Six(6) Ways to Promotion Success!
By Clifton W. Bonney
Posted Monday, October 11, 2004
I have been promoting websites on the NET for some time now, and have seen many marketing stategies come and go. You've seen it, Expert A(Dr. Know-It-All) told you to go to his website for the very BEST promotion on the net. "I''ll do everything for you" the Dr says. He must know, right? So, you send lots of money, and wait for the traffic. Hmmm... didn't happen. No increase in hits. Well, it must have been Dr. Know-It-All. I'll try Expert B, Dr. No-You-Don't. Surely HE will be better than the last because....Yahdah...Yahdah...Yahdah! Again, some big money sent...few results. So, out of desperation and a huge pain in my wallet, I finally formed my own company that I KNEW would be uncommonly useful through my trial and error experience. Hence...Clifton Enterprises' website called Click City was born. All of the information in this article is available at the City.....So................
If you are planning to keep up with what's working NOW, I suggest the following six ways to assure success with your advertising dollars.
1. E-Zines
The most amazing and under-used tool is the POWER of the e-zine! Think about it: How many times have you deleted an E-Zine because you didn't have time, or you assumed there was nothing in it for you. Wrong on both counts. Most online magazines have subscriber bases of over one thousand, many have more. If you place your ad in several of these @ $15-75/ad, you have substantially increased your visibility without much output. The more subscribers, the more people see your message. Choose e-zines with a good base for maximum exposure, and subscribe to several at once. Read them, decide which to advertise in, and go for it. It's very inexpensive promotion. You'll find one at Click City-at end of article!
2. Opt-in lists
Opt-in lists have become one of the fastest growing promotional tools available lately. There are pitfalls, however. If 20,000 people join a list, and only 10% post their ad to YOUR email daily. Do you think anyone is reading YOUR ad? I think NOT! What's going to happen to your mailbox? So..... Join several lists and send your message to thousands DAILY. There are many free lists with hundreds and hundreds of members, however don't expect your message to be read. Find lists with memberships of 100-1000! You have a better chance of being seen. I wouldn't join any list with more than 1000 members unless there were other benefits of membership.
3. Free Links and FFA Pages
Most people just submit to these, but you really need to consider owning one or two. Surely you have been to the Free Links Pages where you submit your URL, and your webpage remains on the top, then scrolls off as others are added. The scroll-off time depends on the traffic at the particular webpage you submit to, usually 1-2 days...and yet sometimes 10 minutes. One of my FFA pages delivers me 400-600 emails every day- people waiting to receive my ad. Can you imagine how large my database has become, just from one service?
4. Free and paid Classifieds
Placing Classified adds requires more than just submitting your URL. You need to be able to create a SHORT, but exciting description of your business/service. You only have a few seconds to GRAB your readers before they click away to someone else's ad. Classifieds do last longer than FFA's- sometimes as long as 3 months, and can be edited if your program changes. There are thousands of places to submit your classified ad... some free and some where you must pay. Always use a combination of both. Nothing works well by itself. Adland.com is great and free!
For paid Classifieds, here is a good example: (http://submit.websection.com/agent.cgi?id=10591)
5.Replicating Websites
These will work as long as you are willing to promote them.Place your ad, then the entire page is duplicated. The company will send you a URL to promote, along with any other programs you are involved in. Your ad stays on top.
6. Offline Advertising
You can not have a total promotion package without it. By offline, I definately DON'T mean sell your product or sevice to all your relatives and friends. Never a good thing to do! You can promote offline easily by purchasing inexpensive items to place on your vehicle, window, or anywhere. I have found two terrific tools that are inexpensive... Web-Decals- Place these in your car back window-advertise while driving: (http://www.webdecal.com/t.cgi/100654) Id It Plates-Again for your car: (http://www.iditplates.net/new/1642/index.html) ****************************** OK- follow the examples above for a COMPLETE promotion package you can put together YOURSELF at a reasonable cost. All of the above examples can be found at Click City... plus lots more: (http://www.fluffymoose.com/members/clifton/)
About the Author
Clifton W. Bonney/BA in Communications Publisher of The Linker Trader Digest, a weekly E-Zine for business owners-5000 subscribers. His 20 years+ experience in the communications field has yielded high rewards online. Please feel free to email him with comments or suggestions: cliftonent@webtv.net
