3 Tips for Using Free Internet Marketing Resources Most Effectively
Posted: Saturday, March 20, 2010
by Donovan Baldwin
No Diet 4 Me
The crazy world of Internet businesses and marketing can overwhelm new business owners at first...and sometimes for years, if they last that long. All the claims seem to make sense, but, when the "newbie" signs up and begins trying to promote their new Internet business, it just doesn't seem to work a lot of the time....a LOT of the time!
It all seems so simple, and the Internet is so big, there must be room for everybody to get something from that seething sea of humanity.
As just about anybody with experience at selling things online can tell you, it is not always going to be as easy as it looks. Even if you are eventually very successful, getting there can actually wind up demanding an expensive investment in terms of effort, time, frustration, confusiion, and an hour-by-hour emotional roller coaster ride that carry you from euphoria to depression with one mouse click...and, of course, money.
Most people who they sign up for, or create, some product or service website in hopes of selling things online, lack three major resources.
1. Money
2. Time, and...
3. Knowledge
It's not surprising since these are also three of the key factors which cause the downfall of over 90% of all the small business start-ups in the U.S. according to many sources, including the Small Business Administration.
New Internet business owners believe that their website will work 24/7, allowing them to make money online even as they sleep. Hey, that's what the recruiting web pages told them, and that is what so many articles and emails told them as well.
We tend to trust our fellow man too much at times.
If it were one hundred percent true, at least as it has been presented to them, that would save a lot of time, and money, and would require little or no knowledge. Just put up a website, list it with a few search engines and directories, and...kaboom!...lots of website traffic, lots of sales, lots of money.
Set it and forget it, you might say.
Well, that will have to be the subject of a whole different article, or series of articles.
Right now, as we proceed to the part about using free Internet marketing resources effectively, let's just take the viewpoint that, while a good website, properly set up with all the search engine optimization gimmicks in place, and properly marketed CAN produce income overnight, you don't just get off so easy as to stick it out there and have people flock to it.
You either goint to invest some "sweat equity" marketing techniques or pay someone who knows what they are doing in this area to get it done for you.
When I say, "sweat equity", I mean that you spend some of YOUR time and effort, usually using free Internet marketing resources, to promote your website and business yourself.
Fact is, many people jumping into this pool are NOT going to be successful without investing some of their own time, which they are probably short of as they are probably starting by doing this part-time, after work, or early in the mornings or late at nigh when the kids are still in bed.
On the other hand, even if you do not have a lot of time in each day to invest, you can still invest time over long periods and accomplish great things..."eventually", as one of my instructors, used to say when I was at the Army language school in Monterey, California so many years ago.
As Yoda might say, "Invest time you will, if money you have not!".
And, you probably don't have enough money anyway, whatever your needs for it are, if you are trying to start an Internet business. Or, from a different angle, you have enough but want a different life, a life without a boss, deadlines, alarm clocks, or commutes...all those things we love so much that go with having a job.
If you DO happen to have enough money and want to hit the ground running, you could invest in the services of those whose business it is to make other people successful.
But...
Even if you have enough time, or enough money, or both, if you don't have knowledge about marketing an online business, you are still behind the power curve, as we used to say in the Army.
I believe that if you are still with me, you are probably short on one, two, or all three; time, money, and knowledge and are wanting to know how fo use free marketing resources to maximize your possibility of success with your new Internet business.
All right, let's talk about using some free resources to promote that new Internet business of yours.
First, what free resources are we going to be talking about?
There are a lot of resources which can be free, and, which can be used to promote your Internet business, but for the moment I am going to concentrate on places you can go and things you can do to promote your business on a day-to-day basis. I hope that it is obvious that making sure your website has been fine-tuned with all the latest search engine optimization (SEO) techniques is important, but a difficult one for someone without the knowledge and skill to do it.
Another important step is submitting your website to a large number of search engines and directories. though it can be a time-consuming one without the proper software or submission service.
