Step Into My Parlour… Easy ways to entice the right people to your websiteWritten by Daegan Smith
Though traditional marketing methods cannot be ignored, having a website is a very effective gateway to getting new business. Not just that, you can maximise sales to existing customers with your website by making it easier for them to do business with you. Now, this sounds really rosy…you put up a website; you become a millionaire. Though that is not such a far away possibility, a lot comes in between two. Once you put up a website, it is important to market it right and generate tremendous traffic inwards before you can start converting your leads into cash cows. Now, you would ideally want everyone and their cousin to check out your website, right? Isn’t that what we mean by ‘tremendous traffic’? Think again. No matter how great products or services you sell, you will not start making a profit until you have relevant people hitting right buttons on website. By relevant, we mean people who fall within your targeted segment and who are most likely to buy your products and services. Hard as it may sound, traffic generation should be a top priority for a home business owner. Here are some effective ways to market your website online and not have to pray for fortune to fund them: - Register with ‘Affiliate Programs’: Undoubtedly a great way to market your website would be to get your affiliates to do it for you. An affiliate program is a revenue sharing program where an affiliate website receives a portion of income for driving traffic, sales or leads to your website. Most affiliates use a pay-per-sale model and by far get you most focused traffic than other methods.
- Email Promotions: Email is god’s gift to home-based businesses. You can use email to get in touch and keep in touch with existing customers and prospects. Initially, target your existing customers. If you run a weekly newsletter, use subscribers’ email database for your email promotions. One of easiest ways to encourage visitors to keep coming back to your site is to offer value. Get word out on discounts on purchases from website, e-coupons and other attractive promotional offers. Try to resist temptation of buying email addresses from web companies, for 2 reasons. One is that not all people on that list may necessarily be part of your target audience. Second, and more important, you could be seen as a “Spammer”! That would not only not give you much sales; it will also spoil your company’s reputation.
- Search Engine Optimization: Free search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN are ‘the’ places people go to when they are looking for information. Make sure that your website gets in top 10 of these websites’ result pages. This is a sure shot way to attract quality traffic to your website. Take a four –pronged approach to do this:
- Submit your site’s URL to these and other free search engines and online directories (www.goto.com, www.altavista.com, www.morpheus.com)
- Optimize your website so that it can be easily indexed by search engines. You can also use website optimization and SEO placement agencies for this purpose. (www.proboostgold.com, www.addpro.com)
- Make your website’s content rich in keywords and pay special attention to keyword placement
- Finally, create a content rich site, which actually gives useful information to customer
- Reciprocal Links: Reciprocal link is a hyperlink you place on your web page with understanding that linked web page will do same for your website. The obvious choice for a partner here is a website that is related to your business but not in direct competition. For instance, if you sell contact lenses, choose websites that sell eyeglasses or related products like cleaning solutions. Another good choice would be websites that give out clinical information on contact lens usage. Reciprocals are a cost-free and effective way of attracting focused traffic to your website.
| | 10 Benefits of Submitting Articles To E-zinesWritten by Dean Shainin
1. You'll brand your web site, business and yourself by submitting articles to e-zines. You could include your name, business name, your credentials, web site address and e-mail address in your resource box. 2. You will become known as an expert on topics you write about. This will give you and your business extra credibility which will help you compete against your competition. 3. Your article might also be placed on publisher's home page. If they publish each issue on their home page this will give you some extra exposure. 4. You might get extra exposure if e-zine publisher archives their e-zine on their site. People might want to read back issues before they make decision to subscribe. 5. You will get free advertising. This will allow you to spend your profits on other forms of advertising. You could buy advertisements in other e-zines that don't publish your articles. 6. You might get extra income from people wanting to hire you to write other articles, books, or even ask to speak at seminars. This is a great way to multiply your income.
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