Next, get involved with various online message boards/discussion forums that discuss topics that are relevant to your business and provide a link to your website in your signature. You’ll be surprised at its effectiveness. Be sure to participate in relevant discussion forums so that you can learn and contribute most by participating in knowledgeable topics and at same time receive targeted clicks. Do not spam any discussion forums, this is not effective and will kill all credibility in your business and your product/service. The next way to receive free targeted traffic is similar to exchanging links, but even more effective. Seek out partnerships with companies that offer complimentary product offerings and agree to place a prominent link to their site if they will do same for you. You can set up a ‘Partners’ section on your homepage and display company’s logo, link, and information. It is important that we not forget about marketing offline as well. If you are just starting and need customer referrals don’t be afraid to give away products/services for free or at least in exchange for another company’s services. For instance, let’s say that you design websites. Offer a lawyer a free website for their company if in return they will give you free legal advice for a limited time. Also, offer a limited number of businesses free products/services. After you have provided a few businesses with your products/services and they are happy ask them to write a testimonial for you and display this testimonial prominently on your website. Also, give them a few of your business cards and ask them to send any of their friends your way as well. You’ll be surprised at how many people will hear about your business via word-of-mouth through satisfied customers. I hope this condensed list of suggestions have helped you in formulating ideas on how to better market your website. Use your imagination and get creative in your marketing efforts. Get out there and tell world about your website!

The great thing about this is that most competitors are making this same mistake. They may be too busy, too shorthanded, or too myopic to do much more than hand out boxes of business cards and sit around talking ‘fish stories’ of one that got away.

That is a marketing approach to avoid.

Don’t just settle for an ad in yellow pages, your local newspaper, or on radio.

Use as many marketing methods as make sense for your industry, your market, and your company. Then you will become a marketing octopus while your competitors remain marketing worms.

Consultant and speaker André Bell provides marketing tools, tips, and strategies to help businesses attract new clients, increase web traffic, and sell more to existing clients. A free copy of his new book, "101 Marketing Secrets Revealed" is available at http://www.economicbooster.com/101-marketing-methods.html

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