Web Promotion for Newly Start Up Low Budget Online Businesses
by Gerrick W
Ok, you have your website up and running 4 weeks ago. You have
done the following thus far to promote your site...
a. Submission to Search Engines b. Submission to directories c.
FFA (Free For All) d. Free Banner Ads
For all that promotion, you are only getting 20 visitors a day.
Now you ask the one million dollar question. How can I get more
visitors to my site? You have a low budget and you want to know
how and where you can promote your website to get more visitors?
Welcome to the real world of Internet marketing. To have 20
visitors per day is not bad for a few weeks old online business.
Promoting your website is an ongoing process to improve search
engine visibility and increase web traffic.
Search Engines
For a start, it takes months to rank well at the major search
engines for competitive keywords. Google, Yahoo and MSN are
currently the 'big three'. You may rank well for MSN in a matter
of three months but it may take up to a year to rank well for
Google and Yahoo. You may not receive traffic from the major
search engines for quite a while.
There was a time where you could rank well on the major in a
matter of weeks. Webmasters employ html tricks, meta tag
spamming, special doorway pages to rank high at the search
engines. The scenario has changed. The major search engines have
tightened their algorithms to prevent exploitation and their
Search Engine Result Page (SERP) from being spammed by
webmasters.
So, beware of any SEO company that promises high ranking in a
matter of days or weeks. There is a difference between having
your web pages indexed and ranking well. Your web pages may be
indexed within 24 hours but it may months before they rank well
for your keywords. Ranking well at the major search engines can
turn out to a long, long process.
This does not mean that you give up SEO altogether. Learn about
SEO and subscribe to excellent SEO newsletters to keep up with
the latest SEO news and developments. Make adjustments to your
web pages but don't fall into the trap of SEO rat race that saps
up all your time and energy.
There are other aspects of web promotion that needs your
attention if you aspire to grow your business.
Directories, FFAs and Free Banner Ads
What about directories and FFAs? You are fortunate if you have a
few click-through from free directory listings. The alternative
is to get your website listed in Yahoo! Business Directory. The
cost of listing is a tidy sum of USD299 a year.
FFAs are hopeless. Free banner ads are not effective.
Pay per Click (PPC)
Pay per click (PPC) or Cost per Click (CPC) are text ads placed
on websites, advertising networks or search engines. Google
Adwords and Overture are the two popular PPC advertising on the
Net.
Every time someone clicks on an ad, the advertiser is charged a
specific amount. The amount does not exceed the highest bid the
advertiser is willing to pay for his or her ad keywords. This
kind of advertising drives targeted traffic to your site. A word
of caution here though, unless you know the ins and outs, do's
and don'ts of PPC, steer clear or else you may blow your budget.
Content Distribution and Ezine Advertising
For a budget conscious online business the best ways of web
promotion are distributing content and ezine advertising.
Write articles that are specific to your business and distribute
them through article directories. No sales pitch and affiliate
links at this stage please. Just include what is called a
'resource box' with your website address, email link and a short
description (3 to 5 lines) about yourself and your business.
Article directories readily make available your articles for
others to use in their ezines. This becomes free publicity for
your business. Better still if your articles address the
situations of your readers and provide solutions to their
problems. This will established you as a credible source of
information. In turn, you will have people who are predisposed
to do business with you coming to your website via your
articles' resource box link.
Ezine advertising is another cost effective way of promoting a
newly start up low budget online business. It puts your ads into
contact with targeted, potential customers for your product or
service. Conversion rates tend to be higher, because the people
who clicked on the ad link are interested in what you have to
offer.
Do the necessary, search engines and directories submission,
gather inbound links, but spend the greater part of your time to
researching, writing quality content, and developing a quality
ezine to promote your site. Without systematic planning and
clear directions, you will go in circles and ultimately give up
altogether. Making gobs of money on the Internet may not be easy
nowadays, but not impossible.
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