This week we continue with Part 2 of our 3-part series on how to
market your online business. Part 1 is available at
http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/articles/checklist1.html .
As much as we all love free stuff, an Internet business is still
a business and you can reasonably expect to invest in marketing.
Fortunately, online marketing can be quite affordable -- even to
beginners on limited budgets. Here's a quick list of some of the
more popular paid methods for small businesses.
PART 2: Effective Fee-Based Online Marketing Methods
1. Search engines. Web surfers typically use the large search
engines such as Google, MSN, and AOL to find the information
they want. If you can manage to get a good ranking for some of
your top key phrases, you can get a steady stream of traffic.
Expect to invest funds for review/submissions, and possibly even
for hiring an optimization expert or for self-education. A great
site to learn about search engine optimization is Search Engine
Watch, http://searchenginewatch.com/ .
2. Major indexes. Yahoo [ http://yahoo.com/ ] and Open Directory
[ http://www.dmoz.org/ ] are two of the best- known indexes.
Both of them can significantly increase your link popularity,
and provide you with additional traffic. At the time of writing,
Yahoo charges an annual review fee for commercial websites.
Submissions to Open Directory are currently still free.
3. Pay-per-click search engines. With these search engines, you
literally pay a certain amount of money for every click they
send your way. The more you bid, the higher you'll rank for your
search term and the more visible your link will be. The largest
and most popular PPC SE is Overture, http://www.overture.com/. A
list of PPC SEs is available from
http://payperclicksearchengines.com/ .
4. Ezine advertising. Although this takes a fair bit of practice
and experimentation, ezine advertising is potentially one of the
best and most profitable ways to promote your business online.
The editor has already done the hard work of putting together a
list of opt-in, interested prospects; you just take advantage of
it. Search for complementary ezines at NetterWeb.com,
http://www.netterweb.com/ or use the excellent Lifestyles
Publishing Directory of Ezines at
http://buildyourhomebiz.com/directory.html .
5. Direct email campaign from a reputable list broker. There are
companies on the web that specialize in building
permission-based email lists, targeted to each subscriber's area
of interest. This is true 'opt-in', unlike the endless stream of
spam email that implores you to purchase '30 million addresses
for only $99!' True opt-in lists are not cheap by any means, but
they have the potential to yield great results. Check out
http://www.postmasterdirect.com/ as an example.
6. Press releases. Your newsworthy press release could generate
loads of free publicity for your business. Invest some of your
marketing funds in educating yourself on how to generate
publicity; an excellent source of information is Paul
Hartunian's website at http://www.prprofits.com/ .
7. Advertise on a targeted website. Find complementary but
non-competing sites and check their rates for advertising.
Banner ads are the most common type of advertising permitted;
however, they're usually not very effective. Text ads or
endorsements typically perform better.
8. Mini-sites. These small sites (typically around 3 or 4 pages)
are focused on selling one product. There's usually no free
content; just a sales letter, perhaps a FAQ and some contact
information. Mini-sites are an excellent way to get your
prospect to do just one thing, whether that's order your product
or sign up for your newsletter. The costs to create a mini-site
would include domain name registration and hosting fees.
9. Experiment with some of the promotional services offered
online. The only way to know for sure whether or not they'll
work for you is to try them (and track the results). Use
discretion -- be careful not to associate your business with
promotion services that are nothing but 'disguised' ways to
spam! Before you shell out the cash for these types of services,
ask around for first-hand experiences.
10. Hold a conference. A great credibility builder is to offer a
web or phone conference for your visitors. Use it to offer
helpful information -- for example, you could open the
conference to questions from the audience -- and generate
additional interest in your product or service. Two sites that
offer conference services are http://www.easyconference.com/ and
http://www.bridgerentals.com/ .
Don't be afraid to invest in marketing your online business.
Effective 'free' promotion is always wonderful, but there are
many equally effective paid methods that can result in a great
return on your investment. Be sure to track the results for each
method you use; that way you'll be able to concentrate your
efforts on those methods that work best for *your* business.
Stay tuned next time for a checklist on promoting your Internet
business in the 'real world'!
About the author:
__________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Angela is the editor of Online Business
Basics, a practical guide to building a business on a beginner's
budget. It's a proven hit with beginners, for the down-to-earth
style and loads of instantly useable tips! For details, visit
http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/article.html OR request a series
of 10 free reports to get you started:
mailto:businessbasics@workyourleads.com
