A few weeks ago I wrote about building your website from the ground up. This article did not dive into great detail on any specific topics, but rather touched on the key points you will want to address. In this article I will place most of the focus on the promotíon aspect of this previous article. Image of bullhorn saying 'Promoting Your New Website'

While at times new websites can experience organic search rankings in a matter of months, for the most part, it can take well over a year before you start to see any progress, and that is if you start promoting right away!

                
SEO
If your new website has not been properly optimized for the search engines, then this is a necessary first step you must take. Ensure that your new site has integrated the appropriate keywords into all the fundamental areas of the site. Without this critical step of optimizing your site, in many cases no level of promotíon will help you get those search rankings.

Note: Extreme numbers of inbound links can sometimes cause an un-optimized site to rank, but an optimized website will seriously reduce the number of links needed, and its associated cost. This varies from industry to industry, but is true as a general rule.

Ideally the optimization of your site occurred during the planning and building stages, but if it did not be sure to get this completed as soon as possible.

Press Releases
The first thing you should do when your site goes live is issue a press release. Be sure to include a link back to your website, preferably with your target phrase hyperlinked as well. Submit this press release to an aggregator such as PRWeb. This will help get the word out that your site is live, draw some attention from the public, and also get you that first valuable link to your website.

Search Engine Submission
These days search engines will find your site on their own, and submitting to them is not necessary. If you feel you must submit your site to the engines, submit it only once and shortly after the site goes live.

In order to help the search engines fully spider your new site, the best thing you can do in terms of submissions, is to create and submit an XML sitemap. Submit this sitemap to your Google Webmaster Tools account, and also be sure to include a call to it within your robots.txt file by adding the following line including a complete path to your sitemap:

Sitemap: http://www.domain.com/sitemap.xml

There are many tools out there to help you build your xml sitemap. Google has placed a líst of some of these tools on their "Third Party Programs" page.


Directory Submission
Back in August I wrote about using Directory Submission to help build links. The general gist of it is to be sure that there is a high level of relevance in the directories you submit your site to, especially if it is a paid directory. Currently DMOZ still has a high level of value as it is seen as a strong authority at Google. Make the attempt to have your site listed here in the most relevant category possible.

Link Building
There are a number of ways you can work to grow your back links. In July I wrote about 13 ways to help build links. Links are one of those strategic tools that won't ever be a bad investment. Today they play a significant role in search rankings for most industries, especially in Google. While the future will almost undoubtedly still see search value in links, even if that value declines, or disappears entirely, quality links can still help drive traffic as well, and a strong base of inbound links can deliver you customers well into the future.

Explore the different ways to build links to your site. A steady progressive rise in inbound links will help Google look positively in your direction. Do not be afraid of reciprocal links either. If you are trading with highly relevant websites to your industry, then you should have nothing to be afraid of.

Social Media
Promotíon largely consists of building links and becoming recognized by the search engines, but in order to help you build those links, getting your name and brand out there can really do wonders. By increasing awareness of your site and product, the public will often help create the buzz you need, and often, this can result in fresh links to your website.

To help get your site in the eyes of as many people as possible, take a look into Social Media and consider creating profiles on some of the popular platforms. This can include creating a YouTube account and uploading instructional, informational, or interesting product videos. You can set up a Facebook page, and work to build a community around your product. Create a profile page on Squidoo, MySpace, and Flickr, amongst many others.

These pages often act as backlinks to your site, and also help spread awareness. Be sure to keep your social endeavors updated regularly or any viewership you have will dwindle as people lose interest. If you are able to build a strong following, this can result in many individuals linking to your site and spreading the word, resulting in long term benefits for you and your site.

Your use of social media does not have to be exactly about your company. For instance, let's say you sell cars. Your use of the social platform, while it may note your business, can focus on other car info including trivia, news, photos, etc. The key is to keep it relevant, not identical - you are not looking to create a mirror of your site.

Article Writing
Write articles about the subject of your website and submit them to various services such as EzineArticles. Consider also writing for your blog to help grow your site content. By writing and distributing relevant articles you can create a nice cushion of relevant incoming links. By writing articles that closely match the topic of your site, and including a link back to relevant content within your site, you can help out not only with search engine rankings, but by creating an extra traffic stream for your site.

Pay Per Click
While Pay Per Click (PPC) will not give you many long standing benefits, it can help you to start making sales immediately which in turn can give you the funds needed to promote your site via other means. If you need that immediate traffic, this is one way to get it, but at a cost, and as soon as you stop paying, your traffic stops, so it is far from a reliable long term means. In some industries however, it can pay off, so it is definitely worth considering.

