Promote Yourself On The Internet For FREE

I know that websites are indispensable tools for businesspeople who want to sell their products or services or for people who simply want to promote their writing or themselves. Unfortunately, I can't afford one. Wrong! While creating a website with a web design company could be very expensive, doing it yourself is much easier than you think and either free or for a monthly fee less than the cost of a meal at McDonald's. I'm not a geek nor am I an Internet guru. I'm just a plain ole person like you who doesn't understand technical jargon and who has a need to promote my business and my writing. If I did it, you can do it too!

Begin by doing a Google search using the words "free website hosting". You'll come across offers for free websites from sites such as "Webs", "Bravenet", "110MB", "Doteasy" "Yola" "Homestead" and dozens of others.

My experience is with Homestead. Before signing up, I had no experience whatsoever developing a website. The free website building software they provided was very user friendly. I built my website in just a few hours and have never had the need to call their toll-free customer support for assistance.

When I began, I didn't have to start from scratch. I was able to choose a template from a list of 2,000 examples. Each template included five unique pages, working navigation, relevant images and text. Without any instruction whatsoever, I was immediately able to use the editing tools to add photos, change text, add links to videos and other sites, incorporate a guest book to collect and publish comments from visitors, and much more. While my website is designed simply to lead potential customers to the service I perform, you can easily create an online store by adding a catalog and a PayPal shopping cart,

Your FREE or nearly free website is almost useless since neither you nor anyone else will likely find it when using a search engine. Therefore, you did all of that work for nothing. Wrong again! You just completed step one. Now, the real work begins, but it's easy, fun, and free of charge.

First, check out the social networking sites. You may not recognize this terminology, but you are very likely familiar with Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Join several social networking sites and take every opportunity to advertise your business by posting your website's URL. Not only will others click and link to your website, but you can do it too. Even if nobody who links to your site takes advantage of what you have to offer, those clicks will benefit you because Google and the gang are watching and these one-way links mean a lot to them.

Next, write a blog. You might write about your business, a hobby, an interest, or even about your personal life. Make it interesting to others and always include a link to your URL. Remember, no matter who does the clicking, you'll be the beneficiary. Check out Blogger and Wordpress.

If you're promoting a business, write ads and post them for free. You can do this using Freeads, BizHWY, Yelp, MerchantCircle, Yahoo Local, CitySquares, and dozens of other free business directories. Again, don't forget to post a link to your website.

If you're promoting your writing, submit your articles or your site URL to free directories. These sites will permit you to write blurbs or abstracts and to include a link to your website or to the website where you maintain your written work. I write my articles on HubPages and promote them through Xomba, Propeller, and a few others.

There's an electronic magazine for just about every topic imaginable. Take advantage. Many of them will accept submissions free of charge. For example, I teach salsa and Latin dance and have submitted photographs, videos, and my bio containing a link to my business URL to TheMamboScene.com Magazine. Surely you can find one or more e-zines that fit what you are trying to promote.

Submit your website to as many web directories as you can. A web directory is simply a directory that lists web sites by category and by subcategory. However, their greatest value is that they are a very effective way of building one-way links. Remember, Google looks for one-way links and this a very easy and cost-free way of establishing many. Some of them require you to post a reciprocal link on your website. I wouldn't suggest you do so. It's so easy to find ones that don't have this requirement and the value of reciprocal links is far less than one-way links.

52% of Internet traffic is now video, 70% of web surfers watch video online, and the average YouTube visitor spends 27 minutes a day watching videos. That should tell you that posting video on YouTube and other video sites has great potential as a way to promote your website. When posting on YouTube, make sure you include a link to your website.

Finally, take the time to establish a favorites folder on your web browser where you save the links to each of the websites where you or your business is promoted. Then, you can casually visit each of these sites when you have the time to engage in self-promotion. In addition, you may wish to establish one or more of these sites as your web browsers home page.

If you want to succeed at anything in life, you must inspect that which you expect. Every so often, do a web search using more than one of the major search engines. Think like the person whom you want to discover your website and type the words he/she would use and do the search. If your website is not number one, you need to review the aforementioned recommendations and think about the things you can do to make your listing rise in the rankings. Good luck and happy promoting!