MORE WAYS TO MARKET YOUR 
PRODUCTS ON THE INTERNET

Just When You Think You've Exhausted the Marketing Possibilities on the Web, Along Come Several New Approaches.

By Gary Christensen

In two previous articles, I've written about the usual methods of Marketing on the Web: Listings with Search Engines, Postings with Newsgroups, Email, Bulletin Boards, and Word of Mouth. Since I keep learning of other ways to Market on the Internet, I thought it time to share a few more ways I've discovered in my travels.

1. Message Boards--Many sites have message boards, at which you can leave messages to be read by other visitors to that site. You can't post ads, but you can post messages in response to the postings of other visitors. In your message, you can mention your site or include the latest offer in a few lines under your signature. Other visitors to that site may read and respond to YOUR posting! (You may do a search for "message boards" at webcrawler.com, altavista.com, yahoo.com and excite.com).

2. Referrals in Newsletters--Contact publishers who issue Internet Newsletters, ones which are related to your product or service. Send a message to all newsletter publishers within a newsletter like "E-Zine Publishers News" (Gach98@aol.com). Maybe you'll locate publishers who are willing to give YOUR Newsletter or Product a "mention" in their next issue. It's one of the most power methods of promotion available and if you do it right, offering something in trade, it can get you a LOT of free publicity in other newsletters. (View a list of over 600 newsletters at this site: http://www.site-city.com/members/e-zine-master/)

3. Publishers Who Swap Ads--Besides requesting a mention in another Newsletter, you could locate publishers who are willing to swap (or trade) ads with you. You place a free ad for them and they do the same for you at their website or within their email newsletter. (A free list of "Publishers Willing to Swap Ads" is available from Chrig98@aol.com)

4. Resources in Articles--We all read the articles within other Publications. Occasionally you'll see a website mentioned in an article. A writer might mention where you can get a free report from an autoresponder or they might give an email address where you can obtain some other free information. Contact those article writers and inform them of your new product or service. Ask that they consider mentioning it in their next article.

5. Link Exchanges--Your own website might be a good resource at someone else's website. Try to locate other sites that would be a good match for your own. Try to get the owner of THAT site to place a link at THEIR site, directing visitors to YOUR site. Be willing to offer them a link from your site back to theirs. Both of you can benefit from links to other (similar) websites.

If you wish to know WHO or WHICH sites are already linked to yours, simply visit this site: http://www.altavista.digital.com They have a feature that will show you every page they have on file that has a link to your website. Go to the main page and type in your URL and hit "search." AltaVista has the most extensive monitoring of hyperlinks in HTML pages. This is a great feature to find out which other sites have set up a link to YOUR site.

A good way to find "similar sites" to yours is search Infoseek at http://www.infoseek.com. Be patient--it takes a while to load. Then type in various search words which can be found at YOUR site. First, check to see where YOUR site is listed, then click on "similar sites." Go to each and try to contact the webmaster for those sites and see if you can "work together to benefit you both."

Good luck!

Gary Christensen is a freelance writer who has self-published over 100 original Reports like this one. Gary's latest Report, "How to Sell Your Products from Different Slants" is FREE for a stamped return envelope or by e-mail from HMeN98@aol.com Your best 25-word ad will be emailed directly to 300,000 online subscribers for just $48. Gary is also publisher of "E-Zine Publishers News," "Writer's Connection" and "HomeMoney e-mail Newsletter." Contact:

Gary Christensen
P.O. Box 2411
Corvallis, OR 97339-2411

   

      

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