A Beginner's Checklist to Promoting an Online Business - Part 2
by Angela Wu

This week we continue with Part 2 of our 3-part series on 
how to market your online business. Part 1 is available at
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2002/sept/6.html

As much as we all love free stuff, an Internet business is 
still a business and you can reasonably expect to invest 
in marketing. Fortunately, online marketing can be quite 
affordable -- even to beginners on limited budgets. Here's 
a quick list of some of the more popular paid methods for 
small businesses.

PART 2: Effective Fee-Based Online Marketing Methods 

1. Search engines. Web surfers typically use the large 
   search engines such as Google, MSN, and AOL to find 
   the information they want. If you can manage to get 
   a good ranking for some of your top key phrases, you
   can get a steady stream of traffic. Expect to invest
   funds for review/submissions, and possibly even for 
   hiring an optimization expert or for self-education.  
   A great site to learn about search engine optimization 
   is Search Engine Watch, http://searchenginewatch.com/ .

2. Major indexes. Yahoo [ http://yahoo.com/ ] and Open 
   Directory [ http://www.dmoz.org/ ] are two of the best-
   known indexes. Both of them can significantly increase
   your link popularity, and provide you with additional
   traffic. At the time of writing, Yahoo charges an annual 
   review fee for commercial websites. Submissions to Open 
   Directory are currently still free.

3. Pay-per-click search engines. With these search engines, 
   you literally pay a certain amount of money for every 
   click they send your way. The more you bid, the higher 
   you'll rank for your search term and the more visible 
   your link will be. The largest and most popular PPC SE 
   is Overture, http://www.overture.com/. A list of PPC SEs
   is available from http://payperclicksearchengines.com/ .

4. Ezine advertising. Although this takes a fair bit of 
   practice and experimentation, ezine advertising is 
   potentially one of the best and most profitable ways 
   to promote your business online. The editor has already 
   done the hard work of putting together a list of opt-in, 
   interested prospects; you just take advantage of it. 
   Search for complementary ezines at NetterWeb.com,
   http://www.netterweb.com/ or use the excellent 
   Lifestyles Publishing Directory of Ezines at
   http://buildyourhomebiz.com/directory.html .

5. Direct email campaign from a reputable list broker. 
   There are companies on the Web that specialize in 
   building permission-based email lists, targeted to 
   each subscriber's area of interest. This is true 
   'opt-in', unlike the endless stream of spam email 
   that implores you to purchase '30 million addresses 
   for only $99!' True opt-in lists are not cheap by any 
   means, but they have the potential to yield great
   results. Check out http://www.postmasterdirect.com/ 
   as an example.

6. Press releases. Your newsworthy press release could 
   generate loads of free publicity for your business. 
   Invest some of your marketing funds in educating 
   yourself on how to generate publicity; an excellent 
   source of information is Paul Hartunian's website at 
   http://www.prprofits.com/ .

7. Advertise on a targeted website. Find complementary 
   but non-competing sites and check their rates for 
   advertising. Banner ads are the most common type of
   advertising permitted; however, they're usually not 
   very effective. Text ads or endorsements typically 
   perform better. 

8. Mini-sites. These small sites (typically around 3 or 
   4 pages) are focused on selling one product. There's 
   usually no free content; just a sales letter, perhaps 
   a FAQ and some contact information. Mini-sites are an 
   excellent way to get your prospect to do just one thing, 
   whether that's order your product or sign up for your 
   newsletter. The costs to create a mini-site would 
   include domain name registration and hosting fees.

9. Experiment with some of the promotional services 
   offered online. The only way to know for sure whether 
   or not they'll work for you is to try them (and track
   the results). Use discretion -- be careful not to 
   associate your business with promotion services that 
   are nothing but 'disguised' ways to spam! Before you 
   shell out the cash for these types of services, ask 
   around for first-hand experiences. 

10. Hold a conference. A great credibility builder is to 
    offer a web or phone conference for your visitors. 
    Use it to offer helpful information -- for example, 
    you could open the conference to questions from the
    audience -- and generate additional interest in your 
    product or service. Two sites that offer conference
    services are http://www.easyconference.com/ and 
    http://www.bridgerentals.com/ .
    

Don't be afraid to invest in marketing your online business. 
Effective 'free' promotion is always wonderful, but there are 
many equally effective paid methods that can result in a great 
return on your investment. Be sure to track the results for each 
method you use; that way you'll be able to concentrate your 
efforts on those methods that work best for *your* business.

Stay tuned next time for a checklist on promoting your Internet 
business in the 'real world'!

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Angela is the editor of Online Business Basics, a practical 
guide to building a business on a beginner's budget. It's a 
proven hit with beginners, for the down-to-earth style and loads 
of instantly useable tips! For details, visit
http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/article.html 
OR request a series of 10 free reports to get you started:
mailto:businessbasics@workyourleads.com
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