Article Surfing Archive

There was a time when the most comprehensive site promotional tools available were forged in the fire of four primary courses of action.

1. Submit your url to as many search engines as possible.

2. Tell everyone you knew about your website.

3. Pay to advertise your site.

4. Ask sites to link to your site in a link exchange arrangement.

In a time not so far distant the web was a place for experimental ideas and was more of a cyber playground than a place for serious ecommerce.

Today you will still find a significant playground in cyberspace, but even that arena has learned how to convert their play areas to cash. More conventional Internet advertising has found a rival in Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising such as Google AdSense. Ecommerce has found that secure online shopping carts have allowed timid consumers to venture onto cyberspace and locate items they need or want.

Cyber shopping has become so comfortable there has been a decided shift from brick and mortar shopping to stay-at-home shopping. The crowds are smaller and parking is rarely an issue.

As more individuals are logging on to web stores consumer interest has grown. Consumers are more likely to make a purchase from online shops providing knowledge-based resources that help them understand the product or service better. The additional use of a site forum for members allows your customers or potential customers to talk about the product or the industry you represent.

By making the forum available through a free membership you are given a new contact every time a new visitor signs up to voice an opinion on the forum. This point of contact is another site promotion tool that can allow you to use autoresponders to keep in contact with your site membership list.

Some web-based business solutions also offer ecourses or ezines to further capitalize on opt-in site membership.

One of the newer site promotional tools is Article Exchange. This concept is the new wave of simple link exchanges. In this scenario experts in a certain field request the exchange of knowledge-based articles from a complimentary site. If successful, each website will be filled with articles from other websites. This not only adds to overall content offerings, but the articles come with a link that will allow the readers to visit the site of the originating author. In the best of cases, this results in a network of complimentary online stores that are interlinked through article content that is beneficial to all parties.

New site promotional tools are being developed all the time and in the coming months there will be even more ways to get the word out about your website.