8 actions to promote your new website or blogs

Below, 8 actions to promote your new website or blogs for free:

1. Ask visitors to bookmark your site. A quick, low-cost strategy is to simply ask your visitors to bookmark your site, or save it in a "Favorites" list. Visitors who've bookmarked your site can find it faster and are more likely to visit again. The best way to get these visitors to return is to make regular updates to your site.

2. Take advantage of others' forums and blogs. There are innumerable forums, discussion lists, blogs and news groups online. These are comprised of people with specialized interests. As such, you'll be able to find quite a few that are dedicated to what you're selling. Register and post about your online business.

3. Start a blog. Weblogs give you the opportunity to provide your visitors with new -- perhaps more personal or pointed -- content. Let your visitors know what's going on with your store. Or, if you're interesting (or even if not), let them know what you're doing. (Just don't write about the weather that day.)

4. Exchange banners and links with complementary sites. Contact others whose sites are related to yours, and exchange banners and other ads. Remember that there is a difference between competition and complementary sites. Competitive sites aim to take your visitors and your business. Complementary sites sell products that complement the ones you sell -- they do not sell the same products you do. These help you reach a new audience. For example, if you run a DVD store, think about contacting sites that sell DVD players. Customers buying DVD players are going to need DVDs at some point.

5. Get visitors to subscribe to a mailing list. Visitors who sign up to receive e-mails from you are already interested in what you have to offer. It's up to you to entice them to come back and become customers.

6. Send promotions, coupons, updates and offers to your customers. Existing customers are a valuable market for you. Solicit your customers to return by rewarding them with coupons and offers. Keep them interested with updates. You've already reached them -- it's up to you to give them a reason to come back.

7. Tell your friends. Word spreads quickly. Word of mouth is the most effective way to promote and advertise your store. It's as easy as it sounds. Tell your friends -- they're the most difficult customers for your competition to take away from you.

8. Send out online press releases. Press releases are a great way to get some low-cost exposure on your Web site and build up your reverse links for search engine optimization. While purchasing media lists is a consideration, it is not a necessary expense. With some good, old-fashioned detective work, you can find the right contacts. Read your target publications to find appropriate contacts. Their e-mail addresses are usually listed beneath their byline. For follow up, you can usually find the main number on the publication's Web site. If you're following up with a local publication, just pick up the yellow pages.