Fortune-Magnet News

by:
Adrian Kennelly

… No they won’t. On the web, building a web site is not enough. If there are no links to the site anywhere, no-one is going to visit it. The site won’t even be listed in any of the search engines without some incoming links. To get traffic, you will need to do some promotion.

Web Directories

The basic part of any promotion campaign, web directories, whist they may not generate much in the way of traffic, will help in your site’s search engine ranking. A good list of free, non-reciprocal, search engine friendly directories can be found at
http://info.vilesilencer.com.

Pay Per Click Advertising

This is advertising such as PPC Search Engines, like Yahoo!’s Overture, and contextual advertising, like Google’s AdWords. Be warned, it is very easy to go through a substantial amount of money for no reward using these services if you are not careful. AdWords (amongst others) lets you pick a maximum budget a day, but, although $5 may not sound like much, $5/day is $150+ per month. Better make sure your keywords are correctly identified, and, in preference, not highly competed on, and that your sales copy is good enough before doing this.

Quality Traffic, not Just Traffic

It’s what everyone is after, more traffic to their website. Traffic is easy to obtain, though. Autosurfers, manual hit exchanges and purchased traffic will all send visitors to your website. However, this traffic is just visitors, many of whom will just burn up your bandwidth for no reward. Unless you are receiving decent money for pay per impression advertising, such as banners and popups, this traffic can be totally valueless.

Repeat Traffic

Unless you only require visitors to visit your site once, because you are selling a one-off product, and your sales copy is fantastic enough that they are hooked to buy on the first visit (and if you are regularly doing this, write an ebook explaining how and sell it), you will want visitors to return. If there is nothing of value at your site, visitors may come once, but they won’t come back of their own accord. Typically, it is estimated that a prospective customer will be exposed seven times to a product etc. before buying.

Reciprocal Linking

Whilst somewhat frowned upon, and generally thought to not be as valuable as one-way linking (see below) for search engine optimization, a relevant reciprocal linking campaign can be an important traffic generating tool. swap links with sites in a related, but non-competing, business to your own. It isn’t really a good idea to link to competitors; although visitors will be interested in your product, there is a good chance you will lose them to your competitor, especially if their website or product is better or looks better than your own. Not a desirable outcome. For example, a web hosting site could link to a site that sells scripts and programs; visitors to one will more than likely use the other, but the sites are not in direct competition. You can also swap links with web directories that require a reciprocal link.

One-Way Linking

Considered the best form of link for SEO purposes, this can also be a good source of traffic. There are a number of ways of getting one-way links. The easiest is submission to free web directories (see above). Another good source is by writing articles relevant to your site or industry, putting a resource box at the bottom, then posting the article on the directories such as GoArticles, or by submitting to the ezines. Webmasters and ezine publishers are always in need of fresh content, and will publish your article for free. The hardest way of getting one-way inbound links is by having websites voluntarily link to you. The only way to do this is by providing a valuable tool, service or resource that other webmasters will want to direct their visitors to.

About The Author:

Adrian Kennelly is the webmaster of http://www.directorygold.com, DirectoryGold Web Directory

by:
Herman Drost

The problem with a new site is that it often takes a long time before it is indexed by the search engines. This means you are missing out on getting traffic and making sales. Google places new sites in the “sandbox” which means they are on “hold” for a period of time before they rank.

Here are some ways to generate immediate traffic to your web site:

1. Start a PPC (pay per click) campaign – you can begin a Google Adwords campaign and start generating visitors the same day you set it up. Of course it is going to cost you some money but you can set a limit for how much you wish to spend. You will soon get a good idea what keywords produce the most clicks for your ads. You can incorporate these keywords in your site when you optimize it for the search engines.

While you run your PPC campaign get busy with preparing your site for the main search engines. Once you have been indexed by the main ones such as Google, Yahoo and MSN and start moving up in rankings, you can scale back the amount you spend on Google Adwords. Your goal is to eventually rank high enough that you won’t have to use PPC anymore because you are getting enough visitors.

