These are all basic ideas for getting started in marketing your online business. If you are serious about making money in an online business, check out the FREE resources at Marketing Tips and subscribe to the FREE e-mail course on Making Your Site Sell.

• Search Engines & Directories
• Link Exchanges
• Articles
• Ezine
• Classified Ads
• E-Mail
• Discussion & Newsgroups
• Pay Per Click
• Blogs
• Autoresponders
• Other Ideas

 

Search Engines & Directories

Getting listed in search engines has evolved into a science. The gurus recommend all sorts of trick and gimmicks to optimize your website (SEO). While you do want to make use of your meta tags and keywords, there are too many other more effective methods to drive traffic to your website than spending hours on doorway pages and such. People do use search engines so it is important to submit your site, but you don't want to rely on search engines alone as your main marketing method.

 

Below are some top search engines and directories at which you can register your website. Once you are at the home page, click on "Add URL" or "Add Your Site" which can frequently be found at the bottom of the site's homepage. Be sure to have your name, site URL and keywords developed before you apply to add your site to the search engines and directories. You should probably submit your site individually at the top search engines.
However, for other lesser engines, consider using Submit-it which will submit your site 20 sites for free. Or try WebCEO(free and paid versions) that will submit your webdsite as well.

AOL (drawn from Google)
DMOZ Open Directory (AOL, Google, Netscape, Yahoo and others use Open Directory)
Google (many directories and engines pull from Google includieng Netscape and AOL)
MSN (many directories and engines pull from MSN including HotBot and Live Search)
Yahoo

 

Link

Links to your website from other websites do play an important part in search engine ranking. Link exchanges and webrings are one way of doing this. In a link exchange, you agree to have someone's link on your site if they put your link on their site. Webmasters who use this technique usually add the other site's link first and then send an email to the site letting them know of the link and asking for a reciprocal link in return. But not all webmasters are honest in link exchanges.

Here is my advice about link exchanges:

1. Exchange links with similar or complementary websites. If you have a site about internet marketing, a site about pet products may not be the best fit. Also check that its content is something your readers would like to read and isn't questionable. You can be judged by the company you keep, so only link with quality sites.
2. Set rules for the types of sites you are willing the link to. WAHS doesn't exchange links with business opportunities or sales pages even though they may be similar or complementary sites. My rule is to only provide resource links to sites that offer free informative content related to working at home. All others have to use one of the other options such as submitting a profile or buying advertising.

Avoiding Bad Link Partners

If you receive a request to exchange links, be sure to check the site out. Many sites now scam other webmasters out of links. This can not only prevent you from getting traffic, but it can hurt your page rank with Google.

Here are some tips to avoid a bad link partner:

1. When you receive a request to exchange links, check that the site is one you want to be associated with. If you are building a business online, you need to protect your reputation, so don't accept any and all exchange request. What is the quality of content on the other site? Does the site offer information relevant to your visitors? What is its Google page rank? (You can use the Google tool bar to find this out.) A "0" isn't necessarily bad as it could be the site has not been indexed, but it could be under a penalty, so you should research the site carefully.
2. Verify your link is actually on the page. Deceitful webmasters may hide the link so it can't be seen and therefore can't be used by the site's visitors. You can hit ctrl-a to highlight a page to find any hidden text. Other times, a dishonest webmaster may just not add the link at all.
3. If your link is there, click it. Verify it goes to your site as some deceitful webmasters have it link back to their homepage.
4. Check the code of the URL. Right click the link and choose "properties" from the drop down menu to see how the link is coded. If you see a java script, other coding other than htm or html, or if the link has "rel" in it, don't do the exchange. These tactics are used so that the search engines will ignore the link and therefore it won't help you with link popularity and page rank.
5. Also check the page code (Choose "View" from your browser task bar and then click on "source") to make sure there is no direction to a robot.txt file telling the search engines to ignore the page by having "No Follow" or "Disallow".
6. Go to the home page of the site and find out how visitors can access your link. Most of the bogus exchanges have pages and pages of links, but they aren't connected to the main site so people can't find your link. If you can't find the page your link is on from the home page, no one else with either.

 

Articles

This is one of my favorite ways to drive traffic to my sites. Its free and gives you more credibility than ads.

Many people get scared about writing articles. While you do need to be able to string words together, you don't need to be an English grad nor write a thesis. Articles are usually 300 to 1200 words long and are to the point. A quick opening sentence, a list of important concepts and a closing statement is it. The very best articles and fortunately the easiest to write are those that involve numbers or steps such as "5 Ways to Raise Happy Kids" or "3 Steps to Plant an Herb Garden".

Articles should have a friendly, conversational tone but you don't want them to be too informal. Also, stick close to your subject goal. Lately, I have received many articles that are too disjointed and confused or don't stick to the topic. Using the above examples, you could write:

Opening line about the importance of happy kids. Perhaps a line about the challenges of having happy kids. Then go into the actual 5 ways...

