Last week we talked about getting your own home page for your business, this is step number one, and hopefully everyone has started doing that or at least started thinking about it.

The next step is to promote your website. Everyone knows about banner and search engine ads, but these cost money that doesn’t need to be spent. There are tons of ways to promote your website and your business. The two we are going to talk about today are offline promotions directing people online and internet yellow pages.

Offline promotions are the easiest of the three so we’ll discuss them first. I think one of the best ways to get people on your website is to put them on it, as in pictures. If you take pictures of peoples tats and host them on your website and let them know they can find them there, they will without fail visit your website. (A good way to let people know and help them remember this service is with flyers, they are super cheap and easy to make. Here is a tutorial for making flyers on Microsoft Word.) This is especially true for your younger clientele who are always trying to collect pictures of themselves for their MySpace profile. To do this, get a simple digital camera (the cheapest one you can get will work just fine) and, take pictures of people’s Tats. If you understand how to use photo editing software, add a watermark of your business name and website to the bottom corner of each picture, if you don’t, don’t worry about it.  Upload these pictures using the software that came with your camera to your computer, and then host them on a free photo hosting site, such as Flickr. Create a link from your home page to your Flickr page, and now people can get their pictures, but they have to go through your site to do so. This will increase click through and will help rank you higher on search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Additionally, it will introduce people to the idea of booking you for their own events, increasing your business.

The next topic, is completely free and easy. Online Yellow Pages are quickly replacing the old paper bricks of old, especially for those between the ages of 10 and 30. If you are not listed on these sites, to many you simply do not exist. This is also a chance to direct people who aren’t ready to call and book to visit your website and learn more. Fortunately this is not only free but also rather simple.

First, visit open this link in a new window. Fill in your phone number in the space provided and click search. The next page will prompt you to fill in business name and address. Don’t check the boxes below zip code you want as much information displayed as possible. Click on the continue button. Next you will need to pick categories. In the first column pick a broad category and then a less broad one, then a specific one. The categories I suggest are below:

Entertainment & Arts: Entertainment: Entertainers Family and Business

Entertainment & Arts: Entertainment: Adult Entertainment

Entertainment & Arts: Arts and Crafts: Artists-Commercial

Entertainment & Arts: Parties: Party Supplies-renting

Entertainment & Arts: Parties: Party Planning – Entertainment

Select these categories and then click continue. The next page is the more info page. Here is where you’ll fill in a head line, your website url, your business email, a toll free number if you have one, a fax number if you have one, and an additional phone number to the one you already entered on the first page. You’ll also put what languages you speak, The year your business started, your hours of operation, what kind of payments you accept, general information about your business and any affiliations you want to list (like tatstore.com). Fill in as much of this information as you possibly can because the more you write, the more likely the yellow pages search engine is to find you. When finished enter the access code in the box provided and click create listing.

Next you will need to fill out a member form which includes the basics, just fill it out and click register. Now your listing is done, it will be reviewed and then listed within 30 days. You can find more free phonebook listings by simply Googling yellow pages or online phone book, most are free to list.

That’s all for today, tune in next week for a little about ditty about YouTube marketing!