Your paper business card should include your entire URL.
When you're just getting a website off the ground, you need all the help you can get to get the word out about what you have to offer. While you can pay a marketing team or a blog listing service to help you market your site, there are also a number of free things you can do to get your name out there. While this can be time-consuming, the key is plug away, a little at a time, to keep the website traffic coming in.
Instructions
1. Print free business cards, and then hand them out at marketing events or other business-related functions. While you can do a lot of marketing online for your online presence, it also pays to market yourself in person. Order business cards from a website that prints them free of cost. Then sign up for free networking events through your local Chamber of Commerce, MeetUp.com, or another business organization, and make a goal to meet a few new people and hand out your card at each event. In that vein, also be sure to include your website URL at the bottom of your email messages. You can typically set this "signature" from the Settings menu of your email provider or local client such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird or Windows Mail.
2. Comment on other people's sites. To stay abreast of what's happening in the content area you're working in, you'll need to be visiting sites that have similar content. When you read and article or see a video that reminds you of something on your own site, make a comment in the "comments" section for that posting. Be sure to include your website's URL so that people can easily direct to your site.
3. Ask for a listing on a popular blog or website. Whatever your content area is, chances are there's someone else maintaining a blog that relates to your site. Locate the blog owner's email address or other contact information, and then write and tell them that you'd like to exchange links on their blog roll. If they're also looking to increase their readership, this may be a win for both of you. If you've made a few comments on that person's site, you may have a better chance at getting their attention and letting them know you're interested and engaged with their site.
4. Sign up for social networking profiles, and then use them to connect with other people. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are all free to use, and can be a vital part of your marketing and networking efforts. People visit those sites to stay informed about important topics, so they're a great forum to attract new visitors. When you post a new blog post, video or other piece of content, post a link to the content on your Facebook or other social site. Also be sure to continually, actively seek new followers by engaging with other like-minded pages or profiles, and encouraging them to follow or "like" your page.
5. Guest blog or post on another website. Once you've built a relationship with blogs or websites similar to yours, ask the administrator whether they'd be interested in you writing an article about a topic in your area of expertise. In exchange, ask the administrator to include a link to your website in the biography section, following the article. This could open up your website to a whole new set of readers, who may have missed your link in the site's blogroll.
