10-Day Promotional Plan

Ten Step Web-Based Website Promotion Plan
by Justin Taylan | wanpela.com

You now have a great website, now what? Website promotion is the most important part of a successful site, arguably, even more important that great design. Unfortunately, there is no particular method or link that in one click or "submit" button will place your site at the top of search engines, and bring in millions of viewers.

What does it cost to achieve such results? Time, planning, and creativity. Below is a suggested list of steps that cover a wide range of approaches that supplement the obvious tactic of simply submitting your new URL to websites. The following method will help ensure that your new site is visited, and continues to be a viable link that search engines list, and visitors return to... again and again. This targeted, specific ten-step plan uses the website "The Forum" as an example of a specific site that these steps were applied and implemented.

Part I	Research and Preparation

STEP 1	Background Information
	This section explains the terminology of search engines and the methodology they use for cataloging, and listing sites. Learn what a <META> tag is, and how to boost your listing in search results. Even experienced users of the Internet and search tool will be served to read some of these links. Some of the "truths" of search engines are unexpected, and help to reveal ways to may your site stand out!

STEP 2	Creating Promotion Material
	The first step to website promotion is not to submit your URL to search engines (that comes later). Rather, to invest time writing a clear and concise description of the site, selecting relevant keywords, and even banner ads for others to use to link to your site.

STEP 3	Audience & Content Planning
	Now that you have identified your audience and thought about the site's impact on a local, regional and global level, how will you continue to bring these visitors to your site? No successful website ever "stops" or is "finished" Think about ways that you can continue to bring existing and new visitors to the site. This step is full of ways to do this on a zero budget, the only limit is your own creativity!

Part II	URL Submission

STEP 4	Search Engine Submission
	Probably the most obvious, and free way to list your new site. As with everything, even this seemingly straightforward step is full of nuances and details that might be new even for expert Internet users, and certainly novices will want to take note of. Although one can not rely entirely on search engines to list your site, this step is still the most fundamental part of website promotion.

Part III	Announcement Phase

STEP 5	Genre Specific
	Every genre has its important high profile sites. These are often commercial sites (although not always the case!) that are the most well know website of that genre. Also, there is another level of sites related to yours. Both of these important groups now need to be made aware of your new site.

STEP 6	News Groups & List Serves
	Many people interested in specific topics are subscribed to specific list serves related to their interest. Submitting or posting to these list often returns excellent results. New Groups, although considered by many an arcane part of the web, are still used by many, and often have a dedicated an loyal user base that read them religiously.

Part IV	Ongoing Promotional Activities

STEP 7	Surveillance and Tracking
	Who is coming to your site? What are they looking at? How will you find out? Regardless of how you feel about surveillance and tracking, you need to implement some ways to gauge the results of your promotion work.

STEP 8	Getting Others to Work for You!
	By having them link to your website! This is where your promotional materials in STEP 2 come into play. Did you know that the more sites that link to you, the higher your listing in search engine results?

STEP 9	For Review
	Many other websites, email list serves or news groups have "links of the day/week", or "featured websites". Use sites high profile sites to generate reviews, and hits!

STEP 10	Developing A "Virtual" Community
	The way for a website to truly evolve and reach success is through the community that supports it. Provide an excellent resource and meet the needs of the community, and it will flourish.