Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A Newbie's Guide to Advertising a Website For Better Internet Marketing

By Brent Sweet

One important component of the internet marketing business is advertising. True, it can often cost money (sometimes a lot of it) but it is necessary to ensuring that your business gets the attention it deserves. When you're a newbie in internet marketing, advertising is one of the best weapons you can use and should form part of your business strategy. Here are ways you can advertise your website to improve your internet marketing business:

Free ways to advertise your site

If you're a newbie, you might be a bit apprehensive about spending money for advertising. That's okay. There are means and techniques you can use that don't have to cost a thing or at least, a lot of money.

Write articles.

Article directories are repositories of write-ups online. Many internet marketing newbies post their articles here. This is a clever yet obvious way to advertise your website. At the end of your article, provide a brief write-up about yourself and a link back to your website. It will help if your article is top quality and useful, which will encourage people to know more about you and your business.

Swap endorsements.

If you've built a relationship with other websites, take advantage of it. There are site owners and bloggers who will agree to trade endorsement ads. It's a mutually beneficial deal and quite effective, especially if you trade with someone who has a good number of traffic to offer. Endorsement ads are much more trusted by site visitors, too, especially those who are wary of the usual ads.

Paid advertising for your internet marketing website

Of course, there will come a time when every newbie will want to consider paying for advertising your internet marketing website. When you do, try a few of these techniques:

Pay-per-click advertising and AdWords/AdSense

PPC focuses on targeted traffic coming from major search engines. This is a very good way to advertise your website if you are offering products or services, or are part of an affiliate program. This is also a very effective means to build your e-mail list.

Google has a way to help generate traffic to your website. Find all the related and targeted keywords for your business and then set the PPC rate at a minimum amount ($0.01 is the usual figure) and raise it gradually on a regular basis. It not only helps advertise your internet marketing website, it also brings in the traffic. And yes, it makes you money as well.

Text link ads

Another way to generate traffic to your site is through text link advertising. Text link ads are excellent for improving search engine rankings for your website, which helps you leverage the organic traffic you receive. Make sure you place these links with websites that have the relevance and authority to maximize their exposure.

Banner ads

To advertise your website for better internet marketing, consider buying banner ads from other websites. Choose sites that offer products or services that complement yours and those that have enough traffic. Banner ads can cost money but if you place them with websites that have the right exposure, your products and services can attract the right traffic.

Blog networks

Blog networks work by exchanging traffic. If you have a blog (which you might want to consider since you are a newbie), you could earn credits by looking at other people's blogs, particularly those written by the network's members. As your credit increases, you can start displaying your ad banners throughout the network or simply sit back and let other people surf your blog. You either receive banner impressions or visitors to your blog, which you can then direct to your internet marketing website.

Paid or sponsored reviews

It may sound a bit fixed but paying for reviews of your website is not some sneaky trick. Many internet marketing newbies AND experienced business owners do this regularly. Since you're a beginner at this game, consider this path. Many bloggers write paid reviews almost exclusively and can give your internet marketing business a good boost.

However, this isn't a perfect system. The important thing is for you to find several quality bloggers who have built a good reputation on the Internet. These bloggers should have the right influence, audience, authority and integrity. Remember, they have to be trusted by their readers. Otherwise, your review will just read like cheap shot at gaining attention and boosting your reputation.

This type of advertising for your website makes for better internet marketing, particularly for newbies because you get an objective point of view and also benefit from that blogger's reflected integrity. And yes, it does consist of advertising for your website.

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