Advertising For All

If you are just starting out as a web developer or have a small budget for advertising, there are plenty of ways to advertise your web site for free.  Here are a few tips.

There are many ways to advertise your web site for free such as reciprocal links, direct links, banner exchanges and posting on blogs. No matter what your site topic is, you can find free advertising easily on the web.  You can easily create articles and distribute them for other sites to post as long as they contain your author name and web site link.  You can find banner exchanges that will allow you to create a banner and place it on dozens of other web sites as long as you reciprocate and do the same for other advertisers.

For people that like to write, you can find plenty of popular blogs and write your opinion or give information.  You can then place your web site link onto the blog.  Many blog developers are extremely against spam blogs, but if you add valuable information, most blog developers don’t mind at all a free plug.  So if you are looking for great ways to advertise, follow the above tips and get your web site.

To many people, fax advertising may seem like an archaic form of advertising. So many people turn to other forms of media for their new entertainment and information about what to buy and what not to buy that receiving an ad via fax may be ineffective. For this very reason fax advertising must be made that much more outstanding to the average consumer when they walk by the fax machine.

When creating a fax advertisement it is important to always keep the customer in mind. Think of things that they would like to see, like pictures and words that will get their attention and come right off the page at them. Making sure that they are able to get there attention and at least read the advertisement is half the battle.

The next step in that strategy is to make sure that the fax advertisement has something that will keep them reading. Incentives are the golden rule for fax advertising. With out something that will keep the customer reading they are most likely going to take the advertisement out of the tray, grumble about it being a waste of their paper, ink or both and then crumble it into a ball and throw it into the garbage. Everyone likes a deal whether it be a discount coupon or a new low rate the customer will want to see something being offered to them for the use of that valued ink and paper.

The final most important note about fax advertising is to make sure that they know how to contact you. Whether it be by phone, fax or website. They need to contact you to take advantage of that great deal that you are offering to them. It would be a complete travesty if they wanted to take up the incentive that was offered through the fax advertisement and then had no way to contact your business. That would be money down the tubes or just nonchalantly given to another competing business that did leave their contact information.

Fax advertising does not have to be a relic from the prehistoric era. There is still life in those fax machines and a great opportunity to spread the greatness of your business. It can be used to its full potential gaining business for your company by keeping customers on their toes so to speak.

The truth is that there is no magic secret to online advertising. No one method will generate the largest amount of income/exposure for every website or business imaginable – it’s all a matter of trial and error, time and talent.

That’s a pretty weak answer, I know. It would have been much cooler for me to tell you that buying tiny classified ads in your local paper was the key to success and riches. Well, I’m sorry. For the few of you that have been down this road before and are starting to get it, you’ll hear a ring of truth in my words. The sooner you stop looking for a quick fix to make your message stick, the better.

For what it’s worth, these are my thoughts.

1) The internet has only been alive for a few short years, and in that time it has changed dramatically many times over. Remember in 1995 when everyone first discovered the cool little animated envelope .gif that you would click on to send them email? Where was your online bill-pay, instant messaging, and dynamically generated page content then? And only a few short years later you can see how far we’ve come and use that as a measure for how far we can go.

The point is that the internet, like other forms of media, is a rapidly evolving monster. What works for online advertisers today might be completely ineffectual only a few months from now. That’s why the best advertisers are constantly researching and creating their own unique marketing strategies. The trick is to find out what works for you, and to make sure that you revisit it from time to time to tune it up as the market changes.

2) You Have to Spend Money to Make Money.  It’s a tired line, but it’s that way because everyone says it. Don’t be afraid to add fuel to your advertising fire and take it to another level. Try investing (note that I said investing and not spending) five, ten, or fifty thousand dollars in advertising. If you don’t jump out a window the first time you do it, you may walk away with a big smile and a little pocket money!

The hard part about investing a big chunk of money is coming up with it in the first place. If you already have $50,000 laying around for advertising and are just looking for a place to put it, give me a call. If you’re not that lucky, try looking at the Small Business Administration for ideas on how to get a small business loan.

