E-Biz Booster Blog

The following article contains 13 free and inexpensive ways for you to promote your website.

1. Viral Marketing is an approach that persuades people to pass along your message. Like a virus, the message then spreads to more and more people. The persuasion to pass along the message typically comes in the form of humor. If one person thinks the ad, email, video, etc. is funny and/or entertaining, they will pass it on to their friends. If you’re creative, give this a try.

2. Creating a blog, or web log, is becoming more and more popular. A blog will allow you to create a running commentary focused on your products or services. Interested parties will have access to this running log information. WordPress and Blogger are two of the most popular blogging platforms, and both are free to use.

3. Joining an affiliate program will cost a bit of money but can make a huge impact if you’re selling merchandise. Interested parties join your program and sell your products. When they make a sale, you pay them a set commission.



4. What better way to grab people’s attention than to offer them something for free. Using free giveaways like sample products or offering a free consultation is a great way to grab people’s attention and to garner more interest in your products or services.

5. Posting articles focused on your products or services is a great way to promote your business. People are constantly surfing the internet for the latest tips, tricks, and advice… just like you. Adding links in your articles that refer readers to your website is a necessity to increase traffic.

6. Target your audience. Join forums and other online groups that are within the scope of your business, products, or services. Be sure to supply these forums or groups with a steady stream of applicable information. Constant, focused information is a great way to catch a prospective customer’s attention.

7. Make prospective clients feel wanted and special. When your marketing does draw prospects to your site, you want to close the deal. Make someone browsing your website feel good about themselves, and try to relay how much better they’ll feel when they buy what you’re selling.

8. Purchase business cards and company stationary. Use these two for any and all correspondence. Whether it is something personal or related to your website, the more hands you can put your stationary and/or business cards into, the more likely you are to increase site traffic and sales.

9. Sponsoring events is a great way to get your company name in the public eye. Depending on the type of event, sponsorship packages will vary in price. Make sure to select events that are likely to draw your customer demographic and give you the most exposure for your buck.

10. Focus on your uniqueness. While promoting your website, you need to focus on the things that set you apart from your competition. My online business, OBrienMaDe, is an online social marketing company. Our homepage clearly tells prospective clients what sets us apart from the myriad of other marketing companies on the internet. Check it out for yourself- http://www.obrienmade.com.

11. Use e-mail and snail mail campaigns. Obviously, we don’t want to spam prospects or bombard them with junk mail, but you do want to use a calculated mail campaign. Almost everyone has a large database or personal e-mails. Start by advertising to your friends and family; you never know what might come of it. Also, mail out ads to your demographic… and be sure to use company stationary.

12. This one is a no-brainer, but just in case here you go… create a webpage. Having an online presence is very vital. If you’re an online business you have a website, if you’re a brick and mortar establishment you may not have a site. At the very least, create a single web page highlighting your offerings. There are many free web hosting providers you can use. Just search “Free Web Hosting”.

13. Google AdWords offer pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for businesses. Your ad will appear in the Google search engine. When someone clicks on the ad and is directed to your website you pay an amount of money pre-determined by you. You can establish a budget that is not to be exceeded. Once your PPC reaches your monetary limit, the ad will no longer be visible to web surfers.

If you would like help establishing and running a social media marketing campaign, or creating a website, please feel free to visit http://www.obrienmade.com or email: <info[at]obrienmade.com>.

About the Author

Tom O'Brien is owner and operator of OBrienMaDe, an online business focused on helping small businesses increase online visibility and traffic.

Image source: ©2007 by Danard Vincente/flickr (↑) - Some rights reserved. - CC-BY 2.0.

This article has been originally posted on GoArticles.com - The Web’s Largest Free Content Article Directory (↑)

The recording of a free tele-seminar call from last Thursday is online now.

Easy FTC Compliance Seminar – What You Need to Do, Step-by-Step (↑)

The host Robert Skrob (↑) discusses with his guests — both experienced lawyers in Internet respectively direct response marketing and related fields — Peter Hoppenfeld (↑) and Michael E. Young (↑). If I remember correctly the call is about 1 hour 12 minutes and packed with great information.

They do not simply rehash general information that’s already circulating on the Internet about those new FTC guidelines in effect since December 1, 2009 in the USA. This is an advanced call for experienced marketers.

Actually they start answering real world questions from their members right away.

