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21 Reasons Why The Next Site I Visit Could Be Yours

You spend so much time PROMOTING your site, but why,
exactly, do YOU VISIT someone else's site?

One day, I re-visited all of the sites I went to in a given
week (using Internet Explorer's History option). And I asked
myself the simple question: "Why did I visit that site?"

I came up with 21, yes 21!, reasons why I visited a
particular web site.

Now if they are reasons why *I* visited a site, they could
well be reasons why I (or someone else) would visit YOUR
site!

So here are some reasons why I visit a web site, and at
least one action you can take, to make it a reason that
people visit YOUR SITE!

So, in no particular order, my reasons are:

01. TO WIN PRIZES

We all like to win something, online or offline. Why not let
people win something at your site? A product or service that
you can offer as a prize will do it. Do a joint venture if
necessary, but be creative.

Action: Run an online competition
http://www.loquax.co.uk/webmaster/

02. TO READ MY EMAIL

You can blame Hotmail for this (but I keep on returning!).
Now you can find many ways to create your own free web-based
email system, with your own site address too.

Action: Host a web-based email service
https://www.google.com/a/

03. TO BUY SOMETHING

I admit it, I love the convenience of shopping online (and
the savings!). Maybe you do too. So why not sell products
online. And even if you don't actually own products to sell,
you can still sell other people's products via your virtual
store (via an affiliate program or two).

Action: Learn how to sell your products online
http://www.wilsonweb.com

04. BECAUSE OF FREE STUFF

We all like freebies, and even visit sites that only contain
links to freebie-sites. Well, now it's possible to put free
downloads etc. on your site.

Action: Create a directory of freebies (like below)
http://www.textmefree.com

05. I FOUND THE SITE ON GOOGLE

You must promote your site via search engines, to get free
and cheap traffic to your site. Rather than going on
about meta tags, keywords, pay per click search engines,
etc., I'll just point you to a good place to learn more!

Action: Submit site to search engines (and more!)
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=free+website+promotion+guide

06. I CLICKED A LINK ON SOMEONE'S SITE

A well-place and considered link to your site on another site
delivers targeted visitors AND helps you rank well in the
search engines. I'm talking about one-way links here, and not
reciprocal links. I also suggest you improve your own site by
linking out to sites that complement your site.

Action: Build incoming links to your site
http://www.honestlinks.net/

07. I READ ABOUT THE SITE IN AN EMAIL

I could also have said: 'because I saw the site address in a
magazine or a newspaper'.

How did the site get mentioned in an email newsletter or via
a newspaper or magazine? Two words: press release. Most
'news' is 'created' via a well-written press release.

Action: Learn how to get your news release published here
http://www.howipromotemywebsite.com/press-release

08. BECAUSE THE SITE IS ALREADY BOOK-MARKED

"Bookmark my site!" Does your site exclaim this? Does your
site ask visitors to "Add this site to your favorites!" It
should do. You can get a simple bit of JavaScript that will
let you do this.

Action: Ask visitors to 'Add Your Site To Favorites'
http://javascript.internet.com/miscellaneous/bookmarks.html

09. MY FRIEND RECOMMENDED THE SITE TO ME

You see those links on a site that say: "Like our site? Tell
a friend!" Well, it works. People like to recommend a great
site to their friends - they gain kudos, respect. So why not
make it easy for them to recommend YOUR site to THEIR
friends!

Action: Recommend site
http://willmaster.com/master/recommendpro/index.shtml

10. TO MEET OR TALK WITH OTHERS

What a reason to visit a website - to meet others, to share
your interests, and swap information! People meet via online
message boards, forums, online communities - and doing so
generates a great deal of site traffic. (These visitors
often return again and again!)

Many community-building tools are free, but you will need to
promote heavily to get your community started, and you will
need to consider just how you go about moderating the
discussions too.

Action: Build a community
http://www.howtostartaforum.com/

11. I READ A BLOG

It seems that every woman and her dog is starting a blog
right now (blog: a web log). And these personal sites contain
information about anything and everything. Even big corporate
companies have got in on the act. The truth is, though, if
you write a good blog you will get people returning to your
site. (This is not as easy as it sounds, however.)

This is an example of a blog being used to promote a business
http://web-site-promotion-marketing.blogspot.com/

Action: Start a Blog
http://wiki.ehow.com/Start-a-Blog

Here are the other ten reasons I might visit your website:

12. I saw the url/site address somewhere
13. I read a site's newsletter
14. I read a good article
15. To play a game
16. The site is my default home page
17. To check my site ranking
18. To find a file or other resource
19. I saw the link in a newsgroup
20. I saw a banner ad
21. Because the site promises to be *unique*

You can find a fuller discussion of these reasons in part 2 of
this article, available here, by email
- http://www.wise-buys.info/webmaster-articles.shtml#21reasons

--

So, you want to get repeat visitors to your site do you! Just
make sure that some of the reasons to visit a site, discussed in
this article, are reasons to visit YOUR site! And if you can come
up with your own even better reasons, then do so...

Take action, be imaginative, and visit at least one of the
action links above.

Then maybe one day, I'll be visiting your website.
:-)

© Copyright 2002-2006 Steve M Nash. All Rights Reserved.

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