Congratulations!! You've got your online business up and running.
Your website looks fantastic!
But hold it,
No One Knows You Exist.
So many people start an online business and believe that by submitting their site to the search engines that they will immediately have hits on their website and sales, putting money in their pockets. Sorry folks, this doesn't happen overnight and not at all without some thought and by putting a marketing strategy into action. I know because this is what I did. Big mistake! But I was a novice. Now after over three years of marketing online, I can give you the following advice so you don't make the common mistakes that I did in my early years online.
This is such an important step that I can't emphasize it enough. It's the first step and last step that beginners often make. Don't let search engine submission be your only advertising. This is one of the most common mistakes made when marketing a website.
Yes, search engine submission is a must! But don't let it stop there. I am constantly reviewing the parameters that the search engines use to determine site ranking. I am constantly changing little things like meta tags, keywords, and content to gain an upward movement of my websites on the most popular search engines. I find that a reliable, honest, and proven software like WebPosition Gold is a must when it comes to being on top of the major search engines.
One of the most frustrating marketing problems that I have encountered recently is that my google rankings slipped dramatically. I just couldn't figure out what I should do to remedy this problem. Then I bought an amazing eVideo book that showed me step-by-step how to get top rankings and free traffic through the search engines, especially Google.
You too can benefit from this fantabulous eVideo and reach the top pages of the search engines. For more information and purchasing of this book on how optimize your web pages to reach into the ranks of Google, Yahoo, and other search engines just go to: 10 Easy Steps To A Google Friendly Page.
Anyone who's been on the net any time at all knows that Google has been the search engine of choice for many for a while now. Whether that continues remains to be seen, but for now, with MSN still in development and Yahoo going through some growing pains, many still feel that Google is the leader.
Get On Google is a program developed to aid you in controlling your sites Google listing and ranking. Many times internet businesses would love to be listed on the search engines but they can never figure out how to. The Get On Google site allows everyone to learn how Google can rapidly index your site. Not only will you learn about rapid google indexing you will be given a free copy of an excellent ad-words tutorial to help you use Google to drive traffic to your web site.
You can use free search engine submission sites or the right software to get your website to the top of the search engines. I particularly like WebPosition Gold to accomplish this. Years ago I downloaded a trial version of this software and have been using it ever since. I've compared it with my neighbor's software and it wins hands down for getting me ranked high on the search engines and for aiding me in optimizing my website for each of the major search engines. But I haven't stopped at the search engines for traffic and neither should you.
They say that content is king. There is no better saying to describe how your web pages are ranked on the various search engines. I've found that the easiest way to gain rankings are to write articles pertinent to the content on your website and submit them to the various article directories. Especially those directories that rank high on Google, MSN, and Yahoo. There's an art to writing articles and to sumitting them. Thank goodness, you can find out all the information necessary to drive traffic to your website through article content by going to Article Announcer Course.
Keeping in touch with your customer is one of the most important advertising steps you can take. Whether it be through and opt-in list or through a sale, continual contact with your customer will drive more sales in the future. Autoresponders are the best way to capture email addresses, send out sales emails, and respond to frequently asked questions.
You can set up a sequential autoresponder and send dozens of emails at given intervals. This is one good way to give away free eCourses. It also works well to inform a customer of needed software that are backend sales to a product they have purchased.
One of the best autoresponders is aWeber. An autoresponder is essential for keeping in touch with your customers. I've found that aWeber autoresponders are ideal for not only responding to requests, but for setting up email courses and sequential message programs.
Driving traffic to your website is a bit Tricky! Just remember that most traffic you generate through viral methods will be useless as far as purchases. This traffic does generate hits which make the search engines and Alexa look on you more favorably. (and it's good for bragging rights with friends and relatives)
You must be "picky" when choosing programs that guarantee you "thousands" of targeted hits to your website. It takes some shopping around and experimenting to come across the right programs. I have been as disappointed with the quality of hits from these programs as I have with the so-called safelists. Many folks using these programs also automate their clicking through to your site and never even read your content. Of course they are not going to buy. They're just trying to get credits with the program to drive traffic to themselves.
