10 Ways To Promote A New Website

According to a survey carried out by Netcraft, as of December 2009 there were approximately 233.8 million websites available on the world wide web. I know what you're thinking... that's a hell of a lot of websites. And indeed it is. If you've just created a website, you will probably want to know what you can do to get it noticed. The answer lies in promoting your website. Below are 10 great tips which will help you get started.
1) Word-of-Mouth - This is probably one of the easiest ways to promote your website. Word-of-mouth promotion can really help get the traffic flowing. Start with your close friends and family, and tell them to tell other people about your website. Maybe send out a few emails to people on your address book. You may be surprised at the results!
2) Forum Signatures - Form signatures are a great way to get a free link back to your site and promote it at the same time. Sign up to a forum about a topic related to your website, and spend some time being an 'active' poster, for example posting answers to questions. Most modern forums/discussion boards give an option to insert a custom signature. Put a link back to your site here. This way, every time you post a new message, your link will appear at the bottom of your post. This will help your site get a better search engine position!
3) Reciprocal Links - Links back to your site are important and search engines such as Google love them. Look for sites about a topic related to yours. Send an email to the webmasters of the sites asking them if they would like to participate in a link exchange. If they agree, place a link to their site from yours and check that they have done the same. Beware that some may play dirty and remove the link back to your site, so keep checking that they still link back to you often!
4) Write an Article about your Product or Service - Articles are a great way to spread the word about your site and get links. Write a medium length (450-700 word) article about your product or service and look for article distribution services on the Internet. Some services such as Free Traffic System will distribute your article and post it on other people's blogs. Make sure you include a link back to your site inside your article.
5) Create a Blog - Create a blog about the topic your website is based on. There are free services out there such as Blogger and Wordpress which are great for making blogs. Make sure your blog doesn't look like it's promoting your product/service directly, but rather make it informative and useful. Write an article a few times a week (or every day if you have the chance) and post it on your blog. You can include a link to your main website inside the blog post. Also, you should tell people about your blog on social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook. Read #7 on this list for more info.
6) Write a Press Release & Contact Local Press - There are some free services on the Internet which allow you to submit a press release about an event. You can write about the launch of your website. When you have created this press release, look for press release distribution services. Another idea is to contact your local newspaper press and ask them if they would consider writing about your website. Always remember that offline promotion is as important as online promotion!
7) Submit your Website/Blog to Social Bookmarking Sites - Social bookmarking sites such as Digg or Reddit allow you to recommend a website to other people all over the world. If used correctly, social bookmarking can be a great source of traffic. I would highly recommend StumbleUpon, a social bookmarking service which will get you targeted visitors in any niche. By submitting your main website and blog posts to StumbleUpon, you can easily get > 100 visitors to your website/blog each day!
8) Submit your Website to Search Engines - Most of the search engines now have a submission form where you can submit the url of your site to their index. You must be patient though, sometimes it can take a few months for you to be included in their listings. Make sure you've covered all of the main ones - Google, Yahoo and Bing, as well as some of the lesser known ones as they can give quite good traffic too. Needless to say, your site should have a good SEO score (this will be talked about in a future blog post).
9) Start a PPC Advertising Campaign - PPC, or pay-per-click advertising is a great way for a new website to gain traffic. With PPC, your website is advertised to people who search using specific keywords and you only pay when someone clicks through to your site. Google Ads is probably the best PPC service out there, and lets you set a budget that you are comfortable with.
10) Submit your Site to Web Directories - Last, but by no means least, you should always submit your website to web directories. These are sites which list your url either for free or for a small cost. They can be a good source of traffic and the backlink will help your PR score. The most famous web directory is Dmoz, and I would recommend submitting your site there as well as other good general directories such as this one - Best Website Directory. Note that with Dmoz, it can take up to 6 months to get indexed, so be patient!
Promoting your website is neither an easy nor a quick task. Persistence is key. Do not be afraid to be creative and devise your own strategies to advertise your site. I hope these tips have been helpful and wish you every success in promoting your website!