You might be surprised to find that the best free website promotion techniques for today's sophisticated internet world are basically the same as they were years ago. Sure you can find many new slick ways to spend your money on the internet. But the methods that still produce the most lasting results are actually free.

While it is true that our list of choices for free website promotion is getting shorter and shorter, it is still possible to drive a truckload of traffic to your site without spending one red cent.

Free Website Promotions With Top Search Engines

The best free website promotion you can do is to submit your site CORRECTLY to the top half-dozen free search engines and directories. DO NOT use services that offer to submit your site for free. DO NOT waste your time submitting your site to anything less than the top dogs, unless it's a search engine that specializes in the subject of your site. I'm talking about Google, DMOZ, MSN, Alta Vista, All the Web and sometimes Yahoo.

Why do I say sometimes Yahoo? Well, under certain non-commercial categories of the directory, you can still submit your site for free. But it must be a totally non-commercial site and it must fall under a non-commercial category, otherwise it's $299.00 per submission. If you're not sure whether the category is commercial or not, just go to the exact category where your site should be listed and click on "Suggest a Site" at the bottom of the page. If it gives you the option to submit for free then you may be able to do it.

To find out everything you need to know to suggest a site on Yahoo go to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/

DMOZ (also known as Open Directory Project) is a huge supplier of information for hundreds of search engines. More importantly it feeds listings to Google, AOL, Netscape, Lycos, DirectHit, and Hot Bot. In other words, this is the place you want to be!

To find out all the rules for submitting to DMOZ go to http://dmoz.org/add.html

To find out the rules that the editors use to decide to let you in or out go to http://dmoz.org/guidelines/

To find out everything you've always wanted to know about DMOZ but were afraid to ask go to: http://dmoz.org/help/helpmain.html

Remember that DMOZ and Yahoo! are not search engines. There will be a human being deciding whether or not you get to be listed. Make sure you follow all the rules. If you want free website promotion, really study the guidelines, then build and submit your site accordingly. DMOZ is worth all the effort you will put into it.

To submit your site to Google go to http://www.google.ca/addurl.html

To submit your site to Yahoo you need to have a Yahoo account first, then go to: http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request

You can also submit to MSN at http://beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx if the link is working.

Once you are in these three search engines, you will show up in most others. If you follow all the guidelines I offer on how to optimize your site for the search engines, and submit your pages to the top guns I've just mentioned here, you should be well on your way to driving free traffic to your site.

Other Methods of Free Website Promotion

There are several other ways to promote you site for free on the internet but none of them come close to producing the results that search engines can. I mention several of them in my section on "Website Marketing Tips." On this page I will only talk about the top three most effective methods..

Link Exchange

One of the most effective ways to increase traffic to your site for free AND help you rank with the search engines (especially Google) is to exchange links with other sites. The more links from other sites you have pointing in your direction, the better. Especially if they are sites which are related to the same subject as your site.

For more information on how to exchange links with others click here.

Newsletter Subscribers

Having a newsletter has almost become a necessity when it comes to creating a successful site. It is, without a doubt, a fantastic tool. When people sign up for your newsletter they are basically saying, "I like your site. I want to know everything there is to know about what you do. I want to know about your special offers and I don't mind if you send me some e-mails once in a while."

Can you see how this could be used to your advantage?

Also, having a newsletter creates a new vehicle for you to promote you site. How? By promoting your newsletter in the thousands of avenues that are specifically designed to promote newsletter just like yours.

You don't currently have a newsletter? What are you waiting for!?

If you don't know how to create one, just surf around some sites and subscribe to a few. Then just copy the "styles" (not the content) you like best and write about what you know. Write about what you feel passionate about.

The only drawback to newsletters is that everybody is doing it and visitors have become a little desensitized. Try to create ideas, offers and text that entice them to try it out. Once they're hooked, they're hooked. In the last year I have only had two, that's right, only two people that have asked to be taken off my list.

Once you've determined what your newsletter will be like, you can start promoting it and use it to create traffic to your site.

For more information on how to generate subscribers for your newsletter click here.

Write, publish and submit articles

I have had great success in generating traffic through my articles. Unfortunately, in general this is not a method that creates lasting effects. When one of your articles appear on someone else's site, it may generate traffic for a while but then it dies down.

However, if you have tons of articles coming out all over the place, you could create a substancial increase in traffic. I have had articles that have created hundreds hits to my site. An additional advantage is that when these visitors come to your site as a result of reading your article, they are prime candidates for what your site has to offer.

For more info on how to write, publish and submit articles click here.