Saturday, May 17, 2008

Promote, Promote, Promote

Website promoting is easy, all it takes is doing a little of it every day. You should have a plan, however, so you can tackle the wide assortment of places you can promote your site to a few of each at a time. Nothing beats the use of 'submitters' and other types of tools for getting your message out to as many with in as little time as you can, such as to 'networked' sites. Not all submitters are the same, nor do they send your article to the same places to be seen. For this reason, you may want to get a couple of them. As the web is world wide, then why not one based in the United States and another from Europe?


You will still find yourself doing a lot of manual submissions as there are many very good sites to place your message that are not on submitters or tools, yet they are well worth the efforts.


1. These include 'classified' sites, which will allow you to post your message up to 30 days for no charge. You will have to watch your desire to post across the categories with many of them as you will be quickly banned from any postings if you do so. I am so tired of seeing the same advertisement in every category from someone that by doing so, appears to be very desperate. I would never consider even checking out what they are touting for this reason. IF they were getting good results, they would not have to spam the site in the first place. By spamming the site, they show me the product is non-productive and they are desperate to make a buck, or they either don't care or don't know what they are doing. Why would I spend good money on some program where the person representing it is so un-ethical?


For example: I was doing some promotions for one of my clients that is a service company. When I posted them under the 'services' category, I noticed that there were many advertisements there for things like Casino's, home business opps, and things of that same nature. Let's face it, if I were to go to a classified site and were looking for a business services company, which one would I click on anyway? This also makes me wonder if the owner of the classified site even pays attention or if they are running it like an FFA type of site and that is for the e-mail captures. Yes, some still think others will really read what they have sent to their 'junk' e-mail box. Are classified sites 'dead' then. NO, not yet, but if this trend continues they will soon go the route of the FFA's. That will be sad, indeed, as the abuse by the posting parties will ruin another still great place to post your url's.


2. Even if you use a submitter, you will want to go to the mail box you have entered in the submission to check for 'validated' responses. These are the ones that require you to 'confirm' your posting by clicking on a hyperlink text and then re-entering your e-mail address that you used for the posting. I love these as they tell me that MY advertisement will not be competing with a thousand 'spam' postings. After awhile, you will know which ones they are.


For example: Submit to 'scrub the web' and you will have to go thru this routine. 'Scrubby' is great because they will also tell you the status of any previous submission. If you use a submitter that allows you to select the engines to submit to and if you know your current with some like 'Scrubby' then you can take it off the list. Exactseek and Websquash are a couple of others that come to mind also.


3. Manual submissions:


Some engines will only take manual submissions, even if they are on the list of engines of the submitter you are using. Again, you will, after a period of time, know which these are and if you are smart, will save them as a 'favorite' on your browser, in a separate folder, for when time or your url changes content. Guess what? Even MSN still has a manual free submission site, if you know where to find it. There are some other great engines that are out there and if you are doing your submissions every day, then you will find your 'favorites' also. I like http://searchwarp.com/ among others, because I can submit my url's there and my articles too.


4. Find places that offer you a wide choice of the types of sites to submit to. I have a few on my 'Free stuff' page that you can access at my site http://www.cpucash.net


As you go down the various listings of sites for submission, you will always find a few that are no longer valid or no longer take submissions, but have not notified the listing places or submitters. Take these with a grain of salt and keep moving on.


5. Word of mouth is always a good avenue to pursue. You should be proud and knowledgeable enough about what you are promoting to tell everyone you know about it in a causal manner, of course, with a good testimony about what it has done for you in return for your investment. If your product or service will not stand up to the light of day, then what makes you think others will take your offer?


6. Safe list


Safe list are great and many swear by them. Many make a very good living by using them only. The key to this is your 'headline' being able to get the attention of those that do look at the other's listings. Then you have to make your spiel for your offer, short and to the point but good enough to make them want to 'click' on your url for more information. Here, you can get submitters that only go to safe lists.


The only drawbacks are if the members are indeed reading the postings and if the owners are not spamming you with there 'solo ads'. Remember, many of the owners own more than one safe list and if they send you a daily 'solo ad', then you will get many repeats of the same thing. The ethical owners will only send you an admin message once a month or so and only put the 'solo ads' in the 'safe list' newsletter or up-date and keep the admin messages to reflect what you expect them to be, like new features etc. I made the mistake of belonging to a couple of safe list where the owners were ethical. When I assumed all were the same and actually gave them my personal e-mail as my 'contact' e-mail, was I ever sorry. Do not make this mistake and use a separate e-mail box as your contact box for these also. One good submitter that I use, but here use a different address for your contact e-mail is: http://thesubber.com/sub/index.php?userid=rnixon


I love to use the sites that have the listings for search engines, classifieds, and even FFA's in some sort of 'descending' order, so I can do all the 'A's' one one day, all the 'B's' on another and so on. I like to see the sites that are monitored like DMOZ and validated e-mail sites. IF you get your site 'rated' for viewing by the general public, especially kids, then more and more sites will accept your submission. This rating can be put in your meta tags and the spiders that look for this will be more than happy to include your url in the lisings.


Most of all, keep doing your submissions every day and your efforts will pay off. Work your programs and listen to the advice and training the better ones give you. Remember, they want you to achieve because as doing so not only do you make money, they do also by the residual income they get. Any associate program worth the investment today will give you commission on many tiers of your downline, or whatever they desire to call it.


About The Author

Robert has been active on the internet since it's start. Had a successfull shareware distribution business. Now dedicated to helping others with site improvement and avoiding scams.


View their website at: http://www.cpucash.net .