There are a number ways you can go about marketing your website, many of which are quite inexpensive. Effectively marketing your Home website is vital to your ultimate success. In fact, key to growing a business, and particularly a new Home Business, is marketing. Once you have a domain name (which can be bought for as little as $7 these days) and a reliable host (as little as $5 a month for reasonable one), you can get going on promoting your business on Net. This can be done for free in some cases if you are willing to spend extra time on project. If you are unwilling to do this, you can pay someone to optimize your site and promote it for you, which is generally cost effective.

It is possible, however to promote your business online with no marketing budget. The key is to market it aggressively, guerilla marketing style. This means using every free marketing resource at your disposal, such as free classifieds, newsgroups, search engine promotion, niche directories, free-for-alls, blogs, e-mail signature lines, message and bulletin boards and free mailing opt-in lists and ezines, to name just a few. Just don't spam, whatever you do. There are many free resources throughout web covering these free methods. You can sign up for their free newsletters or look for their websites using your favorite search engine. Speaking of search engines, most of traffic on internet still comes from free engines such as Google, despite a recent influx of pay per click or pay per performance search engines such as Overture.

Offline methods includes distributing newsletters with your product or service and contact number listed inside, trade shows, brochures, flyers, stationary, advertising in either local or regional newspapers and/or "free shoppers", and passing out audio cassetes about your product or business to others who might be interested. The potential marketing techniques are almost limitless and it may be best to look to your "starter kit" or starter guide as it will probably go into great detail about which offline marketing methods have been proven to work best in that particular product or line of business. The bottom line is, action always beats inaction, as you gain experience and create a synergy that push your Home Business to your goals.

Now it’s time to do something about most serious distortions you discovered during your key audience perception monitoring. In other words, establish your public relations goal. And that could be to straighten out that dangerous misconception, or correct that gross inaccuracy, or stop that potentially fatal rumor dead in its tracks.

Naturally, you will need a good strategy, one that clearly shows you how to proceed. To keep things simple, note that there are only three strategic options available to you when it comes to handling a perception and opinion challenge. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. Of course, wrong strategy pick will taste like day-old fried eggs, so be certain new strategy fits comfortably with your new public relations goal. Certainly, You don’t want to select “change” when facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.

Now you need to hit members of your target audience with a powerful message. But persuading an audience to your way of thinking is hard work. Which is why your PR folks must create some very special, corrective language. Words that are not only compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual. Only in this way will you be able to correct a perception by shifting opinion towards your point of view, leading to behaviors you are targeting.

Pass your message by your communications specialists to assure its impact and persuasiveness. Then, sharpen it before selecting communications tactics most likely to carry your message to attention of your target audience. You can pick from dozens that are available. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But be sure that tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.

Since credibility of a message is often dependent on how it’s delivered, you should consider unveiling it before smaller meetings and presentations rather than using higher-profile means such as news releases. You’ll soon need to provide progress reports, which will alert you and your PR team to get back out in field and start work on a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. You’ll want to use many of same questions used in first benchmark session. Difference this time is that you will be watching very carefully for signs that bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

If program lags, consider accelerating matters with more communications tactics and increased frequencies.

Yes, all you REALLY need to know is that right PR can alter individual perception and lead to changed behaviors. Especially when you create kind of external stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives.

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Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to managers about using fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com