There are many methods to promote your website via the internet. Depending on your needs and budget, you may want to employ more than one method listed below:
1. Search Engine Optimization
Search engines are vital in bringing traffic to your site. You would want you site to appear at the top of search results when people enter a keyword related to your site.
The first step in doing so is by submitting your website to major search engines for free.
Google - http://www.google.com/addurl/
Yahoo! - http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
Live Search - http://search.live.com/docs/submit.aspx
However, submitting your website does not guarantee that your website will appear in the search results. You may have to employ engine optimization (
SEO) services. Here is a list of companies offering
SEO services: http://
seo.biz.tm/
2. List your site on major web directories
You should get your site listed in a web directory under the a category that best describes your site. The best web directory is the Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org/ ). Sites listed on DMOZ usually get high rankings on search engines.
3. Free advertising
Some sites allow you to promote your website or products for free:
http://base.google.com/
http://www.spottt.com/
http://www.txtswap.com/
4. Consider paid advertising
Paid advertising like Google's AdWords which you can easily set your budget for advertising. Your advertisement will appear along with regular Google search results and optionally, on Google's publisher network. Learn more at http://adwords.biz.tm/ .
5. Public Relations
Submit press releases to make the public aware of your business. Here are some websites that offer free press release submission:
http://www.prlog.org/
http://www.theopenpress.com/
http://www.free-press-release.com/
Last but not least, ask your friends and family to visit your site. If they like it, they can help you spread the word for no cost at all!