Promoting Your Website ~ An Excerpt from "The Soapmaker's Guide to Online Marketing"

By Lisa Maliga Copyright 2013-2018

After hitting that button to send your pages to the WWW and launching your website, you want it to be seen. You want the orders to pour in. You want to see your bank account grow.

But hold on!

First, look at it thoroughly before sending anyone a link. Do the pages load quickly? Do the pictures show up or do you get a dreaded red X? How easy is it to navigate? Have you included your contact information? Test each link that connects your web pages to each other. Then test the outgoing links. Does the shopping cart work? Does your site have an inviting appearance? Are your pictures enticing? Proofread each page for typos. Then have your friends and family help you out by offering their opinions. Also, test it in various browsers not just Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. Check it out in at least a dozen, if not more, different browsers to see how it looks. http://browsershots.org

Getting your site seen around the world—or at least in your area--isn’t going to be that simple. Online entrepreneurs often think that just because you’ve put in a lot of time and effort that customers will be buying from you within a few hours or days. The problem is the sheer amount of competition you face. The smaller your site is, the harder it is to find in the vastness of the Internet. With effort, you can get your site noticed. Many methods of doing this are free.  However, while they may not cost anything, they will involve your time. 

The Soapmaker's Guide to Online Marketing is available in eBook and paperback formats at Amazon Kindle, B&N NOOK, iTunes, Scribd, Smashwords, and Kobo.