How To Promote A Website

I received an email from a user who wanted to know the best ways to help promote his website and videos, how to go about getting sponsors, and what are the best mediums to use to distribute all of content that is created by the website. Well, this is an excellent question, but the best way to answer it is to break it down.

1. The best way to promote a website and any videos you make is to upload your videos to services such as YouTube, Revver, and Metacafe. Of course, there are others out there which are good as well. I currently use YouTube and Revver myself. In your videos make sure you seem enthusiastic about doing them, no one wants to watch someone who doesn’t look happy or into what they are doing. Be interesting and know what you’re talking about so people will trust your information. I would also recommend that you create a central location for everyone to come to after they watch the videos on these sites such as YouTube and Revver – put the link to it in the show notes and plug it in the video itself. If possible, put the link in a text format embedded within the actual video too. You should definitely buy a domain name if you’re going to be serious about this for a number of reasons. It looks more professional and it’s easier to remember, the same goes for when you’re looking to host your domain.

2. How do you go about getting sponsors? Another excellent question. Well, the best way to do that is first establish yourself and your website – it will give you a better leg to stand on when you approach the people and/or companies you’re looking to sponsor you. Once you’re established you can essentially say “I bring in so and so amount of traffic and have X amount of subscribers to my YouTube channel, etc…” which looks really good, because it gives the company a reason to want to sponsor you, especially if you review their products and give it a good review thus perhaps selling the product to someone.

3. What mediums should you use to help build up your audience and distribute the content I create for my website? Check out ustream.tv and start a live stream there, ustream has created a nice community that is constantly growing and it will give you an excellent starting point. Also, use ustream to record your videos – it allows you to make it more interactive as well as fun because people can watch you record them live. Once again, you’re going to want to upload them to the various video websites such as Revver and YouTube, but don’t stop there, create a blog and post all of your videos to it so you have a place for all of your content. Setup an RSS feed on the blog so people can subscribe to your blog and be notified when it updates. I would also recommend that you start forums – people love forums and they can generate excellent content.

I hope that helps Paul and anyone else who is looking for ways to promote their website.

What do you do to promote your website and videos? Leave a comment!