There are a number of items that when done correctly make your website very visable to the Internet world. Here are some of my thoughts in no particular order..

Important:

Your press release needs to get the attention of the editor or the producer. A press release sent to the right person at the right time can generate $200,000 in revenue right away.

Hiring a public relations firm is not always necessary, and you can send out your press release yourself. Most editors are willing to work with you. Remember that their job is to publish newsworthy stories, but in order to publish those stories, they must first find the stories. By going directly to the editors, you are actually helping them by making their job easier.

What would happen if you took a few minutes to send an editor a note or your press release and you got coverage in a newsletter or an e-zine that had 100,000 subscribers?

You would get a quick boost in traffic, and traffic means money.

You do the math. If you had a $50 product and you got 10,000 visitors in one day from an article in a newsletter or e-zine, and only had a 1% sale rate, you would generate $5000 in sales. Not bad for a few minutes of your time.

Invest time in writing great press releases and sending them to the right people. 5-10 good articles in decent sized publications can make you an extra $200,000 this year.

The following are resources to help you write a great press release and tell you how to deal with the media.

How To Write A Killer Press Release (I highly recommend this source) http://www.netrageousresults.com/pr/pressrelease.html

PR Briefing Dealing With Reporters
http://www.aarow.com/advice.html

How To Handle The Media
http://www.actupny.org/documents/Media.html

Tips For Dealing With The Media
http://www.triangle.org/riskmgmt/media.html

Write a press release and distribute it free of cost using Prweb.
http://www.prweb.com/submit.htm

1. SELF-PROMOTION: This is the best place to start promoting your site. And best of all it is free to use. However, for only $10, you can have your data stored for one year so that you can promote your site over and over without retyping the information. Self-promotion allows you to promote your site to over 400 different search engines, indexes, business directories, international indexes, directories and awards. http://www.selfpromotion.com

2. JIM TOOLS: This is another free utility that promotes your site to 400 search engines and indexes and over 200 Free-For-All (FFA) links pages. Do not use Self-Promotion and Jim Tools in the same week since many of the search engines and indices are same. Compared to Self- Promotion, Jim Tools takes a lot less time to submit to 400 search engines and indexes. http://www.jimtools.com

To generate 500-1000 keywords related to your site, use Jim Tools keyword generator at http://www.jimtools.com. If you type in two or three keywords related to your site, the keyword generator searches the web for similar sites and compiles list of keywords by reading their Meta tags. Usually, if you bid on 1000 keywords, you will get between 75-100 hits a day. http://www.goto.com

The two free utilities above let you submit one URL to 400 different search engines and indices at a time. However, in some cases submitting your home page URL alone isn't enough. You have to "deep submit" your site. Deep submit is nothing more than submitting each and every page of your site. If you have 100 pages in your site, then you must use the above free, utilities 100 times to submit all of them (possible with Self-Promotion's paid service.) But don't worry. You can use the following deep submit utilities to submit multiple URLs at the same time.

3. ASSOCIATE-IT FREE SUBMIT: This free utility lets you submit all the pages in your site at one time to 24 major search engines. All the submissions are done in real time, you can watch the submission results as they happen. Depending on the speed of your Internet connection and the number of different pages you are submitting, this may take any where between three minutes to a few hours. The good thing is that you can start the submission and then surf the Net as usual in a different browser window. http://www.associate-it.com/html/main/300free/

4. THE PROMOTER: This is similar to Associate-it Free Submit, but it will submit multiple URLs to 800 search engines, indices, FFA pages, classifieds, etc. at one time. This works much like Associate-it Free Submit. You can start the submission and then browse the Net in a different window. The Promoter also notifies you when it's time to resubmit your site. http://www.thepromoter.com/

5. ANNOUNCE IT AMERICA!: One more free utility that submits multiple URLs to 300 search engines, indices, FFA links, classifieds, etc. at one time. This works like Associate-it Free Submit and The Promoter. You can start the submission and then surf the Net in a different browser window. http://www.announceitamerica.com/The_Announce-O-Matic

By using the five utilities above, you have submitted your site to most of the search engines and indices. It may take anywhere between three weeks to six months for your site to be indexed.