Web Marketing Tactics, Tips and Advice -
Tactic #1 - One approach to
on-line community building.
Tactic #2 - Stimulate word
of mouth.
Tactic #3 - Register your
web site effectively.
Tactic #4 - Advanced multi-domain
search engine registration.
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Most of the time, the difference between a lively, functional web site and one that
is dormant is the sense of on-line community the more successful web sites generate.
Everyone who has any experience with the advertisement industry is well aware that
word-of-mouth can sometimes do what multi-million dollar advertisement campaigns
can not. | Tactic #1
The best thing a web site owner can do is to realize
that an on-line electronic brochure (i.e. a static web site) will only be visited
once or twice, but a dynamic and changing site with useful information will be bookmarked
and revisited again, and again.
One of the most economical ways to do this is to let your visitors do it for you.
Put up a simple on-line BBS or web forum that centers around interesting topics of
discussion. These discussion topics need to be only remotely related to your product
or service, if at all. Indeed, it can be a real plus if the discussion topics are
outside of your normal centers of interest. Then promote your on-line forum page
separately from your other offerings. This, in effect, will cast a wider net for
your web site traffic by giving people additional reasons to visit your site. Hence,
more exposure to your products or services. |
We highly recommend vBulletin for on-line forum software
because of the feature rich nature of this package and its exception ease of installation:
vBulletin by Jelsoft
We use this one for the LinkSky on-line Support Forum.
Also, see the Fantasico link at the bottom of your cpanel home page for addiional options.
| | | Stimulate additional word
of mouth - | Tactic #2
In our opinion, every web site, large or small
need a Tell-A-Friend feature. This is a small program that will open a simple form
whereby a visitor can easily send a message via e-mail to several friends or associates
with a click of the button. The message invites people to come check out your web
site. They do not need to use their e-mail program as the messages are sent directly
from your web site. The Tell-A-Friend CGI we like to use also includes the additional
facility of adding additional comments to this message. | We recommend the following cgi program for the tell-a-friend
feature:
Tell-a-Friend by Big Nose Bird - Free (The BigNoseBird.com site is rich
is free utilities, graphics and advice, a must-visit for anyone that runs their own
web site.)
This product also retains a log file of activity. Great for an indicator of how much
people are talking about your web site. You can download and install the perl script
software in your web directory or we will install it on your site for a small fee
of $25. (See our SERVICES page for ordering this and other installations.) | | | Register your web site
effectively with search engines and directories - | Tactic #3
DO NOT fall for the, "We'll register your
web site at 200 (2000, 10,000, etc.) search engines for only $29 bucks!" scam.
It would be more entertaining and just as fruitful to burn your money and flush it
down the commode. Lately, in an effort to create the appearance of greater value,
these search engine registration scammers have been offering to reregister your site
on a monthly basis. What follows is a spam-mail ad received from one of your web
customers as our well researched response to it: | The Ad
--------------------------------
I saw your listing on the Internet
I work for a company that specializes
in getting clients web sites listed
as close to the top of the major
search engines as possible.
Our fee is only $29.95 per month to
submit your site at least twice a
month to over 350 search engines
and directories.
To get started and put your web site
in the fast lane, call our toll free
number below.
Mike xxxxxx
888-xxx-xxxx
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Our Response
--------------------------------
First of all there's only 35 or so search engines that anyone has ever heard of,
with only 9 or 10 of those that people regularly use and only 2 or 3 that take
the lions share in the plus 80% bracket. So twice a month, or two hundred times a
month makes no difference when:
#1 - 99% of those registrations go to free-for-all links pages, classified ad pages
(that typically only spammers use to harvest "fresh e-mail addresses"),
foreign language or specialized directories that will reject off-topic registrations,
etc. and,
#2 - If one tries to register that frequently with Open Directory, Google or Yahoo,
the sites you are registering will likely get black-balled foreeeeevvvver for something
called "search engine spamming" i.e. repeatedly registering the same domain
to the same search engine within a short period of time.
If I, or anyone could put one's web site "in the fast lane" for $29
a month, there would be so many bizillioniars walking around, that hundred dollar
bills would be blowing around in the wind every day to such a degree that no one
would pay any attention.
