The best thing about this is that it is absolutely free and well worth effort as most testimonials are permanent, thus giving your site a permanent free link back.

Be creative in your testimonial and honest. Word your comments in such a way, without being too obvious, as to motivate any readers to visit your site. Don't say wonderful things about a site if you don't really feel that way about it, rather move on to a site that appeals to you. Remember your own credibility is at stake here - associate your self with sites you want to be associated with!

For example, here's a testimonial I might write to a company offering internet marketing services:

"I'm webmaster for Wade's World and understand realities and difficulties involved in web site marketing. As we obviously want to provide our clients with a top rate, yet cost effective service, I found content on your site, especially Promotion section, to be extremely beneficial. It is apparent that a lot of work in design and development has gone into your site. Your content is original, overall design looks great and your site is easy to navigate. I have bookmarked your site and will be back often. Thanks for a truly great service!"

In time you should have hundreds of sites linking back to you. Your site name will be seen by visitors all over internet and more importantly, your ranking with search engine's should be very much improved!

Bids can start as low as 1 penny, and best strategy is to choose many less obvious keywords and bid as low as you can.

Pay-per-click search engines like GoTo UK (www.uk.goto.com) and Espotting (www.espotting.com) indirectly reach upwards of 70% of ALL UK search engine traffic (they sell their search results to search engines like Excite and Freeserve who incorporate them into their own searches).

This is a somewhat labour-intensive activity but is a great way to generate low-cost, targeted traffic. For more details visit

- http://www.howipromotemywebsite.com/bin/ap.pl?pay-per-click

5) Set up an AFFILIATE PROGRAM (ADVANCED)

Set up (and manage) an affiliate program for your site. This would have potential to generate a lot of inbound links to your site, as well as to create an active sales-force. In return, affiliates would get paid a small commission for any sales or leads they provided. For more details visit

- http://www.shoptour.co.uk/webmaster-profit/

... Advice ends ==>

The advice above is aimed at a UK-based client who owns a shopping-related site (AND one who does not wish to have search-engine-friendly pages created). Whatever your site is about, however, there will always be important sites to get listed on (or swap links with) outside of major search engines; you just need to find them.

(For advice about creating search-engine friendly pages visit - http://www.shoptour.co.uk/go/good-keywords.html ) As I was to undertake this work myself, it was not necessary for me to provide suitable links (I just added a few (above) for benefit of this article). The following links are also useful:

* Free web site promotion guide - http://www.HowIPromoteMyWebsite.com

* Free 5-day search engine Masters course, by e-mail - mailto:1stSearchRanking.1000.1037@optinpro.com

* Find important sites to get a link on; use this tool - http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/

* 8 Ways To Promote New Content On Your Website - http://shoptour.co.uk/webmaster-promote/promote-new-content.shtml

* 10 Simple Ways That You Can Promote Your Website - http://www.taurus-graphics.net/website_promotion.html

* Contact your customers via mobile phone text messaging - http://www.textmefree.com/free_sms_on_your_site.html

(And for those of you who really want to master web site promotion, single best resource without doubt would be newly revised ebook Make Your Site Sell! 2002 (MYSS! 2002), written by Dr Ken Evoy.

The 400 page traffic-building volume (one of four volumes in MYSS! 2002!) covers basics of website promotion together with pay-per-click-search-engines, affiliate programs and (importantly) it reveals web site promotion time-wasters, too. Unbeatable value. Invaluable.)

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Yes, Christmas 2002 is coming. There is no need for concern, though; this article has shown you many ways that you can successfully promote your web site and take full advantage of this holiday festival. Just do *something* NOW!