Everybody has their favorite way of promoting online. Some have found success in their favorite methods, others are still struggling.
However, no matter how you promote or what your level of success is, it’s a good idea to keep your options open — and that means knowing and understanding what they are.
Using varying promotion methods gives you a broader base to work from. Some methods even build upon each other when done together, creating a higher overall level of response.
Before that can happen, however, it’s important to get a basic idea of what types of promotion are available and how they work.
Here is a list of the major methods of promotion used online today, in no particular order, with a quick explanation of what they are and what is needed to make them work for you.
SEARCH ENGINES
Marketing your site through search engines centers around highly developing the content and format of your site. Search engines seek out web sites based on their content, how well structured or navigable they are, and how popular they are.
Narrowing your site’s focus to very specific key words helps cut the level of competition.
One valuable resource that can assist you in this can be found at: http://websuccesscentral.com/e/wordtracker.html This service allows you to compare how often key words are searched for online against the level of competition for those particular key words.
PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH ENGINES – PPCS
These search engines work on an entirely different principle. Instead of trying to rank existing sites by content and popularity, search results are ranked by who bids the most for the key word being used.
This changes your promotion from focusing on getting ranked to making your a’dvertising dollars turn into sales. Success here depends on choosing the right key words for your site and getting the most sales possible out of your visitors. One of the best resources on PPCS is “Pay Per Click Dynamite.” You can get a detailed overview of what Pay Per Click is all about and how you can profit at: http://websuccesscentral.com/e/ppcd.html
PUBLISHING AN EZINE
Publishing your own ezine can help make more out of your other promotions simply by collecting contact information from visitors to your site. It then gives you reason to stay in contact with people on a regular basis. It helps build your credibility and keeps your business in the forefront of your reader’s minds.
In building your own contact list, you’ll develop a database of individuals you can market to indefinitely. Plus, as you build a trusting relationship, you’ll be able to make recommendations of products and services to your readers that will be more meaningful to them than mere advertising. You can get a step by step free tutorial on starting your own ezine at: http://websuccesscentral.com/ezinesuccess/
CLASSIFIED EZINE ADS
Advertising in ezines is one way to make use of the contact list’s others have built. The trick here is in developing ads that can solicit a good response, and in not trying to make a sale right from your ad. Instead use the ad as an attention getter designed to bring people to your sales site and nothing more.
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PROMOTING ARTICLES
Promoting articles you have written allows you to approach other sites and ezines with something of value to them in place of mere a’dvertising. Like publishing an ezine, it can give you credibility, and more personal contact with others than classified a’dvertising can.
AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
If you have products or services of your own, you can offer to pay others a commission for helping you sell them. This also gives you the opportunity to market more readily to those who sign up as your affiliates.
To make an affiliate program work, you need to offer assistance in every way possible to your affiliates. Provide them with marketing tools, ideas, incentives, and such.
JOINT VENTURES
You can also approach others who have contact lists based on targeting related to your product with a joint venture. Some offer a free product to those willing to a’dvertise to their contact lists. Others offer to set up a special referral system or commission structure to those willing to work with them.
To be successful here you must approach others on a personal level. Don’t just throw a proposal out to any who will listen. Take the time to find the right kind of people who can work in your market and are willing to share their resources.
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GUARANTEED HITS
When buying guaranteed hits, you are essentially paying a business who gets a lot of traffic to send a certain amount of traffic your way. Most generally, these will not be targeted visitors to your site.
To make the best of this method of promotion, develop a target specific web site with a single purpose. It has to be very attention grabbing as well. This will then attract those interested in your product and leave the others to go on their way. You’ll be fighting for the attention of people who were not intending to go to your site in the first place, so you must get straight to the point and seek to accomplish one thing only with your site — solicit an immediate action. Whether that immediate action is a purchase or providing contact information is up to you and your goals.
NEWS OR DISCUSSION GROUPS
This involves spending time talking with others in a news or discussion group. There is not direct marketing in any way. Instead, you are merely trying to open lines of communication with others in hopes of getting results from that communication further down the road.
You accomplish this by showing your expertise or knowledge in areas relating to what you sell. If you can impress others with what you know, they may come to regard you as an information resource and then decide to visit your site or ask for your help.
BULK E-MAIL
While bulk email has become a disreputable method of marketing (and not recommended), some still do it anyway. The object here is to develop attention getting email that will incite people to visit your web site. To be successful, your email must be great at making people notice its there and in driving them to your web site.
Sending mailings to highly targeted lists of consumers makes much more sense than sending email out to anyone. However, there is a legal risk involved with this type of marketing.
PUBLISHING INFO PRODUCTS
Producing your own information e-books or e-courses gives you the power to attract others who want what you have. The trick to turning that into money involves publishing information related to your business and products. This attracts the right kind of person and offers you or your business up as a resource for the future. You can literally ‘Turn Words into Traffic” writing your own information products. For a step by step guide on writing articles visit, http://www.websuccesscentral.com/ezarticles.html
PRESS RELEASE/MEDIA PUBLICITY
A press release is a prepared document that gives people a basic overview of your business and what it offers. The idea here is to make your press release of interest to those in the media so they will report it to their audience. The more interesting you make it, without sounding like an advertisement, the more likely you are to get results.
CONCLUSION
This list represents the major methods of promotion being used online today. However, there is no limit to the varying ways they are used. As well, with a little knowledge and some creativity, you can use any number of these methods at the same time.
Which options you choose and how you work them will be up to you. Simply use the brief explanations offered here as a guide in making your decisions.
LuAnn Elliott is the publisher of Web Success —
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