I get at least five of these "I saw your web site..." or "I saw your
listing..." spams a day. You can be sure of one thing - the person sending these
messages would be very elderly before they really saw every web site belonging to
every e-mail address they spam.
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So what works well for effective
search engine registration?
Our best advise in this area is if you want significant traffic from search engines,
first do your homework and find out what method of registration works best for each
search engine. This may sound like a lot of work, but keep in mind, a single effective
registration at Yahoo, Google or the Open Directory Project can net you far more traffic that you can imagine.
For instance, the Open Directory Project is a hand-selected directory that functions
as a subscription service for dozens and dozens of well known search engines (e.g. AltaVista, Deja, Google, HotBot,
Go, Lycos, Northern Light, Yahoo etc.). You can
still register with these various search engines individually, but a single successful
registration at Open Directory Project will get you a long way down the registration
road. So will a successful registration at Yahoo, and other places like FAST (formerly All The Web). But, by far the most important thing
to remember here is to read each directory's registration instructions and follow
them to the "T". AND read the third party research on these search engines
before you submit. In our opinion, the very best collection of search engine information
is at Search Engine Watch. We also
like a smaller web site that contains an unusual amount of great advice about search
engine registration and other forms of Internet promotion, SelfPromotion.com | | | Multi-domain search engine
registration - | Tactic #4
What do you suppose would be better, - (A), open
up a storefront on Main Street U.S.A. that is built like a department store, i.e.
clothing - first floor, jewelry - second floor, furniture - third floor. Or (B),
open up three different stores along Main Street U.S.A. each one with a specialized
line of products. Three stores. Three separate store fronts. Three separate entrances.
Which of the above scenarios do you suppose would receive the most foot traffic?
If you said, "Choice (A), if the store has a large advertising budget. Everything
is in one place, like a Sears, or a Walmart." You would be right, but the IF
in this case is a big one. Few startups or even well established small business have
the kind of requisite advertising budget. Without lucrative financing (B) would be
the better choice simply because the different types of products would have better
"street visibility". Hence, more beckoning doorways equals more traffic.
Considering store fronts on the world wide web, a tad bit of ingenuity can go a long
way. You can have both (A) and (B) at the same time.
With nearly all of the crawler-based search engines (Google, HotBot, Lycos, AltaVista,
etc.) and even some of the hand selected list directories (a.k.a. portals) you can
register separate sections of your web site if the content warrants it, i.e. if the
content is different enough. The problem is, if you register the address, "www.MainProducts.com"
and, "www.MainProducts.com/ExtraProducts/" most search engines will collapse
all the search "hits" your web site engenders into a single address. If
someone uses a search term that happens to touch upon multiple categories common
to your product line, then I'm sure you would agree it would be much better to have
several of your listings show up on the search result page. Couple this with the
fact that keywords found within domain names rank much higher than keywords found
anywhere else in your web site. And you've got a very good argument for multi-domain
registrations pointing to different sections of the same web site. (Indeed, a keyword
rich domain name can draw a percent more traffic than other domains of other web
sites no matter how rich your advertising budget is.) | |
Play it smart with domain names. Dollar
for dollar, they are really the best promotional deal you can find on
the internet. A good domain name can be worth it's traffic-producing
weight in gold. Obtain several good domain names for your site.
(Consider the dot com's first as they are the most popular.) Then point
them to various locations within your web site. When your domain
pointers are set up, register them separately with search engines that
allow it. (Do NOT do multi domain registrations for the same site at Yahoo or Open Directory Project.
There are a few others that disallow this kind of registration as well. Read the
specific policies of each search engine or directory you are registering with. You
can also obtain some very good information about the search engines at Search
Engine Watch. But don't disregard this technique
because it is a little tricky. It is certainly one key that could unlock the full
potential of your web site in a relatively short period of time.)
Here are the mechanics behind setting up a multi-domain
web site.
Step # 1 - REGISTER:
Register your domains with a good domain registry like LinkSky Domains. Of course, you CAN register your domain name with any official ICANN registry.
Step # 2 - MODIFY THE NAME SERVERS IN THE DOMAIN RECORD.
The name servers for the new domains must be the same as your LinkSk hosted domain. See your Welcome email or do a WhoIs lookup.
Step # 3 -- In your cpanel control panel, create a Parked or AddOn domain for each new domain that you've registered.
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