Now What?

By Christian Csatari
Posted Tuesday, December 14, 2004

You may publish this article in your e-zine or web site as long as you retain the resource box and all copyright information.

So, you just started your new home business, spent time, money and effort on getting your website just the way you wanted it. You Bought all the latest software and business products to help you succeed. So Now What?

After all the initial excitement of becoming your own boss of your new home business opportunity has settled down, you realize you need customers to buy your product and/or service If you are going to succeed. However, if you are on a budget and have little or no money to buy leads or traffic or advertising what are you supposed to do to drive customers to your website?

As luck would have it, the internet is full of places to get cheap and often free advertising and traffic to your website! You just need to know where to find these places. I have listed below several tips and strategies that you can use to advertise and generate free traffic for your website using online strategies.

Tip #1 Submit Your Website To Search Engines

There are plenty of free search engine submission services available to you for use in getting your site listed in major search engines. Do a search on Yahoo or Google and you will find these services. You may also use software like Web Position Gold that offer a free 45 day trial.

Tip #2 Use Your Unique Signature In Email

This tip is so easy! You will undoubtedly be using email in your business to correspond with potential customers. Simply add your unique signature to your email account with your url and a quick synopsis of your product and/or service. Be creative and make people want to click on your link to see what you have to offer.

Tip #3 Submit Your Articles

Write your articles and submit them to article directories. You don’t have to be Hemingway to write good articles, just write about something you know. Don’t write a sales letter however, you must write about something that you have experience in or know about. Make your article between 500-1000 words. The best part is each article has a resource box at the bottom that you can use to write 4-5 lines about your business, think of it as an ad to promote your product and/or service. Once you have written your article and checked it for any mistakes, submit it to article directories.
These directories are just waiting for quality articles to use on their site. Another benefit is if your article is of interest to a ezine publisher you may be asked if they can use it in their ezine to send to their opt-in list, and that could mean thousands of more people will read your article and potentially visit your site. This will also help you promote your business, gain potential customers and help with your rank in the search engines. To find article directories search yahoo or google.

Tip #4 Free Classified Ads

Submit an ad for your product and/or service to online classified ad sites. Classified ads can play a major role for you in garnering free advertising on the internet. However, your ad needs to capture the readers attention and pique their interest for your product or service. A few pointers: Keep your ad short and concise, some classified ad site limit the number of words you can use. The headline is key! Use words that appeal to the reader emotionally. Example of some key words; Free, Money, Discover, New, etc. These type of words in your headline attract attention to your ad. there are literally thousands of classified ad sites that you can use to post your ad for free or little expense.

Tip #5 Link Partners

Exchanging links with other websites can help once again with your ranking on the search engines. It is also a powerful way of getting targeted traffic to your site. It also helps in the credibility of your website when a customer has the opportunity to visit others websites from your site, they are more likely to bookmark your site and visit often. I highly recommend Jack Humphrey’s book Power Linking 2: Evolution to find out how best to use linking to your advantage. Link to websites that rank high on search engines for your particular product and/or service. It’s not a bad idea to look at your competitions website to see who are linking to them and follow their lead.

Tip #6 Online Forums

Online forums are great for a few reasons. One, you can learn from people that post and answer questions. Odds are if you are feeling lost or not sure of what you are doing, the question has been asked and answered at the online forum you use. You can do a search to find the appropriate forum for your product or service. Secondly, you are permitted in most circumstances to use a signature when you register to post. Like the article resource box you can write a few lines about your business. Some forums limit you to a few characters. Thirdly, some of the newer forums allow you to post your site for review by it’s members, which is a good way to get a few pointers on how to make your website more attractive to potential customers. Some forums also allow you to submit articles and ads. So you get a huge bonus when you register for online forums.

When you have little or no money there are always ways to work your business. You just have to be creative and find the time to search for ways get more quality traffic to your website. All the Best!

About the author
Christian Csatari is an internet marketer and owner of (http://www.inetriches.com) Your All in One Work at Home Ideas and Opportunities Resource For The Home Business Professional! And the publisher of the Learn To Earn newsletter for the work at home professional.