Become a social (networking) butterfly
Yes I know, all these social networking sites are getting hard to keep track of, and it may not be your cup of tea. However, the ability to efficiently connect with like-minded people means great opportunities for exposing your products and services to those who need them. Consumers are making more of their purchasing decisions based on "discussions" and online social exchange, and your personal input will often be more trusted than any those "big business" PPC ads in the sidebar.
eMarketer, an Internet marketing research firm, states that, "[I]n 2008 nearly 80 million people, 41% of the US Internet user population, visited social network sites at least once a month, an 11% increase from 2007." Significant growth is predicted to continue through 2013:
Source:
eMarketer
Start with a few of the big sites -- perhaps MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Create a profile for yourself/business, and then actively participate in groups related to your field, or in groups that you think will have members who might be interested in your service.
When dollars start flowing, you might find yourself feeling a bit more positive about social networking.
Internet marketing with online videos
Video has quickly become an important component of online search, with YouTube, MetaCafe, and other videos frequently appearing alongside standard search results. Because of this, creating videos is an easy way to get quick and free access to otherwise expensive keywords.
Take advantage of this Internet marketing opportunity by creating a variety of YouTube videos related to your line of business -- "how to" videos, free advice, and other content that you think viewers will find useful. If you've never made a video before, here is a quick tutorial for using Windows Movie Maker, which is a free program:
Here are a few pointers for Internet marketing with video:
- Your videos should include high quality information so that they get good rankings and reviews from viewers.
- The title of each video should accurately describe the content, while also including keywords targeted to what potential customers are likely to search for.
- Only mention your website URL in the video credits (at the end), and in a "not-too-obviously-self-promoting" manner.
High quality and useful video content gets better ratings from viewers, which means more exposure in search results when people look for your keywords.
Uploading garbage videos, or purely self-promoting videos, will not provide much marketing benefit in the long run.
Classified advertising for Internet marketing
Do:
Advertise your website on quality free classifieds like: Craigslist.org,
BackPage.com, Oodle.com, and Kijiji.com. Not much is known about whether links
from these sites help or hurt SEO, so my suggestion is to simply post "YourURL.com"
without an active link. If you do use an active link, then also try to use keywords
in your posting title and ad text.
Do not: Post into obscure directories or link farms, or use any sort of auto-posting service. Spamming your website link onto low quality sites all over the Internet will probably get you 0 traffic, and will only hurt your search engine ranking.
