We hope that the following article may be informative and helpful to your e-zine readers, or on your web site. (There are some amendments to this previously published article). You have permission to publish this article (formatted to 60 characters, approx) electronically or in print. If my article helps others "out there" in any way, then I'm happy.
"We share what we know, so that others may grow".
HOW TO MARKET YOUR WEB-SITE "ON THE SMELL OF AN OILY RAG" INTERNET MARKETING ON "A REAL SHOE- STRING BUDGET"
by Craig Lock
"Success is neither magical or mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of a few simple disciplines, practiced every day, while failure is a few simple errors in judgement, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgements that leads us to either fortune or failure."
Jim Rohn, motivater
"If you've tried to do something and failed you are much better off then if you tried to do nothing and succeeded."
MY EXPERIENCES OF INTERNET MARKETING WITH NO KNOWLEDGE AND A SEVERELY LIMITED BUDGET
Five years ago I was a total "computer dummy", not even knowing how to turn one on (a computer, I mean!). However, fortunately I developed associations with some "computer geeks", who suggested marketing my various products on the internet: books, courses and money information. This subsequently developed into on-line creative writing courses (the first one was free and I was completely overwhelmed and going broke fast), which have been very successful over the ensuing years .
In spite of a huge amount of time and effort put in, our first attempts at marketing products were minimally successful. As "newbies" we tried the usual techniques: search engines (all of them with automatic submissions), web rings, banners, links (with sites getting fewer hits than ourselves), free classifieds and a guest book - all with very limited success. (I never did try newsgroups). However, all we got was other "internet pros" trying to sell us something (we still get that many times daily - trash bin!). Fortunately, we had no money to spend on promotion, so no capital was wasted. With our "learners plates" on, this was all done on two "freebie sites" (Geocities and Tripod). However, the steep learning curve in the early years , together with persistence gave us a great deal of new knowledge and solid foundation regarding the whole internet marketing process.
Things changed drastically once we got our own domain names. First at NZ Enterprise.com (with Webcom) , then Novelty-Gift.com. Suddenly all our sites got listed with Yahoo, as well as all the major search engines. Must have been the PERCEPTION that we were "successful" and "bigger" than we were - a homebiz. Image in business is everything (as in life!). It also helped having quite a unique product in getting a high ranking ("creative writing courses"). Eureka, Hooray! Incidentally, we submitted to Yahoo (Australia and New Zealand); so I suggest you try the regional Yahoo, rather than their main database. We also get quite a few hits from some of the lesser known S/E's (see even I'm learning the internet terminology!), like Looksmart*, Snap and NorthernLight. (We also tried bidding with Go To - http//:www.goto.com, but with limited success).
Author's Note:
* Oops er sorry, Looksmart is now one of the top search engines. They charge $200 to be listed. Snap have gone. Incidentally, Excite.com is in liquidation. Believe Alta Vista is in financial difficulties too. Hard times these..and things move very fast on the WWW!
Like many other major search engines these days, you have to pay to be listed.
"Lucky us doing it years ago!"
The traffic to our various sites started increasing substantially and sales started materialising. At long last! Mostly, our creative writing courses and money management courses, but a few books too.
Lately, all our marketing has been done through writing articles (on internet marketing, writing, money and self help) and submitting them to article announcement lists, like Free Content, Publish in Yours, Article Publish and Shelley Lowery's Article Announce. Often from there they get picked up by ezines with large readerships - from 10000 ...to even ones with millions of subscribers. True! These big ezine publishers are continually looking for new and quality content, particularly ORIGINAL material that can help others.
My advice is...
write about what you KNOW - your areas of knowledge and expertise, based on your experiences. We find this strategy of SHARING relevant and practical information most effective of all in drawing traffic to our various web sites... and best of all, it helps others "out there in the vast void/realm of cyberspace". That is why I write.
Incidentally, we do all our marketing on-line; but hope to do some off-line too, as more money comes in. We are presently getting "hundreds of hits a day plus", and regular sales. Whilst sales are still nothing like we would like (and I realise it's much harder to sell products on-line than off-line), they are increasing fast. We even started to make a small profit after 18 months on-line and sales a have increased substantially since then!
As part of our marketing strategy to INCREASE TRAFFIC, I do a lot of submitting articles on self development, writing and money management to widely read and popular e-zines (extracts from my books) and this has been the main focus of our marketing strategy. We've found submitting my various articles (with a resource box at the bottom of each article) to ezines and publishers who bring publishers and writers together, has made a big difference in getting our sites noticed - in terms of both "hits" and SALES. It's FREE ADVERTISING AT ITS MOST EFFECTIVE. TARGETED TRAFFIC = INCREASED SALES
Also use free press release services , like PR Web (www.prweb.com).
Living in a small isolated " city" of 30000 people near the bottom of the world, made us realise the tremendous benefits of distributing useful and relevant information around the world at minimal cost via the www. I truly believe e-commerce is the way of the future (especially for geographically isolated communities, like us). Also I started this one man business with NO capital (just one or two "very clever" friends with technical expertise) in the most economically deprived region of "little old New Zealand". This has now developed to my "technogeek" friend and associate and I working (and having heaps of fun) in "Sleepy Hollow", together with American and South African associates. We believe an idea, a big helping of enthusiasm, together with a great deal of time and effort in implementing it, belief, faith in yourself and persistence (not necessarily in that order) is the key to internet marketing success.
Having little capital can be a blessing in disguise in your internet marketing efforts, as it makes one resourceful through relying on your initiave and CREATIVE IMAGINATION. Your greatest obstacle could turn out to be your greatest opportunity.
A final word to sum up...
Online marketing success takes a great deal of hard work, persistence and effort. Do the basics and continually try out new things in your web site promotion - to see what's working for you and change what's not.Then "hang in there, mate" (as good Kiwis, New Zealanders say) and the key RESULTS will surely come.
Hope this helps and all the best in your internet marketing strategy.
Good luck
Craig Lock
Dale Carnegie made this observation: "Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." In the end, it's the persistent bulldog that will own the backyard.
"Some people dream of success...while others wake up and work hard at it."
"If you can believe it, you can achieve it. If you can visualize it, you can realize it!"
"In every triumph there has to be a lot of tri!"
and finally and most importantly...
"Honesty, integrity, persistence and ingenuity are the keys to success... in business and in life."
http://www.novelty-gift.com http://www.nzenterprise.com/
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If you have knowledge, let others light their candle at it" - Margaret Fuller