5 Simple Ways To Promote

5 Simple Ways To Promote

by: Larry Johnson

Learning to promote your business online is one of the most important steps in being successful.

Otherwise your site may as well be in some dark closet, because no one is going to stumble over it.

Here are 5 simple ways to promote your site and gain some needed traffic for your business.

AUTOMATE IT

As much as possible you should automate your promotion efforts. One of the easiest and quickest ways to do this is the use of autoresponders.

There are many paid ones available and they okay for the most part. Personally, I like to use a fr*ee one you can find here: http://www.freeautobot.com

It comes without any types of ads, and I have found it to be very dependable and useful.

SWAP ADS

There are always those online who are willing to swap ads, bannners or links in order to gain some additional fr*ee exposure.

Search for them in your email messages and in a variety of directories related to your type of business.

For example, here is one that is not fr*ee, but it is wellestablished as a great resource for locating reputable ezines in which to advertise:

http://www.directoryofezines.com/

JOINT VENTURES

Directories can also provide a wealth of contacts for potential Joint Ventures.

For a small percentage of your profits you can enlist the help of other sites and publishers to promote your offer.

One simple way is to use http://www.ClickBank.com which has a builtin affiliate program to help you with just this type of thing.

WRITE ARTICLES

Yes, it takes a little effort, but writing articles to promote your site does pay off.

Sharing a little bit of information in the form of articles with others has many rewards.

Hey, we are working in an information media type of are here, right ? Everyone is looking for the answer to some problem. Help them find it with a wellwritten article and get some deserved promotion when it is published in otherกs newsletters or ezines.

PUBLISH A NEWSLETTER

Online promotion is a slow learning curve for most folks, but it is one that has many rewards in terms of traffic and sales for your online business.

While this list is not inclusive, it does give you a starting point to begin your online efforts at building traffic and gaining some needed exposure.

Remember, กRunning a business without advertising is like winking in the dark. You know what you are doing, but no one else. does.ก

Larry Johnson, author

Biz Site Biz Ezine http://www.BizSiteBiz.com/

About The Author

GET A QUICK START in this FR*E, weekly promotional marketing ezine. Each issue offers powerful marketing tips, resources, fresh ideas and original articles on how to create, promote and market your own business. You will discover information with a กHowtodoitก approach. Join us now for the full scoop. Mailto:[email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 24, 2004

by Larry Johnson

Branding Versus SEO

Branding Versus SEO

by: Kevin Kantola

Branding versus search engine optimization is a marketing dilemma that larger companies will need to come to grips with on the Internet. Often companies will need to decide whether to promote their own brand name as their main keyword phrase or optimize for a more generic keyword phrase.

For instance, one search engine report states that 1.3 million visitors per month search for the term กBest Buy.ก This same report states that the term กelectronicsก is searched for by 1.1 visitors per month. The obvious choice in this scenario is for Best Buy to optimize for their own brand name first and the word กelectronicsก second.

But, take a competitor such as Fryกs Electronics. Approximately 95,000 visitors search for the term กFryกsก every month, far short of those who search for กelectronicsก. Does this mean Fryกs Electronics (a partner with Outpost.com) should optimize for กelectronicsก first and Fryกs (and/or Outpost.com) second?

At this writing (August 2004), a search on Google for กelectronicsก will show that Best Buy does not show up in the first two pages. Fryกs (Outpost.com) is on the third page. But letกs take a further look to see who is in the number 1 position: Sony. And Samsung is a close second.

Sony, with 450,000 searches per month for the word กsonyก, has managed to grab the number one spot for its brand name and the generic word กelectronicsก. A search of the Sony homepage source code will reveal that this page is optimized for both words, กSonyก and กelectronics.ก By optimizing for both words Sony has grabbed a lot of traffic neglected by Best Buy and perhaps even exceeds Best Buys traffic in doing this.

Another issue in branding is trademark infringement. Courts have upheld that websites using another companyกs branded name in its meta tags is engaging in trademark infringement. For instance, a site about cats would be infringing if it put the name Best Buy in its meta tags in hopes of gaining traffic from this trademarked word. Large companies have to protect themselves from others stealing traffic that is rightfully theirs. These companies cannot however protect a generic term such as กelectronicsก as that is fair game for all electronics companies.

So in order to create the largest return on investment, large companies need to optimize their websites both for their own brand names and for the generic, hightraffic keywords and keyword phrases relevant to their sites. Otherwise, they are letting tons of online business just slip away.

