Unlock The Power Of Online Groups

By Corey Morehouse
Posted Monday, February 7, 2005

Yahoo Groups: I see countless marketers on shoestring budges turn to traffic exchanges for free traffic. If they would spend the time creating online groups rather than clicking for traffic they would see much more quality traffic. By no means am I saying throw in the towel on traffic exchanges as I use a number of them.

Would you rather click a thousand times for 80 unique visitors daily or would you like to receive hundreds or more unique visitors daily. (not mentioning repeat visitors) I thought so...

With hundreds of thousands of people visiting the yahoo group directory you can't help but get excited. I have 18 groups, each one in a different business category of the yahoo directory.

A great way to get your group noticed is to create a group description consisting of html. Don't worry, there are numerous areas on the web where you can learn basic html. Take a tour and see what kind of resources yahoo groups offer. In addition to the welcome page and links, I encourage you to send a automatic file that goes out each week containing cutting edge marketing techniques and resources.

So what are the benefits of owning your own group? Heres a few for example, members who are joining you group to post their business are now part of you opt-in list. These same people come back daily to post their business or product creating residual exposure to your business. Most of the posters are in it for the quick riches which will never happen. With the proper training and exposure, these people will buy into you business join your down line just from the daily exposure of your business on the group.

When you start reaching several thousand members you will start working your way up the yahoo group directory since groups are ranked by the number of members you have. You will not only create residual traffic with your members but also with visitors locating your group in the yahoo directory. When you feel comfortable with your ranking open a new group in a different yahoo biz category. You can start your own yahoo group here. Remember to use the principles above to create a massive residual traffic flow.

Msn Groups: I would like to introduce another group to you, "msn groups." These group are ranked by group activity which is not hard to achieve with what you have just learned. Take a look at different members groups to gain a feel for whata they are promoting and running things. Once again these groups are very friendly to posting your business or product. As you can see, link structures are setup different from a yahoo group. Links Are Uploaded to a link directory from your computer to the group site. You can get your msn group started by searching for msn groups.

You also have the option to e-mail members as much as you like with the msn groups feature. Remember that is important not to spam your members as it will lead to unsubscriptions which leads lower activity lower ranking. I usually e-mail my members twice a month at the most. I have found it very effective to release information on your latest articles and free e-books. Giving away free information will gain you respect and a good reputation which will pay huge dividends later on!

Once you get these two groups running you will be able to cross promote them with each group. You will be getting a majority of the same members in each of these groups which will bolster your ranking and create residual traffic.

The most effective ways to market groups are to promote them in traffic exchanges and classified ads.

About the Author
Corey Morehouse; Egroup Specialist (http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Web_Marketing_Secrets)