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Internet Marketing Resources to Get you Started
An on-line business is essentially the same as any other business and it follows the same economic rules. Essentially if you want people to buy products and services from your site then those peopel will first actually have to come to your site in the first place. Even if you have the best website in the world people are not going to magically appear because they ought to. If you are going to be serious about making money from the internet then you are going to have to promote your site. As a start, why not use the link on the left to add a FREE classified advertisement to this site? After all, if you found this site then others are going to discover it too, aren't they?
This page of the website attempts to give you a fairly comprehensive list of the best free and paid-for services that I've come across for promoting your online business or service. Though such a list can never hope to be completely comprehensive I believe that the list below gives a good cross-section of the serrvices available and provides a good starting point in terms of what you should be looking for.
Domain Name Registration and Web-hosting The truth of the matter is (despite what some companies will tell you) if you're in any way serious about making an income on the web then you will need a web site. The truth is that domain names can cost as little as $7 a year whilst fairly simple web hosting will cost you around $50 a year. The following companies offer very good deals on both domain names and web hosting: Low Cost Names is my own hosting company and comes very highly recommended. They are cheaper than most in terms of domain registration and though their web-hosting costs (for UNIX hosting) are slightly more expensive than others they allow a large number of serives and are excellent for those who wirite their own code. I'm very happy with them myself and they have been my main web hosting company for several years now. UK Cheapest offer UK domains from just £3.49 a year. Great value and much cheaper than most registration companies. Comes with free website redirection and email forwarding. They also offer hosting from just £2.41/mth GoDaddy.com. If you're outside the UK then GoDaddy is highly recommended for domain name registration. They supply some of my secondary sites and have done so for over a year now. Domain registration starts from only $6.95 a year and webhosting from just $3.95 a month. Netfirms offer a package from just $9.95 a month with 2 free domain names, and a massive 2 GB of disk space, 24/7 technical support and $25 in Google Adwords advertising. Search Engine Submission & Optimization Once you have your domain name and your first few pages on your website set-up then the next stage is to get your website some recognition. Personally, I started with some webrings relevant to my areas of interest which gave me very rapid crawling and indexing from the indexing and search sites. To gain the same functionality for your website, simply perform a web search for 'webring' and your particular area of interest. This will goive you a good initial leg-up in the web search game, but it probably won't be enough to really give you the ranking in the search engine that you deserve. One of the best current informational resources on various tips to optimize your website and give you good search engine rankings is Kevin Lewis' eBook: Explosive Search Engine Traffic, which will give you some good advice and easy to implement tips on optimizing your website for the search engines. As a minimum you should also submit your site to the major search engines, such as Google, Open Directory (DMOZ), MSN Search, Scrub The Web, and Yahoo Directory and Yahoo Search (registration required). Alta Vista and AllTheWeb use Yahoo and Overture [which has now been taken over by Yahoo] for their search engine results whilst AOL search results are provided by Google and DMOZ. Please note that the directories given above are a starting point only. Based on my own research you need to be registered with at least 500 directories to gain good listings on the search engines and at least 350 of these directory registrations need to be one-way links (to help you with this you can register for FREE reciprocal links or cheap paid one-way or premium links on this site. In addition, MySiteSubmit offer an excellent service where for just $1 they will submit your site manually to the top search engines. You can then submit your site to up to 12 million search engines, classified sites, FFA sites and more for only $4. And you will not even get any confirmation emails except of course the one from MySiteSubmit to confirm your order. If you do not have the time to do your own website submissions you should seriously consider this site and pay them to submit your site on a weekly or daily basis. UK Cheapest also offer a service where they submit websites to 1000 search engines and over 1 000 000 link lists! After submission they send you a report by email that also provides access to their optimisation tips pages to help improve your site ranking. This is an ideal first step to getting your site exposed! They even state that they WILL obtain that elusive Google listing as fast as possible for your site!! At only £34 ($50), this is a service that's well worth making use of. If you have a product or service then it's well worth adding you