Here are some free and better ways to promote your web site.


List your site in free directories.

Blog and or post fourms but only when their relevant to what your doing or selling...Don't spam!

use free classified ads ( i would try to stay off craig's list to many scammers)

Write quailty articles about what you do or a product you sell. add your link into the article
near the end of the page so that when reading they dont leave to soon.

use a free listing in superpages.com ( the up grade is not always worth the 199.00 a month)

make phone calls to the sites you want to link to
site owners and store owners get ton's of e-mails
so most get deleted without being read. Plus once you have talked to a real live person it's easier to get them to say yes to a link exchange.

try to only link with relevent sites to yours or what your selling

hand out business cards 250 free at vistaprint.com

if your budget allowes have pens and tee shirts printed. give them away with every purchase or just pass them out to everyone you come in contact with.

hand out fliers at stores or malls

put a sign on the back windsheild of your car and your friends and familys cars too.

create a coupon and e-mail it to every e- address in your address book (every three weeks) Every week is to much though.

Bring up the fact in conversations that you have a on-line business most people will ask what type it is or what you do.

whail sharing your site during conversations ask for their e- address so you can mail them a coupon

your site will have more sales if you can offer
something that most people want for free
(example i have a camera store so i might offer a free pic card with the purchase of 50 dollars or more. or a free roll of film with every purchase. free shipping is always good

I ask local business owners (like nail salons or resturants if you can leave a stack of business cards.)

mail out business cards and or coupons to your doctor, dentist, chiropractor, dry cleaners, hair
stylest, mail man, door man, baby sitter, your child teacher, you get the idea.

Join social networking sites hopefully business ones so you can do some self promotion and not be taged as a spammer.

join banner exchange or banner rotater sites.
free banner generator at addesigns.com

Hope this helps..

One of the best free ways to promote your site is to join forums of the same nature and put your site in your signature.
This always works wonders for me.

lol.. yea.. as long as its not TAZ.. :-p

For the young rookies just getting started avoid spamming your site elsewhere.
"I have a new forum and need members" can be lethal to a forum.
Sell your self along with your forum. Maybe something like:
"Hi I'm SetiShock. Some of you may know me from ComputerVitals and other forums. With the advent of Cartoon Network I've had a chance to get back in to one of my other interests, anime. Anime has better graphics and some can get really deep in to a story line. I've started a forum about anime at www.animeappeal.com.
I'm using the latest version of vBulletin software which has:
Social Groups by user. You can start you own special interest group with this.
Picture Albums by user. Members can upload their pictures and link to them in posts and threads. You can even link to the pictures in your social group.
Members can add tags to their threads making them easier to find for those of like interests.
I've put away the ladders and the paint buckets and the cleaning crew just left. I have plenty of content with more coming every day. But something's still missing and that would be you.
See you there!
www.animeappeal.com

Some thing along those lines. A soft sell of yourself then move quickly in to selling the forum. Just touch on some of the features and let them find out about the rest when they sign up. It far too easy to fall in to spamming to get your forum known and that can get you a bad reputation. Stop and think about what you want to say in a blurp and keep it short. Wet their appetite.
If you don't see a spot in a forum to place a website ad, it's prudent to ask an admin or a super mod if it's ok to post something. Maybe send your ad in a PM and let them look it over first. It's just as handy having friends at other forums as it is to have good tech support. If they say no be graceful and take no for an answer. There's millions of forums out there.

Thats a very good point..

because no matter what niche your site is about.. there are usually hundreds
if not thousands other site just like the one you want..
you have to sell yourself..

"hand out business cards 250 free at vistaprint.com" I was told this by a teacher of mine for a real estate class as well, however they are not free its $5 S&H and you need to get them in orders of 250 about a month appart to seem less suspucuous, the Notary Public by my house sells 1000 business cards for $20 and takes about 2 days to make so thats how I get my business cards.

I also advertise online by PTP and on traffic exchanges but I dont like TE's because you dont get what you put into them!

business cards would be a good idea..

almost like a popup ad that no adblocker can handle.. lol

LOL, I may do that.

Alot of people seem to be doing this, but now forums seem to be disallowing links in sigs to prevent spammers. They are starting to become cleaver and know what you are up to lol so maybe you should start looking for a better way... Yahoo answers is a good way to promote a website..

Yahoo answers is excellent. I use it for my MP3 site. They will ask a question like..."what song is this?" and I will figure out what song they are talking about and answer their question I will include a link to the search on my site with the "proof" I get a lot of links that way, believe it or not.

Also a low budget thing is door hangers. They are like $30 at OfficeMax for black and white and it takes 24 hours to get them back.

If there is a street fair or carnival in your area......Learn some magic trick and do magik with your business cards...and give the card to the patrons....dress up like a clown and do balloon animals.

Buy 100 balloons and put a business card in each one...fill with helium and let them go...eventually they will land and someone will see the cards inside.

Just some creative ideas