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 availableto 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.
© Terri Seymour of SeymourProducts.com