Create Repeat Visitors With Your Own Portal Site
By Kim Thomas

With the vast array if information and knowledge available
on the web, it can become overwhelming and frustrating to
find information on a specific subject quickly and
efficiently. Search engine results may not always be
relevant and most people do not have the time to randomly
surf the internet to find what they are looking for. Portal
sites were developed to overcome these issues.

Portal sites focus on one subject or theme. They contain a
wide variety of information and content on one specific
subject. Portal sites allow internet users to access
everything they are looking for on a particular subject,
all on one page.

It is very easy to build your own portal site for free.
Your portal site should include the following;

1. Content - Whether you are selling a product or
providing a service, you should always provide your
visitors with your own content. Describe the benefits of
the product or service you are offering and tell your
visitors why you are endorsing it. Is your product or
service going to make them more money? Will it allow them
to have more free time? Visitors want how your product or
service is going to benefit them right away..so tell them!

2. News - Provide headline news that pertains to the
subject of your portal site. You don't want your visitors
to have to leave your site to find up-to-date news about
your specific area of interest. Provide it for them. The
following three services provide news feeds that you can
display on your page for free. You just copy and paste some
code to your page.

iEntry -
http://www.ientry.com/page/content/wpw_headlines.html
Easily add all the top headlines from today's Internet and
Business News. Customize with your logo.

News Headlines From MBS Internet Resource Center -
http://www.mbsinternet.com/headlines.htm
News and article headline feeds in the areas of Internet
News, Web Design and Web Marketing. Simply add a few lines
of Javascript into your page for auto-updating content.

Big News Network -
http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/
Free news headlines for your website in a variety of
categories.


3. Message Boards - Allow your visitors to communicate with
each other about their shared area of interest. Encourage
conversation. Ask people to talk about their experiences
and what has worked for them. There are a lot of free
message board services available on the internet. Here are
two examples;

Boards2Go -
http://www.boards2go.com
Customize the board to the look and feel of your site.
Holds 300 posts, users can search the board, bad word
filtering, email notification of replies and more.

Dream Tools -
http://www.dream-tools.com
Create multiple message boards. Adjustable colors for
text, tables, and background to fully replicate your web
site style. Sort messages by Thread or Date and more.


4. Reciprocal Links - Exchange links with websites that
have a similar subject matter. Offer your visitors a wide
variety of information and resources from other sites. In
exchange, you will also receive traffic from the link back
to your site. You can find quality sites to exchange links
with at;

Link Partners -
http://www.linkpartners.com

Link Exchange Database -
http://www.iwr.com/free/links.htm


5. Newsletter - Start your own newsletter. A newsletter has
many advantages. At the very least, your newsletter will
remind your subscribers to visit your portal site again. It
is also a great way to keep your visitors informed of any
additions to your website, you can announce a new product
or service, write informative articles about your subject
area and encourage feedback. Here are two places where you
can host your own newsletter for free;

Topica - http://www.topica.com

Yahoo Groups - http://groups.yahoo.com

There are many free services available on the internet to
help you build your own portal site for free. Keep your
visitors coming back to your portal site by providing
quality content and information focussing on one theme.
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Kim Thomas is the owner of Advertising Exposure
News at http://www.adexposurenews.com
Get high quality internet advertising resources at low
prices.