Recommend Your Website to Reviewers

A positive review of your website can lead to:

an enormous (but brief) surge in online visitors
a linking "ripple effect" (because many journalists and bloggers browse website reviews to find interesting stories to share with their readers)

The Most Influential Website Reviewers

At minimum, recommend your website to the most influential website reviewers:

Yahoo Picks: http://picks.yahoo.com/picks/
FORBES Best of the Web: http://forbes.com/bow/
Webby Awards: http://webbyawards.com
Cool Site of the Day: http://coolsiteoftheday.com
USA Today's Around the Net : http://blogs.usatoday.com/techspace/around_the_net

Niche Website Reviewers

With additional time, pursue Tier 2 website reviews, such as:

FamilyFirst Picks: http://familyfirst.com/
Education World's Site Reviews: http://education-world.com/awards/
Child & Family WebGuide from Tufts University: http://cfw.tufts.edu/submit_site.asp
Exploratorium's Web Picks: http://exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/sciencesites.HTML
Guardian Web Watch: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/webwatch/
Berit's Best Sites for Children: http://beritsbest.com/
Surfing the Net With Kids: http://surfnetkids.com/reader/submit-review.php
About.com's Parents Best Web Sites: http://childparenting.about.com/od/parentswebsites/
Best of History Websites: http://besthistorysites.net/
Classroom Earth Best of the Web: http://classroomearth.org/best_of_web/

Many Tier 2 reviewers focus on niche topics such as science or education. DMOZ provides good lists of:

Website reviewers: http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/
On_the_Web/Best_of_the_Web/Reviews/
Website awards: http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/
On_the_Web/Best_of_the_Web/Site_Awards.

URLWire

URLWire, run by linking expert Eric Ward, can be a good option if you want a specialist promoter to act on your behalf to attract the interest of website reviewers.

As an example, the Dr. Mani Children's Heart Foundation used URLWire right before Valentines' Day to raise awareness of Congenital Heart Defects so that these life-threatening defects get recognized and treated before it’s too late: http://urlwire.com/news/021307b.HTML

URLWire offers two service levels: basic and advanced (http://urlwire.com/payment.HTML). At $695, the "Advanced Site Announcement" option includes basic postings plus distribution of your announcement to 300-400 journalists and bloggers that report on websites like yours.

On the other hand, for about the same cost, you could use a traditional newswire service, such as PRNewswire or BusinessWire, to announce your website to a less targeted, but national audience of reporters.

Insert Inbound Links Into Educational
Material Published at Web Guides

Post, Tag, and Bookmark
at Social Media Websites