Best Way to Advertise My Business

[mkleslie]

Hello!

I'm new to this forum and I hope it's o.k. that I joined though I'm not a IT geek.:) I'm sure some are saying....why do people like this come and waste our time. Well, here I go anyway :o ----

I was searching on Google's to find information to promote my business and came across Daniweb. So I thought why not ask the experts.

First my head is dizzy after reading so much information about advertising your business on the Internet. There's so many sites that say "FREE hits" or get X amount of hits per day. So what's not a scam? I know if something is FREE I probably should be skeptical and I know they can't guarantee how many hits I will get per day.

Right now I am using a company maintained website so I have some restrictions - << url snipped to comply with forum policy >> until I get my own site up and running.

Do you think it's benefical for me to create my own site or is the company maintained site suitable?

Is Google AdWord (cost per click) the best way to go to increase traffic to my website?

What about link exchanges?

If I create my own website would it be best to register my domain and purchase a package from that ISP to manage my traffic?

Is anyone familiar with the company DigitalWorks.com?

My goal is to of course increase my client base and sales along with sharing company information with others.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations, advise, etc....
Leslie

[Dani]

Hey there and welcome to DaniWeb! We have a policy in our Internet Marketing forums where no URLs to your site or site advertisements of any kind are allowed, so I had to snip out your URL. Once you reach 10 posts, you can post in our Webmaster Marketplace or Site Reviews forum :)

Now to get to your questions ...

- I would definitely go with your own domain name. It makes it reputable and, in the long run, is best for search engine optimization.

- Google AdWords is excellent for some sites and horrible for others. Personally, I have always used it on DaniWeb and I'm very happy with it. What is great about AdWords is that there is no minimum spending budget. Therefore, you can always just try it out, and if you don't like it, just stop using it. Or, you could start with an initial budget of just a dollar or two per day, and if your business becomes successful, increase your ad budget.

- Link exchanges are a great way to get noticed by search engines. However, I would not start with link exchanges until you have your own domain name.

- I'm confused what you mean by purchasing a package from your ISP to manage your traffic. What do you mean "manage your traffic"?

- Sorry, never heard of DigitalWorks.

[mkleslie]

Hey there and welcome to DaniWeb! We have a policy in our Internet Marketing forums where no URLs to your site or site advertisements of any kind are allowed, so I had to snip out your URL. Once you reach 10 posts, you can post in our Webmaster Marketplace or Site Reviews forum :)
Oops, sorry about that! I'll be more careful:)

Now to get to your questions ...

- I would definitely go with your own domain name. It makes it reputable and, in the long run, is best for search engine optimization.
I've read to try and use keywords in your domain name, is this correct? My focus is beauty and skin care so if the domain is available something like beautyconsultant.biz or net or com Is it better to use (biz, net or com) one or the other?

- Google AdWords is excellent for some sites and horrible for others. Personally, I have always used it on DaniWeb and I'm very happy with it. What is great about AdWords is that there is no minimum spending budget. Therefore, you can always just try it out, and if you don't like it, just stop using it. Or, you could start with an initial budget of just a dollar or two per day, and if your business becomes successful, increase your ad budget.
Why is it sometimes good for one and not the others?

- I'm confused what you mean by purchasing a package from your ISP to manage your traffic. What do you mean "manage your traffic"?
My choice of words were incorrect when asking this question. I was thinking about purchasing a package from DigitalWork.com. The company provides web hosting, domain and search engine submission and optimization, stating they will submit my site to 400 search engines each month - google, yahoo, msn, aol,overture, excite, etc...My thought is, it may not be worth the investment if DigitalWork can't guarantee that the search engines will post my info. Am I right to assume this? Is this something you must assume anyway when you're advertising on the Internet?

- Sorry, never heard of DigitalWorks.

Oops it is Digitalwork.com if it matters. I think they used to subcontract with Earthlink.

Thanks for all your help! Leslie

[Dani]

I would definitely go with a .com domain name. A great thread to read, if you haven't already, is http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread8209.html

Read the whole thing, but especially post #9

For more information about AdWords, I would check out our Pay-Per-Click forum within the SEO forum. You'll find lots of people talking about AdWords in there.

