First of all, you need a website, no question about it. Without a presence on the world wide web, you will be missing out on capturing the whole world's attention.
Once you have a website then seek out similar sites to compliment your own product or book genre and exchange links. Placing links in other sites will draw a different readership to your own web page.
Make sure to advertise your link in your email signature. It's proven that the more times a reader looks at your link the higher the chances of them eventually clicking on it to see what it's all about. Don't miss out on this free advertisement.
Offer something for free on your site if anyone joins your yahoo group, newsletter, or purchases a product. You can have a form letter where they place their name and email address to help build your contact list. Everyone loves to get something free.
Write articles and submit them to article data banks. Newsletters and editors go in and grab content they feel suit their publications. Again, this is a good way to draw more traffic to your website because within each article you submit, you have a resource box at the end that needs to be published along with your topic. Mine is at the end of this article.
If you have an ezine/newsletter, promote it on directories to get you into the search engines. Here are two links to get you started:
If you don't have a newsletter or thinking of starting one, here are two easy places to host a subscription base: Yahoo Groups.
Topica. I use both of these areas for my newsletters.
Don't forget to send out releases to promote your newest product/book, or anything else newsworthy about you. Webwire is one to get you started: Webwire
Host a contest. Several ideas for prizes I've come across are:
Offer your print/ebook - pose questions where your readers can find the answers somewhere within your website. This will get them surfing your website.
Winner gets mentioned in your next story/book
Offer a free subscription to a paid newsletter
Use your imagination.
If you are an established site, think about designing and creating a neat award. This will help bring traffic to your site but make sure to offer an award that goes along the line of what your site projects. I host the annual Muse Peer Awards where writers vote on one of three categories: Best Writer's Site, Best Writer's Blog, Best Writer's Zine. Take a look The Muse Peer Awards.
Now on the flip side, send in your site's link for an award. Will this bring traffic? Well, it may but it will decorate your site. Every home deserves a few pictures on the wall.
Another simple area to draw traffic is to place a trivia question. Your readers will want to come back to see if their answers were correct. Games…aren't they fun?
If you've offered a free e-book download, ask your subscribers to email you their testimonials to place on your website. Make sure to mention you will be more than happy to link their name back to their site.
These are just some of the things you can do to draw traffic. These free areas are only your stepping stone while you research other areas to help promote your books/products.
Lea Schizas is an award-winning author/editor. Her books include the Young Adult fantasy/adventure The Rock of Realm, the paranormal suspense/thriller Doorman's Creek, the fantasy Aleatory's Junction, and the nonfiction Muse on Writing. For more information on Lea Schizas and her writing career, link here.
