Once you’ve got your website finished and online, your work is not done. In fact, it’s really just beginning. Simply having your website online really doesn’t do you any good at all—you have to get people to visit your site before you can start making money. There are a number of ways to promote your website.
If you have a physical store in addition to an online store, you can put your website URL on all of your receipts, bags, and promotional items. This is a good way of getting your current customers to your website. Note, however, that this may be a costly way of advertising. Having your website printed on your bags may not be cheap. The same goes for getting a cash register that will print your website on the receipt. The cheapest form of advertising here may be to either print up small flyers on your own or to purchase one-time promotional items like bookmarks or postcards.
Don’t forget to add your website address to any banners or signs you have in your store. You can also add information about your site to your business letterhead, your business cards, and even your envelopes if you don’t mind having new batches printed.
If your site is a stand alone business website that isn’t connected to a physical store, you may end up doing most of your advertising online. This can be much cheaper than advertising offline. First, add a signature to your emails that includes your website. This way, everyone you email will know about it. While that might only include your friends and family, it’s still a good way of getting your site out there. Likewise, add your website to any signature you use on message boards. You can make a post on these boards about your site, but be careful: some message boards have very strict rules about this, and many consider it spamming.
Another option is to use social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter to advertise your site. You can search through the many users on these sites and others to find those who may be interested in your products or services. Then you invite them to be your friend. Be careful here, too, because if you simply send out mass friend invites, people will see you as a spammer. This is why it’s important to only invite people who may be interested in what you have to offer. In addition to not spamming, you’re more likely to get these people to be your friend and to get business from them because they may actually want or need your product as opposed to random people who might not want what you offer.
Above all, there’s one very important rule to remember when advertising your site online, and it can’t be stressed enough: do not spam. It doesn’t matter what form of advertising you’re using, if people see you as a spammer, they won’t ever visit your site. They may even think your site is a scam, which will hurt your business’s reputation.