But, for the momentI am talking here about things like using social networking sites, posting free classified ads, participating in forums, and using free traffic exchanges. Things like that.
Many "experienced" marketers recommend avoiding these, not only because using them can be exhaustively time-consuming, but also because the general consensus is that they do not really provide targeted traffic, or visits by people who might actually become buyers...if they even read the ads or postings at all!
By the way, many "Internet marketing gurus" recommend avoiding "free" stuff because they want to sell you THEIR sure-fire, no-fail, system.
Most of the genuine objections do have some validity, but here are two points I want you to consider:
1. There ARE real human beings going to those sites, and...
2. If you apply the proper techniques(s), you CAN get their attention and send them to your site.
There are a great many things you can do to use most free Internet marketing resources effectively, but I am going to concentrate on three of my favorite tips that can help you drive targeted human traffic to your website and maybe even create a few effective backlinks that search engines often value so dearly in the process.
1. You should never send anyone directly to your sales site from a free resource...whether it is a classified ad, forum signature, twitter post...whatever. Unless you are dealing with a large number of people who already know you well, respect your opinion, and are predisposed to want what you have to offer, they probably will not even bother to click through and will not buy if they do.
Think about i. First of all, they do not know you from Adam, or Eve (although I can tell the difference, and, as the French say, vive la diffrence), and, if these people are also on these sites, they are trying to sell something to YOU...not to buy something from a stranger.
2. Always offer to provide something of value for free, even if it's just a little good advice. Whether it is a collection of health tips if you happen to be selling a health-related product, make-up tips if you are selling cosmetics, or even some free software or a report of use to your potential consumer, if you are providing ANYTHING, providing something free, original, and of value to the potential customer will raise their opinion of you, make them consider you more as a friend and advisor, and will create feelings of trust and respect...especially since you did not try to "sell" them anything.
A quote from Zig Ziglar goes, "You can get anything in life you want if you help enough people get what they want."
A bit simple, perhaps, but it illustrates the point.
3. You must always be trustworthy, dependable, honest, friendly, open, and forthright in all your dealings. Always tell the truth, offer indisputable facts, and only make claims you can back up. Certainly, if you are selling something like exercise equipment, you cannot be expected to guarantee and verify all the specs that the manufacturer gives you about their treadmills or elliptical machines, for example, but, if you do happen to learn that there is some sort of defect or that the machine simply does not live up to its advertising, drop it immediately and apologize to anyone who may have gotten information about it from you. If a question comes to you about something and you cannot give a valid, informed answer, sit down and do your research until you DO have an answer. If you cannot find out the facts...say so.
Learn from the recent Toyota debacle.
One of the most effective things you can do for your website is to constantly provide valid and recent information. One of the most effective things you can do to promote that website is to follow the same guidelines with your marketing efforts..
In the final analysis, you are going to have to commit to using some or all of those resorces, time, money, and/or knowledge if you want to be successful online, or just about anywhere else.
If you lack time or money, go get the knowledge you need to be most effective. If you lack time or knowledge and cannot figure out how to get more of either, you will have to spend some of your own money. If you lack money or knowledge, be prepared to spend a large amount of your own time getting where you want to go.
One final tip for everything that you want to accomplish in life...giving up will never get you there.
About the Author
Donovan Baldwin is a 65-year-old fitness nut, freelance writer, certified optician, and Internet marketer addicted to learning about new stuff and sharing with others, who is currently living in the Atlanta, Gerogia area. A University Of West Florida alumnus (1973) with a BA in accounting, he has held several managerial and supervisory positions throughout his career. After retiring from the U. S. Army in 1995, with over 20 years of service, he became interested in the Internet marketing phenomenon and has developed various successful online businesses. He has been writing poetry, articles, and essays for over 40 years, and now frequently publishes original articles on his own websites and for use by other webmasters. He has an Internet marketing blog at http://donovanbaldwin.blogspot.com.
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