I've got my site up but where are my hits?

By Shery Ma Belle Arrieta

It's not enough that you've built a great-looking
website for your product or services if you aren't
getting any visitors or hits. Your website will be like
a very dressed-up store but with no one coming in
to buy, and worse, not one even tries to windowshop.

Once you get your site up, don't ever assume that
people will stop and flock by the hundreds just to
look at your site. With over three million websites
on the Internet today, don't expect that you'll get
noticed right away without doing anything.

The Internet is referred to as the Information
Superhighway. How accurate this truly is. Think
for a moment about your website and the products
and services you're selling there. You're on this
highway, as well as three million other websites.

People are constantly surfing, zipping by. They pass
by your website for the simple reason that they
don't know your website exists. You don't get hits
because people don't know you have a web presence.
You may have the page that's the envy of every
webmaster on the planet yet after three months,
you're still to make a single sale.

Yes, you're there, but is there a sign anywhere on
the Internet that says, "Hey, I'm here! Here's my
product. Come and get it!" or any other such
attention-grabbing things?

There are several effective things you can do to
get your website at the forefront of the Information
Superhighway: Using Active Promotional Tools, such
as Search Engines.

Here are effective promotional tools you can use
depending on what product or service you're promoting.
It is always best to keep in mind that while one tool
will work for you, it may not be effective for another
person. Make use of these tools to select from for the
best mix to reach your target audience:

1. YOUR VERY OWN EZINE. Notice how more and
more people are starting their own ezine? Ezines or
email newsletters make very good promotional tools.
By combining content and articles with advertisements
and announcements of your products, you'll be able to
drive traffic to your site. If you are in the business
of web design, you can write short articles and tips on
effective web designs. If people read that you are an
"expert" in your business, they will come to you for
your services. If you have limited time, as most business
people do, you might consider hiring an e-zine editor.

2. THE POWERFUL SIG FILE. Use your email signature.
>From now on, attach a four-line description and the URL
of your site everytime you send out email. If you're like
other people who like to forward emails to your friends
and families, you might as well take advantage of this.
Add your signature line at the bottom of each email you
send out. Chances are, when they forward your email to
people they know, your sig file will still be there. If you
are in discussion lists, be talky. Dive in the discussion.
Offer good feedback and make sure people on the list
see your signature.

3. LINK UP WITH SIMILAR SITES. Research on sites
that are similar to yours. If you have products for horses,
then look for related sites. Visit those sites and look
around to see if they have link pages.

4. WEB RINGS. A web ring is a step further the simple
idea of linking with another site. Web rings are like
"networks" of related sites. If you join a web ring, you
will be added to the ring. You will have to include a
small code in your site especially for this. On another
person's site, when a visitor clicks on a random link in
the web ring, that visitor will be taken to the site that
is queued in the ring. By joining a web ring, you'll be
able to get some hits. Make sure the ring you join is
consistent with the image you want to promote.

5. BANNER EXCHANGES. Again, this is another form
of linking up. This works by displaying banners of other
people in exchange for them displaying your banner on
their site. However, banner exchanges such as Link
Exchange are like web rings. You will have to paste a
code on your page and it will generate random banners
of sites who are in the banner exchange. Again, make
sure the exchange you join is consistent with the image
you want to promote.

6. PLACE ADS ON NEWSLETTER. Write attention-grabbing
and interesting ads and submit these to newsletters. If you
already publish an ezine, it is a good idea to look for ezines
that are related to yours. Once you do, write to the owners
and ask if they do adswaps -- you'll advertise their ezine
on your newsletter if they advertise yours on theirs. There
are also sites that let you submit your ads for free. Be wary
of these Free For Alls (FFAs) and Classifieds. The only people
who go to these things are people posting sites and people
looking for e-mail addresses to spam.

7. JOIN ANNOUNCEMENT LISTS. There are numerous
announcement lists you can sign up and announce your web
site for free. Do a search on Onelist or Topica on
announcement lists. By joining these lists, you'll not be
accused of spamming and you can promote your site to
your heart's content -- of course, based on the rules of
the announcement list you joined.

8. OFFER SOMETHING FREE AND PROMOTE IT. People
just love anything that is free. Offer free stuff on your
web site. Or offer them an incentive such as a gift if they
sign up to your newsletter or visit your site.

9. SEARCH ENGINES. Simply submitting to search
engines will not bring you that much-desired traffic,
unless you're a search engine expert or you hire one.
Most people who submit their sites to search engines
end up on page fifteen of the search engine results.
Very few people are going to find your site that way.
Even if you hire a web marketer to help you with your
search rankings, this alone will not bring you your hits
potential. You have to do more than just announce your
site to search engines.

One thing you can do to improve your search engine
ranking is to design your site around search engine
indexing techniques. However, DO NOT make your site
look like it was made for search engines. There are
many good resources on the Internet on what search
engines look for when they index your page.

Also, your search engine results are only as good as
the keywords potential customers will use to find you.
And having your own domain name brings you higher
search engine rankings, not to mention more prestige.

You can also hire a specialist to give you advice or
propose slight changes in your page that will bring
the people you're looking for to your page through
search engines.

By hiring a marketing specialist, you're assured that
all of your promotions form a consistent campaign and
will give people the image of your business or company
that you want them to have. Don't waste a lot of money
promoting your site to people who are not your target
audience. By using the services of a search engine
specialist, you'll be able to develop the right campaign
and company image that you can promote to your target
audience using the best channels to reach them.

These are only some of the ways you can promote
your web site, your products and your services.
Always remember, "No promotion, no traffic!"

And, when in doubt, get advice from experienced
people in your field and specialists.

Shery Ma Belle Arrieta,
http://webmarketingspecialists.com/sbz