Successful Promotion on a Limited Budget
by Theresa Piccola
So you have an innovational product or idea and have a brilliant web site created. Now it's time to promote your site. Advertising is expensive. In the beginning stages of any business, the dollars are usually not available for marketing. I suggest four roads for successful web site promotion on a limited budget.
- Certainly submit your site to search engines.
- Participate in banner exchange programs.
- Exchange links with comparable sites and
- Advertise in newsletters published for your target audience.
You must take the time to submit your site to the four largest search engines, Excite, Lycos, Alta Vista, and Infoseek. Prepare your site by placing proper META tags and keywords to your HTML code for higher listing on these engines. Utilize Submit It! or Add Me!. These free services submit your site to over twenty search engines free or for a fee there are over 500 search engines for which your site can be submitted. Since, the majority of hits your site will receive are accessed through search engines; this is a crucial first step in successful promotion.
There are several excellent free banner exchange programs. The concept is great, considering free advertising is an attractive way to get your promotion off the ground. It is important, however; to be selective on the exchanges you choose to utilize. Of course, try the best, Link Exchange, and specifically for women there is Moms in Business Banner Exchange. A clean and eye-catching banner is essential for to attract hits. It is worth your money to have a professionally designed banner created to represent your site.
Search for sites of similar interest or the same audience and email the webmaster to request a link exchange. Avoid mediocre or average sites. Create exchanges with sites as good or better than your own. You may not receive too many hits from this form of promotion, but it is smart to compare your site with your competition, and while forming associate relationships.
Place an ad in a newsletter with subscribers in your target audience. Newsletter advertisement is much less expensive than banner advertisement and though it is not quite as effective, there is a lot of hit potential in a newsletter ad. Do your homework, shop around for newsletters with a number of subscribers you feel is worth paying for, and write an ad that readers cannot resist.
Promoting your web site on a limited budget is not the same as paying for a professional marketing campaign. However, you do have to start somewhere and you will be delightfully surprised with the results of your efforts using promotion methods. Good Luck!
Brought to you by: World Wide Information Outlet - http://certificate.net/wwio/, your source of FREEWare Content online.
Theresa Piccola, Owner of Banner Creations, http://www.iguild.com/homes/bannercreat/, banner and website design and promotion, Promotions Director of Lee-Bee Motivational Charts, http://www.lee-bee.com, Assistant Web Administrator for The Baby Corner, http://lmg-webdesign.com/babycorner/, and original creator of ~A Mom's Love~ http://www.amomslove.com , a monthly online magazine full of insightful articles and information for all moms.
|
