Web Promotion - 10 Promotional Tools

Website promotion is the process of publicizing the website. This post will be limited to promotional activities to internet advertising only. Web promotion consists of submitting the website URL to a number of major search engines and directories.

The Big 10 Promotional Tools

The following list is a great way to start promoting your website. These consist of free submission tools that enable business owners to submit their website URLs automatically to large number of search engines, directories, lists etc. I highly recommend doing manual submissions to the 12 most popular search engines.

1. SELF-PROMOTION - This is the best place to start promoting your site. And best of all it is free to use. Self-promotion allows you to promote your site to over 400 different search engines, indexes, business directories, international indexes, directories and awards.
   
2. JIM TOOLS - This is another free utility that promotes your site to 400 search engines and indexes and over 200 Free-For-All (FFA) links pages. Do not use Self-Promotion and Jim Tools in the same week since many of the search engines and indices are same. Compared to Self-Promotion, Jim Tools takes a lot less time to submit to 400 search engines and indexes.
   
3. ASSOCIATE-IT FREE SUBMIT - This free utility lets you submit all the pages in your site at one time to 24 major search engines. All the submissions are done in real time; you can watch the submission results as they happen. Depending on the speed of your internet connection and the number of different pages you are submitting, this may take anywhere between three minutes to a few hours. The good thing is that you can start the submission and then surf the Net as usual in a different browser window.
4. THE PROMOTER - This is similar to Associate-it Free Submit, but it will submit multiple URLs to 800 search engines, indices, FFA pages, classifieds, etc. at one time. This works much like Associate-it Free Submit. You can start the submission and then browse the Net in a different window. The Promoter also notifies you when it’s time to resubmit your site.
5. ANNOUNCE IT AMERICA - One more free utility that submits multiple URLs to 300 search engines, indices, FFA links, classifieds, etc. at one time. This works like Associate-it Free Submit and The Promoter. You can start the submission and then surf the Net in a different browser window.
6. OPEN DIRECTORY - Recently, when Netscape purchased NewHoo, the Open Directory, I was quick to submit my site to be included. The only complaint I have with the Open Directory Project is that the editor in the category you are trying to submit your site to may be your competitor and may try to list your site lower in the list. But you can submit your site to three or four different categories if it belongs. Recently, Lycos and HotBot adopted the Open Directory, and Altavista is adopting it soon, so getting listed with the Open Directory may bring you a lot of traffic.
7. DIRECT HIT - A lot of search engines like HotBot, MSN and others have recently adopted the Direct Hit search technology. Getting listed with Direct Hit may also bring in considerable amount of traffic, but your site has to be somewhat popular.
   
8. GOTO.COM - Even though it is not free, GoTo.com can bring targeted traffic to your site at a low cost. To get listed with GoTo.com you have to open an account with a minimum of $25, then bid on keywords that you would like to target. The minimum bid for each keyword is $0.01. I would recommend bidding $0.01 on 500-1000 keywords related to your site. You can bid high on 5-10 keywords that are really important to your site and bid $0.01 on others. To generate 500-1000 keywords related to your site, use Jim Tools keyword generator at. If you type in two or three keywords related to your site, the keyword generator searches the web for similar sites and compiles list of keywords by reading their Meta tags. Usually, if you bid on 1000 keywords, you will get between 75-100 hits a day.
   
9. YAHOO! - Even though getting listed on Yahoo is a pain and it may take up to six months, most sites get the majority of their traffic from Yahoo! Also try submitting to Yahoo! Local or International, if your site fits. If you submitted your site to Yahoo!, and nothing happened for four or five weeks, try submitting again in the same category, or maybe in a different category. You can get good tips on how to get listed on Yahoo! at search engine forums at http://www.searchengineforums.com. Do what ever you have to do, but get listed on Yahoo!
   
10. PRWEB - Press releases are one of the most effective ways to generate traffic to your site. If written well, they can be very effective. Over 90 percent of press releases are sent out by the companies or sites trying to generate traffic or publicity. Write a press release and distribute it free of cost using Prweb.