Internet marketers, at least some of the smart ones, have always seemed to be able to come up with clever ways to promote their websites.

One way to promote your service or product is to create an online application or website that does something interesting or provides some value or entertainment for visitors.

Everyone likes a clever commercial.

Well, doing something interesting can be your clever commercial and a good way to establish some goodwill with potential clients.

An example of building an app that does something very simple for people while also getting the word out about a company is DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com.

Every once in a while, you visit a site that won’t load and you try to reload and reload with no success. At downloadforeveryone, you type in the website in question to see if the site is down for everyone or just for you.

Below the search query, there is a link to Site5 Web Hosting, a small company, with a message that reads:

“We Guarantee Our Uptime! Switch to Site5 Web Hosting!”

It’s a very simple thing that can be useful in some instances, and it is a clever and simple thing for a company to do. People using the tool may not necessarily be thinking about hosting a website, but they are interested in checking downtime of sites they’re interested in (ie facebook, twitter, and other social networking sites).

Still, when these same people (who may easily become regular users of the simple tool) decide they want to buy hosting for a website, they may decide to purchase a plan from this company.

This is a good example of a company providing a free tool (content) in order to gain awareness, provide value, and establish goodwill with potential future paying customers.