• Google (Although you can submit your site map to Google, you will receive a higher ranking by allowing their robots to find your pages on their own.)
• The Open Directory Project
• AltaVista
• Lycos
• Hotbot

Once you've manually submitted your main pages, visit SelfPromotion.com to automatically submit your pages to a number of additional Search Engines and Directories.

A good way to organize your promotions is to set up a web page, for your personal use, that will contain your complete strategy. This page should be stored on your hard drive and not uploaded to your server. Your page should contain four sections.

1. Daily Promotions
2. Weekly Promotions
3. Monthly Promotions
4. Miscellaneous Promotions

Each of these four sections should contain the appropriate information for each of your promotional resources, such as web site name, user ID, password (if applicable) and hyperlinked web addresses for each web site you plan to use for your promotions. This will enable you to open your web page each day and visit the sites you have listed.

-> Daily Promotions

Discussion Boards

Visit some popular discussion boards and share your expertise. Although you may not advertise on discussion boards, you can include your signature file with your post. Before you begin posting to discussion boards, make sure you lurk a while and see exactly how the board functions.

-> Weekly Promotions

Ezine Advertising / Ad Swaps

Your weekly promotions should consist of placing a paid ezine advertisement and/or arranging ad swaps with fellow publishers.

Visit the Directory of Ezines for a complete listing of hundreds of publishers and contact information for advertising.

To organize your ad placements and swaps, place the publication names, publisher names, ad dates and hyperlinked web addresses within your weekly promotions list.

-> Monthly Promotions

Your monthly promotions should include writing an article in the area of your expertise, promotional exchanges with similar web sites, and offline promotions.

To organize your monthly promotions, place the names and hyperlinked web addresses for each of your promotional resources within your monthly promotions section.

Writing Articles
 
Writing articles that may be freely published with your bylines is one of the best promotional methods online. Your article may be published in hundreds of ezines, on web sites or even in magazines.

Promotional Exchanges

Cross promoting is a powerful technique used by many Internet marketers to increase the exposure of their products, services or publications. You simply decide what type of promotional exchange you would be interested in and contact fellow marketers to discuss an exchange.

The most effective technique used in cross promotions is recommendations. By providing each other with a personal recommendation you can increase your response rates tremendously.

Here are some popular cross promoting techniques you can use to boost your business:

Link Exchanges

Exchange links with web sites similar to yours, but not in competition. Many Search Engines are now utilizing a system that tracks and ranks sites according to the number of quality links pointing to a particular web site. By exchanging links with similar web sites, you will not only increase your Search Engine ranking, but you will also increase your web site traffic.

Ezine Ad Swaps

Exchange subscription ads with other ezine publishers. Ezine advertising is one of the best forms of advertising on the Internet. By swapping ads with fellow ezine publishers, you can run your ad in other publications free of charge.

Subscription Exchanges

Exchange subscription information with fellow ezine publishers. Provide recommendations within your ezine's welcome message, thank you page and even on your multiple subscription ezine form.

Ezine Column

Partner with a similar publication and provide content for each other. This may be a weekly tips column, question and answer column or whatever you'd like.

Ebook Exchanges

Partner with fellow Internet marketers and create free ebooks to freely distribute. The ebook should mutually benefit and promote both of you, while providing valuable information for your visitors.

Ride Alongs

A ride along is any extra information (advertisements) sent along with a direct mailing. You can use this same technique with any ezine solo mailings you may run by including an exchange recommendation within your mailing. In addition, you can include recommendations within your thank you letters you send out when you deliver your products.

Up sells

An up sell is used when your customer is in the process of ordering your product. Another product is introduced, for a small additional cost, just as you're closing the sale. This technique is used with many infomercials when the customer calls in their order. The operator will introduce an additional product for a minimal extra charge. You can use this same technique on your order page by trading product recommendations with fellow marketers.

A quality recommendation will pull a much higher response rate than just a link or banner. Cross promote with individuals you truly respect and believe in, as your professional reputation is on the line.

Offline Promotions

Promoting your web site offline is another great way to increase your traffic. Below are several resources to assist you:

IDit Plates - Put your web address on your vehicle. IDit Plates are a great way to continuously promote your web site. They're triple chrome plated and blend in well with your vehicle. I was impressed with the quality of this product and highly recommend it.

Visit iPrint for your printing needs. From business print items to promotional items, iPrint has it all.

Place ads in newspapers, magazines, on the radio, or on TV. Visit these links for complete listings:

Gebbie Press
Newspapers Online

For even more promotional products, Promo City can add your logo to any one of over 500,000 items.

-> Miscellaneous Promotions

Your miscellaneous promotions might include paying for traffic, text and banner advertising.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

If you're looking for a low-cost, yet highly effective means of advertising your products and services, then Google AdWords may be your answer.

Google AdWords provides a simple way to purchase highly targeted advertising, regardless of your budget. Unlike other sites selling banner ad space and pay-per-ranking, AdWords provides advertisers with highly effective text ads that are displayed with the search results. Studies have shown that highly targeted keyword advertising produces an average of four times the industry standard clickthrough rate.

Google, one of the premier Search Engines, receives over 29 million searches each day. Their popularity most likely stems from the speed and accuracy of their search results. Needless to say, placing your text ad with Google Adwords will be a highly effective way to advertise your products and services.

It is a well-known fact that text ads perform much better than banner ads. What better way to target your audience than through a popular Search Engine? Your potential customer is there for a reason -- they're looking for something. When a Google visitor types in their keywords, they are almost instantly presented with their search results. On the right side of the results are colored text boxes containing targeted advertisements that match their search terms.

