Let’s get one thing straight, this isn’t a sales copy style article purveying the benefits of various types of marketing methods that will make you successful and rich. This is just a guy with more than a few hours in the business giving out some straight goods - at least as far as I see it. It’s a strange thing this beast known as internet marketing. What works? What should I do first? Which has the best return on my investment?
Be sure of one thing, to a certain extent, no matter what you do, it’s going to cost you. Sometimes it will be time and other times it’s going to cost money. No matter what though, you have as much of a chance at being the next ‘viral golden boy’ as you do of winning the lottery or becoming a movie star by hanging out in a Hollywood diner. Most likely, that won’t happen!!
Much like the off-line world, exposure in the crowded marketplace comes with a price. Certainly the web offers some areas where the small business owner can level the playing field, but those with a marketing budget will ultimately out perform those without one. I’ve had more than one potential client tell me they had ‘ Champaign dreams and a Kool-aid budget’. There is only so much I can do… same goes for you.
So let’s have a look at some common methods of internet marketing;
Search Engine Optimization - while it is probably one of the most cost effective of the traffic generation methods, it’s also the most time consuming. Surfers generally don’t go past the first 3 pages of results, so you need to be within the top 30 or it won’t matter To be honest, for most terms, anything outside of the top 10 can produce less than desirable results. Depending on the competitiveness of the term involved, the more time and money this will take, and it has to be maintained.
Blogs - For many years I have listened to Blogger types go on and on about how Blogs are the greatest way to generate interest and traffic. This simply isn’t feasible for many online businesses due to market and time constraints, or the simple fact there are no engaging writers on staff. Beyond that, only a handful of top blogs in each market garner the lion’s share of the traffic. This time may be better used elsewhere.
Communities - Some will say to go out and get involved in your industry communities (forums, Google Groups and so forth) to get the word out about your product/service. While this is a preferred method personally (as I like chatting it up), but it certainly isn’t much of a traffic boon to be honest and conversions are low. I’d look at it more as brand building than anything else. Furthermore it seems the prevalence of Social Networking (MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn etc…) is cutting back the community participation in traditional avenues such as forums.
PayPerClick Advertising - This is often one of the more sound choices for getting targeted traffic that may actually convert in one way or another. The obvious set back is that it can be cost prohibitive for many small site owners. It takes money to make money folks and that’s a fact. If you can afford it, PPC is the way to go while you build traffic from the other sources. It’s limitations are obvious…the cost, but if you do your research well and target the proper terms/locations you can do very well.
Social Media Marketing - Much like the years past when ‘Blogging’ and ’Vertical Search’ was the way to go, many internet marketing proponents will say that Social Networking is the wave of the future. I am un-convinced, to say the least. If it’s submitting articles to Digg or Videos to U Tube obtaining substantial ongoing traffic is an effort and it will only get more difficult as these sites’ user bases grow. At least sites like Facebook and LinkedIn have some true networking aspects to them that can bring some promotional value to your business… but as a stand alone marketing plan to bring converting traffic, it’s very unlikely.
Press Releases - I don’t even know what to say about this one. I think that the only folks that think writing them and submitting to various online repositories works is well… companies that write press releases. More of a branding exercise than a traffic building methodology.
Article Marketing - This is traditionally simply a way of building backlinks for SEO purposes, but done right it can bring some short term traffic. How? It’s all about the site where it gets published. Look more for popular industry resources sites and NOT the general article repositories that no one but other webmasters go to. The article you are reading will only be appearing here on Site Reference…. Because it’s users are my target market - you might actually click my Bio to learn more (you know U want to).
In the end it is about how much time and money you have to advertise and promote your business. There is no magic bullet and there are thousands of folks in your market that want to get noticed just as badly as you do. You will need to mix and match various marketing methods to find the most cost effective route for yourself and your site. Do what is comfortable and what’s best time and money wise for you. Don’t simply copy what others are doing, even successful sites/businesses, because what may have worked for them won’t necessarily work in your situation.
This is your journey, it is unique, you can only trust others’ advice, on what to do, to a certain extent. You are going to have to find your own way because no one is going to do it for you… and success is seldom ‘easy’ nor ‘cheap’. Pack up your nightcap, dreaming won’t get you there, hard work will, so grab a hard hat and get dirty!
David Harry is a well known internet marketing specialist and the author of the SEO Handbook the easiest way to Learn SEO
