Thursday, September 10, 2009

Free or Low Cost Marketing Ideas to get your website out there!

Recently I set out to explore how to get my blog seen by more people. However, I am on a low cost budget so pay for clicks were just not a feasible option for a blog that is still new. I thought I would share what I found because I am sure there are others of you out there in the same situation.

Traffic Exchanges: These seem like a good option on the surface when you are looking at the free traffic aspect. If you are someone who sits at their computer all day. It is indeed an option. I actually surf the exchanges while watching T.V., while waiting with my lap top and when I am bored and curious. They are much better as a paid advertisement. Your time is worth money too. Many exchanges for a low cost will place your URLs instead of you having to search for credits.

If you are promoting anything with AdWords. They do not like traffic exchanges. Create a splash page - a Catchy graphic billboard ad that when clicked on, will bring people to your site. I found a link that not only gives free splash pages, it also organizes a large number of the exchanges so you don't lose your log in information plus allows you to refer others. The advantage of it was that once I set up all the exchanges with my primary business and the URL that had all the exchanges organized, I began to get free credits from referrals. Took awhile but now it is just spinning in credits on its own. The Program is called Traffic Tornado - Awesome Tool - I give it an 8. I would give it a ten but it took awhile to get all set up but.. it was FREE.

A couple of programs that drive traffic and you could list in your exchange URLs are also: Six Links and Affiliate Funnel. Click them to check the look of these out. Six Links was free. I upgraded Affiliate to be allowed six options.

A similar concept is the surf bar. This little bar flashes a new ad up as I am going about my business. Every time the little text ad changes twice, someone is seeing mine once. Again, it was free but you can also pay so that you don't have to have the bar on your own computer. I give this a 7.

I found some other low cost options and using an ad tracker, found that they do indeed work. My favorite of these all would have to be Monster Traffic. For only ten dollars a month, this site is on automatic for me. It sends out a daily email to about 300 people a day. It rotates my sites through its home page as well as a small classified ad. I just go in once a week and change my email as I am still testing which email has the best response. It was an easy, low cost option and is indeed driving traffic to my primary business at DrinkACT. I give this advertising option a 10.

Another one that was low cost and has been a wonderful tool is TrafficWave. It has free 30 day trial but even then, was less then 20.00 a month. It includes: Build Your E-Mail Marketing Lists. TrafficWave.net Auto Responders help you efficiently follow up with prospects and convert more prospects in to sales. You can publish email newsletters and e-mail marketing campaigns. It also lets you track your results. It has more benefits that those of you who are webbuilder savvy might understand. I am still new to a lot of these and am just learning the benefits and drawbacks of autoresponsders. Anyway, first 30 days are free. I upgraded in two days because it lets me set a free letter to those coming into the FFA page and I mail out about 300 opt in letters a day. This one has a lot I still need to learn. I give it an 8 only because I don't understand it all yet. But the parts I have mastered are wonderful.

This one was simple and easy and if you upgrade, you got two for the price of one. It is called FFA Storm. It has a set it and leave it responder and I mail out about 500 opt in emails a day with this program. I give this one a 9.

Here is the list of other program and ratings I have been using. They are similar to the ones listed above. All these together, if I started them all at once would be about $250.00 for the upgraded versions. However many of them are free to try or set up. I added them slow enough that it was not a financial burden. Do to the fact that all of these are either free or have affiliate options, I pay nothing for my advertising. However, to get there, you have to share your affiliate URLs through the traffic exchanges or occasionally run them as one of your weekly emails. Anyway, here is the rest of the programs I am using, I hope they help:
* Multi-Links
* X-Stream Traffic
* Daily Targeted Leads
* Kiosk.ws
Oh one last thought, on the programs with the opt in emails. I have had more success if I go in and refresh my ad weekly and just spruce up the title. I only spend about an hour a week on my advertising so I can spend my time doing what I love most, writing! Well, unless I am surfing.. then I am always advertising because I have my surfbar. Have a prosperous week, I hope this helps some of you who are where I was not so long ago. Beautiful Websites - No Traffic!

Cheryl Matthynssens



Monster-Traffic Banner

No comments:

Post a Comment