site to the CAN World Trade Directory. Adding your site is completely free and as this gets over 200 000 hits a month (in fact it's listed in the top 5000 visited sites online). Once you have registered and you have added your site it will appear immediately! You can also pay $15 a year to have your site displayed on all the other sites (many hundreds now) that use the CAN database to drive their own directory listings. As part of his Explosive Search Engine Traffic system Kevin Lewis also offers search engine optimization appraisals to see why your site is not getting the level of traffic you require. There is also a complete search engine strategy package for those who want a definite plan to follow, or if you would like a professional to optimise your site and work to get it listed in the top search engines, then he offers this to small group of clients. However, as this is a professional (and personal) appraisal this service is not cheap but Kevin actively works with you to ensure that you are satisfied with the results. 1StopSubmit is a service that offers both free and low cost submission services to various search engines. In addition, they also offer a high-quality search engine optimization service that guarantees you top placement in the major search engines. As well as the Free Search Engine Submission Submitter, for $6 they offer a service to automatically submit your site to over 50,000 search engines, web directories, classified ad sites, and link pages. SEOster.com offers a reasonably-priced directory submission service where they will submit your site to a range of on-line directories. The cost is $10 per 100 submissions and you can submit to as many sites as you want. They're also very fast and efficient in terms of their response. Part of the problem with setting-up a business on the internet is the lag between actually putting your site up on the internet and when the indexing bots first see your site and begin to add your pages to their search results. This process can take several months, and if your site doesn't have sufficient incoming links then it may be a year or more before the majority of your site gets indexed (this is especially true if you are promoting an affiliate program as, unless your copy is unique you may be penalized for providing duplicate copy and these pages may never be indexed). How, then, do you get the traffic to your site that you need to begin making a reasonable income? The answer is to advertise (that is, to increase your site's visibility). Adding your site to directories and search engines has already been discussed above. Next I'll mention Safelists, Hit Exchange systems and Free Advertising systems, all of which can be used to direct people to your site.
Safelists Safelists are double opt-in lists generated by others to whom you can send your own email advertising. In general, most of these safelists are a complete waste of time. I've tried a number over the years, but have had little success with them. There is, however, one safelist system that I do use: GuaranteedResults4U. This, however, is more of a system than a safelist as such. Indeed, the system comes with a number of additional bonuses and if you want a one-stop marketing suite then why not try the Executive membership which gives you yahoo blasters, safelist submitter, banner rotations, solo ads and many more tools. In general, if you're going to use safelists then they only work if you can stand out from the crowd. You need a snappy subject line and if you can offer something for free, all the better. Be careful when using safelists to promote affiliate systems as many affiliate schemes explicitly exclude the use of safelists for advertising purposes.
Hit Exchanges Hit Exchanges are a simple and effective way to drive traffic to your website. You simply sign up, input the site(s) you want to promote and then view other advertiser's websites. In return people view yours. Despite what you may think, these systems actually do offer fairly targeted advertising as the majority of people using these systems are looking for internet marketing opportunities. There are literally thousands of these schemes and sites available on the web. Some are very good, offering responsive traffic, whilst others are almost a complete waste of time. I've joined many of these schemes and the list given below represents the top 25 of these schemes based both on personal experience and on researching back-issues of the excellent Hit Exchange News to find out which Traffic Exchange systems constantly appeared in the top ten. The list below shows the results of these analyses (they are given in alphabetical order):
As with all traffic exchange programs, you essentially get out what you put into them. Also, different programs are better for certain website types and you will have to find which ones best suity you (which is one reason why the list above is fairly exhaustive). If you're going to stick with the free levels of these programmes then you'll find that you're spending a considerable protion of the time clicking to get free links. Indeed, you'll probably find yourself only able to handle two or three of the programmes at a time whithout their becoming far too onerous in terms of your time. It may well be better if you use the free programmes to find out which one best suits your business and then upgrade to the 'premium' membership of those as then you'll get the 'best bang for your buck'.