2. Optimize your site for the search engines – the keywords that generated the most clicks from your PPC campaign, should be included in your web pages. Research alternative keywords using utilities such as Wordtracker or the Overture Suggestion Tool. You can determine the popularity of those keywords by seeing how many Google Adword campaigns are running. You accomplish this by entering the keyword or keyword phrase in the Google search engine and see how many ads appear on the right hand side of the page. If there are a lot, that means the keyword you chose is very popular and in high demand.

Integrate a few of your best keywords within the text on each of your web pages. The home page should contain the keywords which have the highest demand (most searches) with the least number of competing web sites. Then proceed with the other pages in descending order of keyword popularity.

Make sure you also include these keywords in your meta tags, title, h1-h3 tags, links and file names. Don’t overdo it for you may get penalized for spamming the search engines.

3. Increase link popularity – this refers to how many external and internal links are pointing or linking to any particular page. External links include those that come from web sites other than your own whereas internal links are those that come from within the same domain name. Link popularity is not based on the “quantity” of links but the “quality” of those links as well. Therefore increasing link popularity does not necessarily require having a large number of links pointing to your site but rather a good number of quality links.

4. Submit to the top search engine directories – many of the top directories have good link popularity that can be passed on to your site. They also have specific category pages that are related to the nature of your site. The major directories include The Open Directory, Yahoo and Zeal.

The Open Directory is one of the largest that is still free, however it can take months or even years to get listed. If you become an editor for Zeal you can get your site listed free. Yahoo costs $299.00/year to be included. It is worth it if you can afford it.

Here’s a couple of articles on how to properly submit your site to the search engine directories:

http://www.searchrank.com/resources/art007.htm

http://www.searchrank.com/resources/art015.htm

5. Submit to specialty search engine directories – you may wonder why I haven’t mentioned submitting to the major search engines. When you work on building the link popularity of your site, it automatically places you in the main search engines. Once you have submitted your site to the main directories, find specialized directories related to your business. Here’s a good resource:

http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156351

You can also research the link partners of your competitors’ sites by entering your favorite keyword in the search engines. Once you have found a number of top ranked sites, download the Google toolbar and check their back links. This can save you a lot of time researching other areas to find quality links.

Once your site been indexed by the search engines and included in the directories, focus on adding more content and continue building your link popularity. This will help you to maintain and/or increase rankings with the result of gaining more traffic to your new web site.

About The Author:

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com. Affordable Web Site Design and Web Hosting. Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original articles. mailto:subscribe@isitebuild.com. Read more of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles

by:
Michael Medeiros

Promoting a Website is not an easy task. New Website Developers may have the impression of building a Website and sales are generated. This is far from true. There are millions of Websites. Within those millions, there are bound to be competitors. To rise above, or obtain a portion of the market-share, developers need to utilize an effective promotion campaign.

Establishing a Website is not much different than a brick-and-mortar business. Open a Deli in the heart of a City and millions of potential customers will pass daily. In contrast, open the Deli in the suburbs, and there would be one quarter of the potential customers. Obviously, the City would be much more expensive to get started and maintain, but the revenue should provide for the added expense.

The same holds true in Website Promotion. However, the landscape is different. There are no streets and sidewalks customers have to use. Therefore, our businesses need to be found by customers in a variety of places. It needs to be brought to the potential customer, or viewable from wherever they may be lurking.

Where do we start with Website Promotion?

One of the topics sweeping the developer’s world is Optimization. The internet will naturally bring potential customers, if the site is optimized properly. Computers work hard on matching relevant information. This is a huge benefit to e-business owners.

Before promotion begins, or altering existing efforts, understand the Internet’s backbone. Why has the World Wide Web become popular? Most should agree, information retrieval rules. Internet users don’t have to sit down and watch television waiting for local weather. They don’t have to wait for news of interest. They don’t have to drive to find the best prices. They don’t have to look through cook-books to find a recipe. They don’t have to talk to salespeople for a car. Today it’s all on the, “information,” super highway.

As a developer, focus on information delivery before beginning promotion of a Website. If a page can be divided into two topics, make two separate pages. Over-use of graphics can present problems too. While it’s nice to make a Site pretty, most people don’t care. They want the information or products they are seeking. Sectors such as art could be an exception, but for the most part, lots of graphics are a waste. People read on the internet. Give people something to read, not just something to view.

