Plan Low-Cost Marketing Techniques Part 7 of the Starting an E-Business on a Shoestring series
Marketing an online business is harder and more expensive than it used to be. One of the greatest difficulties of businesses starting on the Internet is getting noticed above the hum of 20+ million websites and billions of webpages. You can find a fairly complete menu of promotion techniques in my updated article "Web Marketing Checklist: 27 Ways to Promote Your Website" (www.wilsonweb.com/articles/checklist.htm). But I've selected four approaches to discuss in some detail in this issue -- strategies which I believe will give you the best results for the money expended.
- Strategy 1: Search Engine and Directory Registration
- Strategy 2: Search Engine Optimization
- Strategy 3: E-Mail Marketing to Your House List
- Strategy 4: Paid Advertising
It's important to realize that without actively marketing your website, it will never succeed. And marketing these days requires some investment. Even shoestring businesses need to cobble together the money to execute the four basic strategies outlined here. It will probably cost a minimum of about $550 for the first three strategies. Paid advertising will cost more, but there are some excellent low-cost ways to get the word out.
You'll notice also that on my own site I'm providing some new low-cost advertising opportunities for small businesses. Especially, consider 2-Line Ads (www.wilsonweb.com/ads/2-line-ad.htm) in Web Marketing Today and Doctor Ebiz. (10% off when you place 3 or more ads at a time.) My newest offers are Sponsored Links (www.wilsonweb.com/ads/splinks.htm) at the bottom of each page that offer amazing click-throughs and exclusive weekly sponsorship of my website -- for a shocking low cost (prices good only through July 14. www.wilsonweb.com/ads/sponsors.htm).
Note: You'll find that I often join the affiliate programs of the products I mention in my newsletters so long as they don't require exclusivity. I also link to many products or services that don't offer affiliate programs -- I want to send you to the best resources I know and I do my best to be objective. But to keep Web Marketing Today afloat I use affiliate links where possible. For a complete absence of affiliate links you'll probably need to read publications fully funded by advertising -- that are still in business. :-)
The four brief articles that follow are basic, but even experienced marketers may find some clues that have eluded them. I'm constantly trying to bring you the best from my current knowledge and experience, while at the same time, "putting the cookies on the bottom shelf."
Strategy 1: Search Engine and Directory Registration
The least expensive, and, arguably, the most important marketing approach is to get listings in the important search engines and directories. This articles tells you how. Read the article
Strategy 2: Search Engine Optimization
It's easy to be lost in the clutter. This article explains how you can raise the ranking of your webpages to the top listings on the search engines. It's not easy, but you can begin for about $150. Read the article
Strategy 3: E-Mail Marketing to Your House List
Too many siteowners fail to collect the e-mail address of visitors to their website -- and lose forever the ability to market to these folks again and again via a newsletter. Here are the basics. Read the article
Strategy 4: Paid Advertising
There comes the time to bite the bullet and pay for advertising. But don't be frightened by high costs. This can be surprisingly cost-effective. Read the Article
New Ecommerce and Web Marketing Articles
Each month our team of link editors scours dozens of online periodicals and resources to find key information on e-commerce and Web marketing. With so much new literature available to you, how do you find what you need quickly and painlessly? Here's a selective and searchable database of article and resource links to help your research and keep you up-to-date in the field. (Links gathered in a given month are usually available during the second week of the following month.)
