Digg It | del.icio.us | Reddit

There are many options available for free website promotion that you can take advantage of to make your portfolio website a success.

Search engines
Search is the number one way people find information online, and it is your best source of free website promotion. If you want to get visitors to your site, you need to be listed in all the major search engines - Yahoo, MSN, and Google are the top three. Each of these search engines allows you to submit your site to their search indexes. When your site is complete, visit each of the major search engines and submit your site to them. Make sure your site is free of errors and broken links BEFORE you submit to the search engines! Manually submitting your site is not the only way to get listed. Having links from other related, high quality websites will help you get listed quickly.

Online directories
Submit your site to as many quality art-related directories as you can find. There are many free artist directories on the web, as well as some that require payment. A small fee (under $20) is a reasonable price for a decent for-pay directory. But do some research first to make sure the site actually gets traffic before you pay. Otherwise, your investment would be better spent on advertising. Submit your site to every free artist directory and art website directory you can find.

Online art galleries
Posting your work to an online art gallery like Epilogue is another great way to get free website promotion. Well established online art galleries usually rank well in the search engines and generate a large amount of traffic - more traffic than a single artist’s website is likely to ever get. Take advantage of them and post your work often. Get involved in the community, post comments to other people’s work, and spend some time in the forums. Many professional artists do not join art communities because they feel it will make them too accessible or will water down their image. This is far from the truth and works against successful online promotion campaigns. Basic marketing says that the more your product is seen, the more chance it has to sell. In this case, your artwork is the product. Don’t be an island! Post your work often and stay involved. You don’t have to post your entire portfolio. Select representative pieces and update them from time to time. Use new works as an incentive to get people to visit your own website.

An added benefit of having a link to your site from an established, authoritative online art gallery tells the search engines your site has a certain amount of value compared to other sites. That value adds in to the equation that determines where your site shows up in the search results.

Forums
Do you frequent any online art forums? Add your web address to your forum signature, and voila! You just discovered a new source of free website promotion and made an easy way for people to visit your site. The more often you post, the more chances of someone clicking through to your website. Be sure to read the forum guidelines, as some communities do not allow you to post any URL in your signature (because of spamming).

Contests and Competitions
Art contests and competitions can be a great avenue for free website promotion. If you get involved and do well in contests, not only will you get free promotion, you will have more awards and accomplishments to list on your resume.