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Creating
a successful Internet presence involves much more than designing a
great web site or having the "perfect" product. Listing your web site
with the Search Engines is your first step; however, you must not
solely rely on the Search Engines to bring you traffic.
You must design a complete promotional
strategy and work it every day. If you're launching a new web site,
your first step will be to submit your site to the Search Engines and
Directories.
Although there are many auto-submission
software programs available on the Internet, make sure you manually
submit your site to the main Search Engines and Directories:
• Google
(Although you can submit your site map to Google, you will receive a
higher ranking by allowing their robots to find your pages on their
own.)
• The Open Directory Project
• AltaVista
• Lycos
• Hotbot
Once you've manually submitted your main pages, visit SelfPromotion.com to automatically submit your pages to a number of additional Search Engines and Directories.
A good way to organize your promotions is to
set up a web page, for your personal use, that will contain your
complete strategy. This page should be stored on your hard drive and
not uploaded to your server. Your page should contain four sections.
1. Daily Promotions
2. Weekly Promotions
3. Monthly Promotions
4. Miscellaneous Promotions
Each of these four sections should contain the appropriate information
for each of your promotional resources, such as web site name, user ID,
password (if applicable) and hyperlinked web addresses for each web
site you plan to use for your promotions. This will enable you to open
your web page each day and visit the sites you have listed.
Daily Promotions
Discussion Boards
Visit some popular discussion boards and share
your expertise. Although you may not advertise on discussion boards,
you can include your signature file with your post. Before you begin
posting to discussion boards, make sure you lurk a while and see
exactly how the board functions.
Weekly Promotions
Ezine Advertising / Ad Swaps
Your weekly promotions should consist of
placing a paid ezine advertisement and/or arranging ad swaps with
fellow publishers.
Visit the Directory of Ezines for a complete listing of hundreds of publishers and contact information for advertising.
To organize your ad placements and swaps,
place the publication names, publisher names, ad dates and hyperlinked
web addresses within your weekly promotions list.
Monthly Promotions
Your monthly promotions should include writing
an article in the area of your expertise, promotional exchanges with
similar web sites, and offline promotions.
To organize your monthly promotions, place the
names and hyperlinked web addresses for each of your promotional
resources within your monthly promotions section.
Writing Articles
Writing articles that may be freely published
with your bylines is one of the best promotional methods online. Your
article may be published in hundreds of ezines, on web sites or even in
magazines. For further information on writing articles, visit: http://www.web-source.net/write.htm
Promotional Exchanges
Cross promoting is a powerful technique used
by many Internet marketers to increase the exposure of their products,
services or publications. You simply decide what type of promotional
exchange you would be interested in and contact fellow marketers to
discuss an exchange.
The most effective technique used in cross
promotions is recommendations. By providing each other with a personal
recommendation you can increase your response rates tremendously.
Here are some popular cross promoting techniques you can use to boost your business:
Link Exchanges
Exchange links with web sites similar to
yours, but not in competition. Many Search Engines are now utilizing a
system that tracks and ranks sites according to the number of quality
links pointing to a particular web site. By exchanging links with
similar web sites, you will not only increase your Search Engine
ranking, but you will also increase your web site traffic.
Ezine Ad Swaps
Exchange subscription ads with other ezine
publishers. Ezine advertising is one of the best forms of advertising
on the Internet. By swapping ads with fellow ezine publishers, you can
run your ad in other publications free of charge.
Subscription Exchanges
Exchange
subscription information with fellow ezine publishers. Provide
recommendations within your ezine's welcome message, thank you page and
even on your multiple subscription ezine form.
Ezine Column
Partner with a similar publication and provide
content for each other. This may be a weekly tips column, question and
answer column or whatever you'd like.
Ebook Exchanges
Partner with fellow Internet marketers and
create free ebooks to freely distribute. The ebook should mutually
benefit and promote both of you, while providing valuable information
for your visitors.
Ride Alongs
A ride along is any extra information
(advertisements) sent along with a direct mailing. You can use this
same technique with any ezine solo mailings you may run by including an
exchange recommendation within your mailing. In addition, you can
include recommendations within your thank you letters you send out when
you deliver your products.
Up sells
An up sell is used when your customer is in
the process of ordering your product. Another product is introduced,
for a small additional cost, just as you're closing the sale. This
technique is used with many infomercials when the customer calls in
their order. The operator will introduce an additional product for a
minimal extra charge. You can use this same technique on your order
page by trading product recommendations with fellow marketers.
A quality recommendation will pull a much
higher response rate than just a link or banner. Cross promote with
individuals you truly respect and believe in, as your professional
reputation is on the line.
Offline Promotions
Promoting your web site offline is another
great way to increase your traffic. Below are several resources to
assist you:
IDit Plates
- Put your web address on your vehicle. IDit Plates are a great way to
continuously promote your web site. They're triple chrome plated and
blend in well with your vehicle. I was impressed with the quality of
this product and highly recommend it.
Visit iPrint for your printing needs. From business print items to promotional items, iPrint has it all.
Place ads in newspapers, magazines, on the
radio, or on TV. Visit these links for complete listings:
Gebbie Press
Newspapers Online
For even more promotional products, Promo City can add your logo to any one of over 500,000 items.
Miscellaneous Promotions
Your miscellaneous promotions might include paying for traffic, text and banner advertising.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
If you're looking for a low-cost, yet highly
effective means of advertising your products and services, then Google
AdWords may be your answer.
Google AdWords provides a simple way to
purchase highly targeted advertising, regardless of your budget. Unlike
other sites selling banner ad space and pay-per-ranking, AdWords
provides advertisers with highly effective text ads that are displayed
with the search results. Studies have shown that highly targeted
keyword advertising produces an average of four times the industry
standard clickthrough rate.
Google, one of the premier Search Engines,
receives over 29 million searches each day. Their popularity most
likely stems from the speed and accuracy of their search results.
Needless to say, placing your text ad with Google Adwords will be a
highly effective way to advertise your products and services.
It is a well-known fact that text ads perform
much better than banner ads. What better way to target your audience
than through a popular Search Engine? Your potential customer is there
for a reason -- they're looking for something. When a Google visitor
types in their keywords, they are almost instantly presented with their
search results. On the right side of the results are colored text boxes
containing targeted advertisements that match their search terms.
When you place your ad with AdWords, you will
have the ability to select a list of tightly targeted keywords
including all of the following:
• Keyword Matching - Shows your ad when a search includes your selected words.
• Phrase Matching - Shows your ad when a search includes your selected phrases.
• Exact Query Matching - Shows your ad when a search contains your exact keywords and no others.
• Negative Keyword Matching - Will not show your ad if a search contains certain words you select.
This unique targeting technique will enable you to create a highly
targeted ad campaign and test your ads with a high rate of accuracy.
What's more, you can even target your ads to a specific country or
language.
The great
thing about advertising with Google AdWords is that you will have
complete control over your ad and how much you'd like to spend. You can
open an account with a credit card with no minimum deposit required.
Once you place your ad, it can begin running almost immediately.
Their advertising rates are very reasonable.
The amount you spend on your advertising campaign will depend on two
factors: (1) the number of times your ad is displayed and (2) the
position, one through eight, in which your ad appears. The advertising
rates are as follows:
• Position 1 - $15 per thousand ads shown
• Position 2 - $12 per thousand ads shown
• Position 3 - $10 per thousand ads shown
• Position 4 - 8 $8 per thousand ads shown
The position of an ad is determined by how well it is performing. Ads
with a higher clickthrough rate will receive a higher position and in
turn will cost more.
In
order to increase your clickthrough rate and spend less money, try to
select keywords and phrases that specifically target the product or
service you're offering. Avoid using common words, as these will use up
your ad displays very rapidly. Instead, select words that specifically
target your product or service.
For example, instead of using a general keyword like software, use a keyword that focuses on a specific
software such as FrontPage 2002 -- or, a little less focused, web
design software. In addition, make sure you use your keyword phrase
(search term) as the title of your ad. This will increase your
clickthrough rate considerably.
When you set up your account with Google, make
sure you use a different ad for each search term. Not only will this
increase your ad's relevance in the search results, but it will also
increase your clickthrough rate.
Once you place your ad, you can easily track
your ad's response rate and make adjustments instantly. This is a
great, low-cost way to find out which ads are performing the best.
Google AdWords provides Internet marketers
with a cost- effective alternative to banner advertising. If you want
to increase your traffic and sales, give AdWord a try -- you'll be glad
you did.
For further information, visit Google AdWords.
Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
If you've been struggling with your web site
traffic and your sales aren't what you had hoped for, then maybe it's time to start paying for traffic.
The most popular and probably most effective pay-per-click Search Engine is www.yahoo.com. However, Yahoo.com no
longer provides a cost-effective service for small businesses. Their
minimum bid on targeted keywords is now .010 and their service is now
targeting the larger businesses with big bank accounts. There are,
however, several other companies that provide similar services.
Findwhat.com offers a Pay For Placement™ program that provides a unique and cost-effective way to drive highly targeted traffic to your site.
By opening a bidding account, you can bid on
keywords and keywords phrases within search results. You decide how
much you want to spend, where you want to be found and when you want
your program to be active. And, best of all, you only pay for actual
traffic sent to your site.
The key to using this technique effectively is
to focus on one specific product and select highly targeted keywords.
This will help you to weed out all of the window shoppers and attract
your specific target audience.
Viewing Search Terms Most pay-per-click Search
Engines will enable you to view exact "search terms" that have been
used to perform searches. Use this to your advantage. You can find out
exactly what "search terms" are being used for your target market and
place your bids accordingly. Try to create a list of as many relevant
keywords as possible. The more keywords you bid on, the more traffic
you'll receive.
When bidding on keywords, keep in mind, in
order to be successful, you don't have to be listed at the top.
Although receiving a listing in the top three
positions will produce major traffic through Overture, most of the
time, you must have a large advertising budget to compete.
Before placing your bid, perform a search to
find out how much your competitors are paying per click. Try to place
your bid so that your listing will appear on the first page to increase
your chance of success. By selecting highly targeted, less popular
keywords, you'll not only attract a more targeted audience, but you'll
also obtain a higher listing for less money.
Your Ad Copy
Your headline and ad copy are the most
important part of your entire strategy. Your headline must grab your
potential customers' attention and force him/her to read on. Your copy
should tell them exactly what you have to offer and convince them to
visit your site.
When writing your ad, make sure you don't
mention free stuff, as you want to avoid attracting freebie hunters. By
weeding out those potential visitors expecting to get something free,
you will attract a more targeted audience of potential buyers. There is
no need to pay for visitors that weren't interested in buying anything
in the first place.
When placing your link within your ad, make
sure you direct your potential customer directly to your sales page. In
other words, if your product isn't on your main page, then don't direct
your potential customers to your main page and make them search for
your product. Direct them to your product's page.
Reviewing Your Reports
Once your campaign begins, make sure you take
the time to review the reports provided by the pay-per-click services.
These reports will provide you with information in regard to how well
each of your keywords are performing and enable you to adjust your
keywords or change your bids accordingly.
To increase your traffic even further, don't just stop with one
pay-per-click Search Engine -- try several at time. The more streams of
traffic flowing to your site, the better.
Here is a list of some of the top pay-per-click Search Engines:
• http://www.yahoo.com
• http://www.Findwhat.com
• http://www.Bay9.com
• http://www.Win4win.com
• http://www.7search.com
Visit payperclicksearchengines.com for a complete list of over sixty pay-per-click Search Engines, reviews and tips.
If you're serious about your business and
you're ready to drive a stampede of targeted traffic to your web site,
then give the pay-per-click Search Engines a try. They're well worth
the small investment.
Once you've implemented your promotional
strategy and continuously work it each day, you'll be amazed with the
results of your efforts. Consistency will be the key to driving massive
traffic to your site.
Other Pages on Web Design for Marketers:
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