What's a Good Way To Promote Your Site Online and Off?

Based on one of my most recent responses to a Yahoo Answers post, I thought I'd share this helpful response to a very common question - how to best promote your website!

There are a number of marketing strategies you can use to drive people to your website (both online and off) that cost very little money. From an online perspective, I would suggest offering a newsletter on your website. This ensures that you capture the email address of everyone visiting your website. As a result, with the proper policy in place, you can contact them via email to promote a given product... like your sweet orange and chili pepper candles! As an incentive, you can provide a coupon for anyone signing up for your newsletter such as coupon or general discount.

If you're trying to get more people to your website, I would focus on search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Google Adwords would be great for attracting only those interested in what you have to offer and you can place caps on your daily spend in order to manage your budget.

For SEO, I would suggest writing some articles related to dating and submitting to major directories like eZineArticles or GoArticles. You should also consider directory submission.

From an offline perspective, I would suggest a post card campaign. You might be able to purchase a small list from a list broker and test a post card (smell and sniff). Its creative and might just generate the response you're looking for.