Saturday, October 18th, 2008
Jay Gaulard writes for a wide selection of websites on various topics. He is a veteran of the internet and has come to be respected in his many areas of expertise. This article was written on behalf of BizLeeg, a popular business directory website.
Almost Free Ways to Market Your Business Online
If you have a website, chances are pretty high that you spend a lot of time looking for ways to market your business online. Paying for advertisements can be quite expensive, and today’s Internet user is so desensitized to online banner ads that advertising in this manner can be highly ineffective. However, there are many ways that you can advertise your business online without paying much or without paying anything at all! You just need to know where to look.
Develop an Online Newsletter
Do you have an online mailing that you send to your customers? If not, you need to develop one. When your customers make a purchase online, have them sign up to receive “future offers” or an informative newsletter. You can also leave a form on your website for them to sign up to receive your newsletter. You may want to offer something free for this, such as a discount code, free tip, or a free gift.
Once you have your customer’s email address, put it to good use. Make your newsletter as good as it can possibly be. If you already have an online mailing in place, make it better. No one likes spam, so make the newsletter informative, helpful, and interesting. Throw in a coupon or two from time to time to keep the customer interested in reading the newsletter. Avoid using too many graphics, as this can keep some users from receiving the letter depending on their spam folder settings.
Become an Expert in Your Industry
Chances are you already are an expert in your industry. Use this to your advantage as you market online. Join forums that relate to your industry. Then, post useful comments. Do this often. Soon you will have a small online “following” that comes to you for advice. You can then point them towards your website for more information.
As you post in forums, make sure you follow the posting guidelines. Some forums will allow you to link to your website in your signature line. Others will allow you to link in actual discussions. Others do not allow any links at all, but may allow you to put a link in your profile. Since your time is valuable, choose forums that allow links, at least in your signature.
No matter what the forum rules may be, make sure that your posts do not sound like an ad. Give genuine, helpful advice to the people on the forum. Become a part of the community. You will be surprised at how much your bottom line increases with this strategy.
You can use this same rule to market using blogs. Comment on blog discussions relating to your industry whenever you can, and make the link take the reader back to your site. You can insert a link in your name field, but do not say, “you can find out more at my site.” That will be a turn off to most readers, but if they like what you have to say they will be willing to click on your name and visit your link.
Create Your Own Blog
As you are working towards making yourself an expert in the field, you might want to set up your own blog. You can discuss newsworthy items that relate to your industry, and you can include a link on the toolbar to your ecommerce site. You can link to your blog in your forum posts and blog comments as well. If you do not have time to write blog posts on a regular basis, you can hire someone else to do it for you.
As you work to create your blog, make sure it is interesting. People who read blogs are looking for entertainment as much as they are looking for information. Do not be afraid to discuss something a little controversial. The more people that link to your blog from theirs, even if they are saying how crazy your idea is, the more traffic you will eventually generate for your ecommerce or business site.
Use YouTube
Believe it or not, the popular video site YouTube is a great way to market a business, and posting a video is completely free. Now, like your forum and blog posts, you do not want to post a blatant advertisement on YouTube. However, you can create an informative “how to” that relates to your industry, and then link to your website at the end of the video.
The key to successful marketing with YouTube is not creating a fancy video full of special effects. It is making a video that is appealing to people. You want people to want to watch your video, email it to their friends, and post it on their blogs. Do not be afraid to do something a little crazy and fun, but make sure that it does not detract from your business.
Use Online Business Directories
Online business directories are another way to market your business online. Keep in mind that there is a wide range of prices for these directories. Some charge high fees for listings, while others have free or low-cost listings available. Choose a directory that gets plenty of traffic but does not charge too much for your link. Make sure you can have some control over what is said in your listing. Also, make sure the directory is well laid out with an easy to understand organizational structure. Remember, your potential customers are not going to stay on a business directory site that is confusing or difficult to navigate.
That being said, list your business in as many free business directories as possible. After all, if the listing is free, it cannot hurt your business, and it will probably draw some traffic to your site. Some of these directories make money off of other types of ads, such as pay per click ads, so they allow businesses to create listings for free.
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Posted in Advertising, Business, Directories, Internet, Websites | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Jay Gaulard writes for a wide selection of websites on various topics. He is a veteran of the internet and has come to be respected in his many areas of expertise. This article was written on behalf of WebLeeg, a popular free classifieds website.
How to Use Free Online Classified Ads to Sell Just About Anything
Every day, more of our interactions seem to move online. In most cases, this allows us to communicate quicker and more effectively than other types of communication. Online classified ads have become a hugely popular way to get in touch with other people.
Whether you’re selling, buying, trading or just informing, using a free online classified ad is convenient and easy. In most cases it takes only a few minutes to get your ad written and posted. Since it’s free, you can post multiple ads without worrying about the word count driving up your price.
