If you are self employed, this article is for you. Whether you provide a service or have your own store, you know you need to make yourself known to potential customers. A good question is how to do it. You may not have much money to invest in publicity. Also, not all forms of publicity are the right choice for all businesses. The right publicity for you depends on the characteristics of your business. In this article we will discuss how you can leverage the web to attract customers to your business.

The first thing you need to get is your own website. It can be a simple website, simply telling visitors what you are doing and allowing them to contact you, either by email, phone, or by filling out a form. Your site should have a good design according to your work, because it will give users the first impression of your business. You can contact a web designer to develop your site. If you’re doing it yourself, pay attention to the styles, colors, and layouts you use. Some hints:

neat pages look better than crowded pages

use color to highlight phrases or areas that you want users to pay special attention to

site navigation (menu) must be easy to understand and use by all visitors

keep in mind that people use different browsers, and if possible, view your site with two or three browsers to check how it looks.

design your site to be search engine friendly. You need search engines to drive traffic to your site, so you need them in order to index it.

Once you have a website, it becomes the Internet branch of your business. That’s the beginning of your Internet presence. Now you need to list it in search engines and directories for users to find it. You’ll find global directories likeand there may also be industry-specific directories where you can list your business. Search directories on major search engines and list your site in as many directories as possible. Inclusion in several search engines and directories is paid, then it is up to you to decide whether or not it would be a good idea to pay for it. It depends on your business, whether your market is very competitive or not, and of course it depends on whether you can afford it or not.

The next step is to generate backlinks to your site. That means getting other sites to link to yours. This helps your site get a better page rank in search engines, and also exposes your site to more people. In certain cases, a link exchange program can help. You have created some backlinks by adding your site to search engines and directories. Now, you have another way to add more backlinks:

write articles about your area of ​​expertise and post them in article directories, including your business url and a brief but tantalizing explanation of what you do in the resource box.

post on forums related to your area of ​​expertise, trying to help others so people see you know what you’re doing. Include your url in your signature. Don’t spam the forums, it won’t look good at all. Only post if you really want to say something.

Another way to promote your business is to offer a newsletter on your website. This way you send an email containing interesting and useful information to your subscribers, once a week, or once a month, for example. If they really like it, they will refer others to it thereby making your customer base grow.

You can also promote your business every time you send an email. Just add your url in your signature. This way, everyone you email will also have a link to your website.