9 Simple Ways to Advertise Your Website for Free

In business, it’s a fundamental truth that it pays to advertise. However, it does not necessarily follow that businesses have to pay to advertise. In the case of running a website, it is certainly much easier to promote your business online and there are several ways to do so without paying a single cent. This is especially advantageous for start-ups in that stage of venture when all the money involved is outbound. It’s always a good rule of thumb that, even with an ample operational expense budget, if there are things you can get for free, you wisely go for them. Once money starts coming in, then you can begin to consider paid methods.

What exactly are these little tricks that you can employ to promote your site and generate more traffic?

1. Use your signature file in your email for this purpose. Insert a link to your site in your signature line and every time you send a message, there it is all ready for clicking. For added interest, you can also insert a teaser to the content of your website. This way, your email recipients will feel more compelled to see the rest of it. Change the teaser often so they will know that the site is being updated. There’s your motivation to be a diligent email sender. Send greetings during all of the holidays, even the minor ones. Forward jokes and inspirational anecdotes. Even better, join e-groups and actively participate in discussions. The link in your signature file will definitely go places.

1. Join forums and message boards. Include those that are not related to the nature of your website, but are still of personal interest to you. Again, insert a link to your site in your signature file. Some message boards allow you to get downright creative with your “siggy”, so take advantage of this feature to make your website link extra attractive. Forums and message boards are also a great networking tool, so get the most out of your membership and forge friendships. Never make your posts seem like spam. Make sure that you contribute something relevant to discussions.
2. Increase your Search Engine rankings, especially that of Google. Submit to search engines and directories, bookmark your site in different social bookmarking sites (Digg, Delicious, Technorati etc.) and participate in link exchanges, which involve having your link featured at another site and you reciprocating by including a link to that site on your site.
3. Create a blog. A blog lends a personal and interactive touch to a website. A blog is also easier to update, so you can keep on posting and visitors will want to check in for updates. Encourage readers’ input in the comments section. You can also embed links to your website’s pages in the posts. Make your posts are informative and interesting so that you can entice your readers to subscribe to your website newsletter.
4. Provide answers. There are sites such as Yahoo! Answers where people pose queries. Give short useful answers to the questions related to the nature of your business and then advise readers to visit your site for a more detailed discussion or to learn more about the topic at hand.
5. Write articles. Keyword-oriented writing is an effective way to augment the number of visitors to your site. If you post your article on your site, search engines could pick up on the keyword and list your site on the first page of the search results for certain topics. However, there are article submission sites such as ezinearticles.com and ideamarketers.com where you can post your articles and have a link to your website at the end of your article.
6. Creating an account for your website on social networking sites. Myspace, Friendster, Facebook, etc. can be very helpful in giving your website considerable exposure. You can create customized comments such as a “Thanks for the Add” with your site logo.
7. Hold a contest or a raffle. If you have something that you can offer as a promotional freebie, this can really generate traffic and activity for your site. Even blogs are doing this. There are homemaking blogs that offer used-but-in-good-condition housekeeping books or cute homemade items as freebies and hundreds leave comments asking for them. Celebrity blogs hold silly “put a caption to the picture” contests with something trifling as a prize and people flock to the sites. People would love to win a contest, no matter how minor, if they don’t have to go to too much trouble to join. If you actually offer a product or service, you can also make coupons and submit them to coupon sites. People are always checking out these sites for special discounts or freebies.
8. Leave comments on sites and blogs. Type a relevant keyword in a search engine and you can leave a simple, but sincere opinion-type comment or a useful, but teaser-type comment in the sites listed in the search results. Both types of comment will feature a link to your website in the commenter’s info, but the latter will also have your link embedded in the comment itself.

There are other free ways to go about promoting your website. Just commit to doing the brunt work yourself, get creative, and keep in mind that exposure is key.