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Write an article in your area of expertise and submit it to ezines and newsletters related to that subject. Become your own publicity and sales promotions writer. For each article you write, include a "Tag-Line" with your Name, Company, Email or Web Site Address, and brief plug for your product or service. To get a list of 400+ Ezines, send an email to new@yoken.com.
Become a guest moderator on a web based Forum in your area of expertise. It's a win-win situation. The webmaster will see increased traffic and you will increase your exposure. It's easier than you may think. Simply email the webmaster of the forum. Too easy. Visit Forum One at http://www.ForumOne.com/index.htm to search over 210,000 Web Forum Discussions Groups.
Be sure to put your Web Site URL on your outgoing envelopes with your return address. Also, tell your customers, prospects and friends about your Internet site with Web Cards...printed postcards with an image of your home page on one side and your custom message on the other. Free Samples and Brochure available at: http://www.printing.com/promo.asp?site=jacmac.
If you are a publisher, check out the possibility of exchange advertising with other publishers. They run your ad in their ezine in exchange for your running an ad for them of comparable size in your ezines. To find out which publishers offer this service, visit ListCity, the email advertising exchange and network. Their web site URL is http://www.list-city.com.
Finally, advertise a free offer. Simply run an ad offering a free report and insert your "tag-line" at the bottom of the report.
These are just a few ideas. Use your imagination to come up with others and you'll see results!
Jackie's website is at: http://www.jacmac.com More than just Free Classifieds...
A few free classified ad sites that produce some good results.
It was a warm summer day back in 1996. I had created my first computer games and was full of anticipation. Naturally I wanted people to play them, but I didn't have a clue about how to distribute them. And then it hit me, like lightning from a bright sky. I would distribute them for free via Internet, from a website! It sounds elemental but hey, I was a 15 year old guy with no net experience. I created a site with Notepad and started a frenetic search for free places to put the site on. Then I found, in a Swedish mag, an article about Geocities! I was lucky enough to find a computer with an Internet connection at the local library and after some time I managed to upload the pages.
I got a connection at home and with time, my Internet and promotion skills increased. I spent a lot of time promoting my site and enhancing the meta tags. I thought it didn't help - I had just a merely 30 visitors/day. But then, then suddenly my hits skyrocketed and I started to get a constant 300 vistors/day!
Now, how was this possible? A million dollar question! Here's the answer.
#1, FFA Sites
I started posting to FFA (Free For All Link) sites. They are sites where you can add your own link. There are tons of them on the 'Net and they are updated continuously so your link could be gone the next day. This, you must understand, was a time consuming task - to manually add your site to all those FFA sites. Until I found an easy and fast way - TheWebmasters. They post your site for free to 300 FFA sites. All you have to do is to fill out a form and they'll take care of the rest. There are companies on the web charging 100 bucks for a year for this service! TheWebmaster's site is located at http://thewebmasters.bc.ca. I use it on a weekly basis.
#2, Meta Tags (Really Important)
I studied what kind of content and meta tags sites had in the top 10 on the search engines. I found that the most important words should come first in the keyword tag, followed by other keywords in importance order. The first words of the title are equally important, as are the first words in the description and the body. Don't repeat the words in the title, body, description tag or keywords. Otherwise you'll get a lower rank. Also, don't use really small text or text with the same color as the background. These techniques will only result in a lower ranking.
Here is an example of correctly constructed Meta Tags. If your site was about, let's say web hosting, the meta tags should look something like these:
<TITLE>Web hosting and design. Servers, dedicated and virtual at
great speeds and low prices.</TITLE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Web hosting and design.
Servers, dedicated and virtual at great speeds and low prices.
Unlimited technical support">
<META NAME="KeyWords" CONTENT="web hosting, hosting, servers,
server, virtual server, host, webhosting, site design, design">
As you see, I didn't repeat a single word in the Title, Description or Keywords tags. The Description tag should include the most important words but it should also be descriptive - who would like to visit a site with a description only consisting of keywords. Not many, I suppose! The keywords should also contain logical phrases. If your site was about hockey, you should include phrases similar to these in the keywords: "hockey, ice hockey, nhl, nhl hockey" (without the quotes). Misspelling some common words could also give some more visitors. Lots of people misspell words and could therefor miss your site! I remember when a friend of mine made a search for Tolkien and accidentally misspelled it, but he found thousands of hits on Toklien :)
If you search for "computer games" on HotBot, my site will come up first! That gives an everlasting stream of visitors. So don't forget to customize your meta tags - it's one of the most important ingredients in a successful advertising campaign.
#3, Signatures
Add signatures to all your outgoing mails and posts. Every time you send a mail or post in a newsgroup you have created an ad in the form of a signature. This might be overseed some times, but is really effective. The signature should be short and descriptive, with contact details or a URL.
#4, Newsgroups
Posting in newsgroups is a time consuming task. Unfortunately there is no way around this. You just have to post all those ads by yourself. But a post could be sawn by thousands of people and generate lots of traffic to your site. An another downside is that you have to repost pretty often; no one ever reads the last posts. But you have to behave yourself and not post too often - otherwise people could take it as a spam and your reputation would suffer. Also, don't forget that all newsgroups don't accept ads. Here is a list of newsgroups that do accept advertising:
#5, Newsletters
You could either start your own or advertise in someone elses. Having your own newsletter could get people keep coming back to your site. They would be reminded of your site and your services every time you send out a newsletter. We have made the task of finding articles easy - just point your browser to http://absusoft.hypermart.net/abc and use the articles found there. It's completely free and great reading too.
