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Getting ListedFortunately, even in the time now when more companies are starting to charge to get listed in the directories and search engines, it's still relatively simple to get your site listed. After several months of searching and learning, I've come to the conclusion that you only have to visit three sites to learn what you need to know to get your site listed effectively and quickly. You may not achieve the number one spot on the search engines this way, but I've come to the conclusion that trying to do that is a time waster since the other millions of webmasters are trying to do the same thing. So, if you build a site that expresses what you want to say, and you're listed in the engines and directories that are easy to search, that's about all most of us can hope for. Pick your main target well, and then try to get good results from that. For example, I targeted the phrase 'steel roses' and I do well when you search that term on Google. That's good enough for me, and I'm getting steady increases in both the number of people who visit my site every month and the number of people who purchase a steel rose from me. That's my goal. Search Engine Watch - As far as I've been able to determine, this is the site to visit if you want to know what the search engines and directories are doing. See the excellent Search Engine Submission Tips page that is regularly updated for more information on how to get your site into the various search engines.
I've used this site for several years to promote my sites and I'm very pleased with the results. I'll continue to be a regular customer. As I've mentioned many times before, Site Build It! includes tools for brainstorming site concepts and key word phrases. It will also submit your pages to the search engines whenever you rebuild the page, automatically. Over time, as you add more pages, you'll see your search engine rankings improve. I know of no other tool that works as well as this. I host AYearFromNow.com on Site Build It! and I'm going to dedicate much of the winter of 2005 to building that site and working to create an international success cooperative. If I had to start all over again, or if I were just getting started, I'd first read Make Your Contents PREsell! followed by Make Your Site Sell! and then I'd purchase an account at Site Build It! to build my site. I manage a couple of dozen sites hosted by a half-dozen companies, but Site Build It! offers the best mix of tools for most people. Take the SBI traffic test and see for yourself. It's results that count. A lot of folks complain that SBI is expensive, but it costs only about a dollar per day. I spend more than that on several of my other sites. Sites that charge for submissionsThings are changing all the time in the world of search engines. I don't know how long the information on this page will remain valid. Yahoo! Business Express - I rarely use Yahoo's directory, but millions of others, perhaps your future customers, do. The last time I looked, it cost about $300 to submit your site. Looksmart Network's Express Submit - This also costs about $300, and it powers several popular search engines. Sites that were free the last time I lookedThese sites are worth submitting your website to. If you want the best results, you should follow their instructions closely. I submitted to most of these sites using SelfPromotion.com, and to some of the others manually and I'm very happy with the results. I spent many months working to optimize my pages with the goal of being completely indexed by Google. I don't know if all the pages on my site have been indexed, but the last time I checked hundreds of them were. I'm getting the largest number of visitors as a result of searches on Google. I'm also getting quite a few visitors as a result of the few items I've auctioned on eBay, which I think may be a good way to build traffic to a site and earn money in the process, assuming your items sell. Although I've listed first the search engines and directories that charge for submission it doesn't mean that I think they are more important. I've read from many sources that a listing on Yahoo! is the best source of visitors, but I'm not convinced that's true. Perhaps it is. I spent most of 2001 learning how to get good results from my site through Google, which is the first place I go to search for anything. In 2002, I'm going to concentrate on some of the others. I don't get thousands of visitors per day, but you're coming to visit more every month and I'm watching my traffic increase steadily. I had more visitors in November 2001 than I did for all of 2000. It takes a while to build a business. For current information on submitting your sites to the directories and search engines, see SelfPromotion.com for more information. Of course, there are many other sites that promise that they'll get you listed, some on thousands of sites. While many of those sites will do exactly what they promise, some of them will list you on many free-for-all sites and may actually hurt your chances of building a good business on the web. I'm not condemning any of these sites, I'm just suggesting that the three sites above are the best I've been able to find in the last year. Of course, your mileage may vary. More information and linksSee Internet for Web Marketers for links to other resources for webmasters. For a free, no obligation, course on choosing proper keywords, getting listed in search engines, building traffic to your site, and building a website that sells, download the Affiliate Masters course.
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