My experiences of internet marketing with no knowledge and a very limited budget Written by Craig Lock
Four years ago I was a total "computer dummy", not even knowing how to turn one on (a computer, I mean!). However, fortunately I developed associations with some "computer geeks", who suggested marketing my various books on internet. This subsequently developed into on-line creative writing courses (the first one was free and I was completely overwhelmed and going broke fast), which have been very successful. In spite of a huge amount of time and effort put in, our first attempts at marketing products were minimally successful. As "newbies" we tried usual techniques: search engines (all of them with automatic submissions), web rings, banners, links (with sites getting fewer hits than ourselves), free classifieds and a guest book - all with very limited success. (I never did try newsgroups). However, all we got was other "internet pros" trying to sell us something (we still get that many times daily - trash bin). Fortunately, we had no money to spend on promotion, so capital was not wasted. With our "learners plates" on, this was all done on two "freebie sites" (Geocities and Tripod). However, steep learning curve and persistence gave us a great deal of new knowledge regarding internet marketing. Things changed drastically once we got our own domain at NZ Enterprise.com (with Webcom), and suddenly all our sites got listed with Yahoo, as well as all major search engines. Must have been PERCEPTION that we were "successful" and "bigger" than we were. Image is everything (as in life!). It also helped having quite a unique product in getting a high ranking ("creative writing courses"). Eureka, Hooray! Incidentally, we submitted to Yahoo (Australia and New Zealand); so I suggest you try regional Yahoo, rather than their main database. We also get quite a few hits from some of lesser known S/E's (see even I'm learning internet terminology!), like Looksmart, Snap and Northern Light. ( we also tried Go To http//:www.goto.com, but with limited success). The traffic to our various sites started increasing substantially and sales started materialising. Mostly, our creative writing courses and money management courses, but a few books too. Incidentally, we do all our marketing on-line; but hope to do some off-line too as more money comes in. We are presently getting 200 hits a day plus, and sales most weeks. Whilst sales are still nothing like we would like (and I realise it's much harder to sell products on-line than off-line), they are increasing fast. We started to make a small profit after 18 months on-line and sales a have increased substantially since then !
| | Marketing Your Website OFF the Web!Written by Jenny Wanderscheid
You've built your website. You've submitted to search engines. You've optimized your meta tags. You've exchanged links with other sites. You have a newsletter that you email out weekly. You've advertised in other ezines. Well, at least I hope you have! You've done everything a small entrepenuer can to advertise their website. Correct? Wrong! Your next step is to GET OFF THE INTERNET!!!Thanks to a new service by Cafe Press , you can now advertise your site off web and get word out about your site everywhere! Thanks to this innovative new service, with a few mouse clicks and upload of your site or company logo, you can now offer your visitors t- shirts, coffee mugs and mousepads. This creative service is different than most places I have seen. First and foremost, Cafe Press charges NO setup fee. Zip. Zero. Zilch. The service is incredibly easy to use. Follow their standards for correct DPI to use in your graphics, and within minutes, you have an online store full of goodies advertising your site. There is no overhead for you, no inventory, no credit card processing, nothing. They take care of it ALL! Your store is created automatically, and you can instantly see what your products look like. They have set base prices, so you can mark them up a bit to make a profit if you choose.For now, forget about potential profits from these products and think of all ways you could use this unique marketing tool! The possiblities are endless! Imagine several people at a large office sitting and drinking coffee with your logo and url on it. Or strolling through mall with your URL t-shirt on. Now, picture yourself ordering a stack of mousepads and talking to local computer store and giving a few away. Hang out at coffee net houses with your url mug. Use it as a fundraiser for parks, donate prizes to local contests and radio giveaways, list goes on and on. Whenever I wear my URL shirts, people inevitably ask, "What's that?" In line at post office, shopping, at gas station - everywhere! My goal is to get my mug on Letterman or Leno's desk!
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