Advertising in someone elses newsletter is also a good way to reach people. Just be sure to pick a newsletter that fits your theme. An ad doesn't usually cost too much and could be sawn by thousands of interested people. A good ad should always have a URL and contact details, not only one of those!
As you can see, there are lots of tricks in the area of web promotion. Some are nice and accepted - some aren't. If you stay in the commonly accepted promotion techniques, you'll probably win in the end. Search engines do discover spamming and at least your reputation doesn't get hurt. It is very important for getting visitors and customers!
As most BizWeb Gazette subscribers know, I've been a big fan of ezines for quite a while. Not only do I deliver the zine you're reading right now, I also rely on other ezines for a large percentage of my internet profits.
This tip will show you some of the "zine marketing" results I've had recently as well as explain how YOU can take advantage of this top-notch marketing method.
Newbie fact: For all of you who are new to this arena, the following two paragraphs explain what an "ezine" (short for Electronic magaZine) is:
For starters, there are two very distinct types of ezines on the internet. "Web ezines" and "Email ezines". A web zine is strictly web based and is not delivered via email like the one you are reading now. Although a web zine can be nice to look at, the marketing value is not as strong as the second type, an email ezine.
An email ezine (also know as an email newsletter) is delivered directly to a list of subscribers. Although not as fancy (usually text only) this type of ezine is an excellent marketing tool since it is delivered via email. Unlike the web-zine, no action is necessary on the recipients part, other than to read it. This makes email newsletters the most subtle and effective form of "push marketing" on the net!
Now, on with the "how to's" of ezine marketing...
There are basically three ways to utilize ezines to promote your business online:
1. DELIVER YOUR OWN EZINE.
The very best way to utilize ezine marketing is to publish your own zine! Why would you want to do this?...
Your customers/prospects won’t have to find you. They’ll constantly be "in touch" with your business. Your ezine can keep them abreast of new products and services as you make them available.
You can generate income offering classified or sponsorship advertising if you wish. I started my gazette in 1996 with a handful of subscribers and free advertising. In just two years my subscriber list has grown to 15,000+ and the ad revenue it generates is now closing in on $1000 a week. Marketing value aside, ezine publishing generates income!
It is the cheapest form of promotion you’ll ever find! Even if you publish a "no advertising" e-newsletter, the marketing value of your ezine is unmeasurable. Remember, unlike traditional newsletters, there are no printing or postage costs. Since your own cost is zero, you can offer free subscriptions, thus insuring a steady flow of new prospects.
If you are interested in starting your own ezine but don't know where to start, this URL contains an article with links to many of the resources I use... http://216.0.21.175/contact.htm
2. SUBMIT ARTICLES TO EZINES.
The next best way to use the power of ezines is to get your URL into other ezines for free. I've been doing this for a few years now. Every month I release one article that I feel would fit in well with other ezines.
Anyone can use this same online marketing method. It's simple, you write a short article about your area of expertise and send it to ezine owners who publish related material. As a publisher myself, I'm always happy to receive submissions from authors.
Here's an example of how well this works. Over the last few weeks alone, I've seen my articles show up in 30 different ezines. (see below)
When you add the circulation size of these publications together, I reached close 100,000 internet marketers, and I do this on a regular basis. That's a lot of FREE exposure! If you're not using this online marketing method already, I suggest you start. Subscribe to these same ezines and submit articles to the editors!
Here's a list of the publications and where to sign up...
3. ADVERTISE IN EZINES.
The last way to market with ezines is to simply pay. Many email ezines offer low cost advertising. Not only are you able to reach your target audience, you reach them by the thousands. Of all the advertising methods available online, ezines are the most effective in my experience.
Advertising rates are generally determined by the number of subscribers that will see your ad. If you think the rates are high, compare them to traditional advertising rates found in major magazines. I think you’ll agree that ezines offer a much better deal.
Does it really work though?...
Here are 3 examples of how well it's worked for us:
- A recent press release ad in the A.I.M. Ezine produced a surge in sales and over 100 new gazette subscribers. http://www.inetexchange.com/inet-mailer.htm
- An ad in the "Joke-A-Day list" accounted for over $300 in sales and 100 new subscribers. http://jokeaday.com
- My regular ad in Abbie Drew's DEMC ezine produces an average of $100 in sales every week. No wonder I've advertised in over 100 issues! http://demc.com/
Have you tried ezine advertising yet? If not, check into these three and the long list of ezines above. You may be shocked to learn the effectiveness of zine advertising!
To find additional ezines on any subject imaginable, visit the following URL's...
I visit those two sites every month, in search of targeted ezines where I can advertise! I've got some beauties lined up and I'll be sure to report the results right here in a few weeks. (Including Dr. Ralph Wilson's new advertising section in his "Web Marketing Today." This long-time net marketing zine is sure to deliver lots of action!)
