In this part I am going to give you information about how to really market your web site. There as many way to drive traffic to your web site some are encouraged, some are discouraged, some can get you banned from the search engines. Relying on the Search Engines to bring you traffic is not always the best way to get traffic. Actually if you wait for the Search Engines to bring your site up in the top searches, you might be waiting a long time before you show up if you do show up.
In this section I am going to explain the various different ways to market your site from direct email marketing to links with other sites. With each method I will attempt to tell you the advantages, and the disadvantages to using the marketing technique.
This is something you will need to look at in detail once you have your idea, domain name, and web site developed and ready to deploy or is already deployed. You do not start any marketing technique until you already have your site up and running. No sense in telling people about a website that is GONNA exist but doesn’t yet. So before you go on with this section make sure that everything else is in place. This is going to be some of the best, or worst, ways to get traffic going to your site regardles of what it is that you are offering your customers.
So read on carefully and hopefully you will soon find yourself with one of the more popular sites on the internet.
Sparky
Advertising on the net is an art form unto it’s own. There are so many choices to make. In this section I am going to explain the Pay Per Click ads that are available to you.
First lets talk about Pay Per Click. You have been to google, yahoo, MSN, and done a search. What do you see at the top and along the side when you search? Ads. These are Pay Per Click ads that are generated because the advertiser thinks that what you put in to search for is related in some manner to them. Essentially the advertisers are bidding against each other for the placement of the ad, and also it’s position. In some industries or markets, this can be very cheap for key words or phrases that people are likely to search for. However if your trying to reach the most generic single term search your going to pay more to get a good position in the search results. As I said the amount you bid determines where you show up. In some markets the generic key words are so expensive that unless you have a very big ad budget it’s best to stay away from Pay Per Click ads.
There is also an ongoing issue of are the people doing the clicking actually customers or are they bots or competitors trying to click you out for the day. Think about do you click on ads or do you look through what is called the generic search results? Is there an advantage for a competitor to keep you out of a search term or run up your costs for ads?
Testing Pay Per Click ads, or at least looking at what it costs to get a good position is worthy of checking out for your site, however if you follow some of the other methods available most of which are free and generate real customers, your probably better off.
Sparky
Pay Per Show advertising can be effective and is usually much cheaper than Pay Per Click ads. These are ads that you purchase for a specified period of time on websites.
In order to determine if it is worth your advertising on a site in this manner is a matter of dermining the value. Getting an ad on the local High School Hockey team is great for your local shop or other online business but for another it may not be. Where ever you place your ads you need to know who is visiting the site and all sites can provide some information on how many unique visitors they have per day, how many repeat visitors and where they usually track in a site.
Everything is logged on the net in some manner or another. Servers track everything from computer address, to a bot scanning your site, what kind of browser, the operating system, time of day, types of files, everything is tracked which leaves a perfect trail that you can use to spread your ad money where it works best.
PPS ads are probably not going to generate lots of traffic to your site and unles you find that there is going to be a value above the number of people who click to your site the better off you are. There is also an ongoing debate on paying for ads on sites as it may look like your paying to have a link to your site by the SE’s however if they offer up ads from google and the like at the same time, it doesn’t seem to be a big SEO, SEM, or SERP problem.
Sparky
One of the cheapest form of advertising is to do direct email campaigns, though you have to be careful not to be labeled an email spammer.
So you can always start with your own address book and email friends and relatives and let them know about your site and ask them to pass the messaage on. That is generally the safest way to start an email campaign and not be labeled a spammer.
There are companies out there who will spread your message far and wide. The keys to using them is to check them out thoroughly. You can search for known email spammers, you can also ask to see how it is they collect email addresses. Nothing irritates potential customers more than to get junk email. However many companies get people who sign up to get their email notices and for a fee you can get your site spread far and wide.
Email, like direct mail, marketing is a matter of numbers. As with standard direct mail marketing you need to hit many to get a few responses. The beauty of email marketing is that you can hit so many more than in a few seconds for a fraction of the costs associated with direct mail.
You also get a instant response. Many people check their emails on a regular basis, some check as often as every hour or few minutes. Within a short period of time from the launching of your email message you will know if you have success.
As with all forms of advertisement content and how it is presented is king. If you are not able to write a good ad, have someone else do it. If your thinking of running an email ad run it past several other people before you run the ad. Your looking for the biggest bang for your ad dollar and direct email if done right, can be a valuable tool.
Sparky
One of the hot new things is the Social Networking sites like Myspace and Facebook. These are also excellent ways to advertise your site, you just have to be creative in how you go about it.
First is to create graphics and things that people can use as comments or layouts on their page. In the graphic and other elements you use to make it easy for people to use your site to get comments, you put in things that bring people to your site.
Creating comment Graphics is much easier and it can also show off your product or services. I run a site called You Sexy Thang which sells sexy clothing for men and women. Part of the site is obviously pictures of the various products, so I have taken some of the pictures added some text and then saved them in a different location on my site so that they are seperate from the product pictures. Then create a page with the code that people need and Bingo ready made comments with links to my site.
This creates several things that will benefit your site. First it brings people into your site when people click on the image to look for reply comments and while there maybe buy something. Second, It also creates inbound links with proper tags that eventually the SE’s will find and thus it adds one-way links to your site which should increase your PR and SERP.
This is a fun and interesting way to promote your site and your products.
Sparky