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Tell-A-Friend:
Every website should have this on their pages. It’s a great way to get extra visitors. I very often will use this feature if I find something of interest or value and pass it on to my friends. It’s a simple format and when you click on it, it will generally have fields for you to fill in your name,
recipients name, your email address and of course, recipients’ email. When recipient receives your email, it will show as a summary of your website and a link to your site. All end user has to do is to click onto your ‘link’ to get right to your site.
Guest book:
A guest book is a web page where anyone can leave a note about you or about your product and/or service for you or anyone to see or read. The comments left on your guest book can be positive or negative (yep, you have to take good with bad folks!) Guest books can be an interactive feature that can provide necessary feedback web site owner needs to make to their site, product or service.
Chat Rooms:
A chat room is a website, part of a web that provides a venue for communities of users with a common interest to communicate in real time. Forums and discussion groups, in comparison, allow users to post messages, but don’t have capacity for interactive messaging. You just register to chat room of your choice, choose a user name and a password, and log into a particular room and begin chatting. Generally there is a list of people currently online chatting, and it alerts you if anyone new enters or exits chat room. Users type a message into text box, and message is immediately visible in larger communal message area and other users respond accordingly if they wish. Some people just sit and watch to hear what others are saying about a particular issue, which is then called ‘lurking’. The other users know you’re there, even though you may not be participating. Manners and common courtesy should apply to all real time interactive tools. Foul language, or demeaning vocabulary is not acceptable and can offend others that are on board.
Blogs:
Blog is short for a web log. (See my article on weblogs for a detailed description). It is basically a journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs represent personality of author or web site. Blogs have common elements, updated frequently, (usually daily, but sometimes 2 or 3 times a day), informal, grouped by date with links to archives of older posts; informative and/or inspiring (the good blogs).
There you have it. You’ve discovered a couple of ways to get people talking about your site, and to spread word about how terrific your business is. Get some action moving through your site where everyone is talking and sharing good insight about your products and your services, and more importantly, sending this valuable information about you down wire to thousands of potential customers. On a final note, take this thought with you. Those who hesitate in creative marketing techniques will always be behind eight ball.
Joelene Orlando is a Web enthusiast and a staff writer/consultant for eMarketing Answers with a broad knowledge of topics covering Internet marketing and communication strategies for both consumer and small business owners. http://www.emarketinganswers.com is dedicated to providing free, comprehensive emarketing resources and online promotion tools.
