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Websites 4 Small Business Newsletter
15 May 2006

 

30 Ways to promote your website
on a shoestring budget - Part 2
by Ivana Katz

Today we continue with the best ways to promote your website if your
marketing budget is limited.

11.  Domain Name

Your domain name represents one of the most important decisions you 
have to make in going online.  The purpose of a domain name is 
similar to that of a street address or telephone number.  The domain 
name directs customers to you on the Internet.  The most popular 
domain names in Australia are “.com.au” and “.com”.

Ideally your domain name should be rich in keywords (words relating 
to your business) to ensure on-line success, especially with search 
engines.

If for example, you are a florist based in Sydney, it would be 
preferable for you to have one of the following domain names:

www.sydneyflorist.com.au

www.florist.com.au

www.sydneyflowers.com.au

You will, however, find that generic names such as the above are 
already taken.  In that case, register something like:

www.cindysflowers.com.au

www.sydneyflowersandgifts.com.au

If your business name is for example “Jim & Sons”, ensure you 
include a description of what you actually do, eg.

www.jimandsonscarpetcleaning.com.au or

www.jimscarpetcleaning.com.au

 

12.  Affiliate programs

Affiliate programs also known as reseller programs are an agreement 
in which a website owner displays an ad for another company in 
exchange for a commission on the resulting sales and/or leads. 

There are two ways you can start your own affiliate program.

1. You can have a service bureau take care of nearly everything for 
you.  They’ll handle the recruiting and administrative functions 
like sending out payments, tracking, reporting etc.  A good example 
of a service bureau is Commission Junction – www.cj.com

2. Set up an affiliate program yourself, using on-line services.  
Some you may wish to check out include:

www.synergyx.com

www.marketerschoice.com

www.assoctrac.com

Tips for setting up successful affiliate programs:

1. Should be free to join.

2. Offer real time statistics so that affiliates can check their 
sales and commission without having to contact you.

3. You should provide your affiliates with proven tools they can use 
to sell your products (eg. Sales letters, endorsement letters, 
banners, ezine articles, ezine ads)

4. Technical support 24/7

5. Stay in touch with your affiliates to keep them motivated

6. Give your affiliates the highest commission you can.

13.  Autoresponders

Email autoresponders work like a fax-on-demand system.  If you send 
an email to an autoresponder address, you’ll get back a pre-written 
message.  Autoresponders have come a long way in the last couple of 
years.  Not only are you able to send HTML messages with graphics, 
but you can set up a whole sequence of autoresponder messages going 
out on any day or at any time you choose.

Once you set up your email messages, everything gets done 
automatically.  As soon as a prospect sends an email to your 
autoresponder, the system keeps working over and over again, like a 
tireless robot making sure no prospect ever slips through the 
cracks.  Most autoresponders systems now handle your whole mailing 
list, so you are not having to manually manage your prospects. 

Because the vast majority of customers will not buy from you on 
their first visit to your website, it is extremely important that 
you have an automated way to follow up with them several times to 
entice them back.  You can use autoresponders to cross-promote 
various products and services your business offers.

Follow these tips and you can’t go wrong:

1. Make time sensitive offers in your email follow up.

2. Build extra incentives into each follow up, until your prospect 
can’t resist any more.  Offer free reports, free ebooks, freeware 
programs, mini-courses etc

3. Include a survey as part of your autoresponder sequence, so you 
can find out what your customers like about your messages, what they 
dislike and what other information they want.

Some great autoresponders include:

www.getresponse.com

www.aweber.com

14. Bonuses 

We all love freebies and your customers are no exception.  Ideally 
you should pile on the bonuses to get people excited.  Sometimes 
they will buy the main product only to get the bonuses.  The easiest 
and least expensive are informational products – reports, articles, 
ebooks.  You can find literally thousands of these on the internet.  
Simply go to your search engine and find one that would appeal to 
your target audience.  For example, if you sell wedding cakes, you 
may wish to give away ebooks or reports on planning a wedding.  If 
you sell children’s clothing, you may wish to give away tips on 
parenting or ebook which features activities to do with your 
children.

15.  Newsgroups

A newsgroup is a message board on the internet where users come to 
discuss topics of mutual interest.  As a user you can start a thread 
(topic), post messages and respond to other postings.  There are 
tens of thousands of Newsgroups on every possible subject.  The best 
way to find a suitable newsgroup is to use Google Search.  Go to 
www.google.com
.  Then click on the “Groups” tag.  Run a search using 
a keyword related to your on-line business that you would like to 
promote from the groups search page.  For really worthwhile 
information use moderated groups.

You can use Newsgroups for conducting market surveys, get new 
clients, promote your site, get answers to your questions, make 
friends. 

The idea of newsgroups is to make a valuable contribution and by 
doing so promoting your business.  Please do not post commercials, 
ads or press releases and never post unrelated messages as this will 
be considered spamming.

16.  Office Stationery & Merchandising Materials

It is extremely important that your website is included on ALL your 
office stationery so that customers can see it over and over again.  
That way they are more likely to remember it.  If you’ve just had 
your letterheads printed, you can always add your website address on 
your wordprocessor, when printing your correspondence.  For 
brochures, business cards etc, consider having small labels printed 
up.  Your office stationery should include not only your website 
address, but also your email.  Consider adding your details to:

- Letterheads
- Business Cards
- Flyers
- Brochures
- Labels
- Packaging
- Merchandise bags
- Catalogs
- Invoices
- Fax headers
- Display units

 17.  Pay per click (PPC)

Pay per click advertising is when an advertiser (you) pays for each 
qualified click that sends a search engine user to the advertiser’s 
web page.  PPC requires you to bid on keywords or phrases that 
relate to your business.  The best known pay per click services are 
Google AdWords and Overture. 

