Promote your blog

Contrary to popular belief, just because a website is online doesn’t mean traffic just automatically flows to it. You have to make traffic happen. This chapter will explain how by evaluating free and paid forms of online marketing.

A- Free Online Marketing Methods

1. Search Engine Marketing

If you followed the guidelines specified in Chapter Two for content creation, you’ve already won half the battle of preparing your site for search engines. The other half is building up your inbound and outbound links. Inbound links are websites that link to you while outbound links are websites that you link to. Search engines prefer to see more one-way inbound links, which means that sites link to you without requiring you to link back to them. However, if you do not have any outbound links you won’t get ranked high either, so make sure to include them. They are very easy to put on your site anyway… just link to other sites that offer information similar to yours. Yet, make sure they are in the top 10 listings of the most widely used search engines, (which are Google, MSN and Yahoo).

Now, as for one-way inbound links, you’ll have to do a little bit more sleuthing. Free methods of getting inbound links, (which will be discussed in more detail in this section), include advertising on message boards, classified ads, article directories and online press releases. On the other hand, you can pay for inbound links by taking advantage of advertising space offered by other webmasters, (this will be discussed later also). Either way, once you have gotten your linkage together, you can submit your site to search engines or simply wait for them to index you on their own. If you did things right, you’ll actually get ranked higher faster if you let the search engines find you.

2. Message Boards

Message boards are online forums in which members post messages in threads, which are a specific section of messages. To effectively advertise using message boards, first find those that relate to the main keywords of your site. You can do this by simply typing in the keyword along with the term “message board.” Join the first 10 to 20 message board sites that come up in your search engine results, as these have already gotten the positive attention of search engine robots. They should also be getting a lot of traffic as well.

Anyway, join as a member and participate in the discussions. When it seems appropriate, start a thread advertising your site, but try to make it in the form of an informative article rather than a blatant ad. Doing otherwise makes other members think you are a spammer. And if this happens, not only will you not get too many views, but you may risk getting banned from that site.

3. Classified Ads

If your website is selling a specific product or service, consider using online classified ads to promote it. As usual, you will want to advertise on online classified ads that rank high in search engine results. However, since classified ads do not require as much involvement as message boards or other free methods of advertising, think about advertising on as many as you can. They help both with search engine advertising and

with building up your traffic in general.

4. Article Directories

Article directories are sites that can be considered content depositories for webmasters. What happens is people write informative articles that a webmaster can use as content for their website. In return for their efforts, the webmaster must keep the article intact, including the most important element, the link to the other person’s website, (usually found towards the end). So, when you write for an article directory, you are getting: 1) a definitive one-way inbound link from the directory itself, 2) traffic from webmasters perusing the article, 3) possible one-way inbound links from webmasters that decide to use your content and 4) possible traffic from the sites of these same webmasters.

If you decide to write for an article directory, it is best to make it keyword-optimized, as if you were writing content for your own site. You will also want to try to make it at least 400 words. By doing both of these things you increase the likelihood that a webmaster will choose your article as content for their site.

5. Free Online Press Releases

Online press releases are simply news stories that get released to media networks. If your press release generates enough interest, you might get exposure on various online and

offline media. This could even include getting free publicity on radio or television. To submit a press release, you can use free or paid press release networks. Paid press release networks offer more exposure than free ones, but the downside is obviously their cost.

So, if you are limited in funds try to submit press releases to as many press release networks as you can find. Keep in mind that not only are you increasing the chances your site might get noticed by a major media network, but you are also creating more one-way links, which, (as you already know), search engine robots like to see.

6. Link Exchanging

Link exchanging is the process of advertising your website on another person’s website with the expectation that you will advertise their site on yours. This builds both traffic and search engine ranking, though it is not viewed in the same light as one-way links.

One-way links are viewed as a website showing more ‘genuine’ interest in the advertisement. Regardless, link exchanging is still invaluable and should be sought after when trying to build traffic.

There are two ways you can initiate link exchanges. You could find the websites yourself and email the webmasters asking if they are interested in a link exchange. Or, you could a link exchange network such as LinkMarket.com. With a link exchange network, it is much easier finding sites who, on their own will, want to initiate link exchanges. You won’t be accused of spam and you get more of a guarantee the other webmaster will want to work with you. Of course, it is not a cure-all, as some webmasters may not want to do a link exchange with sites that haven’t built too much traffic. But there are those that are willing, so it’s still worth a try.

To prepare your site for a link exchange, place a blurb somewhere on your site saying that you’re willing to do link exchanges. Also have a section called ‘Related Sites’. Try to use this type of wording rather than ‘Advertisements’, because visitors are more likely to be turned off to seeing ads, a fact more experienced webmasters are aware of. List all of your link exchanges in this section. Or, you could list them in a banner, which is not as obtrusive as a separate section.

7. Safelists & Autosurfs

Safelists are a very controversial form of online marketing, but should not necessarily be discredited. Basically what happens is that safelist members agree to read the advertisements of other members with the hope that their advertisement also gets read.

Most safelists work on a credit system. Each time you read another member’s advertisement, (which the webmaster can determine through special URLs embedded within the emails), you earn a certain amount of credits. The more credits you earn, the more you can advertise your site.

8. Email Marketing

Email marketing is best done once you have established a large stream of traffic to your website. To prepare your site for email marketing, provide a section where you are giving away a ‘freebie.’ This freebie can be merchandise, an e-book or an informative ecourse or newsletter series. Regardless of what it is, make your visitor subscribe to your email list by providing their name and email address. They can this by using a form you place on your website. To create a form, select the form option from your HTML editor or add the <FORM> tag to your HTML code. Once the form is live, any information contained within will be sent to your email inbox once the visitor hits the ‘Submit’ button.

As you are building up your email list, consider using an email marketing service such as ConstantContact.com to help keep things organized. Additionally, email marketing services help you send HTML-based emails, (which are basically emails that have the same graphical appearance as a webpage). This includes being able to send survey emails, which are useful if you are trying to learn what type of products or services your visitors are interested in buying.

When you start sending off your emails, try not to make them into a blatant advertisement. Instead, provide a series of informative articles, (also known as e-courses or newsletters) and gradually ‘build up’ to your advertisement. If you do not have time to write good articles for your email marketing efforts, you could hire ghostwriters or use private label content.

9. Viral Marketing

If you decide to use an e-book as the ‘draw’ to get visitors on your email list, you can take advantage of viral marketing. What happens is as you are writing your content, you would include affiliate links or even links to other websites you might be using. Then, you would offer resale rights with your e-book. Make sure you specify the e-book has resale rights only, so you can be more assured that the content within them won’t get changed. This is essential because it is through the content that you get the hope that others will buy from your affiliate links or website URLS.

Here is where the concept of viral marketing comes in. People will download your ebook because they are getting useful information for free. Plus they are getting a product that they can sell for themselves on their own websites. When they do sell, since the content cannot be altered, your affiliate links or website URLS get exposed to a whole new set of eyes. If this new person decides to resell your e-book, all of their customers will also get a chance to see your links, increasing the probability that you’ll get sales or

leads. This process will continue until interest in your e-book wanes.

B- Paid Online Marketing Methods

1. Pay-Per-Click

In Chapter One you learned about the ‘publisher’ side of pay-per-clicks, where you would incorporate pay-per-click ads on your website as an income stream. Well, you can also take advantage of the advertising side of pay-per-clicks for traffic building. If you do so your ad will appear in two venues: the websites associated with the pay-per-click network you’re working with and next to the search engine results. Take a look at the

screenshot below to see an example of the latter.

2. Buying Advertising Space

Buying advertising space from other websites is an excellent way to not only build traffic but to also get one-way inbound links. You can use services like Adbrite.com, (which you learned about in Chapter One), to find advertisers, or you could use E-Bay. Another option is to search for them your self.

When finding sites to advertise on, consider their search engine ranking and their relevance to the keywords featured on your site. If you advertise on a site that does not relate to your content, you will not get as much of an advantage with search engine bots.

3. Affiliate Marketing or CPA Ads

Remember reading about affiliate marketing in Chapter One? Well, if you embark on the Merchant end of it, you have a very effective way of bringing traffic to your website. To start an affiliate program, you have several options available to you. The easiest is to join an affiliate network, such as Commission Junction, (which was mentioned previously).

However, you will need to a significant amount of funds upfront to be able to pay affiliates. If you would prefer to pay as your sales are being made, consider creating an affiliate program on your own. You can do this by incorporating affiliate scripts within your website. These can be installed by you or a web designer. Lastly, if you have created an e-book, software or any other type of electronic product, consider using

Clickbank for your affiliate needs. You do not need funds upfront to get involved in the merchant side of Clickbank’s affiliate program. You also do not need technical expertise as Clickbank takes care of everything.

If affiliate marketing isn’t your thing, you can also look into the merchant end of CPA ads. As you previously read, CPA networks such as Azoogle.com work through ads that resemble pay-per-clicks, but pay when an action occurs. However, be aware that networks like Azoogle.com may also want money upfront. In fact, if you actually visit Google.com you will not be able to find direct pricing information on the site, a sign that the cost to work with them is going to be high.

4. Incentive Marketing

Incentive marketing is a controversial method of online advertising. The most popular are ‘paid-to’ sites, such as paid email, signups or pay-to-click, (don’t confuse with this with pay-per-clicks, which do not generate income for visitors who click on them). As you might expect, each of these types of sites pay their visitors to view advertisements.

The upside to these sites is that their pricing tends to be extremely low. Many of them will charge less than $50 to send out emails to thousands of members in their network. And by the fact that members only get paid if they actually view your advertisement, you can be assured that your money is not wasted. However, it is this very element that many webmasters are uncomfortable with. They feel that visitors are not viewing your ad out of genuine interest, but rather because they are getting paid (literally) a few pennies.

In fact, for this reason, many companies refuse to work with webmasters who use incentive marketing as a means for generating traffic.

Yet, don’t let this deter you from incentive marketing. The main key, in the case of affiliate programs, is to find companies that are still willing to work with you. Additionally, you will want to try and advertise things that are more likely to appeal to those in a ‘pay-to’ network. Business opportunities, other paid-to-networks and freebies work well with this market. If your website does not feature these things use your own

incentive marketing tactic to try to at least get paid-to members on your email list. You learned about these methods earlier, but to refresh your memory, basically these tactics could involve offering visitors a free e-book, merchandise, e-course or newsletter.

Eventually, you may want to consider running your own incentive marketing site. To create one, you will need to buy special scripts. One of the companies offering these types of scripts is Getpaidwebsites.com.

5. Buying Traffic

Like incentive marketing buying traffic is very controversial. One of the main reasons this is the case is because you can never know for sure if your traffic is legitimate.

Unscrupulous companies offering traffic for sale might generate false traffic from bots, programs which provide artificial hits to your website. Others might generate traffic from incentive marketing networks which not everyone likes.

If you do decide to buy traffic, it’s best to get it from companies that used expired domain names. What they do is they point the expired domain name to your website, so you can get the advantage of the traffic yourself. TrafficBridge.com is an example of a company that does this.