[jdeans2]

mkleslie,

As you can see, I am new to this forum as well, but work with a company that does a majority of its work creating Web sites. I have written about a thousand articles on how to most effectively use the Internet to increase revenues, and I think there are a few things you should consider.

#1.) One way you can increase your hits for free is simply including full adn accurate content on your site. The reason for this is that search engines will scan your text as one way of establishing your relevence to a given search. Therefore if someone enters a search for (sorry I dont exactly know where you are or what you do) "skin care" + "albany" + "New York" +"a given brand they are looking for" it would pull you up if you provide all this info within the text of your site. This is a mistake many Web site administrators overlook in their efforts to attract traffic. Go into great (but accurate) detail.

#2.) If you are a local business that works primarily with local clients (sorry again that I don't understand what you do) it may be a bit of a waste to depend on search engines for business. Figure if geographic proximity is neccessary for your clients, a large majority of hits will be of no use to you. Although they may only cost you a few cents each, this can add up over time.

#3.) Meta tags is something you need to look into. These are "tags" built into the architecture of your site that are key in being placed in search engines. You will probably need a programmer to do this for you, but you would need to simply make a list of all terms and words that relate to your company. List all the variations in capitalization and spacing as well. I don't have a full grasp on teh meta tag subject...so if anyone else reading this could chime in I would appreciate the explanation (as well as mkleslie I'd imagine).

[netdesignz]

Our site is under construction at the moment as we have been SEO freelance consultants for 10 years and not needed a website but it may help you find some information that can help you decide if you need SEO marketing.
Netdesignz SEO specialists
You may also email me @ info @ netdesignz.org also if you need further information on search engine optimization.
Regards

[Danny]

I'm assuming your a Mary Kay reseller? You should look into adding your own content to make your site unique, but I'm not quite sure what limitations are imposed on you from the corporate environment.

I'm beginning to wonder if a supplemental informational site might be a good starting point to pull visitors in.

Once they're at your site, you can display advertisements for your beauty products.

[junvalasek]

My best choice for long-term advertising and promotion is "link exchange". The more backlinks you have, the more your site get exposed in search engines :)

[Oba]

My best choice for long-term advertising and promotion is "link exchange". The more backlinks you have, the more your site get exposed in search engines :)

Link exchange is the best because it bring you free traffic for live.

[Hafsoh]

Link Exchange is an easy way to trade links or advertise your website.
When you link exchange trade with a higher PR and related site.
I think its only worth doing if the page is very relevant and maximum 10 - 15 links.

[Oba]

Link Exchange is an easy way to trade links or advertise your website.
When you link exchange trade with a higher PR and related site.
I think its only worth doing if the page is very relevant and maximum 10 - 15 links.

I don't believe in exchanging link with only site with high PR because they hardly accept, i exchange link with every sites with any PR.

And my site is in every search engines top 10 just under a year.

[rahulroy]

In this case your website link must be releted keyword pages. back link comes from higher page rank.

CBclickbank

My best choice for long-term advertising and promotion is "link exchange". The more backlinks you have, the more your site get exposed in search engines :)

[net4nuts]

Well seems that you have already got lot of good ideas..... I just want to tell you what worked for me...

- PPC
- Affialte Marketing
- Directory Submission
- Submission to Social networking forums...

Apart from that I tried referral bonus to existing customer for referring new ones... it also worked ar8 for me.

[imverk]

You should sign up for free listing on yellowpages type sites. this will get you allot of online and brick and morter clients. Here are some sites

http://www.yellowpages.com
http://www.GoMyLocal.com
http://www.yelp.com
http://www.yellowbot.com
http://www.openlist.com

You can get free listing on all these sites

[tomer1]

I think there is onley one way to do it!

First.. buy your own domain and build a web site.

then.. work on SEO and meantime use google adward

If you sale products.. use affiliate program

[Azher]

Hello!

Do you think it's benefical for me to create my own site or is the company maintained site suitable?

As you said you are not free to do any thing, so in this situation you should create your own site ASAP.

