Directory marketing can help boost your companies performance a great deal. Not only will you get qualified leads for your business, your web site will also increase it's traffic ranking a tremendous amount.

Here are a couple basic advantages to online directories,

- Substantial staying power - Repetitive marketing - Your listing grows with entire site - No updating unless necessary - Not necessary to link back to directory

Please Note: This article is meant to discuss and implement marketing strategies for local business directories online, not link exchange, a.k.a swapping links with other websites.

For many people, one/two directories always come to mind,

- http://dir.yahoo.com - http://www.dmoz.com - http://directory.google.com

With web marketing, you want to have ever lasting staying power, online directories can provide you with this and more.

Many people who DO NOT use internet everyday stick with basics when they come online. Many people are usually looking for a specific service or product that they want to check up on within their local community. This is why it is so crucial that you get noticed locally online.

Every major city has atleast one or two good business directories for you to submit your business to. Many of these directories don't even require that you have a website.

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Tips on how to find local directories online:

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Try being very specific when you search. There are two methods that work really good.

A) "Hamilton" Business Directory < Search for "Your City" plus "business directory". This should typically bring you to local business directories that usually are competing against one another. Don't be afraid to keep digging through this important search term.

B) Be VERY specific: If in case that you can't find anything, try searching for something general within your local area. For instance, if you "cut hair", try searching for "Hair Salons In (your area)".

Ex. "Hair Salons in hamilton, ontario".

Doing a specific search like this should typically bring up local directories that are really trying to get most exposure as possible. The reason why you should find a directory this way is because if you don't find anything by doing specific searches for specific products or services locally, you might as well reap rewards of having your own local business directory and get all advertising exposure that comes with it.

Directories online are there for one thing and one thing only. To give owner of directory massive exposure while helping his/her local, regionally, national community. That's it.

There are few people out there that just create a local directory just for something to do. These people typically have too much time on their hands and they probably take great pride in their directory online.

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How To Prepare For Directory Submissions

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There are certain key bullets of information that 90% of directories ask for, here they are in no particular order.

Name Company Position Type Of Business Phone Number Fax Number

Email: - (may need to be validated)

Web Site Title Of Your Site: - (keep it within 70 char) Description: - (keep it within 200 char)

Search Terms: If you are asked for search terms, don't disregard them. This is just there so that directory you are submitting to can add these search terms to their "search engine" in order to find your business.

So if a directory asks you for search terms, add in as many as you can that you would want people to find your business by.

and... Category

At first you must think that with a title as above that this article must be about something other than marketing; however, what this article is about is marketing, specifically affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is much more than signing up for a free affiliate program and then posting your affiliate link here and there. It's all about promotion and not only promoting your affiliate program association or associations but also about promoting yourself. Hence, title of this article….

Let's imagine that you are a politician. Although glamorous, it is one of most backbiting filled professions on face of planet. But there is something to learn from great politicians who do it right. Those that are not using negatives and faults of their opponents, but that are rather only promoting their own positives and very fact that they are involved in being a part of political process are those who do it right.

So who are marketers that do it right? Those that don't point fingers while at same time they let their public know that they have something to market. How can you do you do this? The number one way is to sell your-self. I don't mean being a sell-out, but rather that you do things to make yourself visible to people that you would like to become your customers. One way you can do this is through networking. In offline world this is accomplished by belonging to church groups, business organizations, and other such groups where people meet and exchange ideas. Online you can network by participating in forums, in chat rooms, posting at guestbooks and much more. Let people get to know you and what you're about.