About The Author

Copyright © 2004 SEO Resource

http://www.seoresource.net

Kevin Kantola is the CEO of SEO Resource and has published many articles over the past 20 years.

This article was posted on August 10, 2004

by Kevin Kantola

Internet Affiliate Marketing 101 Itกs All About

Internet Affiliate Marketing 101 Itกs All About Relationships

by: Glenn Beach

So youกve found the perfect affiliate program, youกve signed up and they gave you a website….now what? ‘theyก say that กall you have to doก is drive traffic to your site…but you don’thave a clue where to begin…
Never fear, Affiliate 101 is here…hereกs a list of a few simple,free or inexpensive tasks you can accomplish today. Detailsfollow, first just the list:

Send emails to friends and family;
Make new friends on the internet;
Print out and distribute posters, business cards, and/or postcards;
Write articles and post free ads.

First of all, don’t panic. You don’t have to do ALL of these, just whatever you feel comfortable with. But I do heartily suggest that you push the envelope a little on your comfort level…
Email Friends and Family
If you’re uncomfortable with contacting family members (they CAN be your sharpest critics) first scan the options, maybe one of the less obtrusive ones would work.
Be sure to write ONLY to friends. Anything else will be considered spam; any worthy company will drop you like a hot potato when they receive legitimate spam complaints.
Consider the friends and family you might write to and decide the best approach for each:
1. The Second Opinion Approach: save this for the hard nuts to crack, flatter them with กIกve signed up for this opportunity and would really like to hear your opinion…ก
2. The Beating Around the Bush Approach: กIกm making some extra money doing this biz, do you know anyone who might need a few extra dollars?ก
3. The Direct Approach: for those close friends that you KNOW could use some financial miracles in their lives… you can lead with the business opportunity or with the products. I think itกs Avon that has a nice promo these days, กproducts you can buy and sellก. Simple and to the point…
4. The Chummy Letter Approach: just write a letter to a friend as you usually would and casually mention what you are doing, that itกs on กwait and seeก, or already is making you a little money, or whatever.
5. The NoMention Approach: just add a signature to all your emails that includes your websiteกs URL and your email address, maybe the name of your company. Subtle, letกs them explore if they want.
Getting to Know You…
How do you currently meet people on the internet? Game chat rooms, forums, optin email lists, Yahoo groups, messenger services…these are only a few ways to meet people. Many sites such as Yahoo, AOL, or ICQ let you create a profile including favorite websites, etc. While direct advertising is often frowned upon or prohibited, usually signatures at the bottom of posts is allowed. Many friendships formed in forums and chat rooms lead to email and website exchanges.
Stuffing Envelopes…
Printed fliers can be distributed everywhere you go, posted on your car…be creative. Include a business card or flier in every piece of mail you send including bills, on tables in restaurants, in phone booths, stick them in business books in the library. Make it fun! If you have mailing addresses rather than email addresses of anyone who might be interested, send them a flier or postcard.
Become a Famous Author
Anyone can write an article, everyone is good at something or has an experience that would help someone else out. Article writing helpsbuild trust and over time will brand your name and drive traffic to your website. And itกs free. Submit your articles to individual webmasters and editors as well as article directories.
Banner Swapping and Text Linking
Some say that banners are not very effective in getting traffic to your website, but hey, itกs free and it doesn’t hurt to try. Itกs best to spend some time finding a high traffic site or two and not fill your site with banners. Text links are still your best bet.
There you have it, lots of good ideas for beginning promotion of your website.

About The Author

Glenn Beach is a home entrepreneur in Nova Scotia, Canada. He has written extensively about affiliate marketing, and sells products that he trusts at:

http://www.workathomebusinessopportunitycanada.com

email: [email protected]

This article was posted on June 05, 2004

by Glenn Beach

Website Traffics: 10 Sizzling Hot Secret Phrases T

Website Traffics: 10 Sizzling Hot Secret Phrases To Ignite Your Website Traffics

by: Ikey Benney, CEO

For many months after I put up my new website, mscsrrr.com, my traffic was low and sales almost zero.

Then I began researching the internet for secret strategies that will help fire up my website traffics and sales.

I have the pleasure to offer you these 10 sizzling secret phrases that will ignite your website traffics and sales:

(1) กBookmark This Web Site Nowก

Tell your visitors to bookmark your web site. They may see your web site listed in their bookmarks and visit again. You should also give then a good reason to bookmark your site.

