You can ask other web sites to swap links with you. For our FREE "Request A Link Form Letter" send to: mailto:request_a_link@emailexchange.org

6. Write A Letter To The Editor.

Whenever you pick up a newspaper or magazine to read keep in mind idea of writing in a comment to Editor and when you sign your name include your URL.

You might just get it printed and promoted in Time magazine!

7. Improve Your Keywords.

Visit web sites similar or related to your own web site by doing a keyword search at your favorite search engine and visit top 20 sites returned.

Research "Keywords" used by those web sites so that you can also use them in hopes of improving your ranking.

8. Join A Web Ring.

A web ring, which links sites with similar interests, will improve your "popularity" standing for search engines and also bring you targeted traffic.

Visit original WebRing Organization, http://www.webring.org/, as they list 1,045,092 of such sites! I am sure you will find one to match your web site content.

9. Ever get SPAM?

Return it with a polite "Not Interested" and then let your Signature, as described above, do all of your talking.

10. Register with a Banner Exchange Program.

Banner exchange programs, of which LinkExchange is one of if not largest and oldest online, will provide you with some traffic and again, will increase your rank at many of top search engines.

For a FREE list of some of top Banner Exchanges: mailto:banner_exchg@emailexchange.org

Follow some as many of these "Top Ten Ways To Promote Your Web Site!" and you will see a dramatic increase in amount of traffic and email that your web presence will generate for you.

To make sure that writing and distributing FAQ would redound to me, I also composed last of 24 questions to read, "And who are you, anyway?" That gave me a natural way to present my credentials and titles of several of my books.

Although I believe FAQ format has particular power on Net, for you ticket might be an article along lines of "Five Things to Think About Before You Hire a ___," "11 Low-risk Ways to ___," "___ DeMystified," or simply "How to ___." Call your bait piece a "white paper" if you're appealing to a corporate population.

Resist temptation to devote any more than 10 percent of your bait piece to self-promotion. Doing so would make it less appealing for others to recommend or reprint it. Producing something that benefits your market without a heavy sales pitch attached puts you in a very positive light, and just a low-key business bio and contact information at end entices readers to get in touch.

Think broadly about what kinds of sites might be willing to host or link to your informational offering. In addition to resource sites that aim at a comprehensive collection of topical links, consider non-competing businesses whose visitors need to know about your specialty. For example, with some of my small-business-oriented bait pieces on marketing and publicity, I've had requests to repost them to sites for a stock photo company, a specialty printer, a crafts dealer and numerous trade associations. Always request a live link to your Web site and an e-mail link to you when someone reposts your piece at their site.

If you have a Web site, out-of-pocket cost to add a bait piece there will usually be zero. Mentioning your bait piece in your signature when you post to discussion lists is another way to spread it around effectively. If it has an appealing title and genuinely useful content for some well-defined, information-hungry audience, you'll find this piece soon funneling leads to you -- without big expense of a conventional push for traffic.

Copyright 2002 Marcia Yudkin.