Promotion Budget

If launching a new campaign, it may take time to decipher an effective budget. There are simple variables that should be considered with budgeting. Given the potential scope of a Website, advertising should be devoted to different areas of the site. For example, paying to promote the free portion of a Website is not logical. In contrast, a free forum may sell advertising. The advertising segment of the site should be exploited.

There is a simple formula to develop a budget. If a site is new, it takes some research and investment to draw an accurate conclusion. Put simply, consider the following; how many potential customers are required to make a sale? From each sale, how much profit is generated? Of the profits, how much is invested into advertising? This identifies the value of potential customers. If ten customers make one sale, and ten dollars are allocated towards advertising, each customer is potentially worth one dollar. However, room for growth could be made by reducing the value of a potential customer or increasing the advertising contribution. A competitive sector may force reduced profits rather than reduced value of potential customers.

Comprehensive budgeting could be applied to aspects of the business. Promote each aspect as a unique entity. For example, a Website that sells music and movies could have separate budgets for the segments. This could reveal vital information to the survival of a business. Implement effective models that assist in tracking expense and results. This is fairly simple with website statistics and tracking tools.

Free Traffic Promotion – Keywords and Phrases

When it comes to free traffic, it’s about information retrieval. People utilize tools that provide information accurately and quickly. These tools rely on the developer’s interpretation of a Website or page (On-Site Optimization). What is the Website or page about? What phrases are people looking for that want to use this site? Information retrieval is a complicated double-edge-sword between people surfing the web and people creating the web. When the people creating the web do not create clear and focused pages, people surfing the Web cannot find them.

Free traffic is a gift from creating user friendly pages, clearly focusing on a specific topic, and the result of promotion efforts. It stems from a good balance. While free traffic primarily comes from Search Engines, it also comes from referring sites. People will write about a Website in blogs, forums, or on their personal pages. People will add links to Sites they like.

If developers hunt for free traffic, problems can arise. Hunting for free traffic has made developers try tricks that got the site removed from Search Engines. This can present a big problem as they are a large source of free targeted traffic. Keep free traffic in mind while promoting a Website, but don’t make it the focus of promotion. It will come naturally over time. Take it as a gift and an acknowledgement that a Website has been optimized well, presents clear information, and is promoted in the right places. Although some may argue the point, don’t anticipate quality free traffic to begin immediately. It takes extensive thought, advertising, and planning for this to happen, especially within competitive sectors.

Promoting in Directories

One place to start promoting a Website is Website Directories. Most directories are organized by topic. Some are more comprehensive than others. In addition, there are, “Niche,” directories that focus on one topic. For example, there are directories for shopping, reference, art, and automotive sites. In contrast, there are general directories that provide all the niches.

Finding an appropriate place within a directory may be difficult. Directories can a large structure. However, a comprehensive structure benefits advertisers with targeting. Comprehensive directories enable developers’ to classify a Website. For example, it maybe possible to promote a site the sells speakers, for cars, but only domestic cars, and ones that are late model. In addition, some directories may implement regional indexing. Targeting an index in a directory can be complex, but it can be a great benefit too.

Don’t expect to rush from directory to directory and establish a bunch or references. Each directory is unique. Take time to understand how the directory is structured, what they expect as a title and description, and how the suggestion process works. Seek similar sites; take note of where they appear, and how they are described.

Directories are generally affordable solutions. Most Directories are indexed by search engines. They help search engines understand a sites focus. In addition, they are a reference point for some people. It may be a good idea to seek-out one or two directories a week, or as appropriate to a budget. Finding good directories will consume a lot of time. However, once a link is added, it will remain there for a long duration.

News and Media Promotion – Public Relations

Public Relations an important factor when promoting any Business. News and Media channels are the vehicles that convey information to the public. News about a business can make a huge impact on the public. Good news can make lots of people remember a business. Some developers release news about every change or added feature to a Website. Ironically, some developers never utilize this area of promotion.

There are a variety of distribution sites that will expose news releases to numerous channels, for a modest fee. In addition, most will offer free options. It may be a good idea to utilize free options for news that is not very important. For example, adding a, “Calculator,” to a Website probably will not gain much attention. However, anything that may be important to the public needs to be announced.