I have found a couple that do work. They work because people are manually viewing your site. One of the best that I've found is Trafficswarm. I like the fact that they have built their reputation on constant monitoring of the participants in their program. They have a built-in anti-cheat feature that alerts them to people using automated traffic programs. You will see a huge increase in the hits to your site by using Trafficswarm and many purchases have been made on my websites that can be attributed to traffic coming from this program. They are not all wasted hits!
Opportunity.com has been another good program that I joined. This is not a "click through" program like trafficswarm. This program has two sides to it. First, it creates opt-in lists for you that are customers willing to hear your sales pitches. You will not get tons of spam mail through this program. Usually just one email per week. Targeted emails and very few of them.
Secondly, this program advertises your website by re-direction. You use a special URL to have your prospects click through and not only is your site displayed but they are shown your Opportunity.com site when they leave. This allows them to sign up and become part of your own opt-in list. It's quite unique on the web and I appreciate its tameness as far as no huge increase in spam. I've tried other safelist programs and had to create a new email address just to receive the thousands of spam emails I began receiving.
The traditional means to drive traffic is through email campaigns. With anti-spam laws in place this is becoming more risky. I think that this is still one of the best ways to get people to buy your products online. But it's tricky! You don't want to break the law. Opt-in lists and safelists are here to stay. They keep you on the right side of public decency and the law. Creating your own list takes time. That's why so many people buy safelists. I personally think that the traffic you create to your website is non-revenue generating from these so called safelists. You really need to generate your own list of customers from those that have bought products from you in the past and know you as a reputable source that they will buy from in the future.
Probably one of the best-known and most well-respected experts on the subject of e-mail marketing has just released all the details behind how he used e-mail marketing to make his money and attract new opt-in subscribers that became return buyers of his products! His eBook entitled EMail Secrets is a wealth of information on how to create your own opt-in lists and use those lists to create email campaigns that will bring your customers back again and again. I highly recommend it if you are considering email to bring customers to your website. And just remember, email campaigns are the number 1 means to sell products online even with the anti-spam laws of today.
A good email campaign needs the right software! At first you can do all your emailing manually. I did this for the first year or so. But once things start taking off, you will find that this is time consuming and time is money. I can't stress this point too much: automating your emails and business transactions will free your time for the important aspects of your online business. I use Mailloop 6.0 in my online business. It's not the only email software out there but I have found that it fits my business needs to a tee. With this software, I can not only run my email campaigns but use Mailloop to automate the replies from to my customers and distribute my products instantly when I have a purchase from my websites.
Just recently, I took John Reese's Traffic Secrets course. I can't begin to tell you what I learned through this truely unique marketing course. It has totally changed how I do business online. I worried about the cost but bought it anyway. I'm so glad I did! In the first two weeks of implementing just a fraction of the techniques I learned, I made the cost of the marketing course back and more. I have since made hundreds of dollars per week more than what I would have if I had not bought the Traffic Secrets marketing course. I highly recommend this product to anyone serious about making money online. Check out this marvelous course by clicking here
EZINES and Newsletters are another of the traditional means to obtain customers. The two main reasons to offer an ezine or a newsletter are to build your own opt-in list and to keep in constant contact with your customers through giving them information they want and inform them of new products you have to offer. I offer a couple of newsletters on my niche websites and find that they are a wonderful means to keep people informed. I don't offer a marketing newsletter though. There are just too many of them out there and everyone is giving them away. They fit in well with a niche market. Online marketing newsletters just re-hash old material and I believe that they serve a purpose (but maybe the word should be "served"). I have been using a newer technology called RSS to keep in contact with my marketing friends.
Good Luck with your online endeavors! Test and Track your marketing campaigns and to see what works. Discard the bad campaigns and methods and expand those that do work. If all goes well, you will soon be making money online.
Some Marketing Suggestions
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If your business has a Web site and you want the world to know about you, be sure to check them out
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