Online classifieds will put you in contact with someone in the same town or people on the other side of the planet. If you’re looking for a used lawnmower to pick up tomorrow or a one-of-a-kind piece of art several states away, free online classified ads get you in touch with the right person.
Most online classified sites have many categories, making it easy to post your ad in just the right place. Having many categories also means that you can find what you’re looking for easily and without having to dig through a lot of irrelevant ads.
Free online classifieds aren’t just for buying and selling between two private parties. They’re also an incredibly useful way to market a business online.
If you own a business or belong to online affiliate programs, free online classifieds are a great way to promote your product without spending a penny. You can advertise pretty much any product or service to people in your local area or anywhere else in the world. You can target one market specifically or make your message available to everyone.
In addition to being free, online classifieds are useful for diversifying your customer base and reaching a new audience. If you have primarily marketed through other methods like television or radio advertisements, you have a very limited potential audience. Online classified ads could potentially reach every single person with Internet access. The best estimates say that’s over 1.4 billion people worldwide.
Although the chances of all 1.4 billion people with Internet access viewing your ad are slim, the potential exposure is staggering. Imagine reaching hundreds of thousands of people with your ad without paying for it.
Even people who aren’t selling anything find that free online classifieds are a wonderful way to reach people. Just about anything can be publicized with free online classifieds. Things like upcoming events, volunteer groups and job ads frequently have their own categories on classified ads websites.
In an age where we conduct a large portion of our personal and business communication online, advertising has to take new forms to adapt. Online classified ads have grown from small local message boards to vast international networks. No matter what you want to get the word out about, using free online classifieds can help you do it even if you have no advertising budget at all.
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Tags: ads free, Advertising, affiliate programs, Business, business online, classified ad, classified ads, Classifieds, classifieds website, free ads, free classified, free classifieds, online ads, online classifieds, selling
Posted in Advertising, Classifieds, Internet | 1 Comment »
Monday, September 15th, 2008
This article was written by Jay Gaulard on behalf of ArticleLeeg, a popular online article website.
Marketing your business through online article websites allows you to reach a huge number of prospective customers without spending a lot of money.
Using Online Article Websites to Promote Yourself
These days it really doesn’t matter if you sell products and services online or offline. Your prospective buyers may live a block from you and can run down the street to purchase your goods. They will still likely find you, or at least keep up with your activities online. This is why you should use the Internet for your promotional and marketing efforts. So, how do you use online article websites to promote your business? The answer is really very simple.
Marketing through online article websites allows businesses to reach prospective clients down the block or on the other side of the world. The subjects of your online articles should be designed to reach your niche market. This is the group of prospective consumers that are already interested in your type of product or service. By beginning to make a name for yourself, you will become a recognized seller and an expert in your field. People will trust you and your advice and they will pass the word to others who may be interested in your products or services.
Online Article Marketing
Marketing your business through online article websites allows you to reach a huge number of prospective customers without spending a lot of money. These websites basically do all of the legwork for you. You only have to submit a well-written, keyword rich and informative article that conveys the information you want to get distributed. Interested consumers are already looking for information about your products or services. The more they see your name appear with informational content, the more they will see you as an expert on the subject.
Think about how you search for information about a particular subject. You type keywords into your search box, and the search engine brings up the matches for you. Seems easy enough, right? It really is. All you have to do is supply good information and proper keywords in your article and the marketing website uses those keywords to get your article searched by the most popular search engines.
Writing the Online Article
Write a catchy headline that includes your keywords. The title is the first thing the search engine spiders will crawl to see if the article is appropriate to the requested search. It is your first chance to win someone over. A good title either grabs the readers’ attention or makes them move on. The title should convey the topic your article covers.
Use keywords strategically placed throughout the article. Also be sure your article is search engine optimized (SEO) so that you are providing a lot of useful information that will be ranked high on the search engine lists. You submit the article to a good online article website and provide your website and contact information in the author’s box. That’s it!
When someone types in the keywords you have used, your article will be one of the references that appears on their results list. The more articles you submit like this, the more recognizable your name and product becomes. Internet technology has created new avenues for businesses to promote their websites, their products and services and their overall philosophies and knowledge about their area of expertise. Through the use of online article websites, you can promote and build your business successfully whether you want to remain small and home-based or become a multi-million dollar conglomerate. As you promote your business, you will also be able to do more of the following:
* Obtain more customers
* Enjoy the freedom of using the Internet on your own schedule
* Make use of all of the Internet marketing options available to you
* Take up less of your time for marketing efforts
You really have nothing to lose and everything to gain by using online article websites to promote your business. Why not get that first article written and submitted to an online article website today? What are you waiting for?
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Tags: article marketing, Business, business article, business online, informational content, informative article, marketing article, marketing business, marketing efforts, marketing online, niche market, search box, search engine, search engines, website marketing
Posted in Advertising, Articles, Business, Directories | No Comments »
