October 15, 1998

Topic :  Internet Marketing

This is part two of topics very close to my heart.  Internet marketing is an ongoing process which grows, changes and increases in targeted marketing potential daily.  If you currently have a website and feel like you're lost in a cyber tunnel you will derive great information from this issue.  I'm divulging all secrets from a-z.

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Awards:

Submitting a site for an award can be very beneficial.  I have one client that received a very prestigious award from USA Today and because the media feeds off of each other, this client has been featured in the NY Times, Yahoo Magazine, and many other national publications.  To the best of my knowledge, this started from one submission which led to tens of thousands of visitors based on one free award.  So, your first stop: http://www.usatoday.com and enter for their Hot Site of the Day Award.  Second stop: http://www.award-it.com Award-it allows you to fill out one form and enter for over 100 awards.

Banner Exchanges

Create a banner 468W x 60H and submit this to my favorite free banner exchange program to receive 500 free banner impressions on other sites around the web.  The reason for this being my favorite?  There are many.  With this program you can target what types of sites your banner will be displayed on, exclude competitive banners from showing up on your site, they allow large animated banners up to 10K in size and yes, they offer bonus impressions for letting others know about them.  So, help both of us out a bit and use the following link if you choose to take advantage of this free marketing tool. http://www.linkbuddies.com/start.go?id=102331

Exchanging Links

The power of word of mouth works on the web!  The difference?  Instead of words it's LINKS!  A link is something you click on to take you to another site.. thus the term "surfing" or "serfing" the web.  Imaging the growth potential of your site with 50 other sites linking to yours!  I do this by creating a link page, I'll find someone else with free recipes or crafts, or something completely unrelated and definitely non-competitive then ask if they'd like the EXCHANGE links with me.  With an exchange, you put a link on your links page for them and they put a link on their page for you.  Associations and buisness contacts you currently have, clients, suppliers, ask them all.  Remember strangers during your own "surfing" sessions and send the site owner an e-mail.  NOT spam.. make sure you mention something about their site and why you would like to place a link on your site for them, this works VERY well.  Flattery never fails you!

FREE Classifieds

There are literally millions of sites that allow you to leave a link with them.  The following link lists over 10,000.  Time consuming and not very lucrative, but worth a peek anyway.

http://celebritybusinessnews.com/

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http://www.marketing-online.net  If all of this sounds like too much work...let our professional staff at ColDen Communications do it for you.  We provide extensive marketing services from A-Z for reasonable rates geared to the small business owner.

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Mailing Lists

Mailing lists are e-mail based lists you subscribe to online and each subscriber communicates to the entire group.  If you send a message to the group, it goes out to all subscribers and each message is sent to your regular e-mail box.  Some of these targeted groups are fairly quiet, others you may subscribe to for a day and find yourselves overwhelmed with mail in the box.  Be prepared, but it's always very simple to unsubscribe.  Mailing lists are usually moderated by the list owner and if you post blatant ads or spam the group, you will be removed.  However, you can gain great networking contacts and even clients if utilized responsibly.  Remember to use a signature line.  If you don't know what this is go into your e-mail program and click help, then run a search on signatures.  For a great list of mailing lists go to http://www.liszt.com To subscribe to NOVA News mailing list called freebusinesstips simply send a blank e-mail to freebusinesstips-subscribX@makelist.com (it's usually a fairly quiet list of very helpful business people)

News Groups

Be CAREFUL!  That's my initial advice when it comes to news groups.  I get to my news groups by clicking on my e-mail software.  On the left I see inbox, sent mail, deleted mail and down at the bottom news groups.  When I click this there are thousands of groups to swim through.  I enter a keyword to minimize my search and subscribe to groups of interest.  When I want to browse the group, I click on the group I subscribed to, the messages do not come into my regular e-mail box.  Personally, I choose newsgroups of personal interest.  Gardening, parenting, literature, etc.  I stay ON Topic and do NOT spam or post any ads to the group.  I do however, leave a signature line so that those within the group know what I do and what my URL is.  If they are looking for service, they have gained my trust, seen I am ethical and not a spam monster and usually will contact me.  Good luck and again, Be VERY careful.

Search Engines

Search engines will help those seeking your particular product or service find you.  Infoseek, Yahoo (actually termed a directory), Excite, AOL NetFind, WebCrawler, Dogpile, Funky-Cat, are all search engines.  To submit your site to search engines we have a great free tool for you at http://www.novaplaza.com/novannounce  Simply fill out one form and submit to the top engines!   Before you submit make sure your site is optimized for the robots or spiders coming to your site.  (The difference with Yahoo is it's an actual LIVE being that visits your site IF you are privilaged enough... I believe less than 10% of the sites get listed with YAHOO)

To Optimize your site for the robots and spiders make sure the first 15 words on your site are terms someone may use to find you.  If it's your company name and a brief subtitle summary of what your site offers, this is a great start.

Meta tags are used by a few engines, see http://www.novaplaza.com/novannounce if you are not familiar with meta tags.  Your TITLE is the most important aspect on most engines, remember to utilize your search terms there!

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I hope this helps you.  If you have any specific questions I can answer for you drop me a line at  yoursuite@novaplaza.com

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