10 Tips for Effective Website Promotion

Rolling out a new website is much the same as opening a traditional storefront for the first time. You have to get the word out to as many people as possible so they can come see what you have to offer. When promoting your website, you will want to use a combination of web-only and traditional marketing methods. Here are a few tips to consider for promoting your site in the best manner possible.

Don’t forget the traditional methods of advertising your website. Businesses for years have used traditional methods to get the word out to the consumer public. These are methods like flyers, business cards, bumper stickers, and window decals. All should have the URL to your website prominently displayed.

Use social networking sites to get the word out to a select group. The social network craze of late is popular because it is not only free but it allows you to find those with interest in what you have to offer and within your own geographical area. They are great for focusing on your target market.

Give away a free software tool. You may have a talent for creating customized software or you may be able to contract a freelance programmer to help you with this. However, there are many creative ideas you can come up with for offering a free software download that could help a patron to your website do his job easier. People like free items and this is a powerful promotion tool.

Offer a free ebook for download. This is also a popular promotion item because it is informative and free. Write an ebook to give helpful information to your site patrons and they will naturally want to see what else you have to offer.

Keep everyone current on your blog. Keeping your blog current builds credibility for your site. You should also respond to reader posts if you allow them because it shows you are actively engaged in your business.

Create a free newsletter. This is a great way to keep everyone informed about the latest offerings and promotions on your website. Give visitors the opportunity to subscribe to it and then send it periodically to their email address. Free newsletters are also good for getting repeat traffic to your site.

Perform effective SEO on your website. By doing this, you will make your website prominent in the search engines. The goal is to appear in the first one or two pages of search results when using your target keywords in a query. Keep in mind that effective SEO takes time and anyone promising quick results may be using unethical methods.

Pay for SEO results. The major search engines get numerous requests each day to index websites. On top of this, there are those who run automatic submission software to quickly make batches of requests. The search engines try to discourage this simply because they cannot handle the volume. If you want to get indexed fast, check out some of the paid submission directories. While it might be expensive, it could later pay off.

Create your website content in a helpful multi-part series. This motivates your visitors to come back for subsequent visits. Also, make sure the content is current.

Make your website pleasant and easy-to-use. Make sure it loads fast and has intuitive navigation. This is not only good from your visitors’ perspective but it creates less work for a search engine indexing crawler thus increasing the chances of ranking faster in search engines.

What is Facebook Advertising?

With the growing popularity of Facebook it was just a matter of time before people started using the site to advertise and market their business.  In the past people had to invest in an expensive website if they wanted a strong online presence.

These days, Fcebook advertising provides a way to reach your target market more effectively.  But what is Facebook advertising and how does it work?

A Way to Connect with Customers

As one of the fastest social networking sites today, Facebook is capable of connecting millions of customers and businesses around the world.  Facebook advertising allows companies to directly target those consumers who may be interested in their products.

Facebook provides an “Advertising” link where you can learn about strategies to reach specific customers and maximize your returns.  You will learn how to make ads that are effective.

Creating a Facebook fan page will help build a strong relationship with target customers.  A fan page humanizes you and your business.  Social marketing is now being used to reach out to more and more consumers and implement your marketing plan more effectively.  Best of all, social marketing is a way of presenting your business as a friend and not as a faceless company.

Marketing Strategies on Facebook

Advertising on Facebook involves creating a fan page.  You need to think of something that will catch the interest of your customers.  People usually seek information, so you should post links and useful articles on your wall.  Present yourself as an expert on topics related to your business.  By offering useful and interesting information, prospective customers will be encouraged to check out your business on a regular basis.

One big reason why Facebook advertising through a fan page is effective is that you get the chance to interact with customers and provide information about your business. You can personalize your message with photos and images.  A fan page will also help you attract new prospects.

Facebook advertising is a personal relationship.  Thus, you should make sure to fill in your profile information completely so that customers will feel that they really know you.  And when customers leave comments or ask questions, make sure you respond quickly.

Monitor the effectiveness of your marketing ideas and try to improve your marketing efforts.  Connecting your fan page with a social media page is a good start.  A thorough understanding of what Facebook advertising is and how you can use it to make your business grow is essential in social media marketing.

Big Brands Spending Millions Per Month on Google AdWords

According to a recent article on Mashable.com, an internal Google document was obtained by Ad Age that details the companies spending the most of Google AdWords in June 2010. While the biggest spending companies (AT&T Mobility, Amazon, eBay, and BP) may not be surprising, the amounts these companies are spending are truly staggering.

Supporting the release of the iPhone 4, AT&T Mobility claimed the top spot spending just over $8 million on search ads. Remember, that’s just for one month.

Here are the top 10 spenders in June 2010:

• AT&T Mobility – $8.08 million
• Apollo Group (University of Phoenix) – $6.67 million
• Expedia – $5.95 million
• Amazon – $5.85 million
• eBay – $4.25 million
• BP – $3.59 million
• Hotels.com – $3.30 million
• JC Penney – $2.46 million — we’ll admit, this one surprises us
• Living Social – $2.29 million
• ADT Security – $2.19 million

How much did you spend each month on Google AdWords?

Duke’s Championship and CoachK.com

I am beyond excited that Duke won it’s fourth NCAA Championship last month over a tough Butler team. What an exciting game. I’m so proud of the Duke program and their journey this season.

As many of you know, I am the Webmaster for Coach K’s Official website, CoachK.com. I thought I would share what’s been going on with his site during Duke’s Championship run.

As the tournament progressed and Duke advanced, the site traffic grew higher and higher.  The site traffic reached a peak of over 9,000 visits on the night of the championship game. On several occasions during the final four and championship weekend, the amount of traffic actually brought down the site.

CoachK.com is a WordPresss site currently hosted on a shared plan with Host Gator.  I’ve never really experienced  one of my sites going down due to the amount of traffic it was receiving. In each case, I worked with the Host Gator admins to get the site back online. In addition to their help in getting my site back online, I also received an education in caching plugins for WordPress.

Host Gator’s tech support was responsive, professional, and very helpful. I highly recommend them as a hosting provider.

This is a great example of the value a good hosting company can provide. Where is the value in cheap or free hosting when your site has a problem and you can’t get any support? On top of their great support, Host Gator is also very inexpensive and reliable.

How to Target Gmail with Google AdWords

There’s a lot of buzz right now about a new info product that reveals a secret “backdoor” into Google advertising. The secret allows you to specifically target your ads to appear in Gmail. The idea is that while the search volume is lower for Gmail, it is highly targeted traffic and will convert at a higher rate.

The $97 info product is by Ryan Deiss and is available at GmailMindTricks.com (not an affiliate link) if you’re interested.

If you’d like to know how to make your ads appear in Gmail without spending $97, check out this YouTube video posted by Austin Lau, an Agency Media Planner at Google.

I watched the GmailMindTricks intro video but have not purchased the product. Ryan is a reputable internet marketer. Presumably the $97 product includes more than what is on the above YouTube video.

In either case, I thought the info contained in the YouTube video was worth sharing.

Have you had your ads appear in Gmail before? What has been your experience compare to “regular” AdWords?

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