Summary
In general, reference your website everywhere possible. Get links from every relevant source you can think of, issue a press release, and get your site lísted in the key directories for your industry. The more eyes you can put your URL in front of and the more relevant sites you can get to link back to yours, the sooner you will start to see progress in the search engines.

For many industries it can literally take years to get those coveted first page results - in some industries it may be near impossible, but if you want a chance, you need to start promoting that new site of yours immediately.

Email marketing is a very effective way or reaching your target market. It is less expensive than other types of marketing while allowing your to reach large volumes of consumers. By 2008, it is expected to be the most used method of advertising. Are you aware of the various email marketing laws that are in effect throughout the United States and other countries? It is important that you take the time to educate yourself on this topic before you procedure with an email marketing campaign. 36 of the 50 states have privacy laws in place regarding email marketing tactics. There are also laws in Europe, Australia, and Asia. It is a good idea to have an attorney who specializes in these laws to assist you with your email marketing campaigns. If you are a small business planning to go about it on your own, it is very important that you are aware of how these laws affect you.

 The CAN-SPAM Act was implemented in the United States to protect the privacy of consumers on January 1st of 2004. CAN-SPAM is short for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act. The act prevents the use of misleading to and from headers in the email. Marketers are required to include their physical address in the email. There must be an opt out link in every email that gives the consumer the ability to reach the marketer and tell them they no longer want to receive information from them. The sender of the email must work to remove this email address from their data base within 10 business days. Any email that contains sexual content must be clearly labeled and identified before the recipient opens it. Marketers have to get permission from the consumer in order to sell their email address.

Regulators of the internet are getting harder on marketers who violate these laws. They are imposing huge fines. In some cases the sender of these marketing emails can be sentenced to jail for a maximum of five years. The harsher regulations are to protect the users of the internet and email services who felt their privacy was being violated as their email continued to be bogged down with hundreds of solicitation emails that were randomly sent without any target market in mind. As the use of email marketing continues to grow, expect the regulations to be further enforced.

 In addition, businesses who continue to send such materials to consumers who have requested to be removed from the data base mailing list may decide to sue you and your company. As a business owner, this can be scary. The law protects you as well though. You will not be liable if a spammer has used your business as a cover for their endeavors. You are also not liable if a virus is found in your email marketing campaign as long as you did not place it there or know it was in place prior to sending out the emails.

 The Coalition Against Unsolicited Emails is a non-profit advocate organization to help consumers know their rights, to stop unfair email marketing practices, and to provide businesses with answers to their questions before they engage in such activities. They also work closely with members of Congress to get laws passed that will be in the best interest of both consumers and businesses. Their website is a great place to get information.

Email marketing is a wonderful way to reach large amounts of customers in a short amount of time. This is a very inexpensive marketing method that is effective. It will result in getting more traffic to your website thus generating more sales. Email marketing can be used by any type of business regardless of the products or services they have to offer.



One huge advantage of email marketing is it can be effective for both large and small businesses. When it comes to regular commerce, the larger company can afford to print up colorful fliers and ads. This is much harder for smaller businesses due to the expense. Email marketing can be done using software so that even small businesses can create effective and professional looking email marketing campaigns on a small budget. This will hopefully help them increase their sales.

Email marketing is an effective way to deliver the information you want to get to consumers in the method they enjoy using. Most everyone has email these days and it is common to log on and check for messages several times each day. It also allows you the opportunity to reach consumers around the globe. There are no boundaries when it comes to location with this method of marketing.

On average email marketing costs 78% less than other types of marketing. This savings is after the cost of research, testing, and sending the emails. It also takes the cost of consulting into consideration. Email marketing consulting is often less expensive than other marketing consultants. This means you can choose to save money or maybe invest more but reach more people. In addition to saving money, you save valuable time. Your emails can be scheduled to go out at times when you are out of the office or working on other projects.

To appeal to your consumers, email marketing allows you to use graphics, games, music, videos, and other types of materials togain their interest. This is something most other marketing concepts don’t allow. Sure, they offer one or two choices but it seems like everything is possible with email marketing concepts. Since you have the name and purchasing history of the individual, you can personalize the email. This makes the customer feel more trusting towards you as well as more loyal to the company. It is much better than getting a piece of mail at home that says dear customer. You will be able to create marketing lists that allow you to send a marketing campaign only to a target market. This is a very effective way of sending
different campaigns to different customers.

The process of email marketing gives you tools for measuring the successful of the marketing campaign. You can measure the click through rate, conversion rate, find out how a person linked to your website, and many more ways of analyzing data.

Customers can choose to opt out by clicking the link in your email marketing campaign. This saves you money by knowing who isn’t interested in receiving your information. There is no way to know that with other types of marketing campaigns. For those who are interested in your email marketing campaign, you will see the responses quickly. This is a great way of knowing what is effective for future marketing endeavors.