Six Lesser-Known Online Marketing Ideas

By Catherine Franz
Posted Tuesday, October 5, 2004

Uniqueness is what separates each business, its services and its products. The difference gives buyers and on-line visitors a way of measuring this against that. It also makes the difference on their decision to buy.

Showing these differences takes creativity and unique ideas. Ideas that aren't too far out for the regular person to understand yet also say, "Hey, wake up, this is different.

Here are six Internet marketing ideas that might just help you demonstrate your difference.

1. To increase people reading your whole copy, place a hidden link in your ad copy and then ask people to find it. Give them a prize for finding it or a freebie, like an ebook by clicking on that link.

2. Start a members-only web site. Tell visitors what they will get for access. Offer them a free membership for something in exchange. Example: (1) having a advertising paragraph about your product on their web site, (2) posting your banner on their home page, or (3) an ad in their ezine for a certain period (balance the dollars). This is a powerful way to get more advertising on a limited budget.

3. Increase your popularity on other people's discussion boards or blogs? Exchange their mentioning your product or service on certain discussion boards in exchange for a product or services of yours. This requires tracking, however, they are testimonials and extremely valuable. This is also called viral marketing.

4. Give your visitors an instant article directory. Tell your visitors they can instantly add a free article directory to their web site by linking to yours. Just place your ad or banner ad on top of the article directory for your main product or service. All those links can add up to a large amount of traffic for your web site.

5. You can exchange articles; yours can be posted on their site and theirs on yours.

6. Create a web book website to stand out. Market it was a free web book. Design the website with a title page, table of contents, chapters, etc. Then place your ad or banner for your product or service on the top and bottom of every page.

Now it's time to ask some questions. "What ideas from this list fit your customer needs?"

You will also want to ask, "Are any of these ideas currently used on your competitor's website?" If not, what are you waiting for. Being first is the name of success in sales. Go ahead, set the precedent.

If they are being used on your competitor's website. How are they using the idea? And more importantly, how can you use it differently?

If you have a multiple items you want to implement, create a list. Add next to the list what you need to learn in order to complete this. What is the budget? If you want to delegate this to, who would that be? Do you have such a person or company now, or do you need a referral?

About the Author
Catherine Franz, a Business Coach, specialized in writing, marketing and product development. Newsletters and additional articles:
(http://www.abundancecenter.com)
blog: (http://abundance.blogs.com)