Website Promotion

1. Search Engine Submission  2. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising 3. Reciprocal Linking 4. Banner Exchange Programs 5. Posting to Forums 6. Writing Articles for E-Zines 7. Ineffective and Unethical Promotion Methods

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5. Promoting your site in message boards

Participating in message boards (forums) is so effective as a strategy for promoting a website that it warrants its own section.  Message boards, such our own Web Launch Forum, is an excellent place to ask questions, share knowledge, and of course, bring publicity to your website.  I get at least 40-50 unique visitors a day to this site by participating in  various forums on website marketing and search engine optimization.

One way that posting in a forum can help bring visitors to your site is through direct referrals from your signature.  For example, my signature in the Web Launch Forum might be as follows:

Website Promotion :: Pay-Per-Click Advertising :: Banner Exchange :: Domain Appraisal :: Express URL Submission

I set up this signature in my profile so that it is shown below all my posts. When a reader clicks on any of these links, he or she is taken to one of the various websites that I own. 

Some forums do not allow signatures or outbound links of any kind.  Those who permit signatures usually have restrictions regarding their lengths and the number of links they contain. Always read the guidelines of each forum before posting with a signature. 

Another way that participating in a forum can help drive traffic to your site is through search engine exposure.  Many search engines index threads from forums such as ours. If you were a contributor to a thread that had been indexed by a search engine, the thread will have contained a link to your site via your signature.  The URL pointing to the thread will have counted as a page linking to your site, adding to your link popularity and search ranking.  Plus, when visitors click on the URL, they will read your post and possibly follow the links in your signature.

Different forums have different rules and policies regarding signatures and advertisements.  Some do not tolerate promotional material of any kind, not even a signature linking to your site.  Others, such as our Web Launch Forum, allow visitors to promote their sites through their signatures.  In my view, allowing signatures is the least that a forum can do to compensate members for contributing to its content.