Bring those visitors back for more, applauding you and sayingBRAVO! They will create a buzz about your great site, and sendyou many more visitors through word of mouth. These visitorsare your personal marketing force.
If you are a non-techie like me, you may not have heard of whata sticky Web site is (it is the stuff that lures visitors back againand again). But we do know we want that!
Forget getting to the top of the search engines. Let yourWebmaster do that. Instead, try out some of these low-maintenance ways to bring em back to your Web site for more.
1. Upload new, original, and useful content often. Do not thinkof your Web site as a virtual brochure. Avoid blatant ads suchas banners, which turn visitors off. Give them information onlythey cant find anywhere elseand give it free. People wantand need how tos, especially.
Always think benefits when you post some new article. Helpingyour visitors get what they want will bring their trust and respectas an expert, and eventually, bring you profit from your book,other products, or service.
2. Update your Web site content regularly and often, perhapsdaily or weekly. If someone visits your site and finds nothingnew, they will disappear into cyberspace and spend their timeon other sites.
If you dont want to write articles, copy and paste other peoplesarticles or tips from their ezines or Web sites with theirpermission, of course. Keep the pieces under 1200 words.Common lengths are anywhere from 75-1000 words. You caninclude a tip list, past feature articles from your ezine, an excerptfrom your book, poetry, a heart-felt story, or a character sketchfrom your fiction book.
3. Publish your own ezine. Make it short and sweet. Start witha monthly, then see if you can do it bi-weekly. If you dont stayin regular touch with your possible buyers, they will forget youand your books message.
People want to know you better, so they can trust you and thinkof you as an expert in your field. Your free information, tips andresources will keep them as subscribers. If they like your ezine,they will recommend it to others. The opt-in eNewsletter tops allother ways to drive traffic to your site, and it can be mass mailedfree, too. Check out www.topica.com.
4. Include a recommending service on your site. Your repeatvisitors create new traffic. Check out www.Recommend-It.com. Its free, fast, and versatile. Each time someonerecommends your site, they are entered in a contest to win aPalm V reading device and a chance to win $10,000.
5. Host a forum on your site where people can interact fully andyou can share your knowledge and offer suggestions. Its agreat way to help others and get these people visiting your siteoften because they want to know you as a real person. Withouta chance to interact with you people lose interest.
Allow your visitors to post a message or reply to othermessages. They will check back every few days for newmessages or replies. To find these services, do a search on freewebmaster resources. Two specific ones:http://www.delphi.com and http://www.evryone.net. Check outthis discussion group http://www.ablake.net/forum/
6. Remind your visitors to bookmark your site. Tell them youupdate material every day or week. If you omit this, you passup a great opportunity to lure repeat, loyal visitors. You wantmore visitors, and you want them to spend a lot of time on yoursite. The more time they spend on your site, the more likelythey will check out your products or services pages.
The biggest complaint from clients is that they get hits, but notenough sales. When you follow the above tips, youll be muchmore likely to succeed at increased sales.
7. Serialize some of your content. If visitors get it all in one visit,whats to keep them coming backPut one part of an article,special report, or excerpt from your book on your site eachweek or so. Let people know this through your ezine.
8. Post a monthly special only for your Web visitors. Call itDiscount of the month, orFreebie of the month. Withoutincentives your audience will go elsewhere. Go to your filesnow, and see what you can use. This fabulous technique hasworked well for the author.
9. Enjoy the journey. Each day, you can learn something thatwill make your Web site more real, more YOU. Let yourpassion show! Add some personal information such as thepersonal column. The Coachs Corner is a new column in theezine, The Book Coach Says. It mentions personal writingand marketing set backs, boo boos, along with a tip or so. Putpersonal messages on your site too.
10. Allow everything you do on the Net to be easy and fun. Ifyou dont love to create ad copy, or if you dont like the technicalside, delegate it to someone who loves it. Do what you do bestand hire the rest. Its far smarter to eliminate all struggle fromyour adventure, so you will shine at what you do.
The biggest complaint from clients is that they get hits, but notenough sales. When you follow the above tips, youll be muchmore likely to succeed at increased sales.
Judy Cullins 2005 All Rights Reserved.
Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in peoples lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 10 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, The BookCoach Says..., Business Tip of the Month, blog Q & A at and over 185 free articles.
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Email her at or Phone: 619/466-0622 -- Orders: 866/200-9743
Now that youve built your new website you cansit back and let it do all the work, right Well no. Unlike in Field ofDreams if you build it, they wont necessarily come, at least not until youask them to! Thats where web site promotion comes in. Web site promotionprovides that vital link between that great site youve built (or had built)and everyone that you want to come see it!
Often new site owners either dont know that theyneed to promote their new site or they follow the trend of only promoting theirsite on the search engines like Google and MSN. While it is always important toget your site listed with all the major search engines (and most of the smallerones), you might be overlooking a vital part of promoting your site, promotingyour web site locally.
A small business will often itswebsite to provide a Showroom for their products, information about theirbusiness, and directions to help potential customers find theirbusiness. Their main goal often is to attract customers locally or fromnearby towns and cities, so some additional strategy is useful in promotingtheir site.
Local websitepromotion checklist
1. Local Newspaper: Many local papers have a section to introduce your business tothe area. Write a small article about your business and submit it to thenewspaper.
2.Press Releases: This is a formal release about your business. There are manyplaces on the Internet that will publish press releases for free. This can be agood way to be sure your business can be found on the Internet. Often localpapers will also run these releases.
3.Niche Marketing: For local businesses, be sure your keywords (both in yourcontent and in the Meta Tags) include local cities and towns. When some onetypes in Used cars in the search box it will return thousands of results.When they narrow it down to Used cars YourTown, you want your web site tobe high in the listings.
4.Email Signature: Most email programsallow you to add a signature to the bottom, include your web site address. Thisallows you to tell a little about your business and maybe announce a specialyour company is having. Keep these short and to the point.
5.Business Cards: Be sure your web site URL is on all paper correspondence and on yourbusiness cards.
6.Phone book: When you put your listing in the phone book for a little extra youcan add your website URL, which may also be added to the yellow page phonedirectory. Google keeps a yellow page directory based on phone number listings,in time your business and URL will be listed there.
7.Be Creative: The more often someone sees your web site URL the more likelythey will remember it when they need your product. Find ways to display yourweb site URL in your store and any other place the public may see it.
Dwayne Goerges is the owner of and .
Specializing in data driven websites for inventory display and clientmanagement.