Tips for Online Marketing for ZenCart and osCommerce Users

SEO

One of the things that the whole Internet is concerned is SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation. It is a huge area, with lots of people ready to take your money - all I would say is ... make sure that your web pages talk directly about your subject/products and add in slightly more keywords than you would naturally add to your free Zen Cart template or your free osCommerce template.

Link Building

One of the major ways to increase traffic to your website is having links to your webpage.
Something like
<a href="http://www.AdvertSolutions.com" target="_blank">Free Banner Adverts</a>
added anywhere that you can post relevant information (such as forums and blogs on your subject) will greatly increase your website relevance and will in turn help the search engines to rank you better.

Rich Content

You need rich content, that is - full of really useful information, and importantly - lots of FRESH information to make your open source shopping cart rank highly. This should be no problem because YOU are the expert. Just inform your customers about the things that they need to know.

Sitemaps

Sitemaps are becoming essential to have for any website, however small or large. A sitemap allows search engines to find all the pages on your website simply and quickly. It can be very helpful in getting all the deeply hidden information onto the search engines. Don't forget the following:
Add an entry to your robots.txt file telling search engines where to find your sitemap
Manually set up a Google, MSN and Yahoo account and tell them about your sitemap
There are free sitemap components for ZenCart and for osCommerce. Make life easier as you expand your product range by having the work done automatically.

Affiliate Schemes

You have probably already come across some affiliate schemes, where you can sell the products and services of other companies, but have you considered setting up your OWN affiliate scheme?
Our recommendation (though there are a large number of choices), is to use JAM from JWROX.com, which is a simple to install and set up affiliate program. It is very comprehensive too, and what is more - free until you have more than 50 affiliates.

Squidoo.com

You are reading this... so it works!
A great way to show off your expertise while building up your online presence. Squidoo allows you to post articles about which you know something - basically one page of web content about your subject. Write lots of them and make sure they have your link in...

Reduce the number of clicks to your products
We all know that people are lazy when they surf - so you have to make sure that with your Zen Cart or osCommerce shopping cart, they are presented with the least number of clicks from start to end. One way to do this is to use the Flash Banners module from www.AdvertSolutions.com - which shows a selection of your products (as chosen by YOU) for use on your shopping cart.

Google Products

Using free plug-in modules for Zen Cart or free components for osCommerce shopping carts, you can interface with Google's product pages. Instantly increase the amount of targeted traffic to your products. If your product descriptions are good, then it could even be YOUR product description that is used at the top of the page!

In your Emails

You will undoubtedly send emails to potential clients and existing customers. This can be a great source of marketing for your range of products. Make sure that you comply with the CAN Spam act or you could actually be breaking the law.
Add the AdvertSolutions.com plugin which provides a constantly up-to-date advert for your shopping cart products to every email that you send. Then you will know that each contact with your customers is stylish and more importantly will sell more for you!

Blog and Ping

Have you been blogging about your business? You really should because this is a great way to increase customer loyalty and also find a quick way into the search engine results. You are an expert on your subject, so set up a free blog account at www.blogger.com and write on small segments of your knowledge and products every few days. It only needs to be short articles (200-300 words), but make them interesting and also keyword rich.
BUT THEN you must PING, to let the world know about your new content. We use www.pingomatic.com to announce our fresh information to the world.
And by adding a Dynamic Banner advert from AdvertSolutions.com to your blog, your visitors will get to see what is for sale in your online store too! All automatically.

Press Releases

This is a huge subject, but here is a short list of ideas to get you started:
instantly create a buzz with your message
receive a boost of traffic to your webstore
create a press release about you, your business, your webstore, blog or product launched or added to your product line

Remember that almost ALL news is actually created by companies trying to increase their presence - and you should too. Make it topical and newsworthy, make sure you follow the "rules", and you will find that you get your message out!
Remember - who, what, why, when, where. It is NEWS, not a sales advertisement, make it real life and interesting to read, without hype.
Here are some websites you can submit your release to (they all give you guidance as to the standard format for a release - make sure you follow it!)
1. http://www.articleuniversity.com
2. http://www.prweb.com
3. http://www.agencyfaqs.com/news/company_news/submit.html
4. http://express-press-release.com/submit-press-release.php
5. http://www.i-newswire.com/submit.php
6. http://www.powerhomebiz.com/BizNews/pressrelease.htm
7. http://www.free-press-release.com/submit/free-press-release.php
8. http://www.bizeurope.com/pressrelease.htm
9. http://www.pressreleasespider.com/AddFeed.aspx
10. http://www.prfree.com/index.php
11. http://www.ap.org/pages/contact/contact_pr.html
12. http://www.greatpossibilities.com/articles/publish/submit.shtml
13. http://www.dime-co.com/submitpress.html
14. http://www.prurgent.com/submit_press_release.htm
15. http://www.theopenpress.com/
16. http://www.free-press-release.com/
17. http://www.pressbox.co.uk/
18. http://www.press-base.com/add-press.html

In Conclusion - free shopping cart software is simple to use