In addition to web pages, search engines catalog other content as well. Many of these are useful for expanding your presence on the Internet and getting additional links and search engine listings.

Discussion Forums. There are thousands of discussion forums on the Net these days. Nearly every interest, hobby, sport, or area of expertise has its own discussion forum where members post messages on various topics and reply to postings from others.

When you join a forum, it’s recommended that you don’t start posting right away. Read through the various postings, learn the culture of the forum (they are all different) and then make a few simple postings. Remember, the purpose of posting on the forum is not only to learn from others, but to market your site. Use great care that you don’t become controversial or become ostracized because of your views.

To gain marketing exposure for your website, be sure to add your website’s address to the signature line of your profile. That way, other members of the forum can learn more about you and you can expand your marketing reach for free.
Blogs and Blogging. Blogging is a very effective way to get inbound links by writing commentary about your industry, business in general, products or services. When blogging, be sure that you don’t become controversial. You want to share your expertise and opinions without being perceived as a spammer. Again, you want to build goodwill and use the blog as a marketing tool, not as your personal platform for getting things off your chest. A well-conceived blog can improve your rankings in the search engines. When blogging, be sure to weave your keywords into the text of your entry. Search engines will catalog your blog based on your keywords, just like your web pages.

Community pages. Sites like myspace.com and friendster.com are other good places to increase your marketing exposure. Setting up a page there is free and you can add your URL to the site along with information about your business, products and services. These pages are cataloged by the search engines and give you another link back to your main website. Be sure to use your keywords on your page.

They take a bit of work to set up but the more content you add to the site, the better it will work for you from a marketing standpoint. And once it’s set up, you don’t have to monitor it very often. It takes care of itself as others visit your page and create links back to it.