Free Online Marketing Strategy

Free Online Marketing Strategy photoWith the free marketing tools that we are going to list and explain here, you can create a whole online marketing strategy that will generate the amount of traffic needed for your website to start generating sales.

This means that you will never have to choose any tactic that requires continuous advertising investments. This does not mean in any way that there isn’t any money to be spent.

The tools that we are going to explain can be implemented either in automatic mode or manual mode. The manual mode proved to be a very time consuming effort that is considered not only inefficient but can also be ineffective sometimes.

The automatic mode on the other hand can really save you a lot of time. A time that you can use to further your knowledge in online business and to keep yourself updated with what is new in the market, which a must in this industry.

Time is not the only advantage of automatic implementation, but listing all the advantages of such implementation will make us deviate from our main objective which is to discuss the tools and tactics that would compose a whole free online marketing strategy.

Choosing the automatic mode means that you will need to buy and use software programs that will enable you to automate the process. Buying those software packages is where the investment lies. I highly recommend you to buy software packages that require only a one time investment rather than a monthly subscription.

Now let us get started with the list of tactics that would give you a free online marketing strategy:

1)    Directory and Search Engine Submission: It is recommended to start with this tactic as it is expected that this tactic bring solid and continuous traffic. Yet it needs time to build your position especially within the search engines. When we say search engines, it doesn’t mean that we are talking only about the big names. If you submit your website to the smaller search engines, that can contribute to your position within the big players.

2)    Reciprocal Linking: This tactic has gained a little bit of controversy lately. Many prefer one way links rather than exchanging links. I would agree with them, but what could it hurt to follow both tactics? With reciprocal linking you exchange links with other websites. This can really be time consuming if you are not automating the process.

3)    Posting in Forums: Posting in active forums has a double impact. Not only you are generating traffic from people clicking your link in you signature line, but also you get one way back links as these forums are open to search engines and therefore, your posts with your signature are listed in those engines.

4)    Article Submission: There are numerous directories that accept article submissions which would gain you a huge amount of one way back links to your website. Your priority is to find directories with high traffic and ones that have the ability to distribute your articles to other websites, e-zines, e-mail groups and other kinds of publishers.

5)    Pinging: Pinging your Blog and your dynamic pages of your site. If your Blog is hosted on your server as an extension of your website, you can Ping your Blog to update search engines with the new changes. This will encourage search engine spiders to crawl to you Blog and eventually to your website. Also you can create dynamic content on your website by adding articles and news feeds to keep you website fresh with new content. This is something that search engines like and accordingly you can Ping those pages of your website to accelerate the spider crawling procedure.

Business Website Tips

Business Website Tips photoThe design industry in general is very sensitive to outside influences all the time, usually termed as “modern”, “innovative” or “trend-setting” etc. However, thankfully these influences affect the design areas outside the purview of web design, where the designers and artists tend to change their style, direction and outlook. In the web design world, we look towards objects, resources and content resulting in profitability as motivating factors for changes in design.

The path breaking truth about websites is that there are no rules for web design, there are only guidelines. Following them or not is up to the web designer, but following certain guidelines to design a money making site would certainly help in the long term.

The main objective of a business website is representation of the company and describing the products and services offered by it on the internet. The website must make sure that enough information in this regard is available. Transparency is another factor while designing a business website. This can be achieved through the “About Us” page which should provide enough information about the management, the objectives, the history and the philosophy of the company represented. Photographs on this page enhance credibility, since they present a crystal clear transparent picture to the visitor which says “we have nothing to hide”.

Some designers tend to provide contact information in the “About Us” page, although it is not incorrect, a better and organized method would be the usage of “Contact Us” page. Please make sure the contact us page is simple and short. Many websites have long forms to fill with departmental details and other formalities. Keeping this short would help in two ways – it will not be an irritant to the visitor, the other, the company can avoid getting spurious and incomplete information.

The categories explaining the products and services offered by the company should be complete including pictures of the products if any. Use pictures sparingly lest they distract the user from reading the content. Always keep the content regarding products and services up-to-date thru “news” or the “latest” pages. The news page can be supported by writing relevant press releases rich in keyword content and distributing them to the important press release sites. This will help bring in more traffic to your site at the same time building credibility.

Use the “testimonials” page to put up comments from old customers. This would not only help in pushing your products and services but also in making the customers re visit and make further purchases. This page should convey user concern and should not be a sales pitch.

These are but a few tips to designing a professional business website.