Here's a simple list of easy to do items that can over time greatly increase your website's visibility and “stickiness”.

Include a signature file on all the e-mails you send out. Provide your business name, phone number, e-mail and web address, etc. Also include a brief blurb for your business or the product you're selling. For example, you could say, "Washes Your Car In Less Than Three Minutes!" Also make a simplified signature file to put at the end of your forum posts (via the user profile). The advantage to the forum signature is that typically if you change the details (such as an affiliate program or new website URL), they'll be updated on all your old posts as well as new ones.

Save time and money by using ad submitters. You will reach a larger part of your target audience far more quickly than by manually submitting your ad. You should manually submit your ad to the most popular web sites so you have a better chance of being listed or placed in a good position.

Participate in chat rooms related to the product you're selling/reselling. Start a conversation with a person without trying to sell to him or her. If it's a forum, try to answer questions relating to your product or field, which builds credibility and trust. Later on, while you are chatting, mention the product you're selling or reselling. You could end up selling your product, creating a friendship or finding a joint venture partner.

Create a free e-book with the advertisement and link of your affiliate or product web site. The subject of the free e-book should draw your target audience to download it. Also submit it to some e-book directories. The more exposure your free e-book gets, the more your ad will be seen. Put rights inside that allow users to freely share it with others; think of the popularity of file-sharing.

Perhaps you even want to put the ebook on file-sharing networks such as Kazaa or eDonkey. If you do the latter, make sure the title has some keywords that people are likely to search for (or create multiple copies with different titles to increase the chance of your e-book showing up in their search results). File sharing (or P2P) is popular enough that using it could be a great way for your e-book to “go viral”.

Make it easy for your web site visitors to print out your content. They may browse around your online store while it's printing. They may read it at home, work, outside, etc. Other people might see what they’re reading and want to visit your web site or subscribe to your e-zine. Find scripts or html code online to add “Printer-friendly version” links to the content you want printed, so visitors don't waste ink printing out banner ads or only printing 3 / 4 of the page due to navigation bars on the sides of the page. If you don't know html, hire someone to do it, preferably a high-schooler who'll do it for five or ten dollars an hour (it only takes a few minutes...unless you have hundreds of pages!).

The more user-friendly your site is, the more likely your visitors are to return, as long as you update your content frequently or offer new products or services regularly.

Jonathan Yarbrough
www.avalanchemarketing.info