Internet advertising, particularly the free kind, still requires a considerable investment – primarily of time.  Also it will definitely go a lot better for you if you have business graphics in place already, logos, flyers, ads, as these can be utilized in just about every type of free online marketing.

Benefits of Free Online Marketing

Obviously growing your business is the main objective.  With that in mind, these types of internet marketing all create SEO opportunities, primarily if ingrain your advertising with your keywords and, secondly, with links back to your website.  Visit this other blog of ours for more clarification on SEO Basics, and here is a link to Google’s Free Keyword Research Tool.  Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, each of these forms of online advertising allow you to step in front of an audience as the majority of these websites are trafficked routinely by a set of people, each we consider a community.

The types of free internet promotion we cover in this article are:

• Classified Ad Running
• Internet Phone Book Listings
• Free Hosted Blogs
• Social Networking Sites and
• Free Websites on Hosted Domains

Classifieds Ad Running

Tip 1: Develop several ads to run, rotate through and test…

Tip2: Optimize for SEO:

-  Keywords in ad title

- Keywords in content (make sure to use h1 tag if HTML is supported)

- Keywords as  SEO link to your website

Craigslist – This one has the most traffic and allows SEO Keyword text links to your website.  One recommendation is to learn one piece of code to greatly enhance your listings – how to insert an image into the body (so it’s not at the botom, so the image can be the ad, and so you don’t have to upload it every time – just paste in the ad).  Tutorial coming.

Backpage.com (Willamette Week) – a solid classifieds engine that allows SEO links and ranks on Google and Yahoo.  One drawback is that is has some formatting specifics that can kick ads back in an error, but you most likely won’t run into those.

Kijiji.com

Portland Business Journal

Portland Tribune

Angie’s List – Not quite free

Internet Phone Book Listings

-          Google Maps – Local Business Center
-          Yahoo Maps!
-          YellowPages.com
-          InsiderPages.com
-          SuperPages.com
-          Oregon Live (Oregonian)
-          More More More (request a list of 15 internet phone books with instructions on how to post to them)

Advantages:
1. Community Traffic
2. Link for SEO Benefit
3. Significanly bolsters Yahoo and Google Map Listings

Free Hosted Blogs

Free, hosted blog websites can be used to generate traffic at no cost, but require using the right keywords and quality content to attract attention.  They definitely provide quality links back to your website when you implement keyword text links.
- WordPress.com
- Blogger.com
- Blogspot.com
- Suggest others

Social networking sites

Strategy:
– Lead, Follow or Forget It
- Make New Contacts
-  Invite Prospects and Peers
- Invite Partners

Strategy 2: Partner Reciprocation

If we work together we can create an atmosphere of trust – we can take this networking group online.
- Leave each other quality testimonials
- Make introductions to connect with each other’s networks

My Recommended List:
- Linked In
- Biznik
- Facebook
- Twitter

Free Websites on Hosted Domains

They all usually offer upgrade pricing for your own domain.

http://www.weebly.com/ – Simple free websites

http://speaklight.com – More powerful free websites

For help with any of these or other online advertising methods, feel free to call 866.374.8489 and ask for Charles, or use the following form.

http://www.weebly.com/ – Simple free websites

http://speaklight.com – More powerful free websites 

Updates coming soon, make sure to subscribe!

Make sure to check out this article to read more on Facebook Page Strategy!

Business Benefits of Social Media Marketing

- Another Website for Web Presence – places to come across you…

- Another Website for Search Engine Presence – When someone searches on your business name – what comes up?

- Business Hub – Links to all of your other sites

- Generate Traffic

- Connect with Current Clients

- Connect with Professional Peers

- Promote Services / Products

- Disseminate Information and Uses for your Promote Services / Products

- Promote Your Business Specials

According to Lloyd Salmons, first chairman of the Internet Advertising Bureau, “Social media isn’t just about big networks like Facebook and MySpace, it’s about brands having conversations.”

The goal is to find an avenue to further connect with three core groups: 

·       Colleagues and Peers – To showcase and expand your expertise!

·       Clients  – To further your relationship with them and to effectively market with a comfortable, non-invasive approach! 

·        Prospects – To build a relationship, showcase your expertise and to effectively market passively!

·        Networking Partners – To show support for, make referrals to, communicate, embrace and support those in your partnership network!

 The strategic approach calls for four phases:

·         Setup and Follow: When you get an invitation to a site – set up your profile!    

·         Research and Evaluate: Which sites/tools are going to help me connect with the four target groups best? 

·         Contribute: Once you connect, use the tools to voice your opinion, contribute to conversation and be a part of the community!

·         Lead The Way: This will happen progressively, soon you will be hosting the conversation, using video and other tools to communicate, directing traffic to your website, and showcasing your expertise!

Phase 1: Setup – Following and Networking

- Take a little time out each week to setup your profiles.

- Create rules in Outlook to filter your email from those sites into a particular folder.

Seek out your competitors! Take a look at how they are using the site you are on and see if you can tell if it’s working for them. If it’s working for them, expect to see conversation, comments, thank you’s, fans

Don’t get too caught up! We are in the stage where great innovation is taking place – and some of the sites duplicate others, some may be weeded out eventually.

Survey Your Clients! “Connect” with them on the sites they use. Social Media Marketing can absolutely be a great way to advertise to them indirectly without having to make a sales call – or even take the time to evaluate whether your latest product/service is good for them or not. Let them decide, let them be aware, and they didn’t even have to receive a call, email, or go to your website – they were already using the site and saw your advertising.

Survey Example

- Which social media websites are you using regularly?

- Which have you signed up for but aren’t using?

Phase 2: Research – Evaluate!

You may never know until you try, but there are a few things you can look at first:

- How much do they allow you to customize content?

- Demographics

- Your Message: How does the social networking site get your message out?

o Posted Notes / Bulletins

§ Myspace Bulletins – to all of your friends, plus profile visitors

§ Facebook Notes – You can only “tag” 30 people, from there it is profile visitors

§ Tweets – Status Updates

- Your Competition

o Perhaps that is an opportunity also to see good ways to advertise, and ways to improve on their strategy

Decide if you want to become a leader on a particular site!

Phase 3: Lead – Make your presence known!

For the best results, always use content that is remarkable and unique. If it is newsworthy or funny – consider viral marketing techniques.

Always use stories to speak about the situation, solution and conclusion.

Gather Followers

- Get your name out

o Post media | Post information | Post specials

o Ask your followers to repost information

o Find out who your champions are and connect with them personally

o Become viral any way you can

§ Video, Downloads, Free Offers

- Adding links to services such as Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us so that their pages can be easily ‘saved – This is a great strategy for your primary site as well (build a referrals page)

Create Visible Discussion with Your Peers

- When your clients or prospects seeing you have an intelligent discussion about your industry, they will recognize your expertise and may desire to work with you.

- Visible means

o in your comments | in your “wall” | in places that are easily viewable by others

o In places that lead to a status update – a tweet is a status update of its own

Strategize Your Posts

Create types of posts, and it becomes easier to come up with appropriate content.

5 Types of Blogs | 5 Types of Tweets | 5 Types of Emails | Examples:

• Product Updates
• New Products
• Industry News
• Success Stories

The Real Gold Mine

Leading a little – leading them to your website!

Prerequisite: Your website should already be your best piece of marketing because all other marketing leads to it (or should).  You will not advertise in the future without mentioning your domain.

1. Add New Content (special deal, article, download, viewable media)

2. Post a status update, article, blog, tweet, that leads users back to your website for your content.

This is good for SEO, and if your website does its job it is good for closing business.  On top of that it concentrates your effort on your main site, and the social media sites are your broadcast avenues.

Strategy Summary

Social marketing sites allow you to politely spam people, so get everyone involved you would like to see your regular postings.

#1 – Evaluate which social networking sites will work best for your objectives.  Join the ones you think MIGHT work and set up a basic profile – make sure to link back to your primary website.

#2 – Connect with your clients, colleagues, peers, associates and prospects.

#3 – Post unique articles on your own website, then post snippets, descriptions and other linkbait to get your ‘friends’ to your primary website, which is good for SEO and should be your BEST MARKETING.

#4 – Create Visible Discussion with Your Peers to establish yourself as an expert!  Do this through creation or contribution to GROUPS within the social marketing sites.

#5 – Watch your site statistics to see which social sites send you the most traffic!

Other Quality Articles about Social Media Business Networks

http://www.highrankings.com/scary-social-media

http://digitallabz.com/blogs/11-reasons-you-cant-ignore-social-media-in-2009.html

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/if-i-started-today/