We all know the difficulties of creating a website and trying to make it work. Not all seemingly great websites become successful and not all seemingly "awful" sites bomb out. One factor that may make or break a website is advertising.
There are, of course, SEO practices and article marketing and banner trading, etc; but nothing quite beats the power of word-of-mouth advertising. You can promote your site in places where people congregate to help bolster traffic. You can tell your friends, family members, acquaintances; or you can join online forums, newsgroups, and seminars and promote your site there.
Now there is a fine line between blatantly advertising your website (which is considered unethical) and networking during seminars (which is what a few brave souls do.) When you enter online forums, newsgroups, and seminars; make sure that you are there to actually join in the discussion.
Yes, you are also there to promote your site, true. Yes, you are also there with hopes that you can build up a substantial network of people that can help you promote your site. But when you enter these seminars, you must take into consideration that these people are there for discussion purposes, and those with the most informative dialogues are the ones most heard. You want to belong to the informative ones, because this will bolster your reputation in the seminars.
Establishing your "expert" reputation takes a lot of time and energy, not to mention a lot of background knowledge about key topics. Try to join online seminars that are closely related to your website's theme and make sure that you always remain articulate but concise with your answers. Try not to launch into debates or tirades because that will only ruin your reputation. If you don't seem to know much about one discussion, it would be best to opt out early.
You can also launch your own online forum and be the moderator. Not only do you have control over the whole situation, but you also have the first and last say in the seminar. You also get to "give" those who join the discussion the liberty to subscribe to your website's newsletters, or the like.
However, this takes time and concentrated efforts and a lot more promoting of the said seminar: when it will take place, what site it will take place in and what the scope and limitations of the discussions will be.
Once you've got this down, it will be easy for you to start networking during your seminars. Start slowly. Don't try to bombard your prospects with too much information. Remember, in a forum, they want to be heard too. So try to find out why they joined the discussion. Whatever their reason is, make sure that your reply is intelligent and polite. When you are sure that they are listening to what you have to say, then slowly nudge them the idea that your website may hold more answers or solutions for them.
Mind you, this is a rather delicate operation. Not everyone appreciates being re-directed to another site when they would rather duke it out in the forums. However, if there is a promise of a better solution on your website, some of your networking "buddies" just might actually check out your site and increase your traffic.
If this isn't your type of thing, then it would be better to start networking in newsgroups. Newsgroups send responses and queries via e-mail. This may just give you time to think, rethink and present answers to their questions without hurry. Still, this would entail a certain amount of time to build up your reputation. However, for each response you give, you can always add a small resource box at the end. This resource box should contain your name, a short bio, and your website address.
Choose your newsgroups according to their relevance to your website; and in no time at all, you just might see some increase in your website's traffic.
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