Wrong. If you wait for that to happen you will be out of business before you began. Somehow you need to drive people to your site. The best way is promotion. You need to go out and tell people about your site. I am not talking about getting off your couch and missing the next segment of American Idol, ha-ha-ha. I am talking about getting online and inviting people to check out what you have to offer.
Back in the late 90’s when the internet boom was just beginning companies like Amazon and eBay used traditional advertising channels: TV, Radio, Billboards, Magazines, etc. They quickly found out that while this was a way to drive traffic to their site, it cost them more per lead than they were able to generate in profits. Shortly after that many internet companies filed for bankruptcy as investors cut off funding because they could not see a future in this business model. This is when these same companies, who are giants today reinvented their marketing and this is one of the ways we use today to generate traffic and make sales.
What they did is the same thing you can do – online promotion. It costs next to nothing, does not require a marketing degree, and can be done while you sleep with the right tools.
Here are a few ways companies use to market online:
- Email Auto-responders – They regularly hit their customer base with something new and different by email.
- Search Engine Placement – Using tools like Google Adwords they can move their listing to the top of the search. Companies like eBay and Amazon who offer just about everything for sale use these tools to place a listing near the top for just about anything you are looking for online.
- Affiliate Marketing – Affiliates are people who direct traffic to the site through links or emails and the company shares in the profit when a customer purchased as a result of the link.
We use some of these but they cost money. Since you do not have to pay someone to market your products online you can add these to your ways to direct traffic to your site and they are free:
- Social Networks – Create a page on a social network and invite people to look at your page.
- Forums – join forums and groups of interest and make sure your posts and profile contains your website link.
- Blogs – Like this one where you can express yourself and also promote your site through links.
- Affiliates – Sharing the profit is a good thing. Giving someone a percentage of the profit for sending someone to your site to purchase is great word of mouth advertising.
Most important never stop inviting people to look at your material. Ask them to subscribe to something that allows you to keep in contact with them. We will cover tips on how to keep them interested without driving them away in another blog.