Free Advertising Free to join and then earn points from reading solo emails, visiting sites, playing games and quizzes and referring others. Swap points for advertising in ezines, safelist memberships etc. Essentially this means Paid Advertising. There are many options and opportunities for paid advertising some of the best being eZines dealing in the subject of your own website. Classified advertising on websites and eZines can also be very effective. Below I detail some sources of effective paid advertising that will spread the word about your website and thus will increase your traffic and sales. These are not the only sources of paid advertising, as a simple web search for 'ezine advertising' will reveal to you. To narrow the search down simply prepend the main keywords of your website to the search phrase and then see what you find!
Guaranteed Traffic Packages Traffic Solutions offer 'real traffic' packages (and not the usual [and slightly scammy] pop up or pop under traffic, which much of the time is not worth a cent, particularly as many people block pop ups automatically). A package consisting of 1000 visitors cost just $4.95 and 10,000 just $8.95. Plus if you are not satisfied with the campaign's outcome they will re-run your ad. MySiteSubmit offers mainstream traffic from just $2 for 1000 visitors (though there are a whole range of other options). This scheme is truly wonderful if you are on a tight budget. Ezine Advertising As has been intimated above, Ezine advertising is and excellent way to spread the word out about your product or service for very little outlay. However, it is esential that you make sure that you're targeting your correct audience. If possible subscribe to the ezine first if you can to get a feel for it and always track your ads. In this respect Isoregister offers an excellent tracking software as part of membership to their company. Also be wary of any eZine where their authors claim that they can turn your advertisement around in 48h or less as this is an indication that they have few subscribers and may not be worth your while. FreeDailyCash Newsletter is one of those eZines that breaks the general rule that if it costs less than $10 your ad won't reach a wide enough readership. Indeed, for as little as $0.50 for a classified ad you can reach over 850 double optin subscribers, or send a solo ad with a cash prize for just $6. For more details click here. MyWizardAds offers a great advertising co-op where you get your 6 line ad sent to a number of ezines that together reach over 400,000 subscribers for just $7. 10Dollar20Ads also offer a similar service with deals starting at just $10. BizSourcePlus offer guaranteed signups for your free program, affilaite program or MLM. Moreover, these are not incentive signups — no one is paid to join your program. All signups are collected manually and you are guaranteed to gain precisely number you order. All campaigns in this service are provided with full tracking and at only $26.25 for 25 Guaranteed Signups to your program this is well worth the money. SuccessPub offers a service to deliver targeted email ads to over 50 million prospects (all Spam-Free). There is no software to download and you require no specific expertise. Everything is handled from their servers. You also get to run your own newsletter using their software and they provide access to many responsive safelists. Membership is only $34.50 for a full year. FreeViral.com offers a traffic exchange system with a difference. You register with them for free, add their banners to your website, add an advertisement then your site is promoted by anyone who uses your link to sign-up with FreeViral. This is a viral marketing strategy with a difference — it actually works! Finally, one of the best-kept secrets on the Net today is the program run by morethantraffic.com which aims to make you $100,000 US Dollars in 4 months from your web site!. Moreover, with their system if you don't make the $100 000 target in four months you don't owe them anything. You only pay them their fee if you actually make money. It's in their interest to make you successful otherwise they will never get paid. If that's not an incentive for someone to work hard on your behalf then I don't know what is!
One Way Links & Premium Listings
BLOG Visit the CeltNet.org.uk
Blog and read reviews on ebooks, news on homebased businesses and have
your say on various issues relating to marketing online and
e-commerce. ARTICLES Visit the
article section to find articles on internet marketing, home-based
business, search engine optimisation, google adsense and google adwords,
affiliate marketing, building or updating your PC, updating your website to be search engine friendly,
getting traffic to your website and converting these to sales. These
articles provide useful information and good tips and resources. There
are now over 70 articles for you to browse through for tips and advice on
online business. These also include free code samples that you can download to use on your own websites. Reviews and Comparisons of
Various Advertising Lead Generation Resources In any serious
business, one of the most important sources of income is
consistent and responsive advertising. However, when dealing with internet-based products this can be very hard to
come by. Like many webmasters I have tried purchasing guaranteed signups, MLM leads, have played with various
lead generating systems as well as seeking advertising through ezines, safelists and
classified sites. More often than not these have led to little or no improvements in web traffic. In this Advertising Review Section
I undertake a critical comparison of advertising and lead-generation sources that I've have tried and I'll tell you
which ones are worth spending your limited advertising budget on and which
are a complete waste of time. (You'll even find out how to leverage free advertising to best effect). SITE
MAPS
Program
Details
AdPaid
An excellent and very responsive traffic exchange system. One that I personally rely on.