If it can be added to the budget, outsource public relations efforts. PR companies have knowledge of what the media likes and contacts that make them valuable. PR specialists can be found in almost every City.

Ezine Articles - Provide Rich Content

Writing articles is a powerful promotion tool. Some developers refer to this as, “Viral Marketing”. There are Websites that require content. Content brings them traffic. Traffic builds valuable ad space.

Article Distribution sites assist promoters with circulating articles. Many Ezines rely on Distribution Sites for their content. Post an article to a distribution site and the article is, “up-for-grabs,” to anyone. The article begins to circulate the internet like a virus. Everywhere it appears, reference is given to the author and their Website.

Advertising on the Web

There are a variety of reference websites. Generally, these sites consist of Forums, Article content, and Online Chats. They rely on selling ad space as the main revenue stream. While some reference developers are, “trying to rich quick,” there are sites that offer affordable solutions to promote a Website. With free traffic in mind, seek-out text link advertising venues. Look for sites that charge a flat fee. Sites that charge per click or by the impression usually mask links for tracking. This does not build good recognition with search engines.

Seek relevant opportunities for promoting the Website. If the allows people to buy tennis shoes, a sports reference and information area may be prove beneficial. Another might be a reference site about footwear. Trial and error will reveal good advertising sources for promotion. Regardless of the site being promoted, there are reference areas that are valuable promotion tools.

Promotion Summary

The internet moves fast in certain aspects. When it comes to Website promotion, it moves slowly. Modifications that are made to a Web Page are not going to be seen the next day. Significant results appear months later. The most important area of promotion, is keeping accurate records. Website promotion is complex. Developers need to consider on-site and off-site optimization, targeting, and ad construction. The right mix can provide a significant advantage over the competition.

About The Author:

Michael Medeiros has an extensive background in business and advertising. He is the proprietor of the Mjmls Classifieds (http://www.Mjmls.com).
An open-source advertising solution for businesses &  individuals.

by:
Charles Essmeier

I’ve been operating two small retail Websites for several years with modest success. Recently, I decided to branch out into a different area of e-commerce. I set up five different Websites at once and I wanted to find a way to obtain a lot of links to my Websites in a hurry. I wasn’t interested in paying for promotion, and I don’t care for the tedious process of exchanging links. On a lark, I typed the phrase “unusual Website promotion techniques” into Google, just to see what sort of search results came up.

That search yielded mostly Websites for companies that were offering to promote Websites for a fee, but one link did catch my eye – a site that mentioned writing articles to provide free content for Websites. I read the article on the Website and realized that I had found what I was looking for. This seemed to promise inexpensive, useful, fast results. I would write articles about topics that were relevant to my Websites and submit them to sites that would provide them to other sites that needed content. In exchange for this, I would receive a link back to my site. I decided to give it a try.

I did a search for “free content” on the Web, and made a list of sites that accepted articles and offered “live” links to the author’s Websites. I wrote an article of 400 words or so, submitted it to several different free content sites and waited. In order to accurately judge the effectiveness of this technique, I used a version of my name that I generally do not use as my author name. That way, I could do searches for my name in search engines and be certain that all results related to articles I had written. I submitted my first article in the afternoon and I I did a search for my author name in Google the next morning. I was astonished to see that not only had my article been published by several sites, but my author name turned up in search results just fourteen hours after I had submitted the article!

Clearly, I was on to something. I began writing articles in earnest. It wasn’t hard; as I am promoting seven different Websites, I had seven different topics to choose from. In the six weeks or so since I published my first article, I have written 60 more on topics relating to seven of my Websites. In that six weeks’ time, the total number of links from external sites to my own sites has increased from 765 to 11302. The growth in the number of external links to my sites has been explosive, and I’m now getting daily traffic to each of my sites. In just six weeks, I have managed to obtain a level of traffic that previously took me more than a year to obtain through traditional Website promotion methods. If you have a knack for writing, submitting free content articles is a great, fast, effective Website promotion tool. I highly recommend it.

