Promoting Your Web Site

by Janette B. Bradley
axsWave Software, Inc.™

This is a short list of some of the better sites that can help you promote your web site and get it listed with all the major search engines. The list is by no means comprehensive, there are numerous services on the web that can help you get the word out about your site.

With an estimated 3,000 web sites created each day, it is important that you develop a strategy to get yours noticed. If you plan on making your Web site a major focus of your business, develop a promotional strategy that offers "give-aways". Companies that offer special prizes such as trips, airline miles, and special bonuses for visiting their web site can significantly up their traffic. However, like any other promotion, you must let potential customers know about your site and offers. Consider a wide-spread and coordinated campaign:

• Fax press releases about your new site to area newspapers and trade journals,
• Send direct mail to key customers,
• Place web ads on high visibility sites and electronic malls, and
• Include your URL on all your ads, brochures, cards, etc.

onLine Business Web Directory

http://online-biz.com/promote/

Large database of sites to promote your website. Mini-application to help submit your site to the major sites. One caveat: they often have server problems. If you get an error when going there, keep trying and eventually you will connect.

Home Com's Pointers to Pointers

http://www.homecom.com/global/pointers.html

Mini-application to help submit your site to the major sites. Choose 5 sites for free or pay $10 and get 50 sites. Provides a list of general and specialized sites that you can use for doing it yourself.

Internet Business Network

http://www.interbiznet.com/links.html

Will do the submitting for you (for a fee) or they offer a list of sites you can use to do it yourself. The following is a list of their categories:

1. Search Engines
2. One Stop Shopping (Multiple Submission Sites)
3. Directories
4. Geographical Directories
5. Yellow Pages and Malls
6. Business Oriented Directories
7. Specialty Directories
8. Press List

iTools

http://www.itools.com/promote-it/

An extensive and well-organized list of places you can submit to promote your site. This site is primarily for "do-it yourselfers". Check out the end of the list for newsgroups and listserves that accept press releases about new sites.

It also offers additional tools/services for people interested in promoting their web-based activities.

Submit It!

http://www.submit-it.com/

Probably the best known service for registering URLs with search engines and directories. Their site is well organized and provides information and Mini-apps for doing it yourself. Offers a fee-based service to list your site with more than 300 search engines and directories. Also offers a free service to list your site with about 15 different search engines.

Web Site Promotion Services

http://www.meh.com/

This site is mostly for doing it yourself. It has an extensive list of sites that promote and list sites for a fee, as well as covering the free search sites. It sorts the sites by both name and type.

Feel free to contact me with questions or to talk about how the axsWave Software team can help you with your Web site:

Janette B. Bradley (janette@metronet.com)