Letting the World Know That You re Ready for Visitors

Letting the World Know That You're Ready for Visitors

Pass the bubbly! Your Web site has joined the Internet community, and you can now call yourself a true-blue Web publisher. Using your Web browser, visit your live Web site at its new URL and, just to be safe, give the site one last check. (Don't forget to test those hyperlinks.) If all is well, heave a sigh of relief and enjoy a moment of satisfaction.

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You may even want to line up a group of sympathetic testers who use different types of computers and browsers and ask them to give your site a run-through. Even if everything works perfectly when viewed with your computer and browser, a glitch can pop up when your site is viewed on a different platform, especially for designs built with complex CSS styles. Now that your site is live, look at it with every browser you can get your hands on, and bug your friends who have Macs or use other browsers to take a look.

If something doesn't work properly, fix the problem on the local copy of your Web site-the copy stored on your computer-and publish your Web site again. (We show you how later in this chapter, in the "Keeping Your Web Site Fresh" section.)

Now that your Web site is open to the public, you need to let everyone know that you're accepting visitors. If you want your site to benefit from publicity, the following list gives some suggestions on how you can promote your site:

• Search services: List your site with popular search services, such as Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com) and Google (http://www.google.com). Each search service posts listing instructions on its Web site. Even if you don't actively list your site, many search engines use automated programs (called such creepy names as spiders, webcrawlers, or bots) to index the Web automatically, but doing a little legwork on your own never hurts.

• E-mail signature: Include your Web site address in the signature line of your e-mail messages. Most e-mail programs enable you to append a few lines of text to the bottom of every message.

• Newsgroups and blogs: Post discreet announcements to newsgroups and as comments in blogs related to your topic. Keep your announcement low key and respectful. If you blanket a newsgroup or a blog with advertising hype, not only do you irk the other participants (and invite bad word-of-mouth), but your publicity campaign will also probably backfire.

• Traditional print advertising: Add your Web site address to business cards, letterhead, and print advertising.

• Word-of-mouth: Your best bet is to invite your friends and colleagues (especially those who blog) to visit your Web site and, if appropriate, provide a link to your site from their Web sites and blogs. And, of course, talk it up on your blog if you have one. Word-of-mouth is a powerful and effective way to spread the word.

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Check out Web Marketing For Dummies, by Jan Zimmerman (Wiley), for more ideas on how to maximize your World Wide Web presence.