Free ways of promoting?

What are some free ways to promote a site? I'm finding it hard to get people to stick around or stop by again to my software/freeware review site. I dont get visitors that stick around. They all come, see what they want, then leave...

 

The only thing I can think of is to put a few articles on your main page. The way I would use your site is exactly how you said. I would get what I wanted a leave. If I was doubtful on what I wanted I would probably read a couple reviews and then download something and leave. The only way I could see this changing is if you featured interesting articles pertaining to what your site is about on the main page. Give your user something to read other than just reviews.

 

Except writing articles and posting them to article directories you could also offer a free newsletter. It could contain articles or info about updates on your site.

 

For a start, you would definitely need to find a way to 'capture' the email address of visitors to your site. Either by offering a freebie or newsletter.

With a good list, you can stay in contact with them by sending by updates and any special offers.

 

Yeah a newsletter is the way to go, but don't force the issue. I remember a year or two back when download.com tried to force registrations, I just stoped using them and found another alternative. They stopped that after a couple of months as they continued to lose visitors.

So a newletter signup on the screen while people are waiting for the download to start automatically might work. Maybe also offer the options like .. General Newletter or a tracking newletter (track software updates or category updates)

IF you do go that route, never ever send it out more than once a week ... we receive too much mail as it is.

 

Yah I had a newsletter in mind in the past.

I also have articles, I just added an articles section recently and I want to get exclusive interviews for our site, that should spark up some visitors.

 

Article marketing and free newsletters are working for me.

 

Blog commenting, article submission, forum posting, classified ads, press release, and social bookmarking helps. Just make sure to create links from relevant and DoFollow sites with high PR.

 

Well, this is an old post but some methods are still useful. I just want to add one, I find that Yahoo answer can bring a lot of traffic. Search questions with your site's key-words and answer them, sometime you can add a link to your site.

As only as you solved other's question, the asker will mark your answer be the best answer. It will bring you many traffic.

 

How about writing a press release?

 

there are so many ways. all of them are free as soon as you make it all yourself

 

I'm confused,

You say,
They come to your site and get "What they want" and then leave....
What should they do next if I might ask?

The intent of your site is to give the people what they want.
You did just that. You did your job.

Perhaps you may want to rethink what it is that they want, and then sell it to them.
You have to tell them what to do (call to action) or they will find someone else to tell them......

Research the demographics of the people that come to your site and present them with products they may want.
Tech crowd so Hosting, music, games, anything to make ordinary life easier, anything amusing, cool looking coffee cups, etc...

Test different products and methods as additional advertisement in headers, sidebar, footer, until you find something that works.

good luck

 

Blog commenting, forum posting, classified ads, , article writing , joining social networking and bookmarking sites like twitter , eZdia etc from where you may get some good visitors who may stay at your site and I also agree with HomeComputerGames , the people coming to your site for what they want and then leave . Its a good sign that people getting the fast service from your site and thus more and more people will like to come.

 

depends what niche your site is, there is differant methods depending on differant niches but.. tactics which work with most sites are social media e.g delelicous, stumble, digg, reddit etc.. you can also comment on related blogs, decent comments will get accepted and get you links. search engine traffic is the best free way of promoting a website

 

thats why you have to market everyday...

you can't market a few times and think

more traffic will magically appear. I haven;t

seen your website but one way to get people

to come back is by having your own list of

subscribers.