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10 BEST PLACES TO PROMOTE YOUR SITE
Website promotion is an art. As a webmaster, I spend most of my time promoting my sites. Without a big budget you
cannot promote a site overnight. Most webmasters don't have a big budget. So, they have to do it the hard way.
* Keep promoting it day in and day out.
* Try different options.
* Use trial and error to determine what works.
* Spend countless hours to arrive at good places to promote the site.
Over the years I have promoted my sites at hundreds, if not thousands, of different places online, some good, some
not so good. I want to share with you the 10 best places to promote your site so that you won't spend as many hours
as I have in finding them.
Before You Start Promoting Your Site
Be sure to create and include Meta tags on every page. Also, don't use all of the free submit utilities on the same
day since many of them submit to the same search engines. Wait at least one week before you use the next utility.
You may want to open an email account on hotmail or another of the free email services and use that email address
if you plan to submit to free for all links since many send a confirmation email, or add you to a mailing list.
The Big Ten
1. Self-Promotion: This is the best place to start promoting your site. And best of all it is free to use. However,
for only $10, you can have your data stored for one year so that you can promote your site over and over without
retyping the information. Self-promotion allows you to promote your site to over 400 different search engines,
indexes, business directories, international indexes, directories and awards.
http://www.selfpromotion.com
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.
http://www.jimtools.com
The two free utilities above let you submit one URL to 400 different search engines and indices at a time. However,
in some cases submitting your home page URL alone isn't enough. You have to "deep submit" your site. Deep submit is
nothing more than submitting each and every page of your site. If you have 100 pages in your site, then you must
use the above free, utilities 100 times to submit all of them. (Deep submission is possible with Self-Promotion's
paid service.) But don't worry. You can use the following deep submit utilities to submit multiple URLs at the same
time.
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 any where 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.
http://www.associate-it.com/html/main/300free/
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.
http://www.thepromoter.com/
5. Announce-it USA: 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. http://www.announceitamerica.com/The_Announce-O-Matic
By using the five utilities above, you have submitted your site to most of the search engines and indices. It may
take anywhere between three weeks to six months for your site to be indexed.
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, so getting listed with the Open Directory may bring you a lot of traffic.
http://home.netscape.com/escapes/search/about.html
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.
http://www.directhit.com
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 http://www.jimtools.com. 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.
http://www.goto.com
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!.
http://www.yahoo.com
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.
http://www.prweb.com/submit.htm
If you would like to add other good places to promote a website to this list, please send them to me. I will try to
add them.
About the Author:
Riyaj Shaik, President & CEO, Associate-it.com: The ultimate directory of affiliate programs. Associate-it.com's
(http://associate-it.com) fully searchable and categorized database includes reviews, ratings and descriptions of
over 1,100 affiliate programs. You can find tons of free information relating to affiliate programs and website
promotion at Associate-it.com. http://associate-it.com
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Google has been ordered to disclose personal information, including viewing habits and internet addresses to Viacom, in the latest phase of the ongoing legal battle between the two companies. Google must surrender its users' personal information to Viacom (Computing.co.uk)
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Janie Davies, Information World Review , Friday 4 July 2008 at 11:52:00 A US court has ruled that Google must provide Viacom with details of users who have watched YouTube videos Google has been ordered to disclose personal information, including viewing habits and internet addresses to Viacom, in the latest phase of the ongoing legal battle between the two companies.... ...
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