In the final chapter of this book, we will look at the various ways in which you can market your online business.
Marketing is THE KEY to your success or failure.
The first thing to consider is how to optimize your website so that it will start getting ranked in the top three search engines (This is called SEO. Search Engine Optimization) Google, Yahoo and MSN. The sooner you do this the faster it will get ranked and the sooner the traffic will start to appear. A great way of doing this is by investing in either a book, E-book or E-course on how to optimize your site. Our recommendations are listed in the “Useful Resources” section at the end of this book.
The best way to optimize your website is through backlinks to your site. Backlinks are links to your site placed on other sites. This is accomplished through various methods.
Link Exchanges
This is where you exchange links with other websites that have complimentary products or services to your own. It will not only give you direct traffic from the link, but will help to increase your pursuit for getting ranked higher in search engines.
Write Articles
It is important that the articles you write are interesting and full of useful information regarding your niche. This is probably one of the best ways around for gaining more traffic to your website. Not only is it free, as there are many article sites around where you can have your articles published for free, but each article you have published will be providing a link back to your site. This means that you are helping to gain even higher rankings where search engines are concerned. When writing an article, you should always include information about you, the author (this will usually be in a resource box at the bottom of your article), and do not forget to include that all important link to your own website.
By distributing to numerous article sites, you are not only gaining traffic (as when someone sees it on there, they will click on your link if they like what they saw), but also you get a link that points directly back to your site, which the search engines use to rank sites.
However, if you are someone who dislikes writing, then you could always look at using a ghostwriter. There are many sites around today who offer ghostwriting services, but when initially setting up an online business, this may not be an expense that you want to incur.
Online Forums
When using these, do not forget to include your signature line at the end of any comments you make. This will provide a link back to your site. Post to forums that are related to what you are trying to sell. Not only will you be learning about your potential customer’s desires, but you’ll be able to establish yourself as an expert in the field.
You can easily find forums on your topic or niche by doing a simple search on “your subject” +forum
Blogs
Blogs are a great way of ensuring you get back links to your site. So why not start a blog on your website? But ensure that you post to your blog several times a week and think of it as news page for your site. Certainly blogging has become the in thing at the moment on the web. You only have to do a quick search to find out just how many there are.
Blog and Ping and Tag and Ping are ways to get your site indexed by the search engines more quickly. You can find more information on how to do this at www.internetmarketingcompanion.com
Social Bookmarking
With the advent of Web 2.0 social sites such as Myspace, Squidoo, and Youtube
are becoming increasingly popular ways to advertise your site and create backlinks as well. Go to www.internetmarketingcompanion.com for a full tutorial on how to use MySpace and Youtube to promote your site.
