So you built a Web site? All done? Amrit Ray posts his thoughts on how to promote a Web site.

How do I effectively promote my website, is a million dollar question. And yes, it is no exaggeration. People all over the world are making millions by effectively promoting their websites and reaching out to thousands of potential businesses that they otherwise had never thought possible.

The advent of technology and its easy accessibility has changed the way people buy or do business online. All this has ushered in a new era of e-commerce where people’s perception towards online businesses has changed dramatically and they are ready to accept the concept of online businesses and feel comfortable buying from someone they have never met or probably will never meet in person.

Now this has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for businesses worldwide. Everybody is vying for a share of the million dollar online market. The first step of course involves getting an attractive website done highlighting the products you want to sell. A good professional web designer would be able to help you out here both with web hosting and design. The next step involves promoting your website so that it reaches its target audience.

There is no sure shot way or magic pill that one can use to promote their website. And in fact, no one knows for sure what works and what does not. All major search engines have different criteria or algorithm to judge how relevant a website is to its audience. No one knows the exact factors that make one website feature over the other on certain keywords. However some factors that could increase your search engine visibility are back links and good content.

Back links are links from other websites leading back to your own website. The quality of the website linking back to your site is also very important. Back links from negative websites could harm your websites image, so be careful about that. Now the question is how do you get back links? The simple answer is, ask them for it. Though, link exchange in my opinion is not a very good idea. Search engines will know that you have mutually exchanged the links and the link backs are artificial. Submit your website to Directories. There are thousands of them out there. It takes time and patience. Leave comments on blogs with a link to your website. This is one point that should never be over done. There is a fine line between promoting and spamming and crossing the line could be disastrous. No one likes spammers and neither do search engines. Too many back links in a short period of time can also arouse suspicion, so continue at a steady pace until you see your ranking improve. Another good way of getting back links is posting in forums as most of them allow you to use your website address in your signature.

Now when people start to find your website online it is important that your website has relevant and interesting content so that your visitors stay online longer. The longer they stay the more chances they will buy.

These are a few small steps one can take to promote ones website effectively.

I got started doing graphics editing with JASC Paint Shop Pro way back. I haven’t used the program since it was purchased by Corel. Now I use Photoshop and have recently begun toying around with the open source GIMP graphic editor.

This is a neat tutorial will show you how to create Web Host company header using photoshop and the free stock photo above.

What Graphics Editor do you use?

Godaddy.com needs a redesign, some say. My personal pet peeve in my navigations through Godaddy is the feeling that I may have stumbled into another type of site, that is a niche of ill repute other than web hosting. Attractive women posing with “no thanks” at the bottom of page in small print. I’ll stop here.

Anyway, if you have used Godaddy domain registration service or hosting products, you may have noticed the difficulty in to the final destination in checkout process. I’ve noticed some problems too. Here’s a pretty detailed criticism of GoDaddy’s 16-step checkout process which may be “brainless marketing at its finest.” A great article on the sheer stupidity of the GoDaddy checkout process. They truly are the 16 gates of hell. The author asks, “Why would a company do this to its customers?”

What is your impression of the current Godaddy.com site design?

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I am starting to see more web hosts advertising services as “environmentally friendly.” I am not sure whether this type of thing comes from west coast environmental consciousness or company marketing departments. Perhaps some of both.

Last year we reported on a solar-powered web hosting company, AISO.Net, has chosen data storage and virtualization software firm, Sirius Computer Solutions, to enhance its data center and reduce electricity usage by providing a high end, scalable infrastructure solution for its dedicated and shared web hosting clients. AISO.Net says that they are:

a reliable and responsible green web hosting company. We have made a strong commitment to help fight pollution and preserving our natural resources. Solar panels run our data center and office, not energy credits.

There is also wind powered hosting from sustainable.

Green Hosting claims they are Canada’s “first Internet hosting service powered 100% by green energy.”

