Image by: geralt
By Dexter Lunde
We all know about Google Adwords, Craigsllist, and Yahoo! Local Listings. However there are millions upon millions of websites on the internet. How can there only be a handful of websites that can help your business? Well, that’s only the case if you aren’t looking a bit harder and digging a bit deeper. What other online tools are available?
#1) Dotster
Dotster offers services like web hosting and e-mail, domain registration, transfer domains, domain tools, SSL certificates, custom web design, and e-mail marketing. They have site builders as well in order to help you make the best website for your business.
They have solutions for SEO marketing, local site promotion, and a special business hosting package as well. Talk about full package deal.
#2) Merchant Circle
Merchant Circle is a free site that has local business listing. It’s like Craigslist only it automatically recognizes your community and allows your business to be more visible in search engine results. This can help you manage your online reputation better by checking to see what people are saying. Not only that but you can help your local markets by patronizing their businesses.
#3) Web.com’s Pay Per Click Online Marketing Service
Web.com’s Search Engine Marketing Program helps drive targeted leads to your business. They have a Pay Per Click Online Marketing Service that helps you maintain ongoing campaign optimization (which varies depending on your budget and your plan). Web.com is a Google Premier SMB Partner which means that you get access to Google as well.
#4) Include Your URL in Everything
Make sure that your press releases all include your web address. Do this with your promotional items as well. It is a good way to promote your website, which will (in turn) promote your business as well. Put your address on coffee mugs, bumper stickers, flyers, T-shirts, etc.
Also, make sure that you include a web address in your yellow pages ad as well. People who will be looking for your number will be able to easily access your website. People who are looking for businesses like yours can look up your business as well.
If you have any company cars, put your URL on the side or back of the car or truck. It is great advertising. If anything, people will be curious about what your company sells and they will look up your website. If they have passengers who have a smartphone, they may even do so at the red light.
#5) Sweepstakes
Launch a sweepstakes or some kind of contest! Contests are a great way to gain some publicity while getting people to sign up for your website. Offer people who sign up and register on your website an entry in a sweepstakes during a certain time frame. Test it out to see which works better: contests or sweepstakes, a time frame of a week or a month, and offer free gifts for each attempt.
#6) Free Content
Offer up some free content for other sites. It’s really a great scenario. They get great content that they don’t have to pay for and you get the publicity from being on their site. They get new visitors and so do you. Everybody wins!
#7) Web Affiliates
Web affiliates hook up hundreds of sites with each other. Visitors travel from one site to the next, clicking on links that take them to interesting content. Some affiliates will promote your website while other will promote a specific product. It all depends on how you can both gain exposure from one another.
#8) Offer Online-Specific Offers
Offer specials and free products if visitors go to your online shop. It’s so easy to spend more money online because you’re not actually swiping a card or forking over any physical money. Instead, you’re just clicking buttons so you can’t actually feel how much money you’re spending.
#9) Multi-Media Content
Offer tutorials on your website and send links to those tutorials to other people’s website. When you’re giving away free content to other websites, mention your multi-media content on your website. Video tutorials are great because it lets your audience in on your specialty, allows them to actually view the fact that you know what you’re talking about, and it gets them onto your website (that’s half the battle).
#10) Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator is a great website that can put you in contact with charities in your location. Spending some time at a charity (donning shirts which promote your business) is a great advertisement and a great way to connect with your community.
Now it’s your turn. Tell us about some of the ways that you use the internet to promote your business and allow your business the ability to grow. What websites do you use? What programs are you a part of? Which web hosting company do you use?