The Branson Pro

Want to promote your website for free? It’s easier than you think!

So you’ve got your own website… Now all you need to do is drive mass amounts of traffic to it, turn that traffic into qualified sales (or leads), and make enough money to retire in less than a year, right?

FACT: An average of less than 3% of all traffic to your website will actually result in a sale or lead conversion. LESS THAN 3 PERCENT!!!!

While it’s true that a minuscule percentage of website owners will ever become millionaires, you can still have a successful website and use it to promote your business and ultimately make money as a direct result of it. Basically, your website should be the top-producing “employee” in your company, meaning that it needs to work for you…

Does your website actually work for you? If not, then you probably should have saved your money, instead of WASTING it on web design, development, and hosting fees. If the general public can’t find your website, what’s the point of owning it?

How do you resurrect it into becoming the hardest-working, most efficient employee on your team?

The easy answer is “Learn all you can about Search Engine Optimization and just do your own SEO to make it rank higher in Google.” Everybody knows that ranking #1 for the most competitive keyword in your market is more beneficial than using a billboard on Main Street to advertise with. Unfortunately, most people aren’t SEO pros, nor do they have the time to learn the craft and practice it everyday. Or they might not have the budget to hire a professional SEO firm to launch an aggressive campaign.

So… How do you drive 1000’s of unique visitors to your site without being an SEO expert?

There are many FREE resources and mediums that you can utilize to drive that traffic to your website. And the best part is: you don’t have to know a damned thing about SEO to do it

In my experience, I’ve found the following to be the most useful:

1) Social networking.

Social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, are definitely one the best ways to promote your business for free. You don’t even need a website to harness the power of social networking! In fact, you can simply create a Facebook fan-page for your business (for free) and use it as your official web-presence.

Every time I look at the traffic stats for my websites, the social networks run right behind the major search engines, as far as sending the most visitors to me. Facebook and Twitter send A LOT of traffic my way. And they can do the same for you.

2) Article marketing.

Article marketing kicks ass! You can write an article on virtually any topic, product, or service that you are offering to the world. And most article sites will let you place up to 3 links that point directly to your website or landing page.

One of the biggest benefits to article marketing is the fact that it allows you to actually make your sales pitch before the reader ever clicks on the link to your website. When done correctly, you can actually have someone sold on your product or service before they even go to your site.

3) Craig’s List.

Craig’s List is another awesome way to send people to your website. I like it because of their category system. If someone is offering real estate services, they can post their website address and contact information in the “Real Estate Services” section.

It works the same for just about every other business type you can imagine - computer services, web design, auto repair, furniture stores, jewelers, lawyers, etc. - the list goes on and on. And the possibilities are endless.

4) Press releases.

Press releases are great because most of the press release domains have a lot of “authority” in the eyes of Google. Basically, you can write a free press release about your business (and it doesn’t even have to be “press-worthy” news) and as long as you focus on a keyword-rich topic or market, you’ll be able to get a decent rank from it.

For example, I can write a press release and use “Branson web design” for the topic. All I have to do is make sure I focus on how my business offers “Affordable Branson Web Design Services“  and I can almost guarantee that the press release will rank well for those keywords.

Press releases are another source that allows you to place direct links to your website inside of them.

5) Word-of-mouth.

Yeah, I know it sounds cliche and old-fashioned. But it’s true! Word-of-mouth advertising can be powerful.

How many people do you know? And how many people do each of them know? The numbers grow exponentially and it’s one of the best ways you can promote your website for free.

The only drawback to word-of-mouth advertising is that you need to have an easy to remember domain name for your website. Instead of picking www.ihaveadomainnamethatissolongthatpeoplewillnotrememberit.com, you should try to get www.easytoremember.com. Friends, family, and associates can all help to spread the word about your website and send a few visitors your way.

You don’t have to spend tons of cash on SEO. If you have the time, you can use any of these methods to get some traffic and generate serious income from your website.

When it comes to website promotion and online marketing, just remember one thing: If it’s free, go for it!