Internet Advertising : 12 Affordable & Effective Ways To Promote Your Website
So, you've got your website up and running but you’re not making any money yet. Why? Because you need traffic. And in order to get traffic to your site, you have to promote it. Here are some ways that you can promote your website:

1. Article Writing
One way to bring traffic to your site is to write articles relevant to your niche and submit them to online article directories and e-zines. Articles are an inexpensive, easy way to reach your target audience and generate more traffic. Your articles should be search engine optimized, which will give you a good Google ranking and therefore more viewers. The articles should be informative, not sales-y. An article should not sound like an ad, or it will turn people off. The word count should be between 450 and 1,000. To submit your articles to online directories, you can use article submission and distribution services. Just be sure you submit your article to the correct category, or it could be banned from the site.

2. Banner Advertising
A banner is a graphic displayed on a webpage that links to the advertiser's website. The size is usually 468x60 pixels. Using banner ads is a great way to bring potential customers to your site. You can also track the ads, so you know how many people the ad reached.

3. Blogging
A blog is an online journal or log. Originally, it was a platform for people to record their thoughts, but it has turned into something more. Now people use blogs to promote products and services and increase traffic to their websites. Blogging is a great way to advertise because the pages are frequently updated which results in more attention from the search engines.It's a good idea to use blog submission services to submit your blogs to online blog directories. This will increase your blog’s page rank with the search engine.

4. Classified Ads
Online classified ads are better than newspaper classifieds because they can reach more viewers. It's inexpensive and sometimes even free. These ads are indexed by search engines and are a good way to generate more traffic. Online ads tend to be longer than newspaper ads because they do not charge by the line. Some of them also target local audiences as well. Craigslist is an example of a free online classified ad site that sorts the ads into localities.

5. Content
To guarantee high page ranking with Google, it's important that you offer quality, relevant content on your site. It's important that your content be search engine optimized. Your keywords should make up 1-2% of the total word count on the webpage. You can get free content from an article directory such as ezinearticles.com. You can also use RSS feeds as well.

6. Directories
Online directories provide web users with links to various websites that are categorized by topic. Getting links to your site also helps your page rank with the search engines. One of the most popular directories is Yahoo. Some directories allow you to submit your site for free while others charge a fee. You should submit to directories that cater to your niche. It’s better to submit your site manually than to use an automatic directory submission service.

7. Email Marketing
Email marketing is another form of online direct marketing. Email messages are used to advertise to potential customers.Opt-in lists” are used to generate leads. These lists are comprised of email addresses of people who signed up for an offer or newsletter. Using opt-in lists for email marketing has a 3-5% success rate.

8. One-Way Links
One-way links, or non-reciprocal links, are when the link to your site is displayed on another website, but you do not display that website's link on your site. Getting one-way links will improve your site's ranking and traffic. One way to get one-way links is by one-way link submissions, which is submitting your URL to online directories that have a high page rank. There are automated directory submission services, but they do charge a fee and they don't guarantee how many one-way links you'll get.

9. Press Releases
A press release is a statement issued to a news media source (like a newspaper, television or radio station) to announce a newsworthy event. Using press releases is an effective way to bring attention to your website, on a local, national or global level. There are press release distribution companies that will submit your press releases to global media channels and popular news sites such as MSN News.

10. Search Engine Submissions
Search engines are websites that index other websites and display those sites when users type in relevant keywords to search for information. Search engines use programs to scan the web for new and updated pages. Every website on the Internet is listed on a search engine. The sites are listed on the search results in order of page rank. Each search engine uses its own criteria to determine rank. The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo and MSN. Start by submitting your website to these three and then you can begin submitting to smaller search engines such as AltaVista and AllTheWeb. It is best to submit your site to the search engines manually rather than using an automated search engine submission program.

11. Social Bookmarking
Bookmarks are stored webpages for the user to view at a later date. Social bookmarking is an online bookmarking tool that allows users to save, organize and even share their bookmarks with other online users. The bookmarks may be made public, so that everyone can see them, or they can be private, meaning only the person who saved them can see them. Or, they can be shared only with a specified group of friends. Use social bookmarking submission to bring your website to your targeted market. To submit your site, post the link on forums, blogs and message boards of various social networking sites like Digg. You'll have to do this manually but it is worth the time and effort you put into it.

12. Online Forum Sites
There are 100s of forum sites with 1000s of members.You can join many of them free and participate in the discussion groups.Consider providing advise and or services to other members.Be sure to fully comply to the forum rules for you do not want to be banned by the forum sites.

Paul Spiro
Internet Advertising : 12 Affordable & Effective Ways To Promote Your Website
Paul is active in various community and social programs aimed at providing equal access to education,jobs and business opportunities to all regardless of race or religion.Paul has over 10 years experience in managing a successful multi-million online advertising and publishing company.