So you followed our advice and went to all the work to build your
own website, and now it's up and running. You put a hit counter
on the site, and are dismayed at the number of visitors who
visit. Aside from your personal hits when you check the
activity, there have been few if any other people stop by.
You notified everyone in your address book, put up a few FFA ads,
paid someone to submit your site to a few search engines, and
nothing seemed to generate interest. These are things often heard
from website owners that are just starting out. A few years
back, I wrote an article titled "I Shot An Arrow Into The Air -It
Fell To Earth I Know Not Where."
Some people feel the words from this poem by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow make an appropriate strategy for an advertising
campaign for their business. They purchase hundreds of thousands
of E-mail addresses, and thinking of each as an "arrow shot into
the air", hope that some will fall to earth and hit a prospective
client.
The odds of this generating business for you are "slim to none".
In fact, this is called spamming, and many ISP's, who have a zero
tolerance for this, may discontinue your service. So forget the
ads that promise that you will get millions of email addresses
for a very low price, and all you have to do is sit back and
watch the money roll in. Many of these lists are so old they
have "whiskers".
The majority of the email addresses sold are actually harvested
from the web. Most of the people who advertise, don't want to
compromise their real email address so they get temporary free
ones, and this is what they use in their ads.
My experience is that approximately two percent of these email
addresses are discontinued for one reason or another every week.
Some were trial memberships with AOL that they didn't continue,
while others were shut down for spamming. Some people with free
email accounts lost interest - their mailboxes filled up (with
other spam) and they were discontinued.
If you plan to market by email, you should build your own list.
Sure this takes some time, but the rewards will be worth it. This
is a responsible approach to the use of business E-mail. I do
believe there is a "bottom line" here. If your list is highly
targeted, remove requests are immediately honored, and you are
providing something of interest, you should not encounter any
problems and just may do some business.
There are a number of ways to get people to your web site so you
can make the actual sale. One of the time proven methods is to
search out Newsletters or Ezines that match your target market.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that a huge subscriber base is
best. It is better to advertise in smaller publications that are
targeted to the group you wish to contact, then ones with very
large subscriber bases that are not. Publications that are not
targeted are like shooting that arrow into the air. Sure, you
may get a few but realistically you won't get many.
Search Engines are a good bet. Get your web site listed, but
don't fall for the pitch that someone can do it for you for a few
bucks. To do it right, it is simply too much work to be able to
get any type of good listing for a small amount. This is
something you should consider doing yourself, and if you do spend
the necessary time, the rewards will be worth it.
One of our publications, "Search Engine Tips" is a good starting
place to learn the "ins and outs" of getting a favorable
position.
It is a free
publication and is mailed out once a week.
Think about writing some articles in areas of your expertise.
Most publications permit an authors credit box following the
article. If your articles are well written and timely, the odds
are they will be published. Anything that you can do to improve
your business exposure, will pay "Handsome Dividends".
About the Author
Bob publishes the free weekly "Your Business" Newsletter
Visit his Web Site at http://adv-marketing.com to subscribe.
As a bonus, get 40,000 FREE E-Books from Larry Dotson,
when you visit http://www.ldpublishing.com