Bargain Methods to Promote Your Home Based Online Business
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Copyright @ Lily Boynton
http://www.plug-in-4-profit.com
There are many ways to market your home-based online business. However, not all methods deliver the same results to every business. While you learn your way around the online business world, it makes sense to start with the cheap or free methods of marketing before spending a lot of money on a system that will not work for you.
Here are three methods for marketing your business for little or no cost. Some will work better than others and some will take longer to show results. Find out the costs as well as the Pros and Cons of each method.
Traffic exchange
Traffic exchange is very popular for new online businesses. They can be free or charge on a monthly basis. With this method, each member views other member’s websites, usually for a specified period, to build credits. Their sites will then be displayed to other members depending on the number of websites they have viewed.
PRO: It’s usually free and can create lots of traffic quickly.
CON: The traffic you get is not targeted traffic, so usually works better for businesses that appeal to a wide audience. In addition, viewing other member’s websites can be time consuming, or cost you some money to purchase credits.
Online Forums
Forums are online communities that discuss specific topics. There are forums (or discussion groups) on just about any topic you can think of. You can find these by doing a search for ‘forum’ and your topic. You can also search on Google to find Groups for your keyword or phrase. Forums are usually free to join.
Most forums don’t allow commercial solicitations because the focus is on exchanging information. Be prepared to add useful comments to the discussion and follow the posted rules. You may be allowed to attach a signature to your comments. Put your website in the signature to attract the search engine spiders and send visitors to your site. Develop a reputation as an expert on your topic and give free advice when possible to build credibility.
PRO: You’ll receive targeted traffic as well as build credibility.
CON: You must be careful not being label as spamer. You have to spend time answering questions and posting comments. Depending on where you post and what you say you may or may not see a lot of traffic initially.
Newsletters
While starting newsletters does not bring traffic to your site, it does take advantage of the visitors who do come. The code for collecting emails can often be obtained from your host provider free or an auto responder service which is free or paid depending on your service. You should have a place for visitors to enter their email address and name on your site. You then can send them a free report or email regularly with tips or news about your topic. This will permit you to build a relationship with prospects as well as grant you permission to contact them again with your offer. It often takes up to several contacts before you make a sale, so don’t let them leave without getting their email!
PRO: It’ll permits you to contact interested prospects again and builds relationship with customers and potential customers.
CON: You need to provide quality information on a regular basis.
Each of the marketing strategies outlined above is proven to work. What works best for you and your home based online business will depend on various factors such as; what your niche business is, how much t time you can spend marketing and what information you can provide. Start using two or all three of these methods and you will be creating a solid marketing foundation for your business.
home based online business marketing strategy newsletters online business online forums traffic exchangeIf You Found This Post Useful You Can Buy Me a Latte:)
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Hi Lily,
I agree it’s best to start with the free or cheaper ways of advertising to start with. You need to set a budget and stick to it otherwise you could find yourself in deep trouble money wise.
Once you have built a decent size list and gained their trust and also started making some sales it is worth thinking about investing some money in advertising.
Carol
Earn Money Working from Home with Affiliate Opportunities
Earn Money Working from Home
Hi Lily - Good resources and article! Article marketing and blogging are two other methods that can be relatively inexpensive and deliver steller results as well.
Thanks
Arthur
http://www.breakfreefromtheratrace.com
Hi Arthur,
yes, article marketing and blogging also good methods. I use them both myself. Thank you for commenting.
Lily
great article covering important areas
Carol,
free marketing method is as powerful as the paid one if we can maximize to utilized the method. I think search engine prefer these organic traffic anyway, so why not use them? It’s free, you just have to spare your time, that’s all.
Thanks for the comment, Carol
David,
thanks for stopping by, I’m glad you find it useful.
Lily
Hi Lily,
I agree. There are some free advertising ways that all of us can use to promote our home business, with some of them pretty effective. One important thing I learned is never buy traffic unless you know what you are doing.
Peter
Work At Home Ideas
I am thinking about starting out with affiliating next month and to be honest the prospect of spending lots of money on something that might not pull anything in scares me.
So it makes sense to start with free and cheap methods.
Thank you.
Lily, this is a great article on free and cheap ways to start a home business, most people forget a bout their budget when they just start, you are doing a great job here.
Tanny
Ideas for a home based business
Peter,
you’re absolutely right, they said: let the buyer be ware. Check around with other internet marketers before spending your hard cash is very wise thing to do.
Dean,
surprisingly, there are many free marketing methods that are very effective, you just have to spend time building your efforts, don’t give up too soon and don’t expect success over night.
Tanny,
absolutely! setting a budget is very critical if you don’t want to max up your credit card
Lily
Hi, Lily:
Great tips on low-cost methods of promotion and advertising. I especially liked the “Pro and Con” comments provided for each method. Thanks for the info.
GT Bulmer
http://www.StarrBizz.com
Great post Lily!! It’s always great to find free or very low cost ways to advertise and get back links! Thanks.
Tara
Work at Home Business Opportunities
Good information.There are many good and free ways to market your business. Traffic exchanges work well if you do not follow what everyone else is doing, that is marketing the same affiliate page. Put up a simple opt-in page to collect email addresses instead.
Also, commenting on other blogs is surprisingly effective, and free.
-Tom
The Home Business Archive
GT,
thanks for your complement, I’m glad that you like it
Tara,
thanks fro commenting, yes, free is the best price, isn’t it?
Tom,
some people don’t think that commenting on other blogs is effective, but I agree with you that it’s still a powerful way to get back links. Thanks for your comment
Good post! You are so right about havng to supply quality information in your newsletter. When someone lets you have their email and name, that is only the first stage of “permission marketing”… The more value you give, the more trust you build, the more permission you will get.
==
Pinging blog posts is another quick and free thing to do - when you post a blog, that is!
David Hurley
http://grasp-the-nettle.com
Here is a list of sources that you can use
and take advantage of to boost traffic to your blog:
1. Blog Comments
2. Web Directories
3. Forum Posts
4. Article Submissions
5. Joint Ventures
6. MySpace groups
7. eZine sponsor/solo ads
8. Pay-Per-Click engines
9. Classified advtg online/offline
10. Squidoo lenses
11. Search Engine optimization
12. Banner campaigns
13. Craigslist listings
14. eBay items
15. Facebook relationships
16. Social Network - other
17. Podcasting of mp3 files
18. Social Shopping
19. YouTube video sharing
20. Link-placing and building
21. Press Releases online
Think about each of these and how
you can duplicate and expand on
getting your web site exposed to
more people, seen and visited!
To your success
Bryan Hee
Earn Money Working from Home
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