something on the page, either the top or bottom that indicates a link to their submission system. Yahoo and Looksmart will tell you that it will cost $299.00 for someone to review your website. Yes, that's right, $299.00 just to have it reviewed, with no guarantee of acceptance. Yahoo is an important directory, but is it worth nearly 300 bucks just to have someone look at your page? That's a question you need to decide. Frankly we don't like the cost, but at least in the case of Yahoo, believe its worth the expense. Yahoo is still a prime generator of site traffic. Submit yoursite to Yahoo, LookSmart and DMOZ. If you can't afford to submit to Yahoo and Looksmart, thats ok, submit to DMOZ then as its a free system. Now that you've submitted your site to Yahoo, LookSmart and Dmoz, what about all the other thousands, or hundreds of thousands of directories out there you keep hearing about? Well to be honest, they don't exist. Yes you will find many a company offering to submit your website to 5,000 "search engines", or 10,000 search engines or even 100,000 search engines, but the simple fact is they are ripping you off. The vast bulk of these "systems" get their traffic from automatic submission systems, no one really visits them. There are less than 1000 systems, in fact Yahoo lists roughly 300 of them. You could say these, are the best of the best, or at least the most acceptable to the yahoo editors. So here is the Northern Webs Site Promotion on a shoestring plan for submitting your website. Step 1. Go to the url below. Bookmark (or put it in your favorites) the URL. Yahoo List Step 2. Print out the page you found at this link, staple it together since it will run for several printed pages and get yourself a Yellow Highlight marker. Step 3. Take one hour per night, for the next 30 days and work your way down this list, Crossing off each system as you submit to it. If you do just 10 submissions a night, in 30 days you will have covered most of these systems. Step 4. Once a week, revisit the page after you've completed all of the submissions and see what might be new. The new links are just below the most favorite section and above the main section. A miniature "NEW" icon follows each new link. Submit to the new sites. If you work this plan, treat it like a prayer to be done religiously, you will find that your site traffic will show a slow but steady increase. It's not possible to say that any one system will bring you millions of visitors. That's fantasy. Our plan is reality. Other Online listings: There are a variety of other places you can list your URL, from Bulletin Board Systems to online classified to mailing lists. Unfortunately most of these online systems will not result in any additional traffic and will consume a lot of your time for very little profit. To be honest, there is very little to be gained from trying most of the other online listings. The search engines and directories are going to provide the bulk of the traffic. Submitting your link to systems like Web Rings, Banner Exchanges, BBS's, and Classifieds will not provide you with any substantial traffic. However in the next section we'll show you how some of these systems can help you bring about a small boost in traffic. Not by submitting your links to them, but by using them yourself on your website. Other Online Promotional Methods: Alternative promotional methods besides linking systems can help your traffic. BUT, you need to realize that the level of traffic you will see from these secondary methods will not be anywhere close to what you see from directories and search engines. Now having said that, its important to realize that some of these methods can help you generate repeat traffic, that is, a visitor coming back time and time again. These repeat visitors tend to become loyal customers. Most of the traffic seen by these techniques will stem from previous visitors to your site. There are four effective techniques for promoting your website in ways other than just submitting your link somewhere. All four of these techniques require a varying level of effort from you, along with modifications to your website. The four techniques are; 1) Reciprocal Links. In the previous section we noted that systems like BBS's didn't provide a substantial amount of additional traffic, and we were right, but we were looking at it from the point of view of you submitting your link to someone else's BBS. Having your own BBS is an entirely different matter. By offering these features yourself, on your website, you provide an outlet of interactivity and dynamic content on your site. This level of interactivity isn't enough to drive new traffic to your website, but it is enough to bring visitors back to the site. Reciprocal links: Reciprocal links is, put simply, an exchange of links between sites of common theme. For example it wouldn't be unrealistic to see a website for a Dive Company exchanging links with the Manufacturer of Diving Equipment. Similar theme, and not competiting against each other. Reciprocal Linking can be as complex or as simple as possible. For example you could put together a standard email to send to sites you want to link to or you can go out and buy a Reciprocal Links Manager program. If you do plan on having reciprocal links on your website, you should perform two steps. First, create a separate page on your site for the links, then make sure at least one of your pages, a link to your reciprocal links page. Don't worry if your reciprocal links page is blank in the beginning. Just put a statement in this page saying something like this;
A typical email request for a reciprocal link could look like this;
The key to reciprocal links is keeping your links relative to your topic. No one is going to be interested in visiting a site selling mortgages if your site is selling fishing trips. On the other hand, a mortgages site may be suitable when you're marketing time share vacation condos. Or the Fishing Trip site might consider linking to the local vacation condo site. Exchanging links with other sites will also enhance your site ranking in some search engines. But do try to keep the links logical. Remember that the purpose of your website is to get someone on the site and to keep them there until they buy what you're marketing. Links, even reciprocal links, are exit points where you're giving your visitor a way out. Reciprocal links can work in your favor, but they are a manpower intensive method. You need to be careful that the site you're linking to be well presented, and that the linked site maintains your link on that site. Remember, you're not just linking to another site; you're endorsing them to your visitors. If you have a problem with such endorsements, do not offer reciprocal links, and do not accept any. Newsletters: A voluntary opt-in email newsletter can be a big help in bringing back repeat visitors to your site. If you want to put together a newsletter, you need to do it right. Don't just sign up people willy nilly. You want people to sign up for the newsletter of their own volition. On the page where you accept signups, tell people what the frequency of