One of the basic steps you MUST do...BEFORE you start using these tips...set up your analytics.
As you promote your business you simply must be able to determine what promotional efforts and costs are working and what are not. It doesn't matter if you have a web business or a brick and morter company, you need to get a handle on what promotion methods work as fast as possible in order to throw away those methods and advertising that don't work and keep and expand on those that do.
Whichever way you slice it, advertising costs money... and time. What works the best today for your business may not have even existed a couple years ago. You need to be open minded, try new things, be adaptable, identify what works...and analysis is the key. Don't overlook it's importance.
Analytics...a must do
It doesn't have to be complicated and there are free tools available.
There are several good analytical tools out there; you just need to find one that works for what you need. Here are a few popular ones...
Google Analytics has a lot of information available, but for some peoples tastes it is too complex, particularly for those just starting out.
That is where a more simple and graphically oriented analytics tool such as histats can help. This is what we initially used because it is easy to use...and free. We still use it on many of our sites, particularly since they recently upgraded their entire interface for 2010.
For real time analytics we prefer Clicky Web Analytics. This is a very user friendly intuitive analytics interface with great features. We will now be putting many of our new sites up with their analytics tracking software.
Whichever one fits your needs, get it and use it. Through reviewing where your traffic is coming from, you will learn what keywords, websites, and search engines are getting you your traffic. Knowing these things is critical to your success.
Much of what you will discover will open your eyes to what will benefit you...i.e. promotional efforts to continue to work on and what to eliminate. In addition, you will discover keywords and traffic sources that you never knew existed and never knew you were ranking for.
One day while looking through your analytics tool you will discover that you are getting traffic from a previously unknown keyword phrase (at least to you). Guess what...you are likely on the first page for that search term on a particular search engine. Once you find these gems, you can then scale up your efforts on these for more free traffic.
To be successful with your online efforts you simply must have a good analytics tool that you are comfortable refering to often. It will become one of your primary tools, so choose one that you are comfortable using, then use it regularly.
Here are some internet marketing strategies, tools, and tips that work.
Yes, we know that SEO is not for everyone, it takes a lot more time and effort to see results than some other traffic pulling methods, so for those on a tight budget or for those that want to see results on a faster time table here are a few very effective internet marketing strategies and tools that will get you some traffic fast.
These strategies are ones we currently use; as for the tools, they are either ones that we have reviewed or are using now. Some are free and some cost. Since our company likely deals in larger work volume than the average single company, we usually buy those tools that have more features that help us to scale up our business with less man hours involved. Becoming more productive and scaling up with less cost is an important part of business that we are always looking for. Oh yes...the tools...
Social Bookmarking - This technique for building links to your site is still one of the best way to get links that get indexed quickly. That being said, you don't want to over do social bookmarking link building since that can adversely affect your site, but you do want to do it and make it efficient.
SocialMarker - a free social bookmarking tool
Here's a video that helps to understand how social bookmarking can help you get noticed in your niche. I know the video is old and doesn't cover new social bookmarking sites, but it still explains real well how social bookmarking works.
Try Out Social Bookmarking...Share and bookmark this page now!
Press Releases - You've got a new business or a major announcement to tell the world about. Do it with press releases. To do your press releases for free go to Google, Yahoo, or any other SE and type in "Free Press Release Sites" or "Free Press Release Submission". This is an incredible way to get your company or announcement out there; plus it builds good one way links to your business site, which is an absolute must do. If you want to take your press release submissions up a notch, this is a tool we have used. It's not free, but it is worth the expense for the time it will save you. We know it's a pitch page, but it explains how the tool works better in many ways than the actual site does.
There are some PR firms on the list in their tool that will try to charge you. We didn't use those for our press release. When you sign up for our e-mail newsletter SEM-SECRETS, we'll tell you which ones to avoid which will save you some time trying to figure out which ones they are.
Tip...one of the secrets to dominating the first page of search results is to have your information linked from many high quality sites. This technique can be used for keywords and keyword phrases in addition to doing it for a business name. There are several methods and tools to do this aside from Press Releases. It depends on the market and key phrase as to what will work best. In upcoming issues of SEM-SECRETS we will cover more of these techniques.
Business Directory Listings - It is absolutely incredible to me that most businesses don't know how to get their businesses listed for local search on the internet. But, even we didn't know some of the best time and money saving secrets until we dug really hard to get the inside scoop. It can be pretty intimidating trying to figure out where to start since there are thousands of business directories. The unfortunate fact is most of them are almost useless and are not worth the listing fees or the time it takes to deal with.
As part of our own SEO and SEM business we offer local search listing service to clients. It is simply something they have to have to make an online "local search" presence, and it's becoming more and more important as more people switch to on line searching from the old print yellow pages.
It takes around two months to see the benerfits from these 2 steps, but these steps listed below are the first steps we take for "local search" business directory listings.
Step 1) This listing service (to be revealed in your first SEM-SECRETS e-mail) costs only $30 bucks but you can get listed in dozens of THE TOP business directories with their service. Even when you know all the places they submit to, it is a huge time saver to use their submission service. We use it for our clients and highly recommend it. It is just not worth our time to try to do it manually. Then, once you are listed with these top directories, that in turn provides validation to Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. that you are a real business, one that should rank higher in their local search listings. Do this step first since it takes a while for the effects to happen.
Step 2) This is the very next place to go. It is a free listing service that you simply must take advantage of. This service will likely get you listed above most of your local businesses in your catagory, (They probably don't even know that this free service exists).
Combining these two steps can then generate targeted local search traffic to your business for free (after the initial fee in step 1) for years to come. If you are serious about getting your business listed for local search, these two steps will save you at least 10 hours of time plus a lot of trial, error, and money. Once you sign up to our e-mail newsletter SEM-SECRETS we will tell you both of these must do directory listing steps in our very first e-mail to you.
