site promotion? best way?

[Hobbes]

How do you guys promote your site..

What IS the best way to promote your site to get a gazillion websurfers to visit it (and have them keep coming back)?

[Canuckkev]

Well, I am defintely no expert on this, but I use PageSubmit (http://www.pagesubmit.com) to submit my site to search engines. Never tried banner exchanges, but I doubt they are worth it. Maybe having a newsletter or something could help. When they get the letter, the will remeber your site, and return? I don't know, hopefully someone else does cause I need help too.

[Hobbes]

Thanks..every little bit helps. And I even have it as my signature here LOL...

[Cheap Bastard]

well there's no magic formula... It takes time, and effort...

What i suggest (yet i'm hardly an expert either) is that you just promote it everywhere without spamming.

[WHo CaREs]

the best thing you can do is have good content, good/fast loading layout, and updated alot.

[Gayowulf]

Spamvertize your site everywhere you can. newsgroups. send email to whoever. go to forums like this and rave on about your site.

thats howw i do it anyways;)

[JacklePoP]

Does word of mouth actually work in promoting websites?

[Canuckkev]

Originally posted by JacklePoP
Does word of mouth actually work in promoting websites?

Doubt it.

[Gayowulf]

It depends on the content and how useful/unique it is. it also depends on your target group. i dont think it contributes much.

[Cheap Bastard]

Originally posted by JacklePoP
Does word of mouth actually work in promoting websites?
definately.

Anyway, i can't help you on how to get your traffic... But the 'how to keep them coming back' part is all up to you and your website.

[1st]

Try asking people to trade links with you. I'll be glad to.

[Shinomori]

It's hard to gain visitors. I have an anime site and I'm currently getting 500 to 1000 unique visitors per day. I'm still trying to find a way to get more...

I find that posting on forums, newgroups, etc. does not help much. It's true that you might get more visitors that day, but as soon as the post gets old no one will read it and thus no more visitors. The flow of visitors is not consistent, and you need to keep posting which gets very tedious.

The best way is to just wait patiently, and if your site is good enough you'll gain loyals visitors who will return to your site over and over again. To make the process faster, try getting your site linked on big sites, that way you'll earn a steady flow of visitors from their sites.

Here's my site if you want to check it out...
http://www.trunkscapsulecorp.com/

[polygon]

(1) Lots of content -- useful info that people will find via search engines and come to your site, bookmark it, and come back.

(2) Consistency across time -- it takes time for traffic to build. Be there when it arrives. Changes in URL mean that all past links to your site are dead (eventually if not immediately).

(3) A concept that attracts and keeps people's attention, so that it will generate links, bookmarks, media coverage, etc.

(4) Cultivate your user community: they're your word-of-mouth resource. I set up an egroups list (now Yahoogroups) for users to communicate with each other and help with questions and ideas about the site; it now has 117 members. An on-site bulletin board would be just as good. When you have communication, you have community.

Those things have worked for me...

[bhorstkotte]

1) search engine optimization - check here for starters - http://spider-food.net/
2) link swaps with relevant sites
3) piddling around in message boards like this one :)

banner exchanges don't work; "put this link on your page and you'll have thousands of visitors in a week" things don't work; spamming will ultimately backfire; "link farms" are to be avoided, unless you want to be banned by search engines; and search engine submission tools should be used with caution (don't use for the "big" search engines), since some search engines can detect what door you came in, and penalize your ranking.