the newsletter is. Is it monthly? Daily? Weekly etc? People might consider a weekly or daily newsletter to be too frequent. The concept of a newsletter is fairly simple. Basically its little more than an email which you send to a group of people who have opted to receive it. Putting together a newsletter can be a lot of work. The content needs to be fresh, and topically relative to your site content. And you need to be careful. The newsletter should not be limited solely to reprints and articles takes from other websites. For example if you run a site where you're marketing homemade gift baskets, it's probably a good idea to run an article on selecting gifts in general. But including an article on website promotion (like this one) would be a mistake. One excellent way of maintaining fresh content for your newsletter is to invite your readers to email you with questions, and putting the email with the answer into the newsletter. Another way you can invite fresh content is to allow your readership to contribute short articles or comments. Also information concerning specials or recent updates to your site would be acceptable, just don't overdo it. Remember the newsletter is supposed be of value to your readership, a tacit advertisement for the site, but not an "in your face" ad. One variant of the newsletter is the webzine. The webzine is just a different way of presenting the newsletter to people. Instead of sending them a long email containing the newsletter, you put the information on your website and send them a simple email saying something akin to this; "The latest update to our monthly newsletter is now available at the following URL {insert url here}." Newsletters, either of the email variety or the web-zine variety should have a way for you to manage your mailing lists automatically, and a method to allow people to opt-out of the mailing list. You could try handling these functions by hand, but sooner or later your list will become too cumbersome to handle manually. In addition to these features, should you decide to have a newsletter, you should talk to your local ISP. Ask them to clearly define their anti-Spam policy and inform them that you intend to be running a newsletter from your site. If you are running the newsletter from software on your site, talk to the host instead. Find out what they consider as spam and take steps to assure them you intend to follow their policies to the letter. If the host/isp is unwilling to work with you in regard to running a mailing list locally, you'll have to resort to one of the many third party mail list companies. Bulletin Board Systems: Unlike the newsletter, Bulletin Board Systems or BBS's are more interactive. In essence, this is software running on your website that allows people to leave comments and or questions, and allows you to answer those comments and questions. A BBS is a great way of building a spirit of community for a website. As people use the BBS you'll find certain people forming relationships, both with you and each other. The downside of a BBS is you have little or no control over what people post. Hence you end up having a to do a fair amount of administrative editing to keep the BBS on topic. The BBS isn't designed to drive new traffic to your site, it's a tool designed to keep people there longer, and to bring them back to the site. Installing a BBS on your website means having the ability to install CGI to your webserver. Check with your host if your not sure about this ability. Content Additions/Free Services: Content additions, like for example, our adding this article to our website, have the effect of making the website more valuable to the visitors. Free information that people can actually use, raise the effectiveness of the site and make people more willing to link to you even without a requiring a reciprocal link. For example if Northern Webs had only put online a list of its services, its very doubtful you'd be reading this article and even more doubtful that you would have even found us. And by adding significant content, we increase the likelihood of people linking to our site, thereby increasing our ranking in some search engines. Northern Webs uses a variety of techniques, mixing content and free services in order to entice people to visit us. Between the articles, the tutorials, and our free software, the traffic we drive into the site is far above and beyond what most companies of our type would normally receive. Mind you, our site is old, its been online since 1994 (although its undergone several revisions), you don't just wake up one morning and say "I'm going to put online a 600+ page website". Instead, plan your expansion, think about adding one element of your expansion per month. This has the added effect of keeping your design costs down, and allows you ample time to consider each section you add carefully. It's important to consider the website as a living, growing entity. Its not just an extension of your business in cyberspace. It is your business in cyberspace! Websites grow stagnant and old if you don't continually update and add more information. Free services are also a very big drawer, but not always within the realm of small businesses. For example a design company could easily become flooded with requests if they offered to critique sites for free. Consider what you know, what you can do, and what you're willing to give away very carefully. Sometimes the idea for a freebie can come from a loyal customer; sometimes you get inspiration from what your competition is doing. For example, a gift basket company might make arrangements with a custom greeting card company to include a card in with each basket at discounted cost, especially if the card company knows its name and url are going to be printed on the back of each card going out. So consider your site carefully. You might have just had it designed, but this is only the beginning of a long road of additions and updates to its content. Offline Promotional Methods: Promoting your website offline is something that many people tend to overlook. How anyone can spend tons of money promoting the site online and forget to promote it offline is amazing. You should make sure your URL is printed on; All Stationary Consider a sign for your vehicle, staples has excellent prices on magnetic signs. If your business is strictly local, you might want to consider radio advertising, and if you do, be sure they include your URL. In conclusion: Promoting your website doesn't have to cost you a small fortune. But you need to plan the effort and stick to techniques that work. While you may not be spending money, your time is money, and wasting time with techniques that don't work might as well be burning money. Promotion shouldn't be rocket science, and it isn't. But if you don't know where to start, it can seem to be a truly daunting proposition. Hopefully this article will have given you a head start on your promotional effort. copyright © 2001 Northern Webs, All Rights Reserved Other Articles at ABC's of Small Business pertaining to Website Promotion: Website
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