Manually submit to search engines
Everyone suggests this, and although it will not hurt, it is to a large extent unnecessary. The major search engines have their own way of searching the internet. They go out of their way to not be influenced by outside sources. The most important aspect of your site is content and new content. You want your site to be rich in content. In addition, you want to make sure your site does not become stale. Try and list new content periodically. If you do this, the major search engines will find you, and find you fast. This will lead to other sites linking to your site, which is as important as your content.
If you insistent in submitting to search engines, restrict you submissions to the top 3.
Google
Yahoo
MSN
Without further ado, the following are my top 11 ways of promoting your web store, web site or blog.
1. Submit products to Google Base for their Google Products search.
This is huge. It costs nothing and will bring, not only traffic to your site, but orders. Google has a large data base of vendor's products for sale, (this was formally named Froogle). If you go to Google's main page and click on shopping in the top left corner, you will be in their Products search page. Here a person can search for particular products such as a book, a DVD, diamond rings, clothes, whatever they want. The result of the search will list a variety of vendors web sites with a link to the product. The way you get into Google products, is to use their Google Base program. You can list one at a time, or you can upload using a tab-delimited file. If you a very large data base (20Mb), they allow an FTP transfers.
Google also has software that interfaces directly with their database. You do not need to use Google Base. It is called Google Base Store Connector.
The down side to this is that their storeconnector software only works if you have an online store with eBay, Yahoo, or using osCommerce software.
Everyone else must use Google Base.
2. RSS feeds
If your web store has this capability, make sure it is turn on and available to potential customers.
3. Join forums
Forums are discussion boards and are a great way to achieve links to your website. In most forums you are allowed to have a signature and in your signature you can put a link to your website. Two important things to keep in mind:
1. Make sure it is a forum you are interested in. You must be able to make comments that are pertinent to the forum topic.
2. No Spam. And when I say this, I am talking about any post which has as it's sole objective, promoting your product and/or web site. That your web site is listed as a signature in your posting, should be clear even to the most casual of readers, as secondary to the comments made on the topic under discussion.
4. Get Listed in Free Directories
Getting listed in directories helps your search engine rankings. It takes time to submit and even more time for you site to be listed. At least for a free listing.
http://www.quantawebdesign.com/directories.html#directories
The above link also has some outstanding information on directories.
5. Write an article
If you have knowledge about a particular topic, or are an expert in a niche area, or if you simply have something informative to say, you can write an article. You then can submit this article (with your name and web site address in the tag line), and submit it to an online submission service.
My personal preference is http://ezinearticles.com
Other web site owners and webmasters will post the article on their website with your taglines intact.
6. Create a blog.
Ideally it is best to combine your blog with your web site. Post articles and blog information in one section of the web page. That way, you need not be concerned with getting people to your web site from your blog. They are already there.
However, if you have a store that is not your own domain, such as an Ebay store, or a free site such as Blujay or eCrater, then I would recommend get a free blog at Google.
If you use a free blog outside of your web site, make sure you have several links on your blog to your web site.
7. Squidoo
Squidoo is part social, part encyclopedia and part blog.
You can get your own page free. From there you can add many different items.
The important part of squidoo, is for your page to be focused on a particular topic, and then try and connect that to your product.
8. Free Classifieds
There are many free classified ad sites, most of them are not worth your time. First you must be able to list your website URL.
Examples of classified listing sites, (and I'm not shilling here) would be:
US Free Ads
Allandpro
Classifiedsforfree
There are thousands of these type of sites on the web. Some allow free listings, others give you more exposure with a fee. There are also many websites which have a classified section, but they are not a classified listing site, as the web site is devoted to a specialized topic. The latter is what you need to be focused on. It takes time, but with research, you will find several web sites devoted to topics related to your products. Some of these will have classifieds parts of their site. Often times a free listing is available. This is where you will get the best exposure.
9. Social networking sites.
I hesitate to list this as I do not like mixing business with pleasure. But to do so is a fact of life. Social networking sites are simply a place where people can come together and socialize on the web. The largest of these will give ou a page to display information about yourself. You can use this page to create and online presence for yourself and your products. The most popular of these sites are:
yahoo360
myspace
facebook
10. Include a signature file on all the e-mails you send out.
All of your email correspondence with customers, and anyone else you would like to include, should have a link to your store at the bottom of the email.