Not only that I was listening live myself, I also had submitted a question which was answered during the call.

→ Continue reading:

Without a doubt it seems that “Viral Marketing,” is a powerful buzzword. Just tap into an existing social network and have your marketing message spread — essentially — for free.

Sounds like a big money saver that can slash your advertising costs dramatically while increasing response. Your message is not yelled at a cold prospect but instead delivered by a friend.

And it spreads, … if it is done right.

• Usually big corporations are prone to not doing it right.
• Corporate managers are listening to their agencies …
• Agencies are doing it wrong because they still believe you can buy attention and sales for big money. Their share in this kind of deal is not insignificant.

Viral Campaign For Turning TV license dodgers Into Paying Subscribers

The idea is fun and spreads but I don't see much potential for making people pay a mandatory fee which they refuse to pay up to this point. Especially because the idea seems to spread more outside the intended target audience.

Have a look. I made a viral video for myself.


Note: Unfortunately the application has severe browser compatibility issues. If you cannot access it try the lower quality YouTube version (↑) I have made from it.

My wife and and my sister in law have been stunned when I surprised them. → Continue reading:

HOT NEWS: As you can probably tell from the advertising that I have on my site and blog you see that I am a big fan of Internet Marketing Expert Perry Marshall.

Perry's Adwords course has saved me from “Adwords bankruptcy” a couple of years ago. Now, Perry just released the update.

Definitive Guide To Google Adwords 2010

Update April 2011: Definitive Guide To Google Adwords 2011

• 50% of the book rewritten.
• The gap between Adwords winners and losers never has been that huge.
• 6 brand new modules!
  From affiliate marketing, PPC marketing in the U.K. and Canada, … to the content network.
  Choose one or get two or even all modules at a discount price.
• A must have for everybody working with Adwords.

3 Unstoppable Forces Will Either Propel You to Victory or Bury You on Page 2-3-4 of Google's Search Results.

You Either Win or Lose.
(Perry Marshall)

Check it out now!

All backed up with Perry's crazy guarantee. Watch the video as he explains everything you must know.

You also could sign up for Perry's 5 Day Google Adwords Course by Email.

Yours
John W Furst


P.S.: Perry writes much better copy than I do, therefore, I save you from having to bear with me and urge you to go over to his site and read what he has to say about Google Adwords in 2009/2010 and why you need to get his book.

Actually you don't even need to read everything.

P.P.S.: Update April 19, 2011: I just discovered that Perry has updated his Definitive Guide To Google Adwords and calls it - Edition 2011.

Play his video, listen, and then get your copy of his book for as little as $49.

Recently many — especially — small business owners asked me how to chose a good provider or software for email marketing. A good reason to write a blog post about this topic. Read below what I have told them.

A permission based list of email subscribers is the most valuable asset you should build with your online marketing efforts. So what are the right tools to get started with. Technically you have three choices:

(1) Sending your email promotions yourself with desktop software.
(2) Sending your emails with server based software from your servers.
(3) Outsourcing to a trusted email marketing tools service provider.

When using (1) or (2) you will find yourself quickly involved with technical issues and you will run into all sorts of restrictions and limitations due to various anti-spam measures. Getting your emails delivered is not only a technical issue anymore. It has become a matter of trust between email service and Internet service providers. (Thanks to all those reckless email spammers.) Sending your email campaigns using a reputable service provider increases the chances that your emails are delivered and protects you from having your own email server or domain blocked as a result of false spam complaints.

It might look more inexpensive to make a one-time purchase for software that handles all your future email campaign needs compared to choosing a service that charges $30 a month. But in reality you will pay a very heavy price for trying to be cheap.

Any good email marketing service provider will take care of the issues that ensure your messages get delivered into the inbox of your subscribers. They also will make sure that their service is up-to-date technically and follows legal requirements like the CAN-SPAM act.

→ Continue reading:

We'll have another beautiful day that's probably why I got up at 7am this morning. While I was making myself breakfast, I thought about the question whether ads do work or not.

Honestly I did not think more than a second about my answer. Here it is.

“Yes, of course good ads do work. Great ads work like gangbusters.”

That's my official answer to one of Seth Godin's latest blog posts in which he asked exactly that, “Do Ads work?”

• Small and large direct marketing companies know it.
• Many successful Internet marketers know it.
• Do you know it?

All you need to do is

→ Continue reading: