If you have a website or are thinking of making one you will have to do some marketing. I will go over some basic marketing. Let’s take a web site that’s been online for a month this website sells red widgets.
The design of the site is good and basic SEO has been applied competition is average for red widgets but the site isn’t getting any visitors and what few it does get don’t buy any red widgets. Lets say were on a tight budget so we have to keep costs low.
Nine things you can do with low cost
1. Look at site like you are a visitor is the companies goals clear is there a phone number placed where you can spot right away. Customer trust is important and customers want to know if they have a problem they can talk to a real person. A contact page is in place so potential customers can A. email and get a response B A phone number is present.
2. Everything checks out in step 1 we have a great design and basic SEO has been applied. Now its time to check out our competition so we will simply type in our key word in a search box red widgets and see who is on the first page. Now we will have to do some spying.
Check their inbound links are they good quality inbound links from pages with a high Page rank: A search can be done on Google and MSN for ( link: domain.com ) (replace domain.com with competitor's domain). In Yahoo it is linkdomain: domain.com (replacing domain.com with your competitor’s name). The search will produce all webpage’s a link to the page you typed in.
A Check how long they have been online Google now takes into account how long a page has been around. http://www.whois.sc/
B Firefox has a free SEO extension you can get it here firefox extension It shows you a lot of information about a website. Information you can applly to your site for examamle if you see links from different social sites, blogging sites you may want follow thier example.
C What advertising are they using? This will be harder to determine are they paying to show up in the search results.
3. links can boost your traffic and your page rank if they are good quality ones. Submitting your site to directories if you are just starting out will help. Reciprocal links can help with traffic somewhat, but one way links are better getting one way links are more difficult a fast way would be to buy them but now Google has decided it is unfair and may get you knocked off of Google. One solution is to post comments on high quality blog sites including a link to your site. Writing articles with your page link.
4. Join forums on your topic that let you have a signature in the form of a URL reply to topics then post an interesting topic in the forum one which will get people to respond. Forum users hate shameless self promotion. Be creative
5. Writing a press release writing a press release has to be interesting widget now in red is pretty boring think of a way to liven it up “couple celebrates 10th webbing anniversary with 10th year in widget business” adds a human side Think you have to have a human side to it have over come any obstacles or milestones how did you get into the business? There is the is in it for me factor as a consumer make sure to sate this. Remember a catchy headline look over some headlines and see what catches your attention. The content make bright and state your point at the beginning. Make sure the editor is still the editor when contacting them by email don’t send attachments if you have a great picture include it.
6. My Space heard of it if you haven’t then your kids have Promote your self on my space join a group of red widget enthusiasts sell your self then your product. My Space is free to join and setting up an account is pretty strait forward.
7. You Tube break out the video camera and demonstrate. Give a free lesson on how to use a red widget. As an example if you sold art supplies give a short lesson on how to paint a simple back ground have your site in the video in the beginning and make sure to mention it.
8. Write articles and have a one way link to your page to the article start your own blog or post comments in blogs with your URL
9. Paid advertising though many different ways of doing this there are sites you can pay to put a banner on but they are usually not that great there banner exchanges but you risk losing a customer. Setting a budget and using Google's Adwords or a similar means can be good you are getting free exposure, joining Googles referrals program or have your own affiliate program.