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Are
Search Engines Worth ALL Your Time?
By:
Jim Conley II, MerchantSeek.com
Chances
are this is not the first time you've read an
article
mentioning search engines. You know, the ones
that talk
about meta tags and keywords and all that jazz to
get you
higher rankings? Well, is all the search engine
buzz really
worth ALL your marketing time? I can answer that
for you in
one word. No. Now don't get me wrong, search
engines are
important, but they should not your sole focus to
gain traffic.
Initially, when you're just starting out on your
venture, sure,
but do not spend hours and hours every day trying
to tweak
your meta tags to and obtain a higher ranking.
Instead, do it
once and let it go. Whether you know it or not
there are
other great marketing techniques out there that
work even
better than search engines, and might I add, in a
lot less
time than it takes to tweak your meta tags
constantly.
If you're like me, maybe you're on a shoestring
budget right
now (especially with the Holidays almost upon
us). So with
any money you spend on marketing you want to make
sure
you get a good ROI (Return On Investment). Here
are some
"other" great ways to market your
business without breaking
the bank. Over the next twelve weeks we're going
to look at
each one in detail.
1. Write For Publicity -- This one I call the
"king" in
marketing. This one alone can yield huge results
in a short
period of time. A great tactic to use to get a
jump in traffic
and sales.
2. E-zine Advertising -- Another good one, though
it may
take a few times to get the wording just right to
be really
effective.
3. Banner Advertising -- Trends show this tactic
is losing its
effectiveness. However, there are ways to keep
banners
steadily rolling traffic in to your site.
4. Press Releases -- This technique has been
around since
two days before dirt was new, but this old
marketing tactic is
still a winner in getting your new product,
service or
company in the media spotlight.
5. Affiliate Programs -- Something you should
definitely
consider, good way to get link popularity (good
for search
engines) and increase your sales.
6. Direct E-mail -- Not exactly the cheapest way
to promote
your business, but it is much more effective as
you're
targeting your sales letters to a certain group
of people who
have opt-in (asked) to receive them.
7. Newsgroups/Message Boards -- Another tactic
that
seems to be losing momentum, back in '96 and '97
advertising your business using a signature line
under your
name on newsgroups was really effective. Now many
people no longer mess with them because,
unfortunately,
many of them are spammed over and over again. You
actually have to really search to find a
"true" message from
someone. Still somewhat effective if you do it
correctly.
8. Opt-in Newsletter -- You need to be using this
technique.
It's a great way to get repeat sales from
previous customers.
Keeping in touch with your previous site visitors
and
customers leads to good credibility and customer
loyalty.
Newsletters are good for promoting third party
products or
services you personally endorse and you can gain
revenue
from offering advertising.
9. Partnerships/Strategic Alliances -- Success in
numbers.
Get your brand known by partnering with companies
that
offer products/services that compliment yours,
but not in
direct competition.
10. E-books -- A new, hot marketing technique on
the
horizon that is showing an increasing
effectiveness. Peoples
time on the Internet is precious. This technique
allows your
visitors to download information on to their
computer for later
viewing and makes a valuable free incentive.
11. Pay-For-Rank Search Engines -- Unlike your
typical
search engines, with pay-for-rank search engines
like
GoTo.com, you actually have much better control
where
you're ranked...for a price of course. While
these type of
engines don't yield huge results they can bring
in some extra
traffic each day. For each keyword phase you pay
a set
amount per click.
12. Announcement Services -- Here's one you might
not be
familiar with. There are some sites out there
that send out e-
mail newsletters to subscribers that list new
companies, new
services being offered, etc. Does your company
offer
something new and unique? Is your website new?
This is a
great way to get some exposure. Even though the
results
aren't for the long-term, in the short term your
traffic will be
on the increase.
A great place to learn more about these
techniques is at
http://www.merchantseek.com/imc I've been a member of
their private site for over a year now and HIGHLY
recommend you sign-up to keep up-to-date on the
latest
trends and "secrets" to driving your
traffic and sales to the
top and beyond.
Many of the techniques above you've probably
heard of.
When you combine all those tactics in your
marketing
campaign you will see a dramatic rise in both
traffic and
sales. If you just focus all of your attention on
search
engines you are severely limiting the expansion
of your
website's traffic. You can only get so much
traffic from the
search engines. Going back to what was mentioned
at the
beginning of this article, the initial traffic
from search engines
is a start. From that point on it's important to
build off that
traffic foundation you created.
While there are great ways to promote your
website, there
are also marketing methods you should avoid. They
either
do not work and/or cause more harm then good.
Here are
two techniques to steer clear of:
1. Bulk E-mail -- Where does it end up? Why the
trash bin
of course. This is the technique that causes more
problems
than good. I personally would not mess with it.
One report
to your web host about it and down your site will
go. Same
goes if a report goes to your Internet provider.
Why take
chances like this? Plus it puts a bad taste in
peoples
mouths, and your credibility crumbles. While an
ad quoting
on million e-mail addresses for $100 might sound
tempting,
shrug it off and look to direct, opt-in e-mail
marketing
instead. Though it is more expensive, it's well
worth the
investment and the results are much better
without the
"flame" e-mails you'll get from using
bulk e-mail.
2. Free-For-All/Classified Links -- Here's one
that's a
guaranteed flop. For some time people thought if
you went
around to the hundreds of FFA and classified ad
sites and
added your site it would help your link
popularity and in turn
make your search engine rankings better. While
this does
sound good, it just doesn't work. The search
engines have
figured this out already and usually end up not
indexing
those link pages. Also, going around to each of
these pages
is VERY time consuming. Even if you go through
one of
those FFA submission services that blasts your ad
to over
900+ FFA pages, it's not worth it. Your time and
money are
best spent elsewhere on the promotion tactics
listed above.
Take the opportunity this coming week to work on
your
marketing plan. Add the techniques listed above.
Marketing
your site isn't the easiest thing to do. Take it
from me, I'm
constantly coming up with and developing new
ideas and
content for MerchantSeek. That in itself takes a
good chunk
of time. But while developing your site is
important,
marketing your business is key to having a
successful
business. Don't rely heavily on just one
marketing
technique. Expand your horizons and spend time
each and
every day on at least one tactic to drive
potential customers
to your site. Some tactics work better than
others, but by
having a combination working together the only
way for your
traffic counter to go is up. Always remember,
persistence
yields results.
Want to know more about the marketing techniques
I briefly
described above? Starting with next week's issue
I will be
focusing on one of the 12 good marketing tactics,
and will
continue until I've explained each in detail.
It's going to be a
great 12 weeks. Hope you're looking forward to
it. I look
forward to presenting these topics to you in more
detail.
-----------------------------------------
Jim Conley II is the CEO/Founder of MerchantSeek.
MerchantSeek allows merchants from around the
world to search FREE for a Merchant Account
Provider that best fits their businesses needs
and budget. Visit us at http://www.merchantseek.com/
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