There are plenty of ways to get people to notice you, your site, and your content without having to pay any money to anyone for it. This is good news to those of us with low budgets (or practically no budget) for site promotion. For example, Craig’s List is available for many cities, and depending on the category you want to list under and what you’re offering, they’re a very cheap or free classified service. Surely you can come up with a creative ad that will attract eyeballs and visits to your site!
In the previous section I mentioned building a topical directory. That could be a great resource. You can also turn yourself into a resource. Look at Yahoo Answers and Google Groups. You can ask and/or answer questions there pretty easily and link to relevant resources. If you’re actually helping people rather than engaging in blatant self-promotion, people are far more likely to listen. Let them discover for themselves how great you are; you only need to provide a small nudge.
Another place you can turn to online is Wikipedia or other topic-specific wikis. You can create a page for your company, or contribute to an article about your industry and include links to your company as a resource. You’ll want to use this technique with caution; wikis are online communities, and like other communities often have their own rules. Articles can and will be modified, added to, edited, and even deleted if they’re not considered truly relevant or they cover the subject poorly.
I know of at least one allegedly scientific article that was deleted from Wikipedia because it was discovered to be a thinly veiled act of self-promotion by the creator of a particular psychological theory and his students. I would not be surprised if there were other cases where this has happened. A related caveat came to light in the news recently with the Wikipedia editor who claimed to hold a PhD in theology and be a professor at a university when he was nothing of the kind. I believe this will lead to a heightened interest in editor credentials at Wikipedia, so don’t claim to be something you aren’t — which isn’t bad advice no matter what community you’re entering.
Squidoo is another interesting online community. You can set up a topical page to display your expertise on your industry. You can create a nice resource, linking to tools and sites that are important and useful in your field. Naturally you’ll include a link to your own site.
Of course we can’t forget Digg. With its particular focus, you don’t necessarily want to submit your site directly, unless you have some really good, entertaining linkbait you can use. But you can submit a story to Digg that links to an article on your site.
If you participate in an online forum, check their signature policy. Most of them let you include a link in your signature or your personal profile. Make good, relevant contributions and users will track that link back to your site. You’ll have established your authority, and people like to buy from those they know and trust.
Search Engine Optimization
