The biggest problem I've always had promoting my web site is
keeping myself focused. After all, what should I be doing?
Publishing my own e-zine, placing classified ads, looking
for link exchange partners, writing articles... My head is
beginning to spin just from trying to list all the promotion
strategies available today!

But when my friend who is just putting her professional
practice on the Internet asked me, "Milana, what should
I do now?", it all became very clear: don't spread
yourself thin. Choose up to 2 ways to promote your web site
and do it for at least 1 month to see if it's effective.

I wrote a brief plan for her to follow this month and I
wanted to share it with you. This strategy focuses on
writing and thankfully most professionals - coaches,
consultants, writers and speakers - are very good when
it comes to communicating thoughts on paper.

You must set aside approximately 3-4 hours a
week (which is nothing compared to how much time most online
business owners spend) and stick to the plan.

Do not try to implement any other strategies at this time.
If you get an idea, write down and try it later. If nothing
else, this plan will surely bring your site steady growing
traffic. Ready?

1. Create a simple 2-5 page web site. Use an easy-to-use
web page editor, such as free Netscape Composer available
from Netscape web site. Place your sales copy on the main
page, and use other pages for information about you, your
other products and whatever else you would like your
visitors to see.

IMPORTANT: for this strategy, please, offer something free
on your web site via an autoresponder. Use GetResponse.com
to be able to automatically follow up with people who
download your free gift.

Since this promotion strategy will generate a good amount of
traffic to your site, you MUST capture your visitors'
e-mails or else you will waste all this traffic. Mention to
them that you will be sending occasional mailings and that
they can always leave your list.

2. Add TITLE and META tags to your web pages and submit them
to major Search Engines. Make sure these tags are short and
mention only what's relevant. Ask yourself, what word or
phrase would I type in the Search Engine if I was looking
for my product?

Below is the list of "Submit Site" addresses for most of
them:

http://home.lycos.com/addasite.html
http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/addurl
http://www.google.com/addurl.html
http://www.excite.com/info/add_url_form
http://www.northernlight.com/docs/regurl_help.html
http://www.directhit.com/util/addurl.html
http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php
http://hotbot.lycos.com/addurl.asp
http://www.anzwers.com.au/cgi-bin/print_addurl.pl

3. Locate up to 20 e-zines that target the same audience
that you are. Make sure they accept articles. Create a
text file and record their e-mail address (where you will
send your articles), e-zine's title and publisher's name.

TIP: If you want to save even more time in the long run,
enter all this data into a mailing list program so all you
would have to do is click "Send" button and your articles
will be sent to everyone on the list.

Now your web site is set up and the promotion strategy is in
place. The rest of the plan will have to be implemented
weekly to be effective.

4. Write one quality and informative article a week of
interest to your target audience and do the following:

- Add a resource box to the article about you & your product
- Add TITLE and META tags to it and submit to Search Engines
- Post your article on your web site for content
- Submit it to the e-zine list you generated earlier
- Submit it to article directories and lists

Here is the list of most popular article directories and
lists:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content
http://www.ezinearticles.com/add_url.html
http://www.AuthorConnection.com
http://www.internetclinic.org/contact/sub-article.htm
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/articlesubmit.htm
http://www.webpromote.com/suggest.asp
http://makingprofit.com/mp/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.mediapeak.com/internetmarketingarticleindex.htm
http://www.articlecentral.com/suggest.asp
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/auto

5. Locate up to 3 popular forums where your target audience
hangs out. Post replies to their questions up to 1 hour a
week. Leave your web site link (or specific article link)
behind so people know who you are and why they should listen
to your advice.

Follow this plan for at least 4 weeks. Make sure your
articles are of high quality and offer a solution to a
problem that you target customers might be facing. If you
articles are published, expect increase in traffic to your
web site. And your freebie should take care of capturing
your visitors e-mails.

Your follow-up messages should introduce your products or
services. As always, make sure your subscribers can leave
your list at any time.

About the Author
Milana Leshinsky is a professional web developer,
and the author of web design manuals for beginners:
"Create Your First Business Web Site in 10 days"
http://www.firstbusinesswebsite.com/?a-consultants
"Mesmerizing Website Power"
http://www.instantwebanswers.com/?a-consultants