Fav. promotional techniques?

[OZGRESSION]

Just wondering what peoples favourite promotional techniques are (free ones :P).

Here are a few of mine-

1. High ranking in search engines. (Very hard, but very rewarding)

2. Link exchanges with similar sites. (Especially when you are just starting out)

3. Banner exchanges. (Only if you find a specific one ie. A webmaster banner exchange for a webmaster site. I've found that general banner exchanges, even with "targeting", don't work very well at all)

4. Topsites/toplists/webrings. (Very helpful in the early stages of a site in getting the traffic flowing, not so much when you are established)

Anyway, those are my thoughts... can anyone add to the list?

[Mark]

Originally posted by OZGRESSION
...can anyone add to the list? Not me; those are the ones I would use too. :D

[fredricknish]

Search engines :rocker:

[darksidepuffin]

putting my url in my sig at certain forums....I won't mension any names(hint:the url is htmlforums.com ;))
:badbob::rocker:

[justjeni]

First of all, oz gave the best ways - the banner exchange especially - try to find one that ties in. I'm using bCentrals exchange for months now and haven't had one hit from them. I've been looking for one more suited to my site. You may have to hunt for a while, but it makes a big difference!

One little thing I do off the Internet is with those little address labels you can get for five or six dollars out of the Sunday paper flyers. I have my URL put on it, the name of the site and my logo and I stick one on every mailing I send out or anything else that comes to mind. Or you could have the URL added after your address but I just preferred the sticker strictly for the Web site. I often stick it on the back where people have to open the mail.

Just recently I read a tip to get a bumper sticker made, or if you can, make your own, with your URL on it as well.

When I had my old site I had a cap made with my URL on it and people looked in the stores and stuff, too - was funny. I've since thought of having it put on a sweatshirt or T-shirt, too as I'm not a big baseball cap wearer. Gives me a bad hair day. :) But you never know, you know?

Any little thing you can think of - try it! And for forums, that's a good way, but you have to make sure they allow sigs and you do have to make a point not to SPAM or you get ousted and it reflects badly on your site. And of course, try forums that relate to the theme of your site.

Next!

[MikeXP]

Originally posted by justjeni
First of all, oz gave the best ways - the banner exchange especially - try to find one that ties in.

Banner echanges! i got a great one i made :) http://bannerexchange4u.com :) ill give 2500 credits if u sign up ontop of the free ones u get for signing up :)

[justjeni]

Sounds good,readerm - nice site, too! :) I'm keeping my eyes on one I may be changing, plus I have other entry pages so I bookmarked you! Thanks!

[justjeni]

First of all, oz gave the best ways - the banner exchange especially - try to find one that ties in. I'm using bCentrals exchange for months now and haven't had one hit from them. I've been looking for one more suited to my site. You may have to hunt for a while, but it makes a big difference!

A couple nights ago I decided to resubmit my site to about a hundred sites by hand. (What a job!) Before doing so, I thought I'd read up some more on SE ranking, etc., and give my site another once-over. I got quite absorbed and read an extensive article on why banner exchanges, especially on your home page, are a "kiss of death" for ranking in the SE's - that's the way the article stated it. I went and looked at my stats on my banner exchanges - all site-related - and they were absolutely pathetic. I decided since I wasn't gaining anything worthwhile from the banner exchange on my home page, I'd take it down and put something else in its place. That was just a couple nights ago so I cannot tell as of yet if this is helping, but am curious if anyone else has read/seen anything like this and if you agree or disagree?? I have to say that the article made so much sense I was pretty much sold. They also said you should sell that advertising space, which brought another question to mind - if banners are doing so poorly for advertising, would anyone pay?

Interested in any input! I'm not making any judgment calls on banner exchanges, please understand - just trying to figure out the best way to go and feel this is worth some thought.

[BrowseHosts]

SurfExplode.com is targeted they work great.

[FunkyJ]

What about google's adword and overture ?

They work exceptionally well.

[jfiliss]

Whether or not individual search engines penalize that heavily for banner exchanges, you should avoid them. They are a waste of time. Work on individual link trades, getting listed in dmoz.org (takes months) and zeal.com, and submitting to the search engines as per their instructions.