Generally you can bid from as little as a few cents per visitor.  
However, the more you bid the higher up in the search engine your 
advertisement will appear.  Pay per click is a great way to deliver 
targeted and qualified visitors to your website at a very reasonable 
price.

It is a good idea to experiment with different PPC search engines to 
find the one that works best for you.  In addition, you will need 
spend time testing your keywords and ads.

For more information check out:

Google Adwords - https://adwords.google.com

Overture – www.overture.com


18.  Visitor Exchanges

There are many websites popping up on the net that are known as 
Traffic Exchange, Click Exchange, Visitor Exchange or Surf For Hits 
programs. People become members of these sites with the goal of 
generating free traffic to their site.

The way it works is quite clever.

You visit another member's website and in exchange someone visits 
the website of your choice. Most of these programs work on a 2:1 
ratio. This means that for every two sites that you visit, someone 
else in that same Start Page program will visit your site.

Simple concept, isn't it?

The great thing about these programs is that you will receive all of 
this traffic to your website, without having to spend a dime!

One of the biggest benefits from these programs is the ability to 
develop a downline of people that will generate 1,000's upon 1,000's 
of click thru visits to your site over time! In other words, you 
receive credits for the credits they chalk up for themselves!

For more information go to:

http://www.web4business.com.au/FreeVisitors.htm

19. Articles

Writing articles is an excellent way for you to get free publicity.  
Getting an article published is free.  The publicity you receive by 
having your article published in a newspaper, magazine or website 
can be worth thousands of dollars in equivalent advertising space.  
Well written articles yield better results than advertisements and 
earn you respect from customers, who see you as an expert in your 
field. 

The best articles are “tips” or expert pieces.  People are looking 
for guidance and will purchase from the experts who show them how to 
solve their problems.

Your article should include the following elements:

(a) The Headline

This should be attention grabbing and use power words and phrases, 
such as “How to …” “10 Ways that …”, “Do you want to …”

(b)  Lead Paragraph

The first couple of sentences should tell your readers why they 
should read the whole articles.  Show them the benefits they will 
gain or the pain that they will avoid by reading the article.

(c)  Body Copy

This is where you inform the reader how to do something that will 
enrich their business or personal lives.  Use short sentences and 
provide step-by-step directions that they can easily follow.

(d) Conclusion

At the end you will want to summarise the topics you covered and 
briefly review the main points.  Since you have helped your readers 
they will most likely want to know more.  This is your chance to 
make your sell by making them an offer with a call to action.

(e)  Resource Box

The resource box should supply the reader with the following 
information:

- Your name
- Company name
- Contact information
- Website details
- How to order your product, etc 

If writing an article seems too daunting for you initially, you can 
hire a ghost writer to do this for you – generally at a very 
reasonable price.  If you need someone to help you with this, you 
may wish to check out:

www.elance.com

Once your article is written you will need to submit it to various 
publications on-line and off-line.  For a listing of Australian 
printed publications, including the editor’s details, you may wish 
to buy “The Australian Writer’s Marketplace”, available from most 
bookshops.

For a listing of on-line magazines (e-zines), visit: 
www.ezine-dir.com
.  You can then contact the editor of each magazine 
and offer them your article.

If you don’t have a lot of time to submit your articles manually, 
you may wish to consider using article submission services by 
companies such as:

Submit Your Article – www.submityourarticle.com or

The Phantom Writers – www.thephantomwriters.com

For a small fee they will submit your article to thousands of 
publications.

20.  Webrings

One of the more interesting ways to add some targeted traffic to 
your site is to join webrings. A webring allows visitors to surf 
through sites that are related in one way or another. They are free 
of charge to the owners, members and visitors.

Webrings deliver targeted traffic day after day and once they are 
set up they tend to stay set up with little further maintenance

Each webring is created and maintained by a person known as a 
ringmaster. This person accepts site submissions and validates that 
the site meets the topic of the webring.  
For more information visit:  www.webring.org


There are many excellent ebooks on internet marketing.  I would 
strongly recommend you pick up at least one or two and start reading.  
For a list of some great electronic books and tools, which are 
available for instant download, visit:

http://www.web4business.com.au/BusinessTools.htm

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About the Author: Ivana Katz is the owner of Websites 4 Small Business, 
a company specialising in the design and promotion of small and 
home-based business websites. She believes that every business 
deserves to have a successful website, no matter what its budget is.   
info@web4business.com.auhttp://www.web4business.com.au

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A SPECIAL REQUEST

If your friends or family members also run a small business, 
they would benefit from receiving their own copy of the 
Web4Business Ezine. Please forward this email to 
them and ask them to subscribe by sending an email to
web4business@getresponse.com
or going to
http://www.web4business.com.au/SubscribeW4BEzine.htm


ARTICLE CONTRIBUTIONS

If you have an article that you feel would be appropriate for
the Web4Business Ezine, please send it by email (no attachments)
to articles@web4business.com.au

Till next time ...

Ivana Katz
Websites 4 Small Business
www.web4business.com.au
Because every business deserves to
have a successful website.
Tel: 61 2 9907 7777
 

 


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