Contests on Your Site

Freebies from contests or from drawings keep people coming
back. Everyone wants something free. But in addition, it
can also bring people in. Employ this marketing technique
that you now use for your current visitors and customers to
your search engine optimization program.
Have a contest that lasts for a few months. Give away a
prize related to the products or service your site offers. For
example, if you’re an accounting site that sells software,
offer a free software package for the winner. Then, change
your keywords (key phrases) to reflect free accounting
software. I think everyone searches for free products and
services from time to time, if not frequently. Don’t you?
Why not lure more traffic in by giving away something free
yourself?

Sales and Specials:

If you’re selling something from your site, which you
probably are, you have sales and specials from time to time.
Why not update your tags to reflect this? Sales and specials
should not only be available to your current customers and
visitors, but used to also bring new ones in. Updating your
tags to reflect this is a free form of advertising and gives
you another way to rank in the search engines.
Give away free trials too, if you can afford to do so.
Companies that offer free trials of their software are doing
it, convinced that you will buy it once you try it, but it also
attracts search engine customers looking for something free.
The more your site comes up in the search engines, the
more successful you’re going to be.

Opt-in Mailing List:

Creating a chance for your customers and visitors to stay up
to date with site changes, sales, specials, and contests is a
great way to increase traffic to your site. Visitors who do
not buy anything can sign up, and this provides you with a
way to keep them coming back to your site. You could also
create a survey that they receive when they sign up. Just
be sure they know this and that the survey is optional.
Getting visitor feedback about their experiences on your site
can be invaluable. By doing this, you’ll learn what the
majority want and be able to keep your site in tune with
your visitors’ needs.
There are several software programs that you can pay for
which will help you set up and organize a mailing list. You
can also do it yourself for free by creating simple HTML
forms on your site. The results can be stored in a database
or emailed directly to you. Visit http://www.htmlbasix.com
for a free e-mail form html code.
You can also use Yahoo groups as the site below has done.
This gives your visitors a chance to interact, and it’s a way
for a Webmaster to keep them updated.