Is Google AdWord (cost per click) the best way to go to increase traffic to my website?

Well in this case its totally up to you... If you have good budget then Adwords can give you instant traffic.

If you have low budget then think about search engine optimization and search engine marketing. they will tack some time but that will be static after that with daily maintenance.
The other media I would like to prefer you is Social media marketing you can use it instead of PPC or search engine marketing.

This media can replace search engine optimization but in that case you only need to depend on that sites for traffic. No guaranty from search engine.

What about link exchanges?

Link Exchange will be nice practice to get high rank in Search engine.

If I create my own website would it be best to register my domain and purchase a package from that ISP to manage my traffic?

Not necessary

[Jahsun]

Thanks for the heads up but what about if you running a classified ad or a directory like myself. How would you do that? Create another page just for link exchange? I am still newbie so please understand

[x3mario]

A .com domain name is good if you are aiming for a commercial site.

[theAdviserMe]

Depending on your golas and needs, there are a lot of proven ways to advertise your business. Joining some niche forums is one proven way -- this way you can network with other members. PPC is also good...but of course investment is necessary. If you have some funds, you can hire a good SEO program.

[andylewis]

Hi,
I agree with cscgal. We have to apply all possible techniques to get targeted traffic.
Andy

Hey there and welcome to DaniWeb! We have a policy in our Internet Marketing forums where no URLs to your site or site advertisements of any kind are allowed, so I had to snip out your URL. Once you reach 10 posts, you can post in our Webmaster Marketplace or Site Reviews forum :)

Now to get to your questions ...

- I would definitely go with your own domain name. It makes it reputable and, in the long run, is best for search engine optimization.

- Google AdWords is excellent for some sites and horrible for others. Personally, I have always used it on DaniWeb and I'm very happy with it. What is great about AdWords is that there is no minimum spending budget. Therefore, you can always just try it out, and if you don't like it, just stop using it. Or, you could start with an initial budget of just a dollar or two per day, and if your business becomes successful, increase your ad budget.

- Link exchanges are a great way to get noticed by search engines. However, I would not start with link exchanges until you have your own domain name.

- I'm confused what you mean by purchasing a package from your ISP to manage your traffic. What do you mean "manage your traffic"?

- Sorry, never heard of DigitalWorks.

[x3mario]

Link Exchange is an easy way to trade links or advertise your website.
When you link exchange trade with a higher PR and related site.
I think its only worth doing if the page is very relevant and maximum 10 - 15 links.

Link exchange is good but your site will be penalize by google if you overuse it(excessive link exchange).

[cartman714]

One way to attract visitors to your site is to create a blog on a free blogging service such as Blogger.com and begin posting about your website. Search engines post to your blog often.

[thefandango]

You will only damage your site if you have more than 100 links on one page of your site, of if you have excessive unrelated links pointing at your site.

Building quality, relevant backlinks is the most vital promotion tool you have.

[Flower]

Blogs are the good resource for website promotion and marketing business. You can update blog with services and products more more traffic on website.

[cartman714]

search engines are also very helpful in promoting a website. Most people say its the best way to get traffic to your site

[cartman714]

also you can offer your expertise to relevant sites and many of them will allow you to leave your website URL address

[InsightsDigital]

One way is to go to industry related events and meetups and give out business cards just plugging your websites. I know I have received many cards like that and I sure visited those sites afterwards.

[daverina33]

Hi
I wanted to reply to the message i just read - I'm no it geek either, in fact i just about know where the on/off switch is .lol!
I was reading today about cpa advertising as opposed to cpc advertising and it definately seem sto me to be the better of the two and probably more cost effective. Have a look at cpa in wikipedia and you can get information there on what companies are using it now instead on cpc. I spent an absolute fortune on google adwords and it didnt bring me even one extra customer but now i plan to use this method and see how i go.

[jogkely007]

Nice, I am also trying to increase back links

[InsightsDigital]

Don't forget traditional advertising is also a good way to talk about your website. One example is going to related events and handling your site's business card. Make the URL and type of site very visible on the card. Also, network your way to be invited as panelists and this way, more people will know about your and your site.