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Out of the box thinkers-Website marketing on a shoestring budget? Ideas?

My daughter & I started a website WWW.FAIRYGIFTMOTHERS.COM and between that and purchasing inventory we are left with little to no money to promote or get our site marketed. Any free places to go? Any ideas on how we can get traffic to our site to get much needed sales? I have resorted to a very SLOW way and that is by chat in games on other sites and here at YA, also business card handouts & flyer's. I researched all the different marketing tools and pay per click stuff. The are way out of our league. Would asking people to email this website out to everyone on their address list be a good way? Need some out of the box thinkers here, ideas?

Public Comments

1. Getting traffic is a combination of a lot of things. The key to success is to create great content that visitors want to use, search engines will love and other websites will naturally link to. Of course, it's easier said than done. You can use pay per click advertising in the search engines to reach audiences looking for your products. You can use Google Adwords http://www.google.com/adwords or Yahoo http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com Here are some shoestring marketing ideas that can help you get the visitors you need at the least cost possible: 1. Create the best content you can with the best products you can possibly offer. Your content is your best advertisement - if visitors love your content, then they will go back and spread the word to others. 2. Make it easy for users to recommend your site. Viral marketing is very important -- and easy to tap on the Web. But give your users the tools. Get a Recommend this Site script from websites such as cgiscripts.com and similar directories of scripts. Some even go as far as giving incentives to those who recommend the site to their friends. If only 10 people go to your site, but these 10 people invite 10 more - that's additional traffic that you get for FREE! AddThis http://www.addthis.com 3. Rank well in the search engines (organic search results, not the pay per click). SEs can be a big source of traffic. The key is to create the best content in your niche. If you have good content, other websites will gladly link to you and offer your site as a resource to their audience. Check the on-page factors and be sure to get linked from authority sites in your topic area. If you are going to read only one piece on search engine optimization, I suggest you read Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld.com's "Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone: 26 steps to 15k a day." http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm 4. Send out press releases. While outfits charge as much as $650 per release, there are free press release submission places on the Web. Press releases allow you to (a) attract media attention; (b) get more back links to your website without sending each website an email request; and (c) get more visibility especially if your press release gets in Google News or Yahoo News. http://www.prleap.com/sign_up.html http://i-newswire.com/ http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/ http://www.pressbox.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi http://www.pr.com/press-releases http://www.prfree.com/ http://www.clickpress.com/releases/index.shtml http://www.theopenpress.com/ http://www.przoom.com/ http://www.prweb.com http://www.newswiretoday.com/ http://www.free-press-release.com/ 5. Submit articles. Write articles and submit them to websites accepting author submissions. You get exposure for your business; establishes you as an authority in your field, and allows you to get backlinks for your website. If 50 websites publish your article and it contains a link back to your website, then you easily get 50 links from a single article. The more links you have, the greater your chances for increasing your search engine rankings. Here is a comprehensive list of where to submit your articles http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=AhzreGmnCUicOoyedqypscUjzKIX?qid=1006022407481 6. Post a link to your site for free where it is allowed (always read the Terms of Use). Examples are: Craigslist http://www.craigslist.com Google Base http://base.google.com Classifieds for Free http://www.classifiedsforfree.com/... Text Link Exchange http://www.txtswap.com/ Recycler.com http://www.recycler.com/ Yahoo Classifieds http://classifieds.yahoo.com/ US Free Ads http://www.usfreeads.com/
2. If you are looking for web marketing services, I would recommend http://www.meteorsite.com -- an outstanding SEO/SEM/ WEB DEV company based in Los Angeles. Meteorsite has been doing SEO for about 10 years, boasts of clients like Altour Air, Courvoisier, State Farm Insurance, Tim Devine of Webcaster.com and Shangrila Music, to name a few. Meteorsite’s SEO service is targeted, proven, and efficient. Meteorsite also offers viral marketing – with customized marketing tactics derived from years of experience and research. They create the buzz, control the direction of the buzz and are able to achieve predicted and desired results. Meteorsite’s team of specialists leverages Web 2.0, scours for potential customers, and crafts powerful marketing messages to drive massive traffic to your website. Visit the website at http://www.meteorsite.com so you’ll have a better idea of the services they offer, their background and their expertise. They customize SEM and SEO proposals to your specific vertical and make sure that you achieve the CONVERSION rates that will satisfy your business. You can also get more of your SEO questions answered when you visit the website.
3. A momma after my own heart! I've been a shoestring online marketer for over a decade, and now do consulting for new work at home start ups. There are SO many ways to promote your site for free, the real problem is information overload when trying to learn the ropes. The best way to tackle is to schedule a few hours a week to your marketing and jump in with one type of advertising method at a time. I suggest to most of my clients to start with a press release and a few articles about the industry they are in. These two methods are often enough to get the traffic rolling enough to see is the pages are converting sales properly and allow for tweaking and planning processes. Feel free to check my profile and contact me, I would be glad to spend an hour or so with your out of the box promotion ideas .. no cost or anything, it is my subject of passion. :) Best of luck to you and your daughter, congratulations on the launch of your site.