You're not online to remain anonymous – at least not if you want to make money. So here are 5 ways to get yourself and your website noticed in the new year:
1. Make YouTube Videos. Sure this isn't new, but let me ask you a question: Have you done it yet? Making a great YouTube video – or better yet, making several – can get you noticed by both customers and fellow marketers in your niche. Videos make you look like the authority in your topic, can drive traffic to your website, and might even initiate contact with fellow marketers that results in cross-promotions and joint ventures.
So go ahead and make videos. And you don't have be get on camera, although that's always a great alternative. Regardless of how you make your videos, they've got to impart great information or be entertaining, or better yet – both.
2. Start a controversy. We're all horribly shocked and saddened by the recent shooting of 26 people at a grade school, including 20 children. But one small time U.S. politician recently got air time on major television networks for saying teachers should be armed. Obviously it was a controversial stand, which is why he was interviewed non-stop for days.
I'm not recommending you use a tragedy to further your business – leave that to the politicians. What I am saying is that being controversial or stirring up a controversy can indeed yield you free publicity. Just look at movies and books that people thought should be banned - they make a lot more money because a certain faction of people don't like them.
Being controversial clearly aligns you with people who think as you do. They'll be your avid supporters. And since you can't cater to everyone anyway, why not take a definitive stand in your niche and carve out what you do stand for? Which brings us to point #3:
3. Stand for something, and whatever you stand for, clearly state it as plain as day. When someone comes to your website for the first time, they want to know why your website is there and what it stands for. Don't keep them wondering. Craft a mission statement and then place that statement in your header for all to see.
4. Use celebrities to promote you, your content or your website. You might go to the leaders in your niche and piggyback on their celebrity with interviews and endorsements. Or you might hire an actual celebrity to be your spokesperson. And there are more covert methods to using celebrity as well. For example, find celebrities who are intensely interested in your topic and then tweet them with current news, facts, links, etc., that are likely to interest them. Just one re-tweet from them can mean thousands of page views for you.
5. Use a press release service. Not only can this get you some publicity, it can also create backlinks for you all over the web, effectively notifying the search engines that you are in fact for real.