Web Advertising Help

[DormAdvisor]

Hey everyone, I am the owner of a website which allows college students rate their previous dorms which will help future students make a better decision when they have to choose their college dorms. However, I need all the help I can get when it comes to getting the word out. Should I rely completely on Google Adwords, or do you guys know of some other sort of advertisement? Thanks for your help :)

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Is this a nation wide thing meaning will students be rating all dorms across the nation at different schools and what not?

[Mr. Bubble]

yeah... is this project only for one school, or schools accross a small area? If it is then it's no use advertising around the world. I think you'd be better of posting flyers or something.

[ess]

Looking at the website...looks like it is a US nation wide project.

As for advertising...here is what i would do.
1- submit your website to Google (http://www.google.com/addurl/), MSN (http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm), Yahoo(http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html), and all other search engines
2- provide a way for people to link to your website (perhaps by creating a small icon that people can add to their websites).
3- subscribe to google webmaster tools...which would improve search engine crawling etc.(https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools)
4- contact colleges, universities to see if they would agree to linking your website etc.

after doing the above, I would then consider paid advertising with Google or other search engines.

good luck
Ess

[DormAdvisor]

Thanks so much, that sounds like great advice