We've all heard the key tips for promoting a website, but this article
is guaranteed to have some new ideas for you. Some are clever, some are
crazy, a few are farcical (if you wonder whether I'm joking, I probably
am!). I think these seventeen unconventional ideas should get you
thinking differently about the way you promote your website.
1.
T-shirt Marketing. Get a T-shirt made with your website's logo and URL
on it. Offer the
personalized T-shirts as prizes in a competition. If the T-shirt
looks decent the winner will wear it and act as a walking billboard for
your blog. (You can get a T-shirt made at
http://www.egotailor.com, though there are plenty of websites that do this).
2.
Bumper stickers for all. Mail out bumper stickers for your website to
readers who want one. The price of an envelope is not much to pay for
some advertising on busy roads. (You can get custom stickers made up at
Kinko's or your local equivalent).
3. Post some bills. Stick a poster
about your website on your work or school's notice board. You probably
want to wait until no-one is around before you try this one.
4. The
browser trick. Go to your local library, internet cafe or computer room
and set your website as the default browser homepage on all the
computers you can easily access. I can't help you when it comes to
dealing with tetchy librarians, however.
5. Release a free eBook.
Link back to your website throughout and encourage sharing. If the eBook
is good it could go viral and drive traffic back to you.
6. Go to
the beach and write your website's address in the sand (preferably out
of the way of the rising tide, and large enough to be seen by passing
airplanes.)
7. Run a competition to win items you own and could do
without. Instead of auctioning CDs, furniture, art, video games etc. on
eBay, why not use them to build your website?
8. Carry around blank
business cards with your website's URL on them. You can hand out a card
whenever your website comes up in conversation -- or whenever you bring
it up.
9. Get your website URL tattooed on a visible part of your
body. Warning: this might look a little dated if the no-www movement
wins out in future. Scared of the needle? A temporary tattoo or
permanent marker will do the trick. Better yet, draw the URL on someone
else, preferably while they're asleep.
10. Run a competition and make
the prize a service you'll perform. This could be marketing consulting,
graphic design, a guest-post, or some other service which utilizes your
own individual expertise.
11. Organize a meet-up for webmasters and bloggers in your area and use it as an opportunity to network.
12.
Leave fliers for your website at niche hot-spots. For example: leave
fliers for a personal finance website outside the economics faculty of
your local university, or fliers for a book review website outside a
library.
13. Participate in forums related to your niche. Drive traffic back to your website through your forum signature.
14.
Run a competition to win advertising space on your site. This is yet
another no-cost prize you can use to market your website: free for you
but valuable for others.
15. Take out an ad in your local newspaper. They're often pretty cheap and local papers can have a circulation of thousands.
16.
Add your website's URL to the signature of each email account you use.
If appropriate add a funny comment or quote to draw people's attention.
17. Wear your URL. Make a custom hat, T-shirt or hoodie with your URL on it. This is bound to be a conversation starter.
Have you used any unconventional strategies to promote your site?