About The Author:

Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a site devoted to debt consolidation and credit counseling, and HomeEquityHelp.com, a site devoted to information regarding home equity loans.

by:
Andy Varley

It’s easy to forget the fundamental components of Web site promotion. Winding back the clock to the days when many Webmasters couldn’t afford prolonged advertising campaigns, the majority of people starting out with a new Web site were forced to discover the art of free Web site promotion. In recent times, however, with “pay per click” advertising becoming less expensive and various other marketing activities becoming increasingly cheaper, the art of effectively promoting your site for free appears to have been lost. The purpose of this article is to act as a refresher course for any Webmasters who are keen to keep their promotional activities down to a shoestring budget.

The practices you perform when promoting your site for free are just as important as any paid advertisements you might run. Indeed, drawing a steady flow of visitors to your Web site needn’t be an expensive affair. So, what things really matter if you’re serious about increasing your site’s traffic for free?

1) You should ensure your site is easy to link to. Even Webmasters who enjoy what your site has to offer may not consciously think to link you. In any case, you should remind your visitors, preferably on every page, how to go about adding your link. Not only will this bring extra visitors, it will improve your site’s relevancy for the search engines. Additionally, establishing link exchanges with similar-themed sites as yours is a remarkably popular and effective way of boosting your traffic levels for free. Your aim should be to establish as many relevant link-backs as possible.

2) You might like to consider adding a hyperlink to your Web site in your e-mail signature. If you’re feeling creative, you could do what some Webmasters do and add a small slogan, too. As well as this and within reason, you should respond to every legitimate e-mail you receive so that your Web address sticks in the mind of your contacts.

3) You should utilize search engines since they’re an ideal form of free traffic. Ensuring your pages are search engine friendly is crucial. The majority of people find information on the Internet via search engines and it’s important that you correctly research how to optimize your site. A good listing on a popular search engine can works wonders for traffic levels, so try spending some time optimizing your pages. If you’re unsure and need some guidance with the technicalities, there are numerous sites and forums on the Internet that can help you out.

4) Entering your site for awards is an excellent way to gain recognition. However, when suggesting your site for review, be sure to avoid “automatic award submitting” services, since these can significantly lower your chances of winning. They don’t generally fare too well with the judges either.

5) Although not entirely free, you might like to experiment with running competitions on your site. Even if the prize is inexpensive (e.g. a t-shirt with your Web address on the front), it’s a sure-fire way to reel-in interested visitors. Besides, directories specializing in listing competitions may also link to your site and send you additional visitors.

6) Submitting your site to the Open Directory (dmoz.org) is a free necessity for generating more site visitors. Not only will a listing here help to increase your site’s relevancy (for search engine purposes), it will be accessible via countless other Web locations who use the Open Directory to power their own sites.

7) If you want to instantly draw some attention to your site, then tell all your friends about it. Word of mouth advertising is the best possible form of promotion anyone can muster, and incidentally, it’s completely free!

Try telling visitors how to bookmark your site. There are still many Web surfers out there inexperienced with the Internet. You’d be surprised at how many also don’t know how to bookmark a Web site they’ve found. That said, when designing your pages, it’s a good idea to tell visitors how to add a bookmark. Alternatively, you could add a “click here to bookmark us” hyperlink.

9) Newsgroups are perfect for gaining site recognition. Recklessly promoting your site in newsgroups, however, is frowned upon. The key to promoting your site in newsgroups is to participate in newsgroup discussions that interest you. To promote your Web site (and to avoid any behavior that may be deemed inappropriate), simply include your Web address in your signature. If readers appreciate your point of view, then it’s likely that they will take some time to visit your Web site.

10) You should endeavor to update your site regularly. Fresh, regularly-updated content will enable you to gather a keen audience, and what’s more, it will keep visitors returning. It’s far easier to retain existing visitors than to find new ones. Therefore, your content should be structured in such a way that it entices people to return.

