Why do i need marketing ?
The old cliché "content is king" thrown around a lot on the web, but is content really king ?
For example, I could be the greatest web designer in the world, or could have the greatest tutorial site in the world, but what's the use if nobody knows of my existence ? This is precisely why its important to market your site and yourself.
Marketing is king ?
One could argue that internet marketing is more important than content. After all it is possible to have a successful site with lots of visitors with little/useless content and lots of marketing. Example: domain squatters make lots of money by cheaply registering expired domain names and domain names similar to already existing popular domain names, and then putting up one of those spammy pay per click search engines to get money from people accidentally visiting the site.
But this type of 'hollow' success, the kind achieved by being a sleazebag in not what most people want and is often very short-lived. Providing legitimate content/products/services (and balancing this with good marketing) is usually much better in the long term.
Marketing Ideas.
Search Engines: Google, Inktomi and other popular search engines are so good these days that you don't even need waste your time submitting your site. Just make sure that you get lots of links from other sites, this way search engines will automatically find your sites the next time they crawl the internet. The links will also help you rank higher in search engines, for example in google this will increase your pagerank. (see Pagerank Misconceptions Article)
Link Exchanges: Link Exchanges can be mutually beneficial both sites involved, or they can help one site more than the other. Usually its a good idea to wait till your site has built up a good amount of content and visitors before you start looking for affiliates. Usually this means that higher quality more popular sites will want to affiliate with you.
Advertising: If you have a site selling a product/service then you should seriously consider buying advertisements. (An overview of the different types of advertising)
Directories: It doesn't hurt to submit to directories so be sure to submit to directories that cover a broad range of subjects and also to those covering narrower areas.
Forums: Forums aren't the most efficient way to market a site but if you are selling a product and especially if you are selling a service, they are a good way to build up a very important thing called 'trust'. Also some forums like the Tutorio.com Forums are spidered by search engines such as google and including a link to your site in the signature will help your ranking (one link may not do you much good but imagine having hundreds of posts with a signature link in each one). Also its worth noting that lurking around forums without posting is of very little value when it comes to marketing.
Extension
This article is just an introduction to the basic fundamentals of internet marketing. There are lots of other techniques a lot of which are specific to the type of site you are building and what your site is about. Its a good idea to do some research before starting up a new site.