1. Praise

2. Play

3. Consistency...etc.

Then write a closing line.

Other good ways to open an article are with a personal story or statistic. You can see samples of my articles at LadyPens and Isnare

Once your article is written, you need to send it to people who need content. If its related to working at home, you could send it to me! If you have a list of websites and ezines you like that are related to your article, you can send it to them. But the best route is to use article announce groups. Yahoo has lots of them. You need to have an account at Yahoo (its free). Then use the group search function to find article announce groups. You need to join the groups but you can ask to receive email in daily digest or go "no mail" to view online so you don't get everyone else's articles. Or, to maximize your time, you can use a service.

If articles will be a main way to promote your site, I recommend using an article submit service to send out your articles. Submitting articles can take a lot of time. The services allow you to submit the article one-time and its sent out to thousands of publishers in one click. If you will be submitting many articles a week or month, you can use ArticleMarketer. I have used this service with much success. If you'll be submitting only a a few articles a month, consider Isnare, which I also use. Both have free options as well as paid services.

 

Ezine Ads

I have found ezine ads to be very effective if done correctly. In your marketing plan, you should have developed an idea of your target market and where to find them. Once you know this, you can research ezines that cater to this group. Some things to consider when researching ezines are price, subscriber count, opt-in vs opt-out (you should prefer opt-in ezines), and open or click through rates (how many people actually open the ezine when its mailed to them).

Some ezines allow you to post a free ad if you are a subscriber. The best way to find these ezines is to peruse the ezine lists offered at 2 Bucks an Ad and Two Dollar Ads. If you want, these services can submit your ad to 10 ezines for only $10 or so. But, be careful. These ads are usually listed in a classified section along with many other ads. You should submit a top sponsor ad and if possible offer something for free so it sets itself apart from the other ads around it. As mentioned, most of the ezines listed in these sites do offer a free ad if you are subscriber. So the other option is to look at the list and click on the ezines that fit your target group.

Always check out an ezine before you place an ad. Ezines that are all ads or that send out too many ads a week tend to overwhelm their subscribers so you will want to avoid those newsletters. Instead, choose an ezine that offers quality content and few ads. Many ezines offer a sponsor ad which is usually the first ad in the ezine, regular classified advertising, and a solo ad which is sent out all by itself. If you can afford it, the sponsor ad and the solo ad will be your best option. I wouldn't place an ad in the classified section unless it was free or you had a spectacularly written offer.

When you find an ezine you like, find out how many subscribers it has. I find the best ezines in terms of results and affordability have between 3000 - 5000 subscribers. Rates for an ezine this size are usually between $10 and $30.

Other features you may want to find out about include click tracking (can they tell you how many people clicked on your ad) and an HTMLoption ad (usually for a solo ad).

Remember, the best ezine in the world won't get you clicks if your ad is bad. WAHS recommends you do some research on writing effective ads.

 

Classified Ads

I have never been a fan of classified ads or FFA's. In my experience, they result in email, and not traffic or sales. But, if you'd like to try classified ads, here are some things you can use:

• Visit The Mother of All Classified Links for a list of classified ads sites many of which are FREE.
• Also, be sure to place ads at Yahoo's classified site.
• PowerSubmitter will automatically submit your ads to classified and other sites. (Click on "Automate Posting 1000s of Your Ads and "get the word out" -200 times faster than by hand.") On the rare occasions I use classified, I use Powersubmitter to submit them in one click.

 

Tracking an ad is important to know if you're getting the most bang from your buck.

How do you know an ad is working? Perhaps the traffic is coming from your article? Or maybe from an email? Tracking is extremely important to your advertising. By tracking your ads and marketing efforts you can eliminate the duds and focus on what works thereby saving time and money.

I use Clickauditto track my ads. It offers 10 free tracking links with a maximum of 10,000 clicks a month in its free option.

 

Email

ISP and consumers all frown on spam. In fact, you can lose your IPS service and webhosting if you are found to have spammed. The best way to avoid a spam complaint is to use a service. This way people have to sign up to get your email. In fact, you should use double opt-in in which they not only give their name and email, but also confirm that they want to get your email. This is your best protection because people forget they sign up for stuff and hit the "spam" button in their ISP. With a service you are protected because the service keeps a record of the date and time the person signed up and confirmed the request. I use Aweber, but there are others such as Getresponse.com.

Once you have people's permission to email, here are some things you can do to promote your business using email.

1. Be sure to have a link through which visitors have a way to contact you if they have questions.
2. Have a signature line in your email that works as a little ad. For example, on all the email that is sent by me says: Leslie Truex, Work-At-Home Success, A FREE Resource for Those Who Want to Work At Home. Be sure you link your company name to your website so people can just click to visit your site.
3. Send helpful articles. People want information not ads. Send an article with tips and then at the end use a link to your product, servive or affiliate link.