Article writing and submission - One thing you need to understand if you don't already, Search Engines LOVE unique content, and will quickly put new unique content front and center on many search results pages. This is a huge way to very quickly...(and I mean within hours, or days at most)...get targeted traffic to your site.
On top of the immediate benefit of targeted traffic, you get one way incoming links. These are huge when it comes to building credibility and search engine rankings for your site that will help you longer term in the organic listings. Social bookmarking is great, but one way links that show you as an authority in your niche are even better. Search engines are changing their ranking algorithms all the time, but unique content articles are something that they are addicted to. This is one remaining white hat technique you can still use to "game the system" and get results fast.
Couple these above benefits with the traffic and links you can pull from sites that republish your articles...well, just don't underestimate the power of doing this the right way with a powerful article writing and submission tool.
Now for the tools, what I used to do when I was getting started was to write an article and submit it with a tool called mass article creator. Now, that tool has been updated and repackaged with another article submittal tool that is sold together, called Mass Article Control. It is not free, but for the results you can get with a small amount of effort, it might just as well be. The price I originally paid just for the mass article creator was more than what they are asking for the upgraded combined product today. It is definitely worth your time to check it out. If you want to submit afticles (which you should), then you need a powerful tool to multiply your efforts.
In fact, article writing is such a powerful method to build quality ranking power so quickly , we use two powerful tools. The link to the more advanced tool we use is "hidden" behind the upper right corner on this page.
For pulling in targeted traffic and link building, article writing beats SEO for super fast results in most cases. Then, by submitting multiple articles you can build a sustainable traffic source on the cheap...and those articles stay out there a long, long time.
So... these are just a few really powerful internet marketing strategies and tools that we use or recommend...and yes there are many more; but if you use even just the ones mentioned on this page you will see tremendous results
If you like those Marketing Strategies, Tools, and Tips, your going to love this...
Why am I telling some of our "secrets"? Well, I know that some people will think they don't need any SEO or SEM help like our business offers..at least initially. I also know that justifying paying someone else for any work in this less than stellar economy has to be well justified, particularly if it may take months to see results like some types of SEM and SEO takes. So, I want to show you how beneficial a relationship with Jett Advertising could be by helping you now, with techniques, tools, and methods that you can use by yourself to get really fast results.
One of the most efficient ways for me to show you how we can help your business is for you to sign up to my newsletter... SEM-SECRETS....which I believe will help to launch your business into hyperdrive as compared to where it may be now.
We will stay up on all the new stuff...find the good stuff...and we will tell you. Then, once you know how powerful the techniques, tools, and methods are that we use, hopefully you will contact us when you do want some SEO work done. It's that simple.
If you think you want to take on the SEO work for your site by yourself (Warning, it's a lot of work), here's where I would go if I had to start my SEO and SEM training all over again. But, even if you don't want to take on the SEO, they have some great free tools that you will benefit a lot from getting.
Again, in my first e-mail I will reveal our 2 step sources for effective local listing search results that will pull in free local traffic for your business.
In my 2nd e-mail I'll reveal how to get laser targeted traffic for as little as .01 (yes 1 cent) per view. If you have ever paid for traffic, you know how expensive PPC can be. You can lose hundreds of dollars in the blink of an eye. But, with this technique you can put an ad on thousands of sites very easily...for one penny per view...even on your competitors sites...yes, you read that correctly. And... it's legal.... It may not be a technique you want to use, but, this strategy is super powerful for getting cheap ultra targeted traffic. Sign up to SEM-SECRETS to find out how it's done.
I think that by the time you've digested these first two e-mails you'll understand that you are finding out techniques that most people don't know about....but wish they did. As to my guarantee?....If you don't benefit from the information in SEM-SECRETS then I'll double your money you paid for the subscription. Oh...did I mention that getting access to my SEM-SECRETS newsletter is free?...at least it's free at this moment.
Yes, for the moment anyway, access to my newsletter is free even though I know the information I'm revealing is extremely valuable. I know because I've spent countless hours and thousands of dollars searching for the best internet marketing strategies, tools and techniques to use for Jett Advertising over the last several years. I've waded through a lot of garbage to find the cutting edge strategies that works in todays market. I've also got some inside sources as to what is likely to work in the coming year with all the new technological changes.
Some of what my newsletter will tell you will be revealed on a new blog www.sem-secrets.com. You can go there at any time and subscribe to the RSS feed to get great ongoing SEM and SEO tips to help your business delivered right to you. But, the really good stuff is for subscribers only; it is those people that are obviously serious about bettering thier business. For now, you can get access to this valuable information that is contained in the SEM-SECRETS newsletter by siging up below... if you act quickly. I am thinking about charging for it, but for now (Spring 2010)... it is free.
If you like what I share with you in my newsletter then I would appreciate you letting me know. We always enjoy hearing when people who utilize our recommended strategies see the results. We may even use your comments as testimonials, if you allow us. Of course if we do, I will provide a link to your business site in any testimonial that is used...AND you will get access to SEM-SECRETS for free...for life...saving you countless hours and dollars staying current on what works to promote your business effectively on line.
Oh, I won't spam you or overload your e-mail either. Normally I will get a newsletter out about once every two weeks, unless there is some earth shattering time sensitive news that I think you can benefit from..
So, sign up now to get my first e-mail newsletter in a matter of minutes, and get access to SEM-SECRETS free for life. Once you do that you are in and safe from any future subscription fees. After that, I will follow up with many other internet marketing strategies, tools, and tips that will rock your world for the better.
Remember, the first email will unlock the SEM-SECRETS to local directory search.
I look forward to corresponding with you.
Pete
p.s. once you complete the submission form be sure to check your e-mail box to confirm.
