Best Online Marketing Techniques

I have been in internet marketing for over ten years and
have seen marketing techniques come and go. Some are
still around and some are new and innovative. Below you
will find what I believe to be the best and most effective
marketing techniques.

Article Marketing - Article marketing was and is one of the
most powerful online marketing methods available. Not only
does it do wonders for you and your business, it is free!

Article marketing consists of writing helpful, informative,
easy to understand articles that actually help your readers,
not try to sell them something. Then you submit them to
article banks, directories and to ezine publishers. When
your article runs in a popular ezine, it can do great things
for your business. Writing articles is not as hard as you
might think so give it a try. You will be surprised at how
much it can do for your business.

Remember:

Don't worry about fancy words. People are looking for help
not big words.

Advertise in your resource box, not your article.

Provide real, helpful info and resources, not hype!

Write from the heart! Let your personality shine through
in your articles.

Blogging - Blogging is a newer form of online marketing
that just started becoming popular in the late 90's. Blog
is short for weblog and means an online publication in the
form of a log or journal. Blogs can increase your customer
base, your traffic and your search engine ranking, thus
increasing your sales!

Blogging can be done for free through such sites as:
blogger.com, wordpress.com and livejournal.com

Be sure and update your blog regularly; everyday would be
best, as people like fresh content, ideas and information.

Ezine Publishing - Ezine publishing has been around
much longer than blogging and is far more effective, in my
opinion. Your ezine needs to contain helpful resources,
information, not just sales pitches. Develop a relationship
with your readers. Let them know they can trust you and
rely on you when they need your help.

Things to remember when putting together your ezine:

Keep it clean and easy to read.
Limit your advertising and be selective.
Always provide quality content and information.
Add your personality so your readers can get to know you.
Always provide contact info; make yourself available
to your readers.
Be consistent; send your ezine out regularly as scheduled.
Be sure and proofread your ezine before sending it out.

Online Networking - Online networking, as with offline
networking, is very important to your business. This is
when you contact as many people as possible to learn more
and share more about your business. Many leads can come
from networking. There are several ways to do this online.

Email Discussion Groups - go to yahoogroups.com and search
for the appropriate groups.

Message Boards - Be sure and follow the rules and offer help
whenever possible.

Social Sites - Such as MySpace, Ryze, Merchant Circle, etc.
These can be great ways to make more contacts and get more
leads.

Joint Ventures - This is when you enter into an agreement
with another online marketer that will benefit both of you.

Examples of joint ventures are:

Ezine ad swaps
Ebook ad swaps
Subscription page ad swaps
Affiliate programs
Exchanging advertising for percentage of sales

and the list goes on and on. Be creative and come up with
new ways you and another business owner can help each other.

Podcasting - Podcasting is using digital media files which
are distributed all over the internet via syndication feeds.
Podcasting is still a fairly new way of online marketing.
Podcasting can be powerful because it uses voice, not words
to get the message across. Offer your articles, do voice
interviews, offer a chapter of your ebook via podcast, etc.
Again, use your imagination and create new ways to spread
the word about your business.

Ezine Advertising - Advertising your business, product,
service, etc. in quality ezines can be well worth the money
spent. There are a few things you can do to help you choose
which ezines to advertise in.

Do a search to find ezines that cater to your target market.
For example: if you are advertising kids books, you don't
want to advertise in a all about cars ezine.

Once you find several target market ezines, subscribe to
them so you can look them over, find out about the
dependency of the publisher, read feedback from other
subscribers and just overall learn what the ezine is about.

Try contacting the publisher to see if they respond to your
email. Ask about testimonials from other advertisers. How
many ads do they run per issue and what the ads cost.

Ask the publisher to do an ad swap to test the waters and
see if you get a response to your ad. Be selective in your
choices and always code your ads so you know which ezines
actually deliver results.

I hope this article has given you some insight as to how
to market your online/home business. I use several of these
methods ( and the rest of them I should be using) and know
from experience that they work!

The possibilities with the internet are endless and we need
to keep up with new and innovative ways of marketing our
business. And we also need to keep using the tried and
true older methods of online marketing as well.