I'll be the first to admit it; I'm a cheap skate. I'm not as bad as many I meet, but if there's a legal, ethical way to get it for cheaper or free, I'm there. I love Walmart. I get all of my clothes there. I love buying used cars - no car payments. I bought a nice house in the country for only $55,000 dollars - no house payments.
When it comes to marketing over the internet, I love FREE. But there are some free marketing techniques out there that leave more to be desired. In this article, I'm going to show you some of the best ways I've found over the years on marketing your product or service over the internet for free, with no spamming, and doing it ethically.
There are five techniques that I'd like to show you. They are:
- Message board signatures
- Hit surfing
- Safe lists
- E-zines
- Search engines
MESSAGE BOARD SIGNATURES
Go to a search engine, such as http://www.google.com , and do a search for message boards. You'll want to search for message boards that are generally business related, and/or directly related to your service or product.
Then, make a list of the URLs to at least a couple dozen message boards, and read over the board rules for each board. At least once a week, post relavent responses and/or new threads on each of these message boards, and at the bottom of your posts, leave a signature. You're signature could either be your name, followed by your email address or webpage, or it could be a one line ad, followed by your url or email.
HIT SURFING
This is a free e-marketing method that many people believe are a waste of time, however I do not. But I have a system. ;-) Here's how to do it:
- First, sign up for a free account with each of the following URLs:
- Then, open up 8 separate browser windows on your computer (Ctrl + N).
- Go to the first window, wait until the 30 seconds have counted down, then click the next link. While that one's counting down, click the next link on the next window when it's ready, then move on to your third browser window, etc. When you see a webpage that interests you, by all means, stop and take a look at it, that's why people have their pages on these programs, and it's why you have your program there.
I usually only spend about 15 minutes a day doing this. However I met someone over the internet who suggests spending 60 minutes a day doing it. I tried it, and you know what? I didn't get any more sign ups on my webpage from doing it for 60 minutes than I do when I do it for 15.
Sure, most of the other hit surfers will not even glance at your page. But some will, and those are the people you're trying to reach. Give hit surfing a try, and see how it works out for your page.
SAFE LISTS
Safe lists are email clubs on the internet, where evey subscriber has opted in to receive emails from other members of that group. You can email thousands upon thousands of people each week, or maybe even each day, spam free, via safe lists. Just go to http://www.google.com , and do a search for "email safe list" and you'll find lots of safe lists that you can utilize.
E-ZINES
E-Zine stands for 'electronic magazine'. And you know what? There are thousands upon thousands of e-zines out there. Just do a search on http://www.google.com for "business ezine", and you'll find lots of results. Look over the e-zine sites, and when you find one you'd like to advertise in, submit your ad.
SEARCH ENGINES
There are lots of ways to get good rankings on search engines. Unfortunatly, many of those ways are via cheating - hiding code to get higher rankings, various gateway pages with different meta tags, etc. However, those who are ethical and truthful will find that they'll get better rankings, if they follow the wonderful advice at http://www.selfpromotion.com . The advice is free, easy to follow, and really works. Give it a whirl.
CONCLUSION
Give the above suggestions a try. Track all your advertising efforts, and find out what works for your page, and what doesn't. Then put more focus on what's working, and less to no focus on what's not.
Candy Brauer is a happily married housewife, mother of 3. She works from home for a medical benefits provider, and gives a large percentage of her work from home income to charity. You can view her webpage at http://www.genuineprofit.com, or call her at 206-338-3108.