This Is How I Market My Website

I have a website helpwithyouressay.com ; well actually my two partners and I have a website. We have been working on this for about four months. It’s a free information website, we finally launched our website a few weeks ago.

In my real job I work in the afternoon, so this gives me time in the morning to work on my own site, after I take the kid to his little nursery, I then come home, make coffee and sit in front of the computer till its time to pick him up.

Oh boy it can be frustrating! I want massive traffic to my site but dear lord HOW? Every day I find another article that will tell me “how to…” Everyday I will discover a new website…. then I find myself just sitting in from of the computer flipping through sites, watching some videos on Youtube , checking my email, checking the news…..Until I decided enough is enough!

Let’s get down to business! I aint no pro. I m just like almost everyone else – learning as I’m going.

I sat down and wrote out my marketing plan. First I understood that there are two aspects when it comes to driving traffic to a website. When I got that little “ka-ching!” in my head then I was able to get to work. Here it is: There is short term traffic and long term traffic. What is short term traffic? This is building up visitors, sending someone and email, posting on a yahoo group, craigslist – I do this to continue the steady flow of traffic to my site. When I send someone an email [from my own personal email contacts – over 300 people] they will usually click on the link, visit the site a page or two and then move one. In some cases they will bookmark the site if they like it. Then the email gets lost in their account. Same thing with posting on a related yahoo group – it gets lost after a few days with all the messages being posted on that group.
What is long term traffic? This is building up an audience around your website. This means that you need to invest a little more time in some areas – and yes its hard but its worth it in the long run. Like being involved in a social network like myspace or facebook. It means making friends on the web via internet forums and when I talk about internet forums I am saying is that you shouldn’t just post things like “ I have a new site! Visit my site today! here is the link!” - You know what that is? That’s called being an internet jerk. The whole idea of a forum is where people can share information with one another , information that is helpful. Get involved in some forums and share your knowledge with the world. Most forums allow you to put your URL as your signature. If you share your valuable information – people will trust you, they will become your followers. I have some “gurus” on the internet. I have never met them. They share such wonderful information that I almost every time visit their websites [ and click on one of their google ads!] and maybe even buy something. Why? Because I trust them, I admire them. Remember this rule: People like nice people.

I decided that I need to create an action plan for myself or I will never get things done!

Sunday morning [my wife is watching the baby] I usually do a round of yahoo group postings. Before launching out site, I joined a bunch of yahoo groups that are related to my website. Then I write something up about my website and I just copy and paste it on every group that I am member of. Now some yahoo groups won’t allow you to just promote your site – so I get involved in the discussion and I add my link at the end.
By doing this I am working on the short term traffic. Then I will go to facebook, I have created a profile and a groupie for my website on facebook. I make friends over facebook and invite them to join my website group. I am very careful about spamming other people. So what I do is I search for people I know and then I approach there networks by asking “hey I am a friend of Joe, I am looking to build my network …” So they know right away that I am not some random unknown guy who trying to spam them. In 99% of the cases people have agreed since they know Joe and trust him. On my facebook group I try to make it interesting. I post music videos, updates about my site, interesting articles…. This is building my long term traffic. I am building a community of people around my site. I try to focus on one social network, If you try more then that – you will go crazy! Focus your energy on one spot and own it!

Comes Monday I focus on Forums. I try to write up an interesting article and then I post it in different forums, I try to create something that has valuable information and that it could start a discussion. Then I will go back and get involved in some discussion groups. Remember: The link to my site is my forum signature. So this really takes up Monday morning.

Tuesday! Social book marketing day! This day always brings us good traffic. We get involved in our social book marketing sites – Stumbleupon.com, Digg.com, Del,icio.us
We stumble, make friends and get involved. This is great for short and long term traffic.

Wednesday is Link exchange day. I have decided that link exchanging really needs a separate day. This is can really drive in long term traffic. When your link is sitting on another popular website – this can really drive in traffic. The beauty of this is – you don’t have to do anything! I also try to post comments on blogs related to my site.

Thursday is the day where I let myself to go wild! No not partying but crazy posting! Anywhere and everywhere I can. Its kind of like having a brick and mortar store in the center of the city- I have fliers and I am going to hang them up on every bulletin board I find in the city. Again you have to be careful about spamming. Sometimes I will send emails to my friends asking them to forward the site to others. Now! Every other Thursday I Do article marketing and submit them to relevant sites like squidoo.com, or ezinearticles.com or even forums [great place for articles!] .

Friday is when my partners and I review the week – what marketing methods worked; we discuss the content of the site and what needs to be added. We discuss ideas for the coming week and ideas for the future, we discuss the Google ads, and affiliate marketing programs… we try to cover everything. Remember: if you want to make money then you have to treat it like a business!

Saturday….. I rest!

In the evening after the baby goes to sleep – I spend time reading articles, exploring new website, I try to understand in depth the websites that I am already using and how I can make them “work for me” – I basically spend this time for my own education and to catch up with what’s new in the internet world.

Is it hard? Yes it’s hard, but one thing that I do know and that is:
“ A Quitter Never Wins And a Winner Never Quits!”