How do I get to advertise my website for free?

[indigo]

SEO is the most effective way to advertise your website. Also the most time consuming. There's a book called Search Engine Optimization An Hour A Day that I would suggest you read before/during optimizing your website. I found it has a lot of good information on how to actually do SEO.

Craigslist is another option but you probably won't get much traffic unless it's a popular product or service your provide and even then no guarantees.

Social Networking sites like Twitter, Facebook & MySpace are good ways to get information about your website out to the masses. I've found Twitter to be an extremely good traffic source. Facebook & MySpace are almost like a funnel as they will bring you more qualified leads because the visitors already have information about your services/products/information. One thing many people & businesses do that make a mess of Social Media Marketing is they only use it when they have something to promote and then drop it until needed again. Here's the problem with that...many people that "like" or "follow" you will only do so when you are providing them information. If you stop tweeting or posting on your social network of choice, they stop "liking" and "following" so be aware of that.

Many sites will offer you credit for using their specific advertising service. It gives you the opportunity to use these traffic sources and find out which works best for you if you are interested in PPC advertising. Google usually has somewhere between $25-$100 depending where you get the credit. Facebook I think has $25 offers. MySpace I've seen up to $60 and Yahoo right now I believe is offering $35. You can try using these credits to advertise and find out where your greatest amount of traffic is coming from (also done with analytics) and hey it's free money to advertise. You do need a credit card or bank account to open these and they will start charging you after you have gone through the credit so watch your account and set daily limits. In my opinion, search engines provide the greatest source of leads. I like Google & Yahoo (greatest market share).