How can I promote my site?

[sarahharris]

Hey guys,

Ive been working on a website for ages now and apart from couple of things on there, its pretty much completed.

My website is a video sharing website built for artists or any creative person that has a show reel. For instance, if you are an animator or director and would like to share your film to the world my website offers this services.

I have just offically launched it today and I need some feedbacks and some advice how I can promote it?

Any ideas would be great thank you!

[DMuse]

Hi Sarah,
You probably have thought about this already, but you should use social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Twine, Facebook and so on. It's a great way to reach out to people with similar interests.

Here are a couple good articles to help get started. The key is that you really have to become members of these communities. But they are also a great way to reach like-minded individuals.

How to Use Twitter as an Online Marketing Tool
http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/article.php/3810796

Expert Tips for a Tweeting Business
http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/article.php/3810801

Facebook How-To Guide: Create Business Pages and Ad Campaigns
http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/article.php/3800976

Good luck,
--Dan

[JEccles]

DMuse has some great suggestions. I would also suggest Linkedin.

[WebGuruSteve]

Sarah,

There are many ways to promote your new web site. I agree with the previous posts and here are a few additional items you should consider.

Do some research and find out where your target market uses online. Do they have forums, blogs newsletters that they visit/subscribe to? Seek these out and post info explaining your new web site and what it could do for them.

I have had excellent results using E-Zines. If you find some of these with your nitch market then contact the owner and ask if they will post a blurb about your new site.

Also try to find out if you have any type of comunity org in your area that is close to your target market. Contact them and ask to give a short talk about your web site and what you are doing.

One of the best things you can do is start your own e-zine. This will help you build a relationship with your subscribers and start building a friendly trust between you and them.

Lastly try using Google Adwords. This will bring visitors to your site but it will cost you some money. Make sure to set your daily $$ limits if you use this service so you do not get a huge bill at the end of the month.

Hope this helps!

[seo-marketing]

Search engine optimization can also help you generate free web traffic.

Try article promotion, social bookmarking, and link building on various forums.

It will help you generate more clicks and visitors from search engines.

[frdsmth9]

You need to focus and put a lot of time in. I think article marketing would work for you, try get as many back links for your site as possible. This includes putting it in your sig, that's just another back link.

[BeBop]

Any chance you could post a link so we can get a better idea?

Hey guys,

Ive been working on a website for ages now and apart from couple of things on there, its pretty much completed.

My website is a video sharing website built for artists or any creative person that has a show reel. For instance, if you are an animator or director and would like to share your film to the world my website offers this services.

I have just offically launched it today and I need some feedbacks and some advice how I can promote it?

Any ideas would be great thank you!

[mightyventures]

You can actually promote your site by just participating in the discussions here. I noticed you have a signature and you have done already marketing your site from forums like this. But of course, this forum deserves to have a healthy discussion and spamming is not allowed here. Signature campaign from forums is a way to promote your site.

[Bill Engvall]

What i did is visit different kinds of blog and share my opinion on the topic then leave my backlink, most forum and blogs allow this but some did not. Good luck

[itHighway]

As a website and software developer I've seen a lot of websites that died just because of lack of people who wanted to use it. It's very frustrating when a team of several people or several hundreds people puts a lot of effort in a huge project and in the very end it just disappears in the mist of time. A promotion of a website is as important as any other pert of the process; very few products became world wide popular without a proper promotion.

Below are a few main points that will help you to bring your websote to people.


Make it Useful

This part should be obvious - who needs a website that is useless? So, try to make it as important for people as water.


Make It User Friendly

As the website market is very rich now days, there are many products that are similar in their functionality and people have to choose one of them to use. One of the criteria is the usability - a very modern and very important aspect in website development. The more usable your website is the more people will like it.

Make it Bug-Free

I guess no one likes bugs in website, so the less bugs you have in your website the better it is. Imagine that bought a car and the left rear light flashes all the time or you can't open a door? It doesn't seem to be attractive.

Expose It

Ok, now we have an excellent, useful, user-friendly and bug-free website - let's promote it. Show that you have something that they need. Sometimes you may need to show that you have something that they have but a bit better.

One of the best ways to promote a website is to add it to relevant directories like www.download.com. If you have a 64-bit version of your product there is a directory for them as well - www.64xsoft.com. This step will make your website visible for users. Avoid adding your website to directories full of spam as it will not bring any result but just consume your time.

Write articles about your website - it's worth of it. People read a lot of material on the Internet, so why don't you let them know that you are here with a new product.

Keep supporting and upgrading your website - that is a crucial aspect of a successful website.

[Isioma Anizor]

To promote your web site add your web site information to as many search engines as possible, find alike websites and be a part of the circle. Being part of a circle is a great way to attract users searching in a particular category or subject area. Social Media websites such as YouTube & TubeMogul would be great to promote your website.

[amysocial]

The information in this thread is really useful. I'm in a slightly similar position to sarahharris. I've been trying to promote one of our client's new services which is a website based, text messaging communication service called clempi. It's a great facility for businesses/organisations/groups/voluntary bodies etc to create and manage an account themselves, reaching people using a low-cost, pay-as-you-go service solution(which is free to try and use thereafter if the company so chooses). So - I think the product's there and the web design guys have done a great job in creating a nice looking site, I'm now exploring the best ways for me to get the word out about it. Not wanting to hijack this thread for my own purposes but I just wanted to say thanks for the tips too as it has helped me think about other options for our client. @sarahharris, hope your website promo is going well with all this fab advice I'll be keeping my eye on this thread for any more pearls of knowledge added.

[ondeck240]

First you just do Search engine submission and then high PR quality link building, Article, PR, Forums and blogs commenting & posting......That will really help you...

[Brain]

There are so many ways via which you can promote your site. First of all have a clear marketing plan. Be very focused on what you need to do. What is the message you wish to communicate. Always have the answer to the question "What is in it for me"

Now you can use social networking portals, forums (like what you are doing here), book marking sites, email it to your friends so that they can pass on the word, online advertisements and finally SEO.

[pcgirl]

I couldn't agree more with the comment on article marketing. What you need to do is find a list of topics related to movie-making and then write articles about them with a link to your site at the end. Sites like ezinearticles rank very highly in Google and you can get a lot of targeted traffic this way.

Alternatively, you may want to consider a site like adbrite where you could buy targeted advertising on other related sites. The key in all of this is to target your users very accurately, especially for quite a niche site like yours.