Inexpensive ways to market your business on-line

To maximize your presence on-line you want to expose your website in as many ways as possible.

A great way to test your presence online is to put your NAME and BUSINESS in the search tool and see what comes up.

When I put GAIL WAHL MIA BELLA I see links to my blogs, message board posts, ads I've purchased, articles I've written, MySpace comments, etc.

If you do not see much or anything at all, then you have some work to do.

BUT DON'T GIVE UP!! If I can do this, you can do this.

MESSAGE BOARDS: Message boards are a great way to get acquainted with those in your target market for FREE. Find message boards where your target market visits. Participate in message boards in a professional manner, offering advice and insight. Keep it professional. With every post leave your URL in your signature line. As people begin to trust and respect you they will often go to your URL link to investigate more.

Locate Message Boards for your Target Market: www.BoardTracker.com

BLOGS: Blogs are a powerful tool for marketing and promotion. Because the entries are short, and often full of links, they are more keyword heavy than standard articles often are. Plus, being short, they are easy for your customers to read (and you to write), so they are more likely to come back daily to see what you might have to say on that day.

View My personal BLOG at: HomewithMiaBella.blogspot.com

WRITING ARTICLES: Brand yourself and get your name out there by writing articles. The search engines look for as many links as possible. This is a great FREE linking opportunity as others will grab YOUR articles and put them on THEIR sites. Therefore, a link to your site is generated.

I have a button on my personal site that identifies me as an EZine Article Expert. This takes my viewers to all the articles I have written.

Check it out at the bottom of my home page: www.HomeWithMiaBella.com

BECOME AN E-ZINE EXPERT AUTHOR: To become an article writer you don't necessarily have to be an expert on something. Just choose something you have a passion about. It does not have to be related to your business. You could write on cooking, dog grooming, website building, parenting, etc. Whatever you write on, just make sure you put information about your business in your BIO.

People are always looking for article content to include in their BLOGS, on their WEBSITES, NEWSLETTERS, etc. So if you have an article that they like, they will publish your article and include your BIO.

You can view my various article topics at: E-Zine Article by Gail Wahl

MYSPACE, FACEBOOK, SHOUTLIFE etc.: Social networking with these marketing tools is a NO COST option. These are great avenues to build relationships with people which create long term customers/prospects. These customers/prospects know 100's of other people who they may pass your information to. This is also a great way to pre-qualify your leads. Read the profiles, they are like resumes. Get to know them to find if they would be a good match for YOU!

Check out my social profiles at:

www.MySpace.com/GailWahl
www.Shoutlife.com/GailWahl
www.Facebook.com/GailWahl

SQUIDOO: Squidoo is a powerful tool to get traffic to your website. Everyone is an expert on something. Squidoo gives you an opportunity to market yourself as an expert and build your reputation on line.

In a nutshell, Squidoo is FREE space on the internet to use as you wish. Anyone can make a lens (a page like this) and have exposure on the internet.

Check out my Squidoo Lenses:

www.squidoo.com/NetworkMarketingDefined
www.squidoo.com/GailWahl
www.squidoo.com/HowToSetUpMyspace

The following ideas for marketing your business on-line do have some cost associated with them, but they are VERY productive ways to bring in more business.

SPLASH PAGE: A home page that generally contains brief content, some Flash animation to draw your attention and sometimes a form to capture viewer information.

Splash pages are fast loading; they get all the information up quickly on the first page without scrolling.

Uses of a Splash Page:

An introductory page to a Web site with a Flash intro or an image advertising the website. It often has an "Enter" or "Skip Intro" link. Sometimes a splash page is described as a doorway page.

A bridge between a banner advertisement and an advertiser's website that provides product information and hotlinks.

A capture page for Lead Co-Ops .

A one page website to publish information about a business or product and capture viewer information.

Before you jump into a Splash page know that:

Some people assume splash pages improve search engine placement, but current search engine technology is unaffected by this and even penalizes placement for splash pages.

Your readers come to your site to enter it and if you are using it as an ENTRY page, a splash page prevents that. The process is slowed down and they may not follow through.

Many readers don't like splash pages when used as an entry page - and in some studies 25% of visitors left a site right after seeing a splash page.

If you submit your splash page to a search engine, the JavaScript codes that move customers to the next page may prevent the search engine from adding any page on the site.

Using a Splash Page as a one page site is quick and can be fairly inexpensive. A great starting point for your on-line marketing but I recommend you look at your long term goals before jumping in.

PERSONAL WEBSITE: There are many uses for Personal Website on the internet. Our context is using a Personal Website for the purpose of drawing in prospects and customers. A Personal Website, in this context, gives you the opportunity of sharing the details of your business, or products and qualifying your lead BEFORE they request information.

A Person Website often contains multiple pages explaining your business or product in further detail. This gives the viewer an opportunity to see what it is you actually provide so they can make an informed decision.

A Personal Website gives the viewer the opportunity to get to know you and what you offer before they request more information. Giving them relevant information up front and THEN giving them the opportunity to request more information creates a solid lead! They've already done their research and want more information.

One of the most important pages will be your ABOUT ME page. As you share your story you choose verbiage that will draw your "target market". Doing this helps you narrow down who you are looking for.

Reading your ABOUT ME page gives the viewer the opportunity to also determine if you are a good match for them. What better way to start a business if you know the person supporting you is someone you can relate to.

In my experiences this is one of the best tools you could invest in. Over 95% of my business has come from my Personal Websites:

www.HomeWithMiaBella.com
www.at-home-networking.com

PURCHASE ADS: This is a great way to get traffic to your Splash Page or Personal Site. While this does cost money, you will find advertising anywhere from $5 - $300. You will find State Directories that are very inexpensive on up to Solo Ads that hit the viewer's inbox.

Find sites that are populated by your target audience. Look for areas on the site where your ad will stand out. One of my favorites is in the newsletter of a site. This way your ad comes right to the viewer.

Different Types of Ads:

Banner Ads
Button Ads



Text Links:

These usually come with word limits. One I use often is:

Do You Love Candles? The website owner then links this text to my website.

Classified Ads
Featured Home Business Opportunity
Site Sponsor
Newsletter Ads

Have fun and be profitable!

URL - URL is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. URL is the technical term for what is often called a "web address". It is the address by which computers and documents on the Internet can be located.

Example: http://www.HomeWithMiaBella.com

TARGET MARKET - Target market is the market segment to which a particular good or service is marketed. It is mainly defined by age, gender, geography, socio-economic grouping, or any other combination of demographics. Know who you are targeting.

BLOG: A BLOG is a website where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.

Many BLOGS provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries.

SPLASH PAGE: Splash Pages are introduction pages to a web site that are heavy on graphics (or flash video) with little text content.

Splash Pages can also be used as bridges between a banner advertisement and an advertiser's website that provides product information and hotlinks and captures the viewer's information.

Some believe the Splash Page slows down the user's progress to a site and therefore not recommended.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Watch this fun and simple YouTube video on "Social Networking in Plain English". It's about 3 minutes long and packed with a fast paced, easy to follow definition of Social Networking. It's produced by Lee LeFever of Common Crafts.

http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc&feature=related">