AdvertisingKnowHow
Good responsive traffic exchange with a number of options to build your marketing credits.
CashClicking
2:1 surfing ratio, 5 referral levels and earn cash for credits. The page from your site you specify displays in a frame and must load properly in that frame.
ClickingCrazy
2:1 surfing ratio, 15 second timer. They also show a complete page from your website in a frame.
Clicksmatrix
2:1 surfing ratio, 5 referral levels. Site also offers the chance to play games etc to win extra credits.
ClickVoyager
Earn 2 credits for each site you view and then swap these for site visits, banner impressions and more. Get 1000 credits for each referral.
EasyHits4U
1:1 ratio and 30 sec timer, plus receive $0.30 for every 1000 sites you visit and $0.10 per active referral (surfs 100 pages). There is a 5-tier referral program (10%, 5%, 3%, 2% 1%) and you can promote as many sites as you wish. 50 hits for joining.
Hitsafari
This is currently the Number 1 traffic exchange program. It offers a 2:1 surfing ratio and win credits for surfing.
ILoveHits Currenly number 2 in the rankings despite it's fairly poor 8:3 credit system. However, more you surf the more credits you receive per visit. Win more hits by surfing.
MysticalMaze
Join for free and when you have surfed 10 sites you get to 'play' the maze and win prizes and cash. Good fun hit exchange with a twist! 25 free credits, 2:1 surfing ratio, 3 referral levels.
ProHitsPlus
2:1 surfing ratio and exchange credits for website views or banner impressions. 2 referral levels.
StartExchange
2:1 surfing ratio. One of most responsive
TrafficG
Works on a 1:1 and you must view sites for 30 secs.
TrafficPods
Run by the same people that have TS25. Surf through levels or 'pods' (each pod being 10 clicks) for bonus credits and higher surfing ratios.
TrafficRoundUp
2:1 surfing ratio, 15 sec timer & 4 referral levels
TrafficSoldiers
This is a great site, with lots of features and competitions. 15 to 20 sec timer. The site also has 5 referral levels and allows you to email your downline. There are also additional rewards for surfing.
TrafficSwarm
This is a little different in that you need to set up a classified ad that is shown on a page with several others. You can set your start page and earn credits each time you open your browser and also view further ads to earn credits. As surfers only click on your ad if it interests them, the traffic is highly targeted and definitely one of the most responsive traffic exchanges. Admittedly, it takes quite a while to reach the 100 points needed to 'activate' your account, but it's well worthwhile doing this.
TrueViewTraffic
This
is a little different in you are asked to answer questions or review
the websites as you surf. This means people have to pay attention to
the sites they are viewing. Only criticism I would have is often see
same sites over and over.
TS25
1 credit for each page you view. 5 credits = 1 visitor. The more active you are and the more you surf, the higher you rank in the syndicate pool, the higher you are placed in the syndicate downline with up to 2500 active people below you. Definitely one of the best around.
WebBizInsider
Earn 1 credit per site you surf. Get 100 credits on joining plus earn additional credits by reading emails, referring others. Earn 10% of downline's credits for 6 levels. Email your downline and more. Excellent traffic exchange.
WebmasterQuest
1:1 exchange plus surf for real cash and traffic prizes. 30 second timer and 5 referral levels. Though it's one of the oldest Hit Exchange systems it's still one of the best and one that I remain loyal to myself.
Program
Details
SubscribeMe.net is an eZine that offers the opportunity to submit your advert to over 1 000 000 subscribers. This is done by means of a simple form; the pay-back being that you will have to subscribe to these eZine, and may have to confirm your ad placement and subscription to the ezine. You can submit one advert every three months to this system.
This is a Paid To Search (PTS) system that pays your 1c for each email your read and gives you the option of sending your own email/website to thousands of surfers.
IPowerFun
Click Here for your Free Traffic!
