The Barter System - Overlooked and Underrated
by CritiqueMySite.com


The barter system is one of the most overlooked and underrated 
forms of site promotion available today. Bartering is one of the 
fastest ways to increase your traffic almost overnight. I am not 
referring to bogus traffic that looks great on your web site 
statistics but doesn't actually return any orders, subscribers 
or anything of use. I mean actual legitimate traffic that will 
increase your exposure and sales.

For the purpose of this article we are referring to the barter 
system as an agreement between business owners to give something 
in exchange for receiving something else. For example: One 
business owner may sell ebook creation software and another may 
own a start page exchange. Now you may think these businesses 
are so vastly different they have nothing in common. However, in 
taking a closer look we see they have a very important element 
in common; they are both in need of exposure. What business 
isn't? From the Microsofts or McDonalds of the world to the 
small Mom and Pop stores, exposure is the difference between 
success and failure.

There are many business owners who are adamantly against 
bartering. They will tell you that it's a waste of time. These 
are the business owners who already make enough money, don't need 
any more traffic and aren't willing to work together in order to 
get ahead. If these things apply to you stop reading now. 
However, if you want to increase the amount of money you're 
currently making, increase your traffic and wouldn't mind helping 
someone else out in order to improve your own status, bartering
is definitely the way to go.

What Are The Benefits Of Bartering?

   * No out of pocket cost to you
   * Increased exposure
   * Increased name recognition
   * Increased name recognition by association

What do we mean by increased name recognition and increased name
recognition by association? Once you barter with a high profile 
business, your name is going to be seen more, remembered more 
and, as a result, recognized more by your target audience. The 
key to effective bartering is bartering with a company that is 
comparable to yours. If you own a shoe store, bartering or 
doing a joint venture with a sock store would be the ultimate 
barter. You would recommend the sock store's services in return 
for them recommending yours. I mean after all, if you need socks,
you're going to need shoes. A Win/Win situation for everyone 
involved.

You also have increased name recognition by association because, 
since the sock store is recommending your services, customers 
realize that, if the sock store is willing to associate with your 
company, you must be a wonderful company. Here's another example. 
You have two newsletters with 5,000 subscribers each. Each 
newsletter agrees to barter with the other newsletter by sending 
an email to their subscriber list recommending the other 
newsletter. Each newsletter would send out an email stating, "If
you love our XYZ newsletter, you're going to love this newsletter 
full of  Visit this address to 
subscribe." It's that simple, now both newsletters have increased 
their subscriber list almost instantly and the subscribers of 
each newsletter now have more useful information than before. 
Again, a Win/Win situation for everyone involved.

Now, we know you're asking; "How do I find business owners 
willing to barter with me? A few suggestions:

* Contact business owners that you already know from your 
  current pool of contacts.

* Think of business types that are comparable to yours and 
search for them in a search engine such as Google. Then visit 
the web site and contact the web site owner with an offer. Be 
very careful to make the offer personalized and specific to them. 
You don't want to be accused of spam.

* Place a notice on your web site that you're interested in 
  barters.

These techniques can work tremendously well, if you keep in mind 
that every business owner is just like you in that they are 
looking to increase their exposure. If you can answer the all 
time, number one, most important question for a business owner, 
"What's in it for me?" the likelihood of another business owner 
agreeing to barter with you increases tremendously. What do you 
have to lose but a little time and effort? The yes's you receive 
will more than make up for the no's. Just keep it up and remember 
those yes's are exposure you would not have had. So get out there 
and ask for it.


================================================================
This article was written by CritiqueMySite.com Professional 
marketing and web site critics. Not making any money? It might 
be your web site. Let Us Critique Your Site Today!
http://www.CritiqueMySite.com
================================================================