There are many ways to direct qualified buyers to your website, and I see many website owners missing those opportunities. It seems that the simple phrase SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has either intimidated them or has them distracted from the variety of other avenues available for promoting their websites.
I recently posted some advice and suggestions in an online forum, and I received many private messages with positive feedback as a result. After reading through my post again I realized it is something I should elaborate on and share here on the blog.
1) Create and Submit iGoogle Desktop Themes
Internet users who utilize iGoogle enjoy the desktop themes, widgets and the many features that go along with it. By creating iGoogle desktop themes and branding them with your web site URL you can expose your website to thousands of Internet users. You can also put links to the themes on your web site to offer them to your customers, or those browsing and not buying that particular day.
I created a darts theme last year to promote my dart shirts web site. Currently over 2,000 people are using it (they give you a counter that stays current). I've seen the number of users as high as 4,500+ before. Considering that is just one theme and a small number of potential iGoogle users that are interested in darts, anyone with some creativity and a feel for their target audience could create themes to target any demographic.
An added bonus for the technically challenged, as I looked up the link and point you to where you can get started I discovered that Google has now added a Theme Maker feature!
2) Create Wallpapers for Computers and Cell Phones Everyone with a computer has a desktop, and virtually all of them like to personalize it with wallpaper. The number of cell phone users in the world has now exceeded the number of people who own computers, and most cell phones these days offer personalization as well.
By creating custom wallpapers for both desktops and mobile devices and brand them with your web site URL, you can then offer them as a free download AND submit them to free wallpaper/cell phone web sites. Consider how many people would end up with www.yourwebsite.com right on their desktop and/or cell phone every day. Plus your website would get additional traffic from users searching for wallpapers and themes.
To give you a jump start on this, here are the screen resolutions you should offer:
Windows and Mac Desktops:
| Mobile Devices:
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3) Create MySpace Themes
If you really want to get busy, you could create some MySpace Themes. Brand them, link them to your web site and offer them as a free download. Sooner or later your web site - with links to your web site - would be all over MySpace. In addition to the added traffic you'd get from search engines on MySpace Layouts and Themes, all those in-bound links will help your SEO efforts. To repeat my comment regarding iGoogle desktop themes above, anyone with some creativity and a feel for their target audience could create themes to target any demographic.
4) Create a Facebook Application
If you're a savvy developer you know this already. For the rest there's the built in Gift Creator application on Facebook that is as easy to use as a toaster. Using Gift Creator you can create an app that lets users share your artwork, products or anything else you decide on with their friends. This is a major viral tool. I created one in December of 2008 for my dart shirts and currently there are over 4000 daily users - all trading my dart shirts with each other - and all those pages are branded and linked to my website. That number climbs by an average of 100 users per week.
5) Create Twitter BackgroundsTwitter is growing into quite the social networking/micro blogging experience for millions of Internet users. By creating backgrounds specific to Twitter - and the demographics you wish to target - you can brand them with your website URL and offer them as free downloads. You could even create a Twitter account to promote the backgrounds as well as link to your products on a regular basis.
I am considering buying a domain name and creating a web site just for this purpose. I think it is a great channel to dive into and take advantage of.
Now to get creative!
Consider these ideas and the ways you can put them to use to drive visitors to your web site! The comments feature is active for any questions, comments, suggestions. Tell me what's on your mind.
