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When I first started marketing, well, you know the expression-I didn't have a pot nor a window. Without the finances to market my business, I had to become an expert it what is known as Shoestring Marketing. There are many free and inexpensive marketing methods that in the long run are as good as or better than paid advertising. In fact, in terms of marketing longevity, these methods have given me long term results in building my online businesses. The following 10 items are the ones that I have found to be the most effective and have long term effects.
1. Build a list. We have always been told that the money is in the list and that is as true today as it was 10 years ago. Of course, with all of the competition on the net, it is harder to build a list today but, if you follow the rest of my 10 ways to market, it will happen and without a list you really don't have a sustainable business. With a responsive list, you build trust and respect with your list members and then and only then will they buy from you. Of the 10 ways to market, this is the only one that requires that you spend some money. You will need a good autoresponder. Please don't go for the free or cheap ones, all you are doing is shooting yourself in the foot. A good autoresponder will make sure that your message is delivered.
2. Article Marketing. This is a great way to build your reputation as an expert in your chosen niche. The internet has a voracious appetite for fresh information and if your articles are well written and fact based, you will be remembered as an expert in you field. Make sure that you never advertise in your articles. You should rely upon your signature to do your marketing. No one wants to publish an article that is nothing more than a promotion for someone else's product. One of the neat things about article marketing is that some articles stand the test of time and may be published not only when fresh but also weeks, months and sometimes years after you wrote the article.
3. Blogging. Not only do you need your own blog but, you should also be making comments on other people's blogs. Once again a well written blog entry or comment will build your reputation as an expert and you will build trust with potential customers. With your own blog, you can blatantly advertise if you want to. I personally prefer to give my blog readers solid content without the blatant promo.
The reason for this being is that I am trying to build trust and display my expertise. If you are commenting on someone else's blog, never advertise. Just rely upon your signature to do the advertising for you. If you try to advertise on someone's blog, you will likely find that your comment has found it's way to the circular file and will never be seen or heard from again.
4. Forum Marketing. No matter how small your niche is, you will find forums that are dedicated to your area of expertise. Before you start making forum comments or new threads, make sure that you read and understand the forum rules. Failure to follow the rules could get you banned from the forum or worse yet, hurt your reputation. Forum members can sometimes be very blunt when they see a comment that doesn't conform to the forums protocols. Also, take some time to read the forum threads and comments so that when you start threads or comments, they are appropriate for the forum.
5. You Tube. I have only just begun to utilize You Tube as one of my marketing strategies. But, I have found that with a little preplanning
you can get very high ratings and a very loyal following of viewers. It is not unusual to get multiple if not scores of comments on a good
You Tube presentation. This is also an area that, so far, has much less competition than most of the other marketing methods. I think that this is from that natural tendency for many people to be camera shy. The person that introduced me to You Tube, took the top five Google video results in his niche within one week of producing his first video. Don't be shy. Get out that video camera and dive into this relatively untapped market.
6. Social Networking. You have heard the names, My Lot, My Space, Facebook, Squidoo and many more. The world of social networking takes internet marketing to a whole new plateau. This is part of the Web 2.0 internet revolution that is changing the face of the internet at an incredibly fast and accelerating pace. It has literally become a brave new world. Don't jump in too fast. Learn the rules of the road. If you do it right, you will be developing friends and potential customers. I suggest that you enter social networking with some degree of caution. You can develop friends but also like the non-cyber world, not everyone if going to like you and without some degree of care, you might also develop enemies.
7 Virtual Worlds. I think that most people have at least looked at Second Life or one of the other virtual worlds that have been created.
In these virtual worlds, you create an avatar that is your online ego. You can be anything you want-male, female, or even an infinite variety of critters. I have met rabbits that speak and women that suddenly fly away when I get a little too close. Anything is possible in these virtual worlds. Anything including making money. You can buy and sell virtual real estate in the virtual world that translates to real dollars in the non-cyber world. You can created a virtual business that exists not only in the virtual world but, has a physical counterpart in the real world. Second Life might be an excellent place to help market your real world internet business. Even major corporation have created virtual stores where you can purchase something in Second Life and have it delivered to your real world doorstep in 3 days. My last computer purchase was from Dell and the whole transaction took place in Second Life. No, that is not quite right. The transaction took place in the virtual but the Dell computer that I am currently typing on was delivered in the real world. As with the social networking sites, reasonable care should be taken. Although you are dealing with an Avatar in Second Life, there is a real person with real feelings and emotions and your interactions should be given as much care as you would in the real world. Everyday, the line between the real world and the virtual world becomes more and more blurred.
8. Joint Venture Gift Events. Come Easter, July 4, Memorial Day or Christmas, etc. some of the bigger names in internet marketing will create a givaway event. They are usually free to join and you get to offer a free Ebook, membership or some other free offer in exchange for people signing up for your list. Some of these have been very effective for me. When getting involved in these make sure that the backers are among the top marketers and not some fly-by-night operation. Many times these events will also have an upgrade available so that your offer gets toward the top of the list. This may be a worthwhile investment as some of these events have usually several hundred offers available. You really have nothing to lose and if your free offer is unique, you may have a dramatic increase in your list. There are other ways to get into joint ventures but that will be an article all by itself. JVs are very much a win-win situation.
9. Press Releases. If you are offering something new and unique to the marketplace, you should consider putting out both an online and off line press release. If the right reporter picks it up, it might get published as is or you may get a call from one of the different news mediums wanting to interview you. One of the top marketers on the net today got his start from Fox News doing an interview about his rags to riches story. It is free to do and the worst case scenario is that no one pays any attention to your news release. Remember the old cliche: nothing ventured-nothing gained.
10. Your own Affiliate Program. If you have gone to the work of creating a product, then it is just natural that you offer an affiliate program to market your product. Affiliate marketers are always looking for something new and hot to promote. If you set up the program properly, you could have hundreds or even thousands of affiliates promoting your product. Create the affiliate program, create promotional materials for your product and pay your affiliates promptly. When the affiliate's prospect visits your sales page, you also have the chance to capture that person's name and email for your own optin list. Just make sure that if the new customer buys one of your future offers, you pay the affiliate on the new offer also.
Now the question is why are you sitting around doing nothing. I have just given you 10 great ways to build your business. Stop reading and get to work.
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