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To make your website popular, and to get your hits up there, you need a reason for people to come back often.

There are many ways to do this, but it all boils down to either updating your website so people come back often to see what's new, or having something to keep them on your site.

On my site, I post new articles that I write. You can do this, or post article from free article sites (See my article "Free Article Sites, A Win-Win Proposition" at www.creativecauldron.com/articlewebArticleSites.shtml).

Another way to have people come to your site often is with free, but useful, items that will save visitors time, inform or entertain them.

All of the products I'm going to talk about are free, but nothing is really free. These products will usually have some kind of advertisement. Of course, most of them will give you an advertisement free product, for a fee. Just something to keep in mind when you're choosing what to include on your site.

Website polls are a good way to get people involved with your site, and who doesn't want to express their opinion? These products let you list any question, and a selection of answers. Some will also post a running total of responses, which I think is pretty cool since you don't have to do anything.

• Micropoll - www.micropoll.com
• Basic Poll - //basicpoll.com
• Polls 4 Free - //polls4free.com
• Website Goodies - www.websitegoodies.com/tools/polls.php
• Site Gadgets - www.sitegadgets.com

Spruce up your visitors day with a picture of the day. It's a good way to have people check your site daily.

• Site Gadgets - www.sitegadgets.com

Keep your visitors informed with headlines and news feeds. So many people go to CNN and other news sites for instant information; why not have them go to your site for the same thing? It could bring them to your site several times a day, especially is something big is going on in the news.

• Individual - www.individual.com
• Bravenet - www.bravenet.com
• Site Gadgets - www.sitegadgets.com

Everyone is going crazy over blogs. I've only listed one, but your hosting company probably offers a free one if you don't like Blogger. This could easily get people to come to your site several times a day, and stay there for some time.

• Blogger - www.blogger.com

Let your visitors send greeting cards and postcards. They'll think of you first when they want to send good wishes to the people in their lives.

• Electronic Greetings - www.electronic-greetings.com
• Site Gadgets - www.sitegadgets.com

If you have events you want to list on your site, you can use this calendar. It can also be set up so that visitors can add their own events. This will increase your visitors as people come to your site to get information on upcoming events. I have a friend who has a community site in Flagstaff, Arizona where he lists local's links for free and has a calendar. He gets over 1,000,000 hits a month.

• Localendar - www.localendar.com

Make your site easier to use by installing a search feature that can find any word or words on your site. People will use a site search engine before anything else you have on your site to find things, including page links.

• Google Toolbar - www.google.clink to googleom (It includes a popup blocker.)
• Bravenet - www.bravenet.com
• Check with your hosting company as they may offer a search engine too.

Last, but not least, add games to your site. Who doesn't like to unwind with a good game?

• Crazy Monkey - www.crazymonkeygames.com/rotator.php

Keep your visitors happy and coming back for more with these fun and helpful additions to your site. Remember, the best way to get people to visit your site often is to make it useful and easy to navigate.