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| Site Promotion
Without Search Engines? |
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Bill Hartzer made what I thought was an interesting post. Tell us what you think
at WebProWorld.
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Last week in our WebProWorld forums, one of our moderators Bill Hartzer made what
I thought was an interesting post about promoting your site without search engines.
Bill's post basically consisted of a question as to what methods existed -aside
from search engines- for promoting your site.
Discuss this at WebProWorld.
A couple of free (or near-free) things you can do online...
You can write articles for online publications as Robert Warren points out in
Bill's thread.
As Robert mentions however, that you should take a few precautions. First, make
sure the publication you are submitting to is reputable and relevant to your site.
Second, be sure your signature or resource box will be published with your article.
Publishing an article in a publication relevant to your business accomplishes
a couple of things. It establishes your credibility (providing of course it's
a good article) and your resource box/signature line will contain a link back
to your site. The importance of the link back to your site is key, as it will
also help you with many of the key (read: Google) search engines.
You can look into starting a blog for your site. A blog, if well maintained, takes
a bit more work and upkeep than the occasional article, but the rewards can be
considerable. If the Nigritude Ultramarine
thing taught us anything it was that blogs are incredibly powerful in Google.
If you have a compelling, topical blog for your site going and get it listed in
a couple of feed sites, you have a great
tool for generating both traffic and the oh-so-valuable links back into your domain
for the search engines. The best thing about the blogs (and the articles) is the
price tag - just a little bit of your time.
Press releases can be a good source for getting your name out. Keep in mind a
few things with your press releases though. When writing a press release you are
going to want to stick to the facts -no hyperbole. Also, you will want to make
sure your press release doesn't come across as contrived - it should have an obvious
point and get to it. Of course, you can put your link in, etc., but resist the
urge to go over the top with any promotional language.
Viral marketing tactics like the basic 'forward to a friend' type programs can
be an extremely effective means of getting your name spread around. I remember
in early 2000 a site called pinstruck.com got all kinds of press. Basically they
had a setup where you could send a semi-customizable voodoo hex to the recipient
of your choosing via email. They got lots of press from mainstream T.V. and magazines
and generated quite a lot of buzz. Unfortunately, they're no longer with us it
seems, which reminds me of another aspect of viral marketing. Viral marketing
too often lives and dies with its reliance on the gimmick. Viral programs typically
work fairly well with humor related subject matter and the like, these types of
programs can be tough to sustain however once they run their course.
Other online techniques like banner exchanges/ad swaps with other sites are also
effective tools for getting some links pointing in. Typically however, it has
been my experience that sites eager to exchange links/ads with you are often hurting
for traffic worse than you are. Still, if they are relevant to your subject and
appear to be professional and on the up and up it isn't going to hurt you if you
have the space to accommodate them.
As for the offline (translated not-free) promotional tactics; you have a great
number of options and are limited only by your budget in most cases. Some of the
less-expensive methods of offline promotion would be giveaways. People love to
get something for nothing. Pens, notepads, key chains and other miscellaneous
trinkets can be great tools for spreading your name. Every single pill, potion
and elixir on the planet has an ink pen extolling its virtues. Point being that
even pharmaceutical companies, with some of the biggest marketing budgets in the
world, recognize the value of having their names/products splashed across novelty
items to be passed around. Ask your doctor about that.
Depending on your market and your target, there are some good values in print
publications as well. Trade publications offer a good bang for the buck generally
as they tend to be much less expensive than their larger general-audience mainstream
counterparts.
If you don't already have a media kit, you can probably come up with one at a
relatively modest expense. Even if your business doesn't necessarily fit into
a category where media kits are the norm, you could put together something similar
outlining the products/services you provide along with some background and contact
information for your company. A simple 2-pocket folder with a few info sheets
(or maybe scale it down to a brochure) can be an effective tool particularly for
service related businesses.
There are plenty of other means outside of search engines to bring traffic to
your site/business. I'd love to hear about some of your own experiences in the
world of non-search engine promotions and what worked/didn't work for you.
Enjoy!
Mike McDonald + The WebProNews
Team
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Interview
With Author Brad Hill
 By
Scott
Buresh
Brad Hill has worked in the online field since 1992, and was a recognized authority
on search engines long before two now-famous Stanford graduate students started
tinkering with what would eventually become Google. His popular books, among them
Google For Dummies, Yahoo! For Dummies, and Internet Searching For Dummies, share
a knack for taking what are often highly technical concepts and presenting them
in ways that are immediately useful to the average reader.
His latest book, Building Your Business with Google For Dummies, was released
June 14th. I recently had the opportunity to ask Brad some questions about his
background, his take on the current and future search engine landscape, and his
latest book.
SB: Your new book, Building Your Business with Google
For Dummies, was recently released. Please give us a brief overview of the book
and the topics covered.
 Read
the Full Article
About the Author:
Scott Buresh is managing partner of Medium
Blue Internet Marketing, an Atlanta-based search engine optimization company
that works with clients all over North America. His articles have appeared in
numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag,
SiteProNews, PromotionData, and Search Engine Guide. |
Does anybody remember ReveNews? The site was a popular source of affiliate information
in the late '90s, until it apparently faded away.
But ReveNews is back from the dead now with expanded coverage.
Founder Brian Clark has posted a message in this
WebProWorld discusson.
Will
the ReveNews revival be a success?
|| Brittany||
Revenews
- REVIVED
By Catalyst
NOTE: Scroll down to read about the GOP Affiliate Program Article
Some of you may remember the Revenews of old before it fizzled out and appeared
to be dead. Well it's been revived and it's better than ever!
If you truly want to keep up with the latest industry news and trends you need
to visit Revenews on a regular basis.
Overture,
simply not worth it.
By martinlatanet
 I
just resigned Overture because I found it to be a waste of money and time.
Like all other Overture subscribers I placed x dollars on deposit with their firm.
Within my industry, log home building, I selected my key words and agreed to pay
$0.10 per click through. This month I was notified that Overture had a $20 per
minimum and that were deducting $17 and change from my account. This means we
had about 26 visitors who used Overture to click through to our web site and we
paid $17.40 for those that do not click through. We were ranked #22 on Overture.
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