If you don’t want to go farther than your mailbox, examine some of those credit checks your bank keeps sending you in the mail. A lot of people take advantage of their fairly reasonable interest rates to fund projects.

3) Presentation is Key. You’ll find that excellent writing skills and good marketing go hand in hand. As you improve on one, the other is bound to follow. Knowing how to write, and how to write well will give you an extraordinary advantage of the majority of individuals vying for your customers’ attention. I don’t know about you, but I get a lot of spam for people wanting to sell me their “good, cheap, A+ #1 $$$ rolex watch, discount Viagra, H0t s1utz, etc.”

Needless to say, I have never purchased anything from them and most likely, neither have you. If you have, please drop me a line and let me know how it worked out. I’m always wondering how many of those are a scam.

The emails and circulars that I do purchase from come from GoDaddy, buy.com, Google and a host of other professional companies that take a few minutes to earn my trust with good punctuation, grammar, and quality content.

If you don’t have a talent for writing (and you know who you are) you have two choices:

Get better – easier said than done. Like most things, writing is one part talent and nine parts hard work. Take some classes, do peer editing suggestions, or send it to me look over (first ten-thousand submissions only).

Or, get someone else to do it – leaving more time for you at the helm. I like this option not only because it’s a time saver for me, but also because the work generally comes out better than anything I could have done. This article is an excellent example. I provided a detailed outline, some good anecdotes, and the strategies above and the copywriters at danifer.com did the rest. I made a deal with them to write the article for $149 and we share the syndication rights. Not bad for half an hour’s work.

If you can’t afford to hire a pro, be courteous to yourself and your audience by simply re-reading your work, running a spell check, and letting your wife/husband/friend/co-worker look it over. You’d be surprised at how many things invisible to you will stand out to a fresh set of eyes.

Your online business will likely require more advertising than a contemporary business downtown, yet some new to the world of online business do not spend the time and money to advertise their business appropriately and are, in turn, loosing money. Your online business is crammed into the world wide web along with thousands of others selling the same product or service as yourself. Consider this scenario: In your hometown you want to open an art supply store. In that same town there are thousands of art supply stores. In order for your business to be successful, it will have to stand out in some way from the others. This is exactly what is happening when a business is opened online. There is so much competition, that you must take drastic measures to ensure that you are getting noticed. Advertising can be done in so many ways online. These are some of the most successful ways that you can promote your online business.

Advertising in e-zines is a popular way to promote your online business. Ezines are the magazines of the internet; they written on a particular subject and read by those interested in that subject. Therefore, ezine readers are already potential customers and advertising your site in ezines that are related to your business is almost guaranteed to help drive traffic to your site and increase sales for your product. You should be sure when advertising in ezines that you are not advertising along side competitors. Ask the ezine producer if there is a policy concerning posting competing ads. It is also a good idea to subscribe to the ezine before making a decision about whether or not to advertise in it. An ezine that runs fewer ads is a better choice than one that runs many ads. You can look at the online Directory of Ezines to find publications that are relevant to your company.

Pay-per-click programs are an excellent way to advertise your business without taking a risk that you have advertised in the wrong place. With pay-per-click, you can advertise you site and only pay for those who click the link and go to your site. Another popular pay-per program is the pay-per-lead program that allows you to only pay for leads. Usually this means that you pay for only those who download a trail, fill out a form or enter a sweepstakes; whatever you choose. Lastly you can display pay-per-click banner ads in which your company would be allowed to place a banner on their site and you will be charged for every click that your banner receives.

Opt-In email is a great way to advertise your business, however it is expensive and it can be misused very easily. Using opt-in emails, you would
submit your sales copy to the company that will in turn email it to those on their mailing list. You should be very careful since some of the companies that advertise their mailing lists as opt-in email service is sometimes really SPAM. It is essential that you have a perfect and effective sales letter when using opt-in mailing lists. Without and effective sales copy your money and time have been wasted.