When you place your ad with AdWords, you will have the ability to select a list of tightly targeted keywords including all of the following:

• Keyword Matching - Shows your ad when a search includes your selected words.
• Phrase Matching - Shows your ad when a search includes your selected phrases.
• Exact Query Matching - Shows your ad when a search contains your exact keywords and no others.
• Negative Keyword Matching - Will not show your ad if a search contains certain words you select.

This unique targeting technique will enable you to create a highly targeted ad campaign and test your ads with a high rate of accuracy. What's more, you can even target your ads to a specific country or language.

The great thing about advertising with Google AdWords is that you will have complete control over your ad and how much you'd like to spend. You can open an account with a credit card with no minimum deposit required. Once you place your ad, it can begin running almost immediately.

Their advertising rates are very reasonable. The amount you spend on your advertising campaign will depend on two factors: (1) the number of times your ad is displayed and (2) the position, one through eight, in which your ad appears. The advertising rates are as follows:

• Position 1 - $15 per thousand ads shown
• Position 2 - $12 per thousand ads shown
• Position 3 - $10 per thousand ads shown
• Position 4 - 8 $8 per thousand ads shown

The position of an ad is determined by how well it is performing. Ads with a higher clickthrough rate will receive a higher position and in turn will cost more.

In order to increase your clickthrough rate and spend less money, try to select keywords and phrases that specifically target the product or service you're offering. Avoid using common words, as these will use up your ad displays very rapidly. Instead, select words that specifically target your product or service. For example, instead of using a general keyword like software, use a keyword that focuses on a specific software such as FrontPage 2002 -- or, a little less focused, web design software. In addition, make sure you use your keyword phrase (search term) as the title of your ad. This will increase your clickthrough rate considerably.

When you set up your account with Google, make sure you use a different ad for each search term. Not only will this increase your ad's relevance in the search results, but it will also increase your clickthrough rate.

Once you place your ad, you can easily track your ad's response rate and make adjustments instantly. This is a great, low-cost way to find out which ads are performing the best.

Google AdWords provides Internet marketers with a cost- effective alternative to banner advertising. If you want to increase your traffic and sales, give AdWord a try -- you'll be glad you did.

For further information, visit Google AdWords.

Pay-Per-Click Search Engines

If you've been struggling with your web site traffic and your sales aren't what you had hoped for, then maybe it's time to start paying for traffic.

The most popular and probably most effective pay-per-click Search Engine is Overture. However, Overture.com no longer provides a cost-effective service for small businesses. Their minimum bid on targeted keywords is now .010 and their service is now targeting the larger businesses with big bank accounts. There are, however, several other companies that provide similar services.

Findwhat.com offers a Pay For Placement™ program that provides a unique and cost-effective way to drive highly targeted traffic to your site.

By opening a bidding account, you can bid on keywords and keywords phrases within search results. You decide how much you want to spend, where you want to be found and when you want your program to be active. And, best of all, you only pay for actual traffic sent to your site.

The key to using this technique effectively is to focus on one specific product and select highly targeted keywords. This will help you to weed out all of the window shoppers and attract your specific target audience.

Viewing Search Terms Most pay-per-click Search Engines will enable you to view exact "search terms" that have been used to perform searches. Use this to your advantage. You can find out exactly what "search terms" are being used for your target market and place your bids accordingly. Try to create a list of as many relevant keywords as possible. The more keywords you bid on, the more traffic you'll receive.

When bidding on keywords, keep in mind, in order to be successful, you don't have to be listed at the top.

Although receiving a listing in the top three positions will produce major traffic through Overture, most of the time, you must have a large advertising budget to compete.

Before placing your bid, perform a search to find out how much your competitors are paying per click. Try to place your bid so that your listing will appear on the first page to increase your chance of success. By selecting highly targeted, less popular keywords, you'll not only attract a more targeted audience, but you'll also obtain a higher listing for less money.

Your Ad Copy

Your headline and ad copy are the most important part of your entire strategy. Your headline must grab your potential customers' attention and force him/her to read on. Your copy should tell them exactly what you have to offer and convince them to visit your site.

When writing your ad, make sure you don't mention free stuff, as you want to avoid attracting freebie hunters. By weeding out those potential visitors expecting to get something free, you will attract a more targeted audience of potential buyers. There is no need to pay for visitors that weren't interested in buying anything in the first place.

When placing your link within your ad, make sure you direct your potential customer directly to your sales page. In other words, if your product isn't on your main page, then don't direct your potential customers to your main page and make them search for your product. Direct them to your product's page.

Reviewing Your Reports

Once your campaign begins, make sure you take the time to review the reports provided by the pay-per-click services. These reports will provide you with information in regard to how well each of your keywords are performing and enable you to adjust your keywords or change your bids accordingly.

To increase your traffic even further, don't just stop with one pay-per-click Search Engine -- try several at time. The more streams of traffic flowing to your site, the better.

Here is a list of some of the top pay-per-click Search Engines:

• http://www.overture.com
• http://www.Findwhat.com
• http://www.Bay9.com
• http://www.Win4win.com
• http://www.7search.com

Visit payperclicksearchengines.com for a complete list of over sixty pay-per-click Search Engines, reviews and tips.

If you're serious about your business and you're ready to drive a stampede of targeted traffic to your web site, then give the pay-per-click Search Engines a try. They're well worth the small investment.

Once you've implemented your promotional strategy and continuously work it each day, you'll be amazed with the results of your efforts. Consistency will be the key to driving massive traffic to your site.

To Your Success!