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Or 50 places to promote your site on the web
There's no doubt that being listed in the top search engines like Yahoo!, MSN and Lycos can increase your traffic. Significantly. But, you should be aware that there are numerous other websites where you can promote your business as well. Don't neglect listing your site on smaller, less familiar engines and directories.
I'll tell you why. After being accepted by Looksmart, we started getting referrals from MSN. Which is great! However, we also get a significant amount of traffic from www.aol.com which is primarily powered by the Open Directory. And until two months ago, we'd never heard of the Open Directory, although several search engines use it as a source. And there are many, many smaller directories out there. Does it matter if a directory only sends you one or two referrals? You never know who will be your best customer or your most loyal fan.
So what about submission software? You know where with one push of a button your site is submitted to hundreds, maybe even thousands of search engines. Well, based on what I've read, and our experience at career-intelligence.com, you're better off submitting your site manually. Yes, it can take a tremendous amount of time. But, the task is not quite as overwhelming if you do it in stages. For example, set aside one hour a week for submissions or plan to submit to three sites a day. And you'll be done in no time.
Spend some each week looking for sites that target your audience, where you can promote your site and services. This may mean submitting your site for review. For example, in my travels I discovered www.top100careersites.com. I submitted career-intelligence.com for review and received a listing there. For a web designer this would mean nothing, for us it is gold.
Here you'll find a fairly long list of places to submit your site (50 in all). You will even find several places that list by and/or for women sites only. Which I think is a great way for women to support each other on the web. Following is a culmination of my discoveries while surfing the web. Start with these, but keep looking. I am. (Note: these links were checked prior to publishing, however, things sometimes change rather quickly on the web. Please, let us know if you discover any dead links. Thanks)
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