20 Ways to Promote your Site for under 10 Bucks
March 26, 2007 | Comments (9) | Filed under: Marketing
So, you’ve started your online business but now you’re not quite sure how to get the word out that you exist. The old adage is it takes money to make money, and you can certainly spend a lot of it promoting your site. Not all of us are rolling in cash right out the gate though, so luckily there are many ways to promote your site with a very limited cash flow. With that in mind, we recently scowered the web and compiled a list of the following 20 ways to promote your site for less than $10.00.
Participate in a review exchange with an established blog
One of the best ways to promote your site, especially if it’s a blog, is to participate in a review exchange. Many of the larger blogs are realizing the benefits of linkbacks and are offering contests and reoccurring features that allow anyone to submit a review in exchange for a link. Not only will visitors drop by as a result of this type of promotion, but you’ll also improve your Google PageRank by having your site featured on a respected blog. We’ve tried this out twice now with John Chow, and have added several subscribers as a result.
Examples: Review My Blog, Blog Review Roundup, Consultant Blog Reviews
Have your site reviewed by an active forum community
Many large web forum communities have places where you can post a link to your blog and have others check it out for you. Not only will you get some advice on your site design, you might also get some new subscribers as well.
Examples: Digital Point Forum Reviews, WebDeveloper.com Website Reviews
Submit your site to search engines
This may seem obvious, but a lot of sites don’t do it. You can wait and hope Google, Yahoo, MSN et al. parse your site on their own, or you can make sure they will by submitting it yourself. Also, it also doesn’t hurt to use Google Sitemap to give the engines an idea of what your site has to offer. It’s as easy as a plugin install with Wordpress.
Examples: Google, Yahoo, MSN
Add comments to other sites
Almost every blog out there these days has an option for submitting a URL when you add a comment. If you write meaningful comments on blogs in your niche, you will start getting traffic directly targeted at your posts. When in doubt toss a flame out 
Examples: Almost any blog, including this one
Run a contest with your services as a prize
If you don’t have a lot of money to throw around, for prizes like a Nintendo Wii, offer free adspace on your site or a free review instead. Make sure you encourage users to post comments or link to your site in order to be eligible.
Submit your site to web directories
There are many directories out there with high Google PageRanks that allow you to submit your site to their listing. Some charge a nominal fee, but most you’ll find cost $10.00 or less for premium placement.
Examples: TagSociety, DMOZ, BlogRankings
Submit your site design to a CSS gallery
This method is often underrated, but can generate a ton of traffic if your site has a unique design. Not only will it gain you more exposure, but if your design is of high quality, you are guaranteed to get a steady amount of traffic over a long period of time.
Examples: 50 Sources for Web Design Inspiration
Sign up your site to a feed aggregator
Many users can’t be bothered to view dozens or even hundreds of blogs a day so they rely on Feed Aggregators to supply them with the posts they want to see. These are usually easy to sign up with and can open your posts to a wider groups of readers.
Examples: Outpost-Earth, Technorati, BlogStreet
Issue press releases for your site
One often overlooked method is to submit press releases for your site to PR Databases. These updates can benefit you not only in traffic, but they can also be the perfect opportunity to convince new readers to subscribe to your content. PR Databases also have the added bonus that many companies subscribe to their services in order to stay up to date in a specific market. This can help you reach users that may not find your site organically.
Examples: PRWeb, WebWire
Submit your content to article databases
If your site publishes unique, well written content, you can submit your posts to open article databases. These sites syndicate your posts to other sites looking for content to add to their own or to use as a basis for other articles. Article databases can potentially result in a huge windfall of users if your article is picked up by many different publishers.
Examples: Articles Factory, EZine Articles, CrispyBlogPosts
Exchange links with other sites
One of the more obvious ways to promote your site cheaply is to convince other sites to link to you. You can do this the old fashion way by emailing and suggesting a link exchange or you can try getting links through posting good content. Either way, it doesn’t get any cheaper then that when it comes to spreading the word that you exist.
Participate in mailing lists, forums, etc. using your URL in your signature
You’ll find that mailing lists and forums are everywhere these days. If you’re legitimately interested in the topic area and are going to contribute anyway, why not include your URL in your signature? Even better, many mailing lists archive correspondence online, which allows your signature to live on forever. Users searching through Google for your topic area could come across your post for months or years to come.