For example tell them you add new content everyday.

2 กSubscribe To Our Free Ezineก

Tell your visitors to subscribe to your ezine. When they subscribe youกll capture their email address.

Every time they read your ezine, it will remind them to return to your site.

3.ก Participate On Our Discussion Boardก

Ask your visitors to participate on your online discussion board.

By participating they will meet other people. By meeting other people, they will revisit your web site on a regular basis to stay in contact with them.

4. กSign Our Guestbookก

Ask your visitors to sign your guest book. When people sign your guestbook you may get valuable feedback or constructive criticism on how to improve your web site. This may help you increase traffic to your web site.

5. กUse Our Free Content On Your Site Or In Your Ezineก

Allow your visitors to use your articles on their own web site or in their ezine. Just ask them to include your resource box. This will spread your advertising all over the internet.

6. ‘refer This Our Web Site To A Friendก

Ask your visitors to refer your web site to a friend(s).

They may know someone that would benefit from visiting your web site.

7. กFill Out Our Online Surveyก

Ask visitors to fill out your online survey or questionnaire. You could use it to get valuable feedback on ways to improve your web site to increase traffic.

8. กEnter Our Contestsก

Ask your visitors to enter your online contest or sweepstakes.

People love to win stuff, and they will visit your web site to try.

9. กGive Away Our Freebie To Your Visitorsก

Allow your visitors to give away your online freebies to People that visit your web site. Include your ad on the freebie and those freebies will multiply your traffic.

10 กJoin Our Affiliate Programก

Allow your visitors to make money selling your products or services. This will increase your traffic because they will link to your web site.

May these website traffics secrets help you to make a lot of money.

Warmly,

Ikey Benney, CEO

About The Author

Ikey, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of กMscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash Systemก, (internet income opportunity) which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

Mscsrrr Millionaire Secret Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000$2000 free ขcashข…

mscsrrr.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 21

by Ikey Benney, CEO

Power Packed Linking Strategies Part Two

Power Packed Linking Strategies Part Two

by: Tony Cooper

The keyword marketing guide to a linking strategy that packs real punching power.

This is the second in a series of three articles showing you how to find a suitable linking strategy for your website and put it to work for you.

Link strategy number one: The Front Page Link Swap.

The most important page on your site is naturally the home page and as this is the page that is most often pointed to by internal and external links this is the page that carries the most ขlinking powerข. This is more usually called ขpage rankข (Google) or ขYahoo Web rankข (Yahoo).

Important note: If you are promoting an ebook, guide, tutorial or you are using a similar marketing technique then you should make your links come back to the promotional page and not your home page. As this is the page that you will want to go out and compete for you in the search engines.

The way that linking algorithms is of course a closely guarded secret, however it’s known that the more links that you have on a page the less ขlinking powerข is assigned to each link on the page. Thus a links page with 75 links on it is going to give little benefit in link boost and also a small amount of traffic, it is after all competing with 74 other links.

This is where the front page link swap is such a powerful strategy.

By swapping a link from your homepage with a link from another site of equal or greater linking power you are getting a far bigger return in terms of both the link value and traffic than you would for exchanging links on a buried links page.

The downside is that to find willing and co operative webmasters to do the exchange is very time consuming.

Just as you would in your regular business dealings you should make time to seek out potential front page link swap partners. The traffic rewards will really pay dividends.

Link strategy number two. The One Way Directory Link.

As the power of the link goes up as more and more search engines use it as a method of ranking sites so directories are cashing in on a charge to be listed. What was once a free resource has now become an expensive link gathering exercise.

Still the most important free directory entry is http://www.dmoz.org but these days the waiting list seems to be forever. Seek out directories and place your links at every opportunity. Industry portals are a great linking source.

Link strategy number three. The Strategic Article Link.

This type of link packs the biggest punch of all.

Writing an article on your favourite subject can give you many benefits not least in credibility and giving you recognition as an authority on your chosen subject. It is by far the best way of gaining links and traffic to your site.

The technique is to write an article of five to six hundred words on a subject that you are knowledgeable about. Get several of your trusted friends to proof read and contribute and then refine it into a readable style.

Remember that writing for the web is totally different than writing for other media types. Surfing is a solitary experience for most and it’s important that you capture your reader’s attention and imagination.

For this type of article don’t worry about stuffing it with keywords in your page title and headings, you are not writing for search engines. The aim is to make a highly readable piece that will be distributed throughout all of the websites related to your subject matter in your industry.

