How to Reach the Online Market
Setting up a website and simply expecting people to “stop by” is one of the biggest mistakes new web businesses make. Like a stood-up date left out in the cold, you wait, and wait, and wait, but nobody shows.
So, how do you make yourself known on a network packed with trillions of web sites?
The answer is through link exchanges, paid promotion, articles, directories, and search engine optimization; and if you think it's hard, you're in for a surprise!
What makes gaining top positions on directories and search engines so easy is, most people are either too busy to do it or not willing to shell out thousands to have a professional do it for them. Since not a lot of people are doing it, achieving the top positions can be easier than most think.
Many webmasters want to see instant success, so they refuse to spend the time optimizing and submitting their web sites. There's not a thing wrong with this, but getting instant visitors/buyers/advertisers takes quite an investment (such as with Yahoo's paid listings).
Do you have thousands to spend on advertising?
If you're business just doesn't have a $5,000 advertising budget, self promotion and search engine optimization (known as SEO) is the path for you and you can do it all yourself for $0 dollars.
Getting listed takes time, but the rewards are tremendous; and the irony is, most search engines won't list you unless other sites are already linking back to yours. Oh, the humanity. So what do you do?
First, you have to build a few inbound links to your new website. Write to a few webmasters and offer to trade links with them – most will be more than happy, especially if your site offers great content.
Next, offer content! Not just some text, but high-quality articles that contain keywords that relate to your business. Search engines such as Google will base their search returns on this content. The more relevant it is to your market, the more likely they will be searching for just what you're selling.
If possible, write your own articles; however, you can find thousands of free-for-publication articles at http://www.articlecity.com/ just add them to your site and you'll have some rich content to feed the hungry search engines.
Finally, submit your website to free directories. Do a search on Google for “your market + directory.” Once you're there, get involved with their forums, submit your web address, and do what ever it takes to be seen.
Now you can submit your website to the search engines. If the search engine robots (little programs designed to find your website's content) find that a useful and popular website has linked to yours (or several), then it thinks, “hey, this site must be useful and popular too.” So you achieve higher positions on search engines in this way.
Be patient. You will begin to see an increase in visitors.
While you wait try some of these other promotion ideas:
* Write articles for your niche and submit them to newsletters, ezines, and websites. Include a “resource box” about you and a link to your website.
* Join forums related to your business and assist others with their questions. Add a link to your website in your signature.
* Publish a free ebook or software program and give it away as a bonus, just for stopping by your website.
* Write a blog (http://www.blogger.com) and keep a journal containing knowledge about your business.
These are just a few of the best ways to reach your target market. One that you should not use is SPAM (unsolicited email). This will cause your reputation to tumble and possibly get you fined. With so many other ways of promoting your online business (for free I might add,) there really is no reason to annoy your potential customers.
Well, that is pretty much the whole thing. I told you it was easy! But it does take time to get noticed online and you might even considering hiring a SEO company to handle your search engine popularity. Once you've got a few satisfied customers, you'll notice business really taking off. Now get out there and start your free marketing campaign.