11) You may not have realized but how a person finds their way around your Web site is a make-or-break scenario for traffic levels. If people can’t find what they’re looking for then they won’t view your site in a favorable light - and chances are they won’t return. Therefore, when designing your site’s pages, keep site navigation in mind, since consistent traffic levels are swayed by your site’s user-friendliness. All your content should be easy to locate within three mouse clicks. Think “simple navigation”. If visitors can find what they’re looking for within the shortest amount of time possible then by and large, they will keep a mental note of your site and may pay a visit in the future.

12) Sites that are fast to load keep visitors visiting, and they’ll undoubtedly help to increase your Web site traffic flow. Keeping site loading times down is a free and sensible way to indirectly increase traffic. How many times have you visited a Web page, only to find that it takes an age to load? My guess is that you didn’t bother waiting around. On the Internet, if you want to be successful, then your site should (ideally) strike a balance between presentation and loading time.

Summary: A massive, targeted advertising campaign is the ideal solution for quick traffic. However, most ordinary Webmasters are not working for large corporations who can afford this level of promotion. The fact is you don’t necessarily have to pay for high traffic levels, although if you are opting for the “free” route, you will have to work hard if your endeavors are to be successful. Remember: some of the best and most effective ways to increase traffic do not always require a wallet!

About The Author:

These tips are courtesy of Andy Varley, owner and Webmaster of FreebieList.com (http://www.freebielist.com), a site dedicated to reviewing only the best quality freebies that can be found over the Internet. FreebieList.com provides a great mixture of consumer freebies and free Webmaster resources.

by:
Mary Desjean

Here are some simple and easy tips on how to market and drive traffic to your site.

1. Link Exchange - Exchange links with other relevant web sites. It’s a win-win situation! Link exchange can not only increase your traffic but help build up your page rank on search engines.

2. Free Classified Ads - Find places online to submit free classified ads. One excellent resource is Craigslist, a free online community which has expanded into many different cities. Look for other local free listings or directories in search engines.

3. Directory Listings - Find directories that specific cater to your business’ products or services. Getting yourself listed in these directories can be a great way for potential clients to find you through other listings.

4. Online Groups and Communities - Join an online group or community (see Yahoo Groups, Google Groups or MSN Groups. By joining these online communities, people will get to know you and you can add your signature (with a link to your website!) to every post you make. Answer questions, provide information, and get your name out there.

5. Start a Newsletter - By providing your clients with a newsletter, you can remind them that you’re still around. A newsletter is a great way to get out helpful and interesting information to your clients about your products and services. It’s a great way to keep in touch with new and future clients.

6. Pay Per Click Services - Consider using some Pay per click services such as Google Ads or Overture. This can help increase the exposure of your web site by adding it to the Sponsored Listings section and the first page of search engine results. Most keyword bids start as low as .10 per click and you can specify your budget and the amount you’re willing to spend each day to keep yourself on budget.

7. Ezine/Online Advertising - Buy ads in Ezines related to your products or services or Ezines who cater to your demographics. Similarly, consider advertising in relevant websites with banner ads. Search for ezine directories and find a relevant match for your business. Find out their prices and requirements. You will need to write a concise paragraph about your business or get a designer to create graphic ads for you.

About The Author:

Mary Desjean is a web designer and the owner of Desjean Design (http://www.desjeandesign.com), a web company which specializes in simple and affordable web site design.

by: Titus Hoskins

Viral marketing can work wonders for any business, web site or product. It can be a great source of sales leads, one-way links and targeted traffic. Yet, many marketers are not taking full advantage of this ‘viral factor’ in their marketing efforts.

How about you? Are you using any viral marketing methods with your web site? Or does the word ‘viral’ make you cringe?

Many people believe ‘viral marketing’ is a myth, one of those Internet follies that only happens on rare occasions when some fantastic product or site comes along.

In reality, viral marketing techniques can be used by any web site — big or small. They can be used by any marketer who takes the time to put some simple steps into place. Viral marketing ‘done right’ can have many benefits. It will:

• Increase your link popularity (often one way links)
• Increase targeted traffic to your site
• Build your brand recognition
• Create targeted leads for your products
• Automate your marketing efforts.

Here are some simple viral marketing techniques you can try with your web site, product or business:

1. Word of Mouth We have all seen this phenomenon displayed with many products . People spread the word about some great movie or gadget and suddenly everyone knows about it. Human nature dictates we tell our friends about some great product we have bought or found. Nature of the beast, it’s just the way we are; so why not take full advantage of it?

