Once you’ve developed your membership site, it’s time to advertise it. If you don’t advertise, you’re going to have a hard time getting members because they won’t just happen upon your site. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to do this – many for free, and some for fairly cheap.

Let’s take a look at the advertising methods that are free to implement. These include using a signature file, biographies, contributions to article directories, and ezine promotions. All of these are easy to do.

A signature file is typically a short statement that is attached to the end of emails and in forum posts. A signature file gives information about your website(s) including links, so that interested people can visit your site and learn more about gaining membership.

Anytime you send an email out that’s related to the niche of your membership site (or make a post in a forum that’s relevant), make sure it has a signature file. For unrelated emails, you can also include a link to your new membership site – simply have your signature file say something like this:

John. A Doe, ABC Marketing Enterprises, domainname.com, other contact information.
Interested in XYZ123? Take a look at the new XYZ123 site!

Something similar to a signature file is a bio box that’s attached to the end of an article. Your bio box provides a bit of information about you, your expertise, and links to your website(s). These can be instrumental in bringing traffic your way.

Making contributions to article directories is an excellent way to get people to notice you and incite interest in your membership site. When you contribute well-written articles that offer value to your readers, they’ll learn to look to you as a respected expert.

This gives you a name in the business and puts some power behind the links in the biography that you include with your articles. Your reputation as an expert is going to encourage people to check out your membership site.

Another great way to advertise your membership site is through ezine promotions. You can either start your own ezine or online newsletter, or you can become a contributor to another marketer’s ezine. Either way, this gives you a perfect opportunity to remind readers that you have a membership site that they would like to explore.

Part of free advertising is offering an incentive for trying your membership site to everyone who makes his or her way to you. This could be a free sample, discounts, coupons or a sale price. Don’t forget this step, because it’s going to be instrumental in creating interest.

One way to advertise your site that does cost money, but that can be well worth your investment is PPC (pay-per-click) advertising. PPC gives you a perfect way to place enticing advertisements in places where your target audience will be looking for information.

You can set your own advertising budget with PPC, and you have complete control. While it’s important to learn to use PPC correctly, once you do that, it can be a great tool for bringing more traffic to your membership site.

Your membership site won’t advertise itself. You have to get out there and put some effort into this step. Fortunately, for your investment of time, energy and a possibly a bit of money, you’ll find that your traffic is increased as is your membership enrollment!

You can pull in more traffic by using advertising promotions that ignite interest and really get the future member excited about the possibility of signing up for your membership site. And assuming you’ve created a great site, once you get them to try it out, they’ll be so pleased they’ll want to stay.

Special deals that will help spark curiosity and interest can include advertising promotions such as giving your new member a month for free, or the first month for a deep discount.

You can offer coupons to your potential members through the doors. These coupons could be for access to something that only a coupon holder can get. This could be a special piece of software, or an instructional video that gives detailed information that cannot be found elsewhere on your site.

Giving free previews to some of you best content is also a good way to pull in more traffic. Offer up a section of a report or eBook, or an audio report that explains an important, yet little-understood concept, method or solution, as a preview to what your members can expect when they join.

Free samples are a fun way to encourage interest in your site, and work much like a preview would. The difference is that a preview will only give a piece of the puzzle and serve to make the prospect curious and interested enough to join up.

A free sample is giving prospects something that they can use as it is – this could be an informative article, or a video that illustrates how to do something. People love to get something of value for free, so you can always count on a free offer to bring in the traffic.

Remember to use sales and discounts as part of your promotions arsenal. You know how happy it makes you to discover that your favorite store is having a sale. This works for membership sites, too. Offer sales on memberships, such as two for the price of one (that could be two members for the price of one, or two months for the price of one, and so forth).

You can also offer discounts on the membership fee. With discounts, you can give your new members the first month at a ridiculously low price. By the time the month is up, they’ll be hooked, provided your membership site is top-notch!

Or you can offer the first few months at a moderate discount and then go to the regular membership price after that. Again, by the time the discount period has expired, they’ll love your membership site and be willing to pay the higher price to stay with it.

Never underestimate the value of promotions to bring more traffic your way. People love to get a deal – especially on something that they just know is going to make some sort of positive difference in their life.