Use social networking websites to build groups and links to your site
One of my favorite methods of promotion is through social networking sites. Sites like FaceBook, MySpace, and CraigsList allow you to post links and actively seek out people who would be interested in what you have to say. It’s almost too easy to get online with these sites and within seconds find people who want to hear what you have to say. If you learn to master promotion on these sites, the opportunities will be endless. Examples: FaceBook, MySpace, CraigsList
Push your site offline with business cards, letter head, flyers, and word of mouth
Sometimes when everything is online, online, online, you can sometimes miss out completely on offline opportunities. Little things like handing out business cards, posting flyers, or simply sending documents with your letter head on the paper can bring you traffic you wouldn’t normally receive.
Setup a mailing list
One great way to expand your reach is to build your own mailing list by looking up the names and emails of other site owners who would be interested in your content. There is a fine line between spam and promotion, but if you can walk it, there is great potential for linkbacks. The best way to avoid being treated as spam is to take the time to personally contact site owners first, before adding them to your mailing list.
Get a guest blogging gig on an established site
If you’ve got an interesting article, one way to promote your site is to convince another blogger to feature you as a guest rather than post it yourself. Obviously, you probably won’t get anywhere sending guest posts to top level blogs right out of the gate, but there are plenty of sites at all levels who might consider your offering. If you are persistent, you’re guaranteed to find someone who won’t mind posting your article. When you do, a well written post will definitely open the eyes of some potential new readers. Examples of Guest Blog Posts: JohnChow.com, ProBlogger, Matt Cutts
Post to newsgroups in your niche
Never forget about your good ole friend the newsgroup. While semi-oldschool these days, Newsgroups are still read by millions of people every single day on topics as wide ranging as you can imagine. Find a newsgroup on a topic you know about, and contribute what you can. Your knowledge will drive users to your site, as long as you remember to add your URL to your signature
Example: Google Groups
Join communities and use standout icons
With tools like MyBlogLog on so many sites these days, one of the simplest ways to get new users is to take the time to visit communities and actually join them. Make sure you use a standout icon so when you visit sites using graphical community displays, your visit will attract more clicks. Nothing says “who cares” like a boring picture of your face that 99% of visitors use. Try to be original, it will help in the long run.
Examples: MyBlogLog, Explode, BumpZee
Submit your articles to news submission resources
Last, but certainly not least, make the most of news submission services like Netscape, Reddit, Digg, and BlinkList. Submit your quality posts and if the community enjoys them, you can receive a windfall of traffic overnight. Examples: Digg, Reddit, Netscape, BlinkList
Hopefully by now you’ve come across at least one or two ways you can improve your own site and help build a wider audience. If you know of even more ways to promote your site for less than 10 bucks, we’d love to hear from you!
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9 people have left comments
Great post!.. I am going to check out some of these.. I think that’s the hardest thing when someone starts out.. just getting their name out there!
thanks
I’ve been trying to promote my site by organizing contest but the receptions have been pretty poor. My budget for the contest was around $100, but the results have been encouraging.
People are more inclined to participate when you got an iPod or iPhone as a gift. A cheap $100 won’t do the trick anymore it seems.
Thus, your idea on having a service as a gift is brilliant.
Good advice.
And use Google alerts, so you know who’s covering your blog. Thanks for the mention!
Nice compilation of ways to start getting noticed. Although if you don’t really have much solid content, all the efforts will simply translate into various degrees of flash traffic that instantly bounces off.
I’ve tried the press release route but ended up paying about 10 times what you’re saying. Maybe I went the wrong route. (PRweb) How do you do this for under $10?
Thanks!
These are some great ideas. I think most people are good at doing some of these, but sometimes I forget to make the rounds. Thanks for posting these tips in one handy place!
Great post. I just started my blog at telephonology.com and I was lucky enough to have a really designer do it for cheap so it looks pretty good. But I didnt know where to start in terms of promotion. Thanks for the info, ill get right on it.
Great post! I have been working on promoting my site for a while and these tips are a huge help.
Thank you!