If you have a web site — put up a simple ‘tell a friend’ form so your visitors can easily tell others about your great site. Easy and very simple to do but many webmasters don’t do it. Similarly, if you have a newsletter, service, product or with any aspect of your site… just include a few sentences at the end of your copy, asking very politely, “if you found this service, product or web site helpful — why not tell your friends, family and colleagues about it.”

2. Branding Make sure you have a logo on your site or product. Branding your site is very important if you want your site or product to be noticed and talked about. For that matter, a catchy brand name can be a ‘viral technique’ in itself; so try and come up with one that springs from the lips with a distinctive ring to it!

People recognize brands, it gives them a clear image of your site or product. Include your brand or logo on every page of your site and on every product, service, material coming from your site or business.

3. eBooks Savvy marketers jumped on this new invention very quickly, they knew the ‘viral’ power of these little ebooks. Ebooks are electronic files that can be downloaded from any web site and distributed easily around the web. You can also have other webmasters or marketers, ‘re-brand’ these ebooks with their own links. High quality ebooks get passed along very quickly and are great viral tools.

Anyone can write a simple ebook on the topic of their site. If you can’t write, just get permission to use a collection of articles from the numerous ‘article directories’ on the web such as www.ezinearticles.com or www.goarticles.com . Ebook compiling software (in both .exe or pdf format) is relatively cheap or can be found for free on the net. Just Google to find it!

4. Viral Software Some simple software products or applications can be very viral, often passed around or downloaded from the web by thousands each day. These have to be useful or handy products that the users will desire: ecalendars, organizers, personal planners, link checking software, and so on. Many are desktop products that sit on the computer user’s desktop; prime location in the marketing arena.

And the best examples of this kind of viral software have the company logo, sales message and contact email — with LIVE LINKS to all of the above — conveniently displayed within the product. These simple software programs can be great viral promotional devices that spread like wildfire across the web. (get an example of this below in the author’s resource box).

5. RSS Newest player in the viral game! RSS which stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ and just by the nature of what it does; RSS is an awesome viral tool. Originally used by news organizations to syndicate their news stories, it is usually associated with Blogs because blogs use an RSS feed to distribute their content. Good quality RSS feeds are picked up and displayed by different web sites all across the web.

Since Microsoft has announced the next version of Windows will have RSS integrated into its operating system, new RSS applications will take viral marketing to heights that have not been witnessed before. Alert marketers are already gearing up for this viral explosion.

You should also be gearing up for RSS if you haven’t already. Using a simple site like blogger.com (owned by Google) will give you a basic blog and RSS feed to spread your message or product to all interested parties.

These are just some viral techniques that will help increase your web presence. They will also boost your traffic and increase your links. Used properly, these viral techniques will also spread your web site, product or service around the globe.

What more can you ask for?

About The Author:

Get a Free DATEwise eCalendar & Personal Planner for your Desktop. It’s

a perfect example of ‘viral marketing’ in action! Click here for Free Desktop Calendar

Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins of Free Marketing Tools

by:
Roger Boatwright

1. Make your classified ads stand out in a crowd. Use all capital letters in the headline, divide letters with extra spaces, add in text symbols, etc. For example, you could write, “WIN a VACATION to Las Vegas!” Another example would be, “Win A ($) Trip To Las Vegas!”.

2. Buy advertising space on discussion board web sites. They are usually arranged by subject; that makes them highly targeted. For example, if you are selling gardening tools, you would want to advertise on gardening, farm, tool and lawn-related discussion boards.

3. Create your own web ring. You will gain highly targeted traffic to your web site and others will link to your site because they’ll want to join the ring. For example, if you were selling products to net marketers, you would want to start an online marketing web ring. You would then draw your target audience.

4. Use free advertising as much as possible. Test a wide variety of free advertising options like banner and link exchanges, classifieds, newsgroups, ad swaps, joint venturing, viral marketing, web rings, message boards, trading content, etc. Don’t be afraid to try something new.

