As a content provider, you can attract a substantial and continuous flow of new prospects from online venues that might otherwise be inaccessible. And unlike other promotional methods, you get this traffic without spending a penny on advertising.

The three techniques below make it easy for publishers --your willing and enthusiastic partners-- to find and publish your material.

1. Syndicate Your Articles

Syndicating your articles makes it easy for site owners to put your content on their website. It's a real time-saver and totally hands-off for webmasters.

Automation is a big selling point of online syndication. The syndicating site simply inserts 2 lines of code on their web page, and your articles are distributed from your server to their web page automatically. You have total control over content and style, while webmaster never lifts a finger again.

It's an ideal situation for you. Once a site agrees to accept your articles through syndication, you are freed from job of marketing each article individually to site owner. A marketer's dream!

For details on setting up your syndicated feed, read this article by William Bontrager: http://www.homebiztools.com/syndication.htm

One of first places to start marketing your syndicated feed is on your website. Post a sample article so others can see quality of your work, and show them how to set up their web page to accept your articles.

At times, website promotion can seem confusingly complicated. There seem to be so many, sure-fire new ways to get thousands of hits to your site. Whilst some of these methods work, most just waste your time.

So, welcome back to basics of website promotion - 10 simple, effective, ways to promote your site. Learn something new, or just remind yourself of an 'old favourite'.

1. SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO SEARCH ENGINES & DIRECTORIES

Submit your site to all major search engines and directories (except Yahoo!). Repeat at monthly intervals ONLY if your site isn't listed - this especially applies to Google!

Links: - http://www.addme.com/submission.htm - http://www.shoptour.co.uk/submit-all.html - http://www.shoptour.co.uk/go/affiliate-announce.html http://affiliatetoolkit.com/affiliateannounce/

Tip: Hand submit your site to major search engines here - http://www.howipromotemywebsite.com/site-submit

2. SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO YAHOO! (ZEAL & DMOZ)!

Both Yahoo!, Zeal and Open Directory Project (DMOZ) are search directories that are edited by real people (on Zeal, *you* are real person!). As such, you must follow submission guidelines of these sites exactly, or your site will not succeed in getting listed.

A listing on Yahoo! is useful as it's still one of busiest sites on web, and DMOZ helps your chances of a good listing on Google.

Links (how to suggest your site): - http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/ - http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/info/include.html - http://www.dmoz.org/add.html - http://www.zeal.com

Tip: (see below)

3. SWAP LINKS WITH OTHER SITES

To swap links, do following: - Identify sites with similar content to yours; - Get in touch with site's webmaster (use their name); - Politely ask for a reciprocal link, then create a "Links" section on your site and put links there.

Not everyone will respond, but it is worth your effort as search engines (especially Google) rank sites based on how many other sites link to it!

Links (more information on what to do, and what not to do): - http://www.cashway.com/secrets_of_reciprocal_linking.htm - http://www.reciprocallink.com/article1.html - http://www.howipromotemywebsite.com/link-swaps

Tip: (see below)

4. JOIN A FREE BANNER-EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Place a banner ad. (or text ad.) on your site and other sites will place your ad. on theirs in return. It's a great way to get your site noticed, and there are many free banner exchange programs to choose from.

Links: - http://www.ukbanners.com - http://www.bannersgomlm.com - http://www.linkpartners.com - http://www.txtswap.com/cgi-bin/txtswap/ea/aff.cgi?832 http://www.txtswap.com

Tip: (see below)

5. USE A SIGNATURE FILE

A signature file (sigfile) is a block of text that can be appended to end of each e-mail message sent by your e- mail software. Use it in your e-mail, or whenever you participate in discussion groups relevant to your services or products (see below).

For example, I sometimes end emails I'm sending to a fellow webmaster with following text: