by: Ace Shattock

People are always asking for the best methods of promoting their site. The usual answers are: Link Exchanges, Buy Advertising, Submit to Search Engines, Viral Marketing…and so on.

While these suggestions are all good in their own way, some require a lot of effort, some require money and some rely on your site being ‘worthwhile' for the other sites to link to…as in, a reciprocal link will be worth them putting your link on their page…and some simply put people off because of the ‘spammy' feel to them.

My suggestion *does* require effort, but it is a lot more subtle than the methods mentioned above.

All you need is:

• Membership at a forum

• A link back to your Home Page (without index.html or index.php) in your signature (eg: www.nzboards.com).

• The ability to make helpful/interesting/funny comments.

How many of you have seen somebody make helpful comment after helpful comment, or release great hacks/code, and then head over to their site because you were impressed with what you had seen of them on other sites?

Probably most.

Being a productive member at all the Communities you frequent will more than likely cause other members of that community to investigate your site.

The converse applies.

If you flame other community members or generally make trouble, people are unlikely to want to visit your site and become a member of your community...I know of a few people whose sites I would have to literally stumble across before I would actually go there, simply from what I have seen of their posts on various fora.

So, instead of focusing solely on spamming or getting your site known through direct advertising, think about the simple act of being a good contributor, and the people will come to you.