Microsoft adCenter on MSN and Bing search engines.
These are paid advertising
venues where you pay based on when someone clicks
on your ad. You create
small, simple highly specific ads and your ads are
displayed on search engine
results based on the keywords you choose. These
keywords are searched by your
customers and your ads display for them. If they are interested in your ad
they click to go to your site.
You pay per click so you can set a budget. This
is highly targeted
advertising. Just make sure the ad relates to your keywords
and also relate
to your website. There is nothing worse then clicking on an ad
expecting one
thing then getting on the website that is completely not the same
what was expected. Not to mention wasting your money on the ad.
2. Craigslist
and other free sites.
There are many free advertising sites on the internet.
Craigslist is one of
the biggest. On these sites you place written and image
ads in different
categories like small business or want ads. You list your
website in the ad
for your customers to find you. You can also just list an
800# or email
address. Other free sites include backpage.com and adlandpro.com.
You can
search on the internet for free advertising sites to get a complete
list.
3. SEO Search Engine Optimization
This is the process of improving your
website to draw more of the natural
or un-paid traffic. With this option on
your website, people find you in
the natural listing on search engines based on
the keywords they enter. This
is technical including programming in HTML. You
will have to hire someone to
do SEO to your website. Do your research and pick
a reputable service as
there are a lot of SEO scams out there.
4. Bandit signs
or Yard signs
This is another very inexpensive advertising venue. You order the
signs with
your message on them. Keep it less then four lines and put both
your website
and 800# on it. Place 20-25 signs at a time in the area you want
to market
on a Friday night for best lead generation. Place the signs at busy
intersections with stop lights so people have time to look at the signs. Also
target expressway exits.
5. Put website on all your printed materials
Put your
website on all your printed materials such as your business cards
and marketing
drop cards. Also brochures, flyers, newspaper ads,
newsletters, magazines,
direct mail, posters and more.
6. Add website to your email sig
One of the
simplest ways to get your website out there is to add it to your
signature. That way you are connecting to your contacts already for
other
reasons and if they are interested in what you are doing they can click
on your
website. This way you are not selling them anything.
7. Write articles and link
them to your site
This is another great free way of getting website traffic to
your website.
Write articles of about 500 700 words based on your keywords on
your
website. Write each article based on one keyword. Post the articles on
the
article submission sites and link each article to your website. Articles
based on a specific keyword will show up higher in the search engine results.
8.
Banner advertising
Banner advertising is those little banners on all the
websites that have an
ad on them and are clickable. Your banner is on a
website and when someone clicks on it they are sent to your website. As you
are browsing the internet and come across a
site you like and want to advertise
on with a banner you just click on the
link at the bottom (usually) that says
advertise. You will need to pay
someone to make the banner itself and get it
in the three or four standard
sizes for placement on websites.
9. Content
Content Content
The simplest way of getting website traffic is to list high up
on the search
engines in the natural (un-paid) listings. To move your website
up in the
natural search engine results you have to put compelling and unique
content
on your website. Compelling content is content your visitors find
interesting and stay on your site longer so they will do what your most favored
response is like filling in the contact form or signing up for your
newsletter.
This is just nine ways of getting website traffic directed to your website.
There are unlimited ways or driving traffic to your website. I recommend
choosing four and learning them until you are an expert. If you want more
then
you can learn new ways as you have the time.