Your biggest asset when becoming an internet marketer is to know how to get free targeted traffic to your web sites. It doesnt matter how many web sites youre promoting. Your primary goal should be to keep the cost down. It feels great to have monthly sales well into the thousands, but it also can ruin your day when you realize that most of this money goes right back into your advertising costs.
Yes, theres a rule that you need to reinvest 75% of your profit into advertising and marketing. I like this rule, but it also needs to be timely constraint. I think this rule is good for your first 3-6 months of business. After this you should be able to pull back the cost for advertising without impacting your income streams.
My philosophy in internet marketing is that if you have to spend a lot of money to keep a positive cash flow, the competition is probably too intense for this market segment. You will be better of to research a new niche market.
On the topic of free advertising, there are many free classified ad providers, but only a few sites offer truly free advertising. They all want something in return, theres no webmaster out there who promotes your stuff for free just because he/she feels like it today. One way to get free advertising is to tap into a startup company. There are hundreds of web sites that want to be the next Google. To attract new customers they give away free pay per click credits. Sometimes up to $100 worth of clicks.
Another way to receive free quality advertising is to give these webmasters what they want. In most cases its a link from your website to their website. This can be a problem, especially if you want to keep your home page clean from too many flashy banners.
In this case try to figure out of the link back is required to be on your home page or any page from your website. If theres no requirement to have the link on your homepage, create a collection web page that is not necessarily part of your whole web site and put link back from this site. To keep the flow put a tiny link from your home page to this page and youre done.
Dont even think about to put the link on your web page and a few days later you will remove it. These days the link back verification is done automatically and they will check from time to time if you keep your promise or not. Your free ride will suddenly stop and you will gain a reputation as cheater.
For more information about free advertising visit my web sites.
Copyright 2005
Peter Dobler is a 20+ year veteran in the IT business. He is an active Real Estate Investor and a successful Internet business owner.Collect more free software and bonus content for your own web site at or send a blank email to
Web site traffic promotion on the cheap is labor intensive but quickly mastered if you know where to start. Free web site traffic doesnt mean massive submission to search engines or traffic exchanges. Carving out a web site promotion strategy following basic guidelines will bring the targeted web site traffic you need to have a successful online business.
Keys to web site promotion
Search engine optimization (SEO)
The first step to online web site promotion is ensuring that your web site is optimized for search engine traffic. Every page of your website needs to be worked with strong targeted page titles, heading tags and original content rich with key words chosen to reach your niche market. If you are a self-directed learner then your best bet would be Jill Whalens Nitty Gritty of Writing for Search Engines. http://www.wahmconnections.com/nittygritty.htm
If you need more support and would prefer learning search engine optimization in a classroom format then I recommend Cricket Baileys SEO class found at GNC Web Creations. http://www.gnc-web-creations.com
Ezine (Online Newsletter) Publishing
Newsletter publishing is a powerful way to stay connected to visitors to your website and help generate repeat traffic to your online business. By creating fresh content and strong readership, your newsletter will be forwarded to others leading to a growing subscriber list. Strong design and subscriber interaction, a newsletter will generate regular traffic that over time will build your credibility and name recognition ~ Branding.
Business Blog
Blogging for online business is quickly becoming one of the best web site traffic generators you can find that doesnt have to cost you anything. You invest your time learning how blogging works for business then you set up your blog and start using the information you have learned to generate targeted traffic to your website. The most popular free online blogger is Blogger.com which although is owned by Google does not have any extra perks for search engine traffic generation and the initial traffic you draw is to someone elses site ~ Blogger.
If you have your own website that you have control of your c-panel then check to see if you have Fantastico which allows you to set up your own blog. If you set up your new blog within your own website then your blog is essentially free unless you need to upgrade your hosting to accommodate the increase in bandwidth used with higher traffic but that is a good thing!
A blog with strong titles, quality content and strategic pinging plus rss feeds will be your key to fast search engine indexing, traffic to your blog that can funnel traffic directly to your business website.
Article Writing
Writing articles with a strong resource box is your best free web site traffic generator. Due to its viral nature on the internet, articles that are published on websites and in newsletters of other ezine publishers will bring your website traffic. With each new article and publishing, your articles will reach more people building both traffic and branding You as an expert. With each article you write, your first stop is EzineArticles which is a high traffic article database used by webmasters and newsletter publishers to find fresh content. EzineArticles (http://www.ezinearticles.com) also publishes your articles in a search engine friendly format that lets internet surfers find the information they are seeking.
Every business website owner should take these keys to web site traffic seriously. The energy put into learning SEO, newsletter publishing, business blogging and article writing has a high return on investment.
Creating fresh dynamic articles in your area of interest and expertise will help you build up your website, fill your newsletter and draw traffic to your business blog. Submitting your articles to other webmasters and ezine publishers will further build your reputation beyond your own website.
Learning how to write and publish your articles on your website and your blog in a search engine friendly format means that you have covered all the bases.
Free web site traffic is initially very labor intensive but the investment of yourself in these four areas will bring you the success online you are striving to achieve.
Tammy Ames is the owner of WAHM Connections - Building your home internet business resource site with a weekly online newsletter Work at Home Connections Ezine