So you can’t write? It’s well worth your while to hunt around and find a good copywriter that you can work with. The return on investment is 1000 times what you would ever get from advertising in your local rag.

About The Author

Tony Cooper is the Internet Marketing manager at http://www.keywordmarketing.com Building web sites that achieve tangible and accountable results.

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 03, 2004

by Tony Cooper

How to Get Your Visitors to Create Content for You

How to Get Your Visitors to Create Content for Your Website

by: Clay Mabbitt

An ongoing challenge for webmasters today is to provide fresh content that gives visitors a reason to return to their site. Unless you have a fulltime staff dedicated to creating regular content, the time involved can be crippling.

Wouldn’t it be great if someone else would write timely, relevant content for you? Sure, but what are the odds of that happening? Well, many webmasters are already enjoying this phenomenon, and Iกm happy to count myself among them.

Set it up.

Whether your site has a catalog of products or a collection of articles, you can design your pages to allow visitors to post reviews of whatever is featured on the page. They can share their experiences with items theyกve bought or post comments on the information in your site. Don’t confuse this powerful tool with a discussion forum. You create the topic of each page, and encourage visitors to post updates with the latest information in this area.

The more information you provide on your site, the better service you are providing to your visitors; but they aren’t the only ones who benefit from including reviews. Itกs also a boon to you as a webmaster. Even if you never wrote another line of new copy, your pages will continue to grow with relevant content. Granted you still have to spend a little time reading the reviews and moderating what appears on your site, but the time required is much less than you would spend writing original content.

Why someone else will create content for you.

While the advantages to the webmaster and reader may be obvious, you are probably wondering what incentives exist for the reviewer. A few lucky souls have enough free time to share their opinions online for the mere satisfaction of seeing their own words, but most will need something more tangible before they invest the time to write a useful review. The onus is on you, the webmaster, to create an appropriate incentive. The importance of link popularity in search engine rankings provides a powerful clue. At AffiliateScreen.com, I allow my visitors to post reviews of their experiences with online affiliate programs. At the bottom of their review, they have the option of including a link to another page that supports what theyกve written (or they can simply include their affiliate link for the program). AffiliateScreen.com gives them the additional credibility of their expertise appearing on a thirdparty site.

Look at this from the reviewerกs perspective. Hereกs a unique opportunity to gain an external link pointing to the reviewerกs website, but this is far more valuable than a random reciprocal link. Search engines are determining link popularity by examining both the quantity and relevance of links. The page with their link is loaded with keywords related to the product or service, and the reviewer can include additional relevant keywords in their post. The reviewer actually has a hand in creating the page that will link to their site. This is extremely powerful! Can you begin to see how anyone looking to increase traffic to their site would jump at the opportunity to create content for your website?

Now you may have some concerns that allowing anyone to add content and links to your site is inviting your competitors to steal your traffic. If your site has detailed reviews of products on your site, anyone who leaves your site to visit a competitor won’t spend much time there before realizing that your site has useful, original content that they can’t find anywhere else. If that doesn’t put your mind at ease, though, thereกs nothing to stop you from including a disclaimer when someone submits a review. Explain in this disclaimer that direct references to your competitors will be removed to keep the reviews informative and to avoid marketing hype. You are the webmaster, after all.

You can draw even more traffic by allowing visitors to rate the usefulness of each review. Many reviewers will encourage people to visit your site so they can read and rate the review. More important than just being a gimmick to increase traffic, rating reviews allows you to sort them by quality and expose your average visitors to the best possible content first.

Promote it!

Once youกve got the code in place, itกs important to publicize this new feature of your website. If you have experience or know someone with experience writing press releases, you may be able to garner attention from news and niche media. Another highly effective form of publicity is to mention the new feature above the fold on the main page of your site.

If you have a newsletter, promote the review process in your next issue. In fact, as you begin to accumulate reviews, they can serve as great additional content for your newsletter. Simply include the best reviews in each issue. As with the reviews on your website, you are providing valuable content for your audience, giving your reviewer great exposure, and saving time for yourself. Itกs a winwinwin situation.

About The Author

Copyright (c) 20032004 Clay Mabbitt.

Clay Mabbitt writes articles about online income opportunities. He is the founder of a community of Internet entrepreneurs sharing knowledge and experience at http://www.affiliatescreen.com

This article was posted on December 31, 2003

by Clay Mabbitt