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How to market your website with free publicity!

Press releases and well written informative articles are a cheap and easy way to get public awareness of your site and promotions. Not all submission sites charge to send out your PR, although most have some sort of limitation to them unless you pay for features. This article should show you how to get around having to pay anything for some great online visibility!

Are you quaking in your boots about having to write something from scratch? It is not as challenging as you may think, and you don't always need a professional copywriter to do all the work for you! The main goal to writing a publication is to provide valuable information. It may be something as simple as how to properly wash you hands. That may not sound like much, but to a company that sells soap or paper towels that bit of information could end up making them a lot of money!

Step #1 - Think of something relevant to you or your company to write about!

As I mentioned above, it doesn't have to be something major like a public stock offering notice. Something simple, easy to understand and relevant to you is all you need. Somewhere in the world there is someone who wants to know what you have to share.

Going back to the example of an article explaining how to wash your hands correctly, there are any number of people or groups that could find this information valuable. Hospitals, dentist offices, supermarkets, Microsoft, you never know! And neither will they unless you tell them.

Step #2 - I have to write now???

Soon, but before you have to get into your creative mode there are some tips that might make things easier. From experience, looking at a blank piece of paper can be scary. It is easy to get lost in the blankness of how to fill the white void.

Solution: Make yourself a template and break the page up!

Not only will a template help you start writing easier, it will help you organize your thoughts, form a well structured document, AND have it ready for all those online submissions later on! Here is a sample template you can use while getting ready to create a document. Notice how the headings are put in brackets to help distinguish the sections.

[DATE]

[TITLE]

[SUMMARY]

[BODY]

[RESOURCES/LINKS]

[AUTHOR]

Step #3 - Great! You have something on that blank page now right? Now you are wondering what to put in each of those sections. Let's go through them briefly.

[DATE] - This should be self explanatory. This is more for records keeping than anything. Maybe you write a great article and want to share it more than once, but you want to give it a month or two before resubmitting it. Now you know when it was first published.

[TITLE] - The title may be the first and last step of your creativity. Many times a title that was started with changed dramatically by the end. Still it is a good place to start. Give your article something to go on.

[SUMMARY] - Tell the people what you are going to tell them, briefly. Hit the high points of what you are going to say. This section can either help focus your ideas, or you can come back to it after you are finished writing the bulk of your text.

[BODY] - Here is where your true genius shines through! This part of the writing I can't give you too many tips on. The content really depends on you and what you want to say.

Some general tips: Be thorough. Be concise. Be intriguing. Write information you want your audience to read and remember. Stylistics: For online reading if you can keep your paragraphs to no more than 4-5 lines long it is easier to read. Remember to spellcheck!

[RESOURCES/LINKS] - Feel free to back up your information with supporting data! Your website/blog being the #1 prime location to link to. Other supporting resources that will provide your readers with valuable information are also good. You may have a great new idea, but help your credibility with supporting data.

[AUTHOR] - Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do? Who do you work for? Why should someone listen to what you say? How can someone contact you? Provide your information here.

Step #4 - Almost done! Now you have your article prepared. What do you do with it?

First of all I would suggest having someone proof-read it. Spellcheck doesn't always catch wrong words. Now it's ready for publication! Below is a long list of sites where you can submit articles and press releases for free. I am not supporting one over another as there are many popular to professional news agency sites listed.

You will most likely have to create a user account on each before they will allow you to publish your work. Be careful as most free submission sites will try to get you to pay for certain features. Feel free to use any features you like, they can really add to your visibility, but they can add up ($$$) quickly and are not always needed.

What should you expect to get out of all this work? Getting your name and information out to the public should be worth enough, but there are other perks. Search engines love linkbacks from quality sources. How much more quality can you provide than using yourself as a source publishing around the world? It can be a huge boost to any search engine optimization plan. If you can get people talking about you, good or bad, it's all publicity.

Hopefully this article has helped you in some small way. If it has then it was worth the effort of writing it!

Good luck and go get that free publicity!

[RESOURCES]

[Press Release Submission Sites]
PR Free [http://www.prfree.com/]
SBWire [http://www.sbwire.com]
Press Zoom [http://www.presszoom.com/]
Press Base [http://www.press-base.com/]
Express Press Release Distribution [http://www.express-press-release.com/]
Press World [http://www.press-world.com/]
Open PR [http://www.openpr.com/]
Free Press Release [http://www.free-press-release.com/]
Free News Release [http://www.free-news-release.com/]
I Newswire [http://www.i-newswire.com/]
Newswire Today [http://www.newswiretoday.com/]
PR.com [http://www.pr.com]

[Article Submission Sites]
iSnare [http://www.isnare.com/]
ArticleBlast [http://www.articleblast.com/]
Ezine Articles [http://www.ezinearticles.com/]
GO Articles [http://www.goarticles.com/]

For more information please visit:
Ironvine Search Marketing Blog - Tips, tricks, code, resources and news
Sesame Design - Orthodontic and Dental web site gallery

[ABOUT THE AUTHOR]
Steve Terjeson is an Online Marketing Specialist with over 10 years programming and web experience. As a search engine optimization expert, he has managed hundreds of web sites in high performance search engine rankings and has set up marketing campaigns with exceptional results.

Steve Terjeson
Online Marketing Specialist
Sesame Design
Ironvine Design

Published Source: How to market your website with free publicity! - Amazines.com

Technorati Tags: seo, marketing, ironvine, website, publicity, article, press release, how to, online marketing

Multiple Domain Names

Having multiple domain names, why and why not?

Some people are under the impression that having more than one domain pointing to your web site is extremely beneficial for search rankings. In all honesty there is only a limited benefit to even owning those extra domain names. First of all, you should have one primary domain name that you use, market, spell out to people over the phone etc. This domain is your be all and end all (unless you have a huge corporation or have distinct differing products/lines.

When you should have more than one domain name:
Distinct brand or products: Take for example www.coca-cola.com and www.dietcoke.com. Pretty self explanitory.

When you can have more than one domain, but for the same web site:
Rebranding or restructuring a corporate image. Example, Northwest Crime and Social Research (www.nwcsr.com) rebrands itself Looking Glass Analytics (www.lgan.com). Ideally this should be a flip of the switch where Domain A has a permenant (301) redirect to Domain B. There might be some uptime with both before the change over to prepare current site users.

When you should buy domains but maybe not use them:
Doctor A has a practice in Podville, KD and uses www.podvilledentist.com as his primary domain. Doctor A may also want to buy www.kddentist.com or www.podvillekddentist.com or www.dentist-podville-kd-doctor-a.com to keep his competitor Doctor B from having a domain name too close to Doctor A's. If necessary you can use a 301 redirect to point these domains directly to the primary www.podvilledentist.com.

Do Not however have these as separate domains, which look like exact duplicate copies of full web sites. Search engines see this as spammage. This is really what you want to stay away from.

What to focus on:
Your primary domain. This is the core of your web presence. Use this to market distribute and brand yourself out in the world. Send out press releases, artices, news, advertisements, and anything else you can think of that has your web site linked on it. You will get better rankings, familiarity, and traffic with one core location for your web site than spreading yourself wide and thin. Focus is a good word to remember.