Its my recommendation to stay away from safelists as
1) many are not as safe as they say and can result in a spam complaint and
2) most are people like you trying to promote their own site but don't necessarily read the email the receive from other members.
And in fact, paid members, while they send email, are not required to get email from the list.

 

Discussion & Newsgroups

Discussion and newsgroups frown on placing ads and often ads are deleted. However, participating in a discussion or newsgroup related to your business is a good way to position yourself as an expert. Also, by adding a signature line to all your posts, you can give information about your business without directly advertising it. For example, Work-At-Home Success visits discussion groups related to working at home and telecommuting. Instead of saying, "Hey come to my site!" I answer questions or offer resources to other people's posts. My signature line gives people the opportunity to visit this site. Not only does the person who posted the message get a helpful response from me, but everyone who reads the message and response can learn about Work-At-Home Success.

The real value in using discussion groups comes from creating relationships (networking) and trust. Ads are annoying. But people are open to visiting the site of people they know who actively participate with helpful or interesting content.

All sorts of sites have groups to participate in. Some good sites include Google, iVillage, AOL, Yahoo, , and Topica. Many websites run their own discussion groups on their sites. Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have group featured that include a message board. Further you can start your own discussion group. If your service provider doesn't offer assistance you can start one through Yahoo or Google Groups.

Here are some tips for posting at discussion or newsgroups:

1. Don't place blatant ads. Some lists allow ads on specific days. Read the policy and rules of the list before posting.
2. Ad a signature line to your posts. Some lists don't allow signature lines. Read the policy and rules of the list.
3. Read posts to get a sense of the group before posting your message.
4. Be helpful or offer resources in your post.
5. Have fun but don't tease too much and avoid potentially "hot" topics such as politics (unless its a political group). Remember, the key is to make friends and create trust.

 

Pay-per-click

PPC advertising is the most recent rage in making money online. It involves paying search engines to show your ad in special spots (in Google its the ads to the top and right hand side of the search results). Search engines can also feed these ads onto other people's websites for more exposure. Its a great way to advertise your business, but it can cost you a fortune if not done correctly. Although you only pay when someone clicks on your ad, and the click might be only $.10, if you get 100 clicks a day, that will cost your $300 per month. You have to be sure that your ad does what its supposed to and that is make you money.

PPC advertising requires understanding three important concepts:

1. Keywords. These are the words and phrases people use on search engines to find websites. When you do your meta tags and submit to search engines, general keywords and phrases are fine. But in PPC advertising you need to pick keywords carefully. If you sell motorcycle boots, you may not want to use the word "boot" as people looking for riding boots may click on your ad.
2. Copywriting. You usually have less than characters to grab someone's attention. Then you have 2 lines of text to convince them to click on your ad. But again, since you pay for each click, you only want people who want what you have and are willing to pay for it. That's where good ad writing comes in. Its so crucial that some people hire others to write their ads. A good book on copywriting is The Elements of Copywriting by Robert Bly.
3. Monitor it all. You need to pay careful attention to which keywords and ads are getting clicked. You can have your ad appear higher on the search page by paying more per click than the other advertisers, but paying more means you need to be sure you are making enough to cover ad costs.  You also need to keep track of what you're paying each day to make sure you don't run over your budget. To help with this, Google Adwords allows you to set a spending amount per month. There are other PPC programs such as Yahoo..

 

Blogs

Blogs can serve two purposes;
one as your main website and two as a marketing method. Blogs are a great and easy way to present new information on a regular basis. Search engines love blogs because they like to find new content to list. So  a blog not only keeps your visitors coming back fro more information, it also keeps your site in the search engines. The best thing about blogs are that they are free (there are paid blog services as well) and can be set up in five minutes.

Blogger is a great free blog service that allows customization with little tech knowledge. Wordpress hosted services are also free but offers less customization. If you'd like to host your blog on your own site, consider downloading the Wordpress script. Many website owners, myself included use the Wordpress script to build their websties. There are thousands of themes you can down load with thousands of widgets (features) you can add with a press of the button.

 

Autoresponders

Autoresponders are automatic emails sent without your having to do to anything. When you subscribe to the WAHS Newsletter, an autoresponder sends the confirmation email. Autoresponders can be set up to email follow-ups after a sale, an ecourse, training and more. They save a great deal of time, allow you to build a list of customers and potentional customers, and do much or your work for you.

Your best bet is to set some cash aside and use a paid service. While you can get free autoresponders, they are either buggy or limited in their fuctions (ie you can email your list outside of the automatic series you've set up).

I use Aweber and have been please with all the features. For one price I can run all my "lists" of which there are over 20. I can email these lists at anytime even if they are still getting the autoresponder messages. It allows me to have subscribe forms or people can email the list. Further it manages the double-opt in feature to help avoid spam complaints.

 

Audio/Podcasting - info coming soon