How to Promote Yourself with a Web Site

Whether you're an artist, a real estate agent or a musician, the Internet provides you with an international audience to which you can promote yourself. Your site needs to look professional, be available to those searching the Internet and stand out from the billions of sites already in existence. With the free use of sites such as MySpace, anyone can have an online presence.

Instructions

1. Organize the information you want to include in your site. Too much information can appear cluttered and be overwhelming to the user. Make sure you have a good mix of photographs and text. Users tend to look at photos without always reading the text, so make sure your photos can stand on their own.

2. Add key words to your site. If you're a Bay Area artist, make sure the words "San Francisco art" appear several times on your site. This will make it more likely for your site to pop up in Internet search engines.

3. Email your friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances to let them know your site is up and running. Ask them to forward your email to anyone they know who might be interested. Consider making business cards with your Web site address to pass out when you're at social and professional events.

4. Contact others in your field and ask if they would be interested in posting a link on their Web site if you return the favor. Be picky about who you contact. You need to feel good about sending your site's traffic to that site.

5. Post an advertisement promoting your site on sites such as Craigslist. Post a brief description of the site and the link. Consider adding a photograph to the ad to make it more visually appealing. A classified ad in the local paper could also garner you local traffic, which is especially desirable for bands, artists and real estate agents.

6. Update your site frequently. If your site never changes, you'll lose return traffic. Don't do a complete overhaul of the site. Change photos, update your blog or add new songs.