When I was growing up in a small, rural, american farm town, we were just thankful to have electricity because it wasn’t all that long ago that folks were using candles. We didn’t obsess over the actual electrons consumed to power our electrical devices which were usually black and white televisions, radios that would pick up one station and shop tools out back. Not that I miss the cliches of “affordable” and “dependable,” but all this has me wondering if we are getting a little overfocused on the minutiae, major on the minors, you know. Do you think environmental web hosting is a waste of time or does it make sense?

More on the subject of green web hosting…

I was surfing around on YouTube the other day and happened up on some gold nuggets when searching the keywords, “web hosting.” Who would have imagined it possible to illustrate the differences in the types of hosting accounts by using laundry room items? Leave it to the creative Web Hosting Show host, Mitch Keeler get the point across with a little color safe tongue-in-cheek humor. Mitch points out that most hosting is of the shared variety. Yet, understanding hosting types is truly an important part of any site building endeavor. The concept is not that too terribly difficult grasp, yet I have known people who overspent by paying too much for a dedicated server, when a shared hosting package would be fine. In other and more rare cases, some high traffic site owners are too cheap to face the reality that they need dedicated hosting for their project. Some web designers don’t realize reseller web hosting exists, so they open separate accounts for each customer. I wanted all the readers at Web Hosting Finds to catch this video if you haven’t seen it.

This could be interesting. Google now allows you to create a personalized start page for your Google Apps for Your Domain hosting! This link is to a screenshot review of the service and setup at Boles University.

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Another service similar to TextOnImage blogged about blogged about last week is Gaxed.com, a free image creator service from Philipp Lenssen of Stuttgart, Germany that lets you put your text on several different types of images – snow, the sky, a building, etc. Philipp Lenssen’s blog (outer-court.com) is quite active. I like the user friendliness of gaxed. Pics are quite stretched on my large rez monitor and the number of pics available numbers about ten.

This is article gives 88 quick tips for saving money, in a number of categories including personal finance, food, home, electronics, etc. The article gives a few pointers toward the end on getting free web hosting, hosting your audio and video files free, and setting up free blog accounts. Some stuff I’ve never seen before here.

The writer at OSA Watch states:

If my previous posts about saving money weren’t enough for you, I’ve compiled a list of 88 ways to save money. Sure, some of these might seem obvious, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded once in a while.

The items are in no particular order of importance, but might be grouped by themes. (Apologies for any possible duplicate or similar items. I did my best to edit.) I’ve linked some items to other websites, including pfblogs (personal finance blogs). By doing so, understand that I am not necessarily endorsing them , nor have I necessarily tried out the linked-to services or products. I have, however, read most of the articles linked to.

read all 88 tips… | read digg news story

If you don’t own a PDA, you may wonder what your site looks like to one of those high tech mobile device users. Google™ has a nifty PDA site viewer tool thingy that lets you see what your site might look like to a PDA visitor. The tool is reportedly similar to Skweezer and IYHY

Guiltless Hosting?

With this fusion of environmentalism and capitalism, you can attempt to feel guitless while hosting your files. Sustainable Hosting, LLC has been founded as a joint venture of Earthsite and Holistechnology. Sustainable Hosting is an environmentally responsible hosting company that is powered by renewable wind energy. 99.9% uptime, decent rates….

read more about Sustainable Hosting | digg story

A digg.com poster says the difference between a good web designer and a great one is the ability to know how to take short cuts and save time without compromising the quality of work. Pixelsurgeon’s Jason Arber has put together 20 top tips and tricks you should be using to give your work that all-important professional edge. I’ll say that the first, planning, is a great start.

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As a professional web designer, the author of this article points out a consistent trend in the majority of the projects worked on: The more time that is spent dissecting, analyzing, and critiquing a design by the wrong kinds of people, the worse that design gets. The same trend applies to the number of people involved in the design process. I am not sure if I agree entirely with this because of the subjectivity of right and wrong kinds here.

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5 Steps to Building Better Websites

Included in this article are 5 principles that help web site builders design sites to be more usable, effective and overall enjoyable for users. Starts with “Create a Call to Action.”

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