Promoting Your Website

People who buy and sell businesses usually have two criteria. They want to ensure that their investments are as secure as possible so they only buy businesses that they understand and ones that have a proven track record. When it comes to buying websites, this same concept applies to most buyers. They only want to buy websites that have to do with a niche they understand and they only buy websites that have been proven to make money.

The best way to prove to potential buyers that your website is a moneymaker is to start making money with it. The only way to do that is to get targeted traffic. Targeted traffic describes visitors that have found your website by searching certain keywords, by clicking on an ad, or a banner, or even by clicking on an anchor link. The point is that they were searching for what you’re offering and they’ve arrived at your site hoping that you’ll give them what they want.

To get targeted traffic, you’re going to have to promote your site so that it’s seen by the right people. There are two ways to do this. There are free ways to promote your site and then there are the ways that cost money. You’ll probably want to start off with the free means of promotion first until you get a little more experience. The best way to promote for free is using article marketing.

Article Marketing

Remember that keyword tool we used to find your niche? This same keyword tool can be used to find subjects to write about. Using the tool, come up with a few keywords that have a lot of searches but not a lot of competition. Then, write articles using those keywords in the titles and a couple times in the article’s body. This will optimize your articles for the search engines so that you can ensure that you get top ranking. These articles can then be distributed to article directories and ezines.

Then, at the bottom of your articles, in the resource box, include a link to your website. What this does is it allows people to find your articles through the search engines whenever they search for your chosen keywords, and it also allows them to find your website by clicking the link at the bottom.

To maximize your chances for success, make sure you use eye-catching titles and that you provide good, useful information that causes people to read your article to the very end. Your resource box should then seamlessly fit with the article so that your readers are more likely to click on your link.

This is a great way to get the targeted traffic you’re after, and by including links to your site with your articles, you will help to increase your website’s search rankings, thus giving it even more value!

Blogs, Forums and Social Networking

Along with article marketing, searching for blogs and forums that have to do with your niche is another great way to go about free website promotion. Commenting on blogs and forums, while also including a link to your website, is a fantastic way to get targeted traffic. Make sure your comments and posts are relevant and that they offer some sort of insight. Otherwise, they’re likely to get deleted and all your work will be for nothing.

For forums, make sure you include a link to your website in your signature line so that everything you post essentially advertises for your site. You can also use your articles in the forums to provide information people can use. This is great advertising and people will begin to see you as an authority on the subject, which will essentially bring you more and more traffic!

Social networking sites are another great way to get the traffic you want. They’re free to use and, if you use your personality, you can potentially get your website seen by millions of eyeballs. Think of all the traffic your website will receive if you can use Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Delicious, StumbleUpon and all the rest of the social networking sites on the internet today. This will take some work but the payoff makes it very worth it!

Your goal is to get visitors to your site to click on your Adsense ads, to buy your affiliate products, etc. Even if you don’t make any money at first, as long as you can get established traffic, you will increase your site’s value significantly and your site will then be that much more attractive to potential buyers.

Now all that’s left to do is list your website and wait for bidders and buyers.