5. Clone your advertisements all over the Internet by allowing your visitors to give your online freebies away. Just include your ad somewhere inside them. You could also start an affiliate program and pay people commissions to run your ads. You could also give your affiliates viral marketing tools to use like e-books or articles.

6. Create a free e-zine directory. You’ll attract a lot of traffic from e-zine publishers and people who want to subscribe to the e-zines. Your listings could include name, subscription instructions, publisher’s name, etc. Of course you could put your own e-zine listing at the top of your directory to get extra exposure.

7. Create an alliance with 3 or 4 web sites. Include each of your ads or banners on the other web sites. You will all share targeted traffic with each other. For example, you would instantly have 3 web sites selling for you without paying them an affiliate income. You would just be giving them ad space on your web site.

About The Author:

Roger Boatwright has a Doctrine of Medicine and many
years of internet marketing experience. Roger owns a web site
listing many tools needed to help promote and make your online
business successful.

http://www.BizNetPromotions.com
mailto:support@biznetpromotions.com

by: Anik Singal

We get so caught up with internet marketing and “web building” that most of us tend to forget the “olden days” of marketing; offline marketing. Years ago, the web did not exist, yet, people still made millions!

Why is it that all of a sudden most of us think that offline marketing is not worth the investment? If anything, the lesser the people that promote offline, the more the opportunity for you to slide in.

Even if you are just promoting an affiliate website, offline marketing can still be an incredibly profitable means to drive traffic. However, as with all marketing, do it slowly, track meticulously and learn as you go.

Here are 5 of the cheapest ways you can start getting your hands into offline marketing:

1. Inexpensive Business Cards

There used to be a day when business cards were expensive, but today, companies such as www.vistaprint.com are giving away business cards for free!

You run into hundreds, if not thousands of people everyday just during your normal daily tasks; restaurants, neighborhood, grocery store, clubs, works, etc…

Simply have a business card on you and ready to go as you meet someone and they ask what you do? Refer them to your new start-up business and build their curiosity.

So what if this technique won’t have you boasting thousands of visitors in a month, over time you can build very targeted visitors – all while you also brand your company!

2. Press Releases

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am very big on publishing articles and content and then distributing them online. I have scored BIG traffic by doing this and so have those who learned from me.

Well let’s take the concept one step further and spread press releases. Press releases and content are similar in nature, just written differently. Press releases can spread like wild-fire and if picked up by any form of media, you’re set!

This strategy may take some time, but be patient. With great, easy-to-use services like
www.prweb.com, it’s a shame to not use this strategy!

3. Bumper Stickers!

Honestly, don’t lie – you know you’ve been intrigued by the messages you see written on cars. You may have even called a few of those companies.

When you’re sitting a red light, there’s nothing better to do than to read the message on the car in front of you. A simple bumper sticker with an enticing offer and web address can slowly work charms.

More on those here:
www.speedysigns.com

4. Speak your way to stardom

One of my latest strategies that has been getting me A LOT of business is to make myself available as a speaker at local events. I have been speaking at business events, schools, colleges and anywhere else where someone wants me to speak.

By speaking publicly, I am quickly being recognized as an expert. This strategy works so well that listeners don’t even wait to see my website, they buy on the spot!

5. Direct mail

I saved this strategy for last because it’s not for everyone. If you have some money and are willing to take a small risk, this is the strategy for you. Remember, highest risk equals high potential reward.

Sending direct mail (offline) to prospects still works as long as it is done correctly. You need to research this topic more and make sure you gather a targeted list of prospects.

The latest trend seems to be in sending postcards because they are short, to the point and the least expensive to prepare and send.

No matter what, if you decide to try this strategy, I highly recommend researching in depth.

There you go, now there is absolutely no reason for you to only market yourself and your business on the internet. I have only revealed 5 of the many ways to market offline, there are still many other techniques.

The main suggestion I want to give is that marketing offline typically costs more money than online and that you should always thoroughly research before you try (and make sure you can stomach the potential risk).

About The Author:

This article has been authored by Anik Singal, the founder of The Affiliate Classroom.

If you want to learn his system that helped him make over $10,466 in 60 days please visit the following link: http://www.AffiliateClassroom.com