Question: Any tricks to promoting a non-profit website?

My website is a non-profit site. Anything different about promoting it?

Answer

Anything a for-profit website can do regarding website promotion, a non-profit website can do, and often do it less expensively. Even better, there are some options available to you which are not available to for-profit sites.


Zeal
Update: Sadly, Zeal has now disappeared. This part of the answer remains only in memory of a great resource for non-profits
Take a moment to visit zeal.com. This is the non-profit arm of the looksmart directory. As of the writing of this article, zeal provides search results to: Lycos, InfoSpace, RoadRunner, CNET, Inktomi, and LookSmart. If you can get in zeal, you've automatically added yourself to all those search systems. But you can only do it if you're non-profit.

I just submitted a site to zeal, and discovered that their submission process is actually less user friendly than it used to be; I suspect that was done deliberately to scare away people who were spamming the directory with for-profit, or low-quality resources. But if you've got a high quality, non-profit website, it's definitely worthwhile to submit it at zeal.

Yahoo!
Although Yahoo does charge ridiculously absurd prices for inclusion in their directory, non-profits can get in for free. Just go to their site and click the "Add a site" link.

There are a couple things you should know about Yahoo free submission, though.

• It may take them until the cows come home to review your site.


• If they don't accept it, they probably won't bother letting you know, or explaining why


• Their editorial process is extremely spotty; there are some absolutely horrendous, low-quality resources in there, while some well designed, easily navigated websites get refused. (Can you hear the bitterness? )

But, putting all that aside, if you can get in, you've really helped out your organization.

Finally, if you're looking to hire someone to help you with website promotion, and you are a non-profit organization, you may be eligible for some discounts from Virtu Software. Click the image below for web promotion pricing.