When it comes to advertising/promoting your website it is important to explore all the avenues available to you, to help bring you the greatest amount of traffic. Below I will endeavour to provide you with some answers relating to the promotion of your site by free advertising and paid methods.

Both methods will bring you different benefits, so I have found that a 50/50 balance to begin with is the right way to go. So as not to overextend yourself a clear marketing framework and budget must be set when it comes to paid advertising. Of course different size budgets will achieve different results but that doesn't mean you can't drive high traffic to your site with a modest outlay.

There are a huge variety of paid options you can explore. There is banner advertising, social networking advertising, Google ad words, PPC and a myriad of others. For starting out I found the following to work most effectively.

PPC (Pay Per Click) on a search engine is a good way to start out, and can be managed to within 10% of your budget. With this type of advertising you write up an ad, submit it, then when a keyword you have in your ad is entered into the search engine, your ad will come up in a search page. This is called an impression. Find a search engine where these impressions are free and you are only charged when the prospective customer clicks on your ad. The search engines will give you an estimate of how many impressions and subsequent clicks your ad will receive for the month, so you can work out how much you want to spend. This is a great way to start your paid ad campaign.

Free advertising online comes in many forms. There are all the social networking sites where you can get your name, profile and business out there for the world to see. These are great for joining groups with common interests, forums on topics relating to your business etc. Use your blog as your "hub" for all of your work relating to your website and direct people back to there to check you out. Some fantastic ways to promote whatever you are doing is by;

Article marketing i.e. write an article giving info about a specific topic relating to your online business and submitting it to article distribution sites. I have articles relating specifically to this so check them out at my blog page below.

Video marketing - Do an intro video of you/your partner and post it on you tube. When people are looking you up, direct them to the video so they can meet you and get a feel of what you will be like to do business with.

These two methods should be concentrated on the most as a have found that traffic to your website will increase dramatically with a strong article/video campaign. Of course there are heaps of different ways to advertise for free including press releases, podcasts, webcasts etc. Find what works for you and tweak it around the edges to get a well balanced marketing strategy.

In summary I hope these tips will provide you with an insight as to what approach I took to promote my online business. I suggest a 50/50 approach with a steady climb in paid advertising over the coming months. Work hard and I am sure will achieve your goals.

Wishing You Success

 

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