Online marketing should not be taken lightly. In order to be successful, one must not just have a presence on the web but must design a thorough, well-thought promotional strategy, and must enhance it every day.
If you're launching a new website, your first step will be to submit your site to the Search Engines and Directories.

Search Engines:

Below, is a list of the major Search Engines. These sites should be submitted to manually.

Google
AltaVista
Lycos
Overture

Once you've manually submitted your main pages to the above Search Engines, visit SelfPromotion.com to automatically submit your pages to a number of additional Search Engines and Directories.

A good way to organize your promotions is to set up a web page, for your personal use, that will contain your complete strategy. This page should be stored on your hard drive and not uploaded to your server. Your page should contain four sections.

   • Daily Promotions
   • Weekly Promotions
   • Monthly Promotions
   • Miscellaneous Promotions

Each of these four sections should contain the appropriate information for each of your promotional resources such as website name, user ID, password (if applicable) and hyperlinked web addresses for each website you plan to use for your promotions. This will enable you to open your web page each day and visit the sites you have listed.

Daily Promotions

Placing Links

Your daily promotions should include posting your ads to a list of free classified ad sites. Although this promotional technique isn't as effective as it once was, it will provide you with some additional links to your site.

There are several websites that will enable you to submit your classified ads to an entire network of sites with just one form. Here is a list of resources to get you started:

Yahoo Classifieds
AdlandPro Networked Classifieds 5000+
Web Sitings Networked Classifieds 40,000+
Epage Networked Classifieds 16,000+

Discussion Boards:

In addition, visit some popular discussion boards and share your expertise. Although you may not advertise on discussion boards, you can include your signature file with your post. Before you begin posting to discussion boards, make sure you lurk a while and see exactly how the board functions.

Click here for a complete listing of some of the top discussion boards.


Weekly Promotions

Ezine Advertising / Ad Swaps:

Your weekly promotions should consist of placing a paid ezine advertisement and/or arranging ad swaps with fellow publishers. Visit the Directory of Ezines for a complete listing of hundreds of publishers and contact information for advertising.

To organize your ad placements and swaps, place the publication names, publisher names, ad dates and hyperlinked web addresses within your weekly promotions list.


Monthly Promotions

Your monthly promotions should include writing an article in the area of your expertise, promotional exchanges with similar websites, and offline promotions.

To organize your monthly promotions, place the names and hyperlinked web addresses for each of your promotional resources within your monthly promotions section.

Writing Articles:

Writing articles that may be freely published with your bylines is one of the best promotional methods online. Your article may be published in hundreds of ezines, on websites or even in magazines.

If you've been on the Internet for a while, you've probably subscribed to a few ezines. Many ezine publishers will include an article written by a guest author. At the end of the article is a few lines of text about the author referred to as bylines. These lines of text are basically just an advertisement for the writer. They usually contain a couple of lines about the author and a web address.

By writing articles and allowing them to be freely published, your articles will have the potential to be viewed by millions of Internet users. They may be published by several ezines with subscriber bases of a few hundred to several thousand. In addition, they may be displayed in ezine archives or on high traffic websites.

Most ezine publishers prefer short articles between 500 and 750 words. Short "tip" articles of just a couple of paragraphs are also very popular. Articles should be formatted to 65 characters per line or less, including spaces, and written in short paragraph sections.

When you begin writing your article, avoid using your standard word processing programs, as they do not allow for proper formatting. Instead, use a text editor such as NotePad. It should already be installed on your desktop.

When you begin typing your article, use a hard carriage return (hit enter) when your text reaches 65 characters, including spaces, and leave a space between your paragraphs. This will enable publishers to easily copy and paste your article into their publication. By taking the time to properly format your article, you will increase your chance of being published significantly.

If you don't feel comfortable formatting your article, click here and instantly format your article right online.

Once you've written your article, you'll need to develop a list of publishers that may be interested in publishing it. The best way to accomplish this is to display your articles on your website. Let your visitors know that they may freely publish your articles as long as your bylines are included. Place a subscription box on each of your article pages to enable your visitors to subscribe. Each time you write a new article, you can mail it to your list of publishers.

In addition, you can visit some ezine sites to locate publishers who may be interested in your articles. A good place to start is eZINESearch.

Another great way to promote your articles is to submit them to article announcement groups. These groups enable writers to submit their articles to an entire group of publishers, completely free.
 


Writing and distributing free articles on the Internet will be one of the best promotional decisions you'll ever make. Not only will it provide you with free publicity, but if your articles are good, you'll also become a trusted professional in your area of expertise.

Promotional Exchanges:

Cross promoting is a powerful technique used by many Internet marketers to increase the exposure of their products, services or publications. You simply decide what type of promotional exchange you would be interested in and contact fellow marketers to discuss an exchange.

The most effective technique used in cross promotions is recommendations. By providing each other with a personal recommendation you can increase your response rates tremendously.

Here are some popular cross promoting techniques you can use to boost your business:

Link Exchanges

Exchange links with websites similar to yours, but not in competition. Many Search Engines are now utilizing a system that tracks and ranks sites according to the number of links pointing to a particular website. By exchanging links with similar websites, you will not only increase your Search Engine ranking, but you will also increase your website traffic.

Ezine Ad Swaps

Exchange subscription ads with other ezine publishers. Ezine advertising is one of the best forms of advertising on the Internet. By swapping ads with fellow ezine publishers, you can run your ad in other publications free of charge.

Subscription Exchanges

Exchange subscription information with fellow ezine publishers. Provide recommendations within your ezine's welcome message, thank you page and even on your multiple subscription ezine form.

Ezine Column Swaps

Partner with a similar publication and provide content for each other. This may be a weekly tips column, question and answer column or whatever you'd like.

Byline Exchanges

Write articles and allow them to be freely published. Exchange byline information with fellow writers and provide recommendations.

With each article you write, you are entitled to include your author bylines. Bylines are nothing more than an advertisement for you, your website, products or services.

Instead of including your standard bylines, use half the space for yourself and the other half to promote the writer you've partnered with.

Signature Exchanges

A signature or SIG file is a few lines of information about your business at the bottom of any form of Internet communication. Exchange SIG file information with other marketers and provide recommendations.

Ebook Exchanges

Partner with fellow Internet marketers and create free ebooks to freely distribute. The ebook should mutually benefit and promote both of you, while providing valuable information for your visitors.

Ride Alongs

A ride along is any extra information (advertisements) sent along with a direct mailing. You can use this same technique with any ezine solo mailings you may run by including an exchange recommendation within your mailing. In addition, you can include recommendations within your thank you letters you send out when you deliver your products.

Upsells

An upsell is used when your customer is in the process of ordering your product. Another product is introduced, for a small additional cost, just as you're closing the sale. This technique is used with many infomercials when the customer calls in their order. The operator will introduce an additional product for a minimal extra charge. You can use this same technique on your order page. Trade product recommendations with fellow marketers.

Free Bonuses

Free bonuses are used as an incentive to increase sales. Exchange bonuses with other marketers. This technique will not only increase your sales, but will also promote your products and services.

Cross promotions provide Internet marketers with a powerful way to reach new potential customers. There is power in number, so get out there and start cross promoting!