Free Internet Marketing Strategies

When I quit my day job and ventured out into cyberspace with my own business, like many, I had the usual struggles of where to start, what was I going to sell, how was I going to sell it and most importantly, what was it going to cost me? Besides figuring out what I was going to sell, which in retrospect was really the easy part, I had to figure out how I was going to sell it. This was no small task and took me many months to figure out, but if you have a website and need visitors, this is a key concept.

I don't care what your product or service is, if you can't figure out how to effectively get sales or clicks to your website then you are out of luck. However, before you get completely discouraged and toss in the towel, here are just a few strategies that will help you get noticed and best of all, it won't cost you a dime.

Ezine articles

One of the best ways to get noticed is write an article and submit it to ezines. That statement may be a bit intimidating but if you think about it, submitting articles will get you noticed. If someone likes your article and feels you've given them good, solid information, they are likely to visit your site to see what else you offer. It builds your credibility, this is very important on the internet. No one is going to go to your site and buy what you have simply because they see it, they need to know that you are trustworthy and have something valuable to offer. If you're perplexed with what to write about, think of your talents, what do you have experience in, what is your website about? If you feel you don't have enough knowledge to write about something then research it. Read as many articles as you can, jot down the facts and compose it into something that is readable and easy to understand. Give it a bit of your own personality and Ouila! You have and article that may find interesting. Be careful not to cop y someone else's work, this can only harm your credibility.

Next, write with authority, like you know what you are talking about. Talk about your experiences, people love to hear about personal experiences. This can help people relate to our topic. After you have found a topic write down all the information and facts that you can. Don't worry about how good it looks or sounds just get all the points you want to make written down. Be sure to comment on your opinions or advice. If you think something is good state why you think it is good. If you think it is bad, state why it is bad. Once you get all your points written down, organize the information. Keep going over it until it begins to flow easily. Once you get your article written, submit it to as many ezines as you can. There are plenty of ezines that need articles. Here are some ezines that will take articles. Here are the top ten article banks I recommend:

http://www.ezine-writer.com/top10.html

The number one reason people come to the internet is for information. Providing information leads to knowledge and knowledge is power as I've heard so often in my career. Get your knowledge out there and you'll be amazed at the rewards it can reap for your website and ultimately your business.

Obtain an email opt-in list

Establishing an email opt-in list is critical. This provides you with permission based names and addresses that you can send product offers to over and over again. (Always be sure that your emails provide section where the subscriber can opt out.) A good way to obtain your opt-in email list is to offer something free from your website. Everyone lo ves something that is free, especially if they feel it's of value. Your tactic here is to obtain an email address for your free offer. For starters, provide an email form on your site displaying your free product or newsletter. E-books are great free products and if you're site offers lots of good content then a newsletter will also attract readers. Don't ask for too much information on your email form. A name and email address is usually sufficient. To avoid users providing bogus emails, make sure that your e-book is delivered to the email address in order for them to receive it.

Once you have an email list don't bombard your readers with useless sales information. Provide them with information that they can use. If you have a product to offer, support it with an article or a biography of the company offering the product. Offer something that the reader will find useful.

Reciprocal link exchange

Reciprocal link exchange is the process of swapping links with other websites containing similar content as yours. This is a very powerful marketing tactic. Search engines use this linking to determine a ranking for your site. The more relevant the site is that links to you the better your page rank. This is particularly true with Google. Taking the time to link to quality sites can take a fair amount of time and effort, but in my opinion, it's worth every bit of time you can put into it. Here's the best way I've found to find relevant, quality links.

There are programs that can do this for you and many are free but I've found that the old fashioned manual way is the best. Avoid link farms; these can get you into trouble with search engines. I use Google as a key resource and suggest you install the Google toolbar. Once it's installed, use keywords relevant to your site to find other 'like' sites. As you look at each site notice the PR rating on the Google toolbar with a zero rating as t he worst and ten rating as the best. Target sites that have a rating of 4 or better, then send the webmaster an email requesting they exchange links with you. An exchange incentive is to put their site on your site before sending the email. If you can show them you have listed them on your site already then they are more likely to reciprocate by adding you to their site. Always provide them with your link address and what keyword and category you wish to be listed under. For example, if your site is selling Swiss watches your link may look like:

Swiss watches

Text information:
Great Swiss watches for all occasions

Provide that information in your email. The easier you make the link, the more likely you are to be linked to.

It's a good idea to place the links on your home page but this is not a must. You can easily set up a 'links' page. Organize it by category and place your links there. When I first set up this method I spent about 4 hours a day on it for about 3 weeks. This may seem like a lot of time but it can be worth the extra traffic in the long run.



Written By: Elizabeth McGee