Effective online marketing: what works?
I have been engaged with internet marketing for the last 18 months or so. I receive most knowledge through webmaster forums If you go to any forum and ask or research for the ways to market your website you will get a standard selection of techniques:
- submit to directories
- do article syndication
- publish press releases
- etc
But the reality of life is that it does not work, most of it. Probably, it was efficient 2-3 years back, but no more.
It takes one hour to start a website, everyone knows these standard marketing techniques and everyone practices them – as a result, they are inefficient.
I have wasted much time by following these tips. And it took me time to realize that these tips suck.
So, your question is: if these techniques suck what works now? How to promote a website online?
Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question; it depends on each individual case. And to tell the truth, I am still searching for a model to make my online business scalable.
But there are a few techniques that work fine now for most websites. Your marketing mix should include these steps:
- developing good content and extra features for your website
- keeping an eye on your competitors and industry in general
- networking in your industry forums and blogs
- researching your logs to see what are the most efficient techniques
Rand Fishkin offers his idea of time distribution for effective online marketing (see the chart below). I do not practice manual link building as I have spent months on this inefficient marketing technique. I also spend less time on checking my logs. When working at the content I also differentiate a few types of content:
a. I try to cover topics that users search through search engines (I use this tool to check the keyword popularity)
b. I develop content targeting social websites (hoping to get traffic, links and branding)
c. I try to keep up with the recent trends in the industry to keep my readers and myself updated on the latest significant events.
Summary: Internet changes at a fast pace. It is not an easy task to keep up with it. But in my opinion it is the only way to survive in this arena.
Observe the trends, test, and control your results. Repeat. It is not easy. I can’t say that I successfully follow this advice, but I work on it.
[tags]online marketing, social websites, google, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]
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