Now What?

You may publish this article in your e-zine or web site as long
as you retain the resource box and all copyright information.

Now What?

By Christian Csatari
© 2004

So, you just started your new home business, spent time, money
and effort on getting your website just the way you wanted
it. You Bought all the latest software and business products
to help you succeed. So Now What?

After all the initial excitement of becoming your own boss of
your new home business opportunity has settled down, you realize
you need customers to buy your product and/or service If you are
going to succeed. However, if you are on a budget and have little
or no money to buy leads or traffic or advertising what are you
supposed to do to drive customers to your website?

As luck would have it, the internet is full of places to get
cheap and often free advertising and traffic to your website!
You just need to know where to find these places. I have listed
below several tips and strategies that you can use to advertise
and generate free traffic for your website using online
strategies.

Tip #1 Submit Your Website To Search Engines

There are plenty of free search engine submission services
available to you for use in getting your site listed in major
search engines. Do a search on Yahoo or Google and you will find
these services. You may also use software like Web Position Gold
that offer a free 45 day trial.

Tip #2 Use Your Unique Signature In Email

This tip is so easy! You will undoubtedly be using email in your
business to correspond with potential customers. Simply add your
unique signature to your email account with your url and a quick
synopsis of your product and/or service. Be creative and make
people want to click on your link to see what you have to offer.

Tip #3 Submit Your Articles

Write your articles and submit them to article directories. You
don’t have to be Hemingway to write good articles, just write
about something you know. Don’t write a sales letter however,
you must write about something that you have experience in or
know about. Make your article between 500-1000 words. The best
part is each article has a resource box at the bottom that you
can use to write 4-5 lines about your business, think of it as
an ad to promote your product and/or service. Once you have
written your article and checked it for any mistakes, submit
it to article directories.
These directories are just waiting for quality articles
to use on their site. Another benefit is if your article is of
interest to a ezine publisher you may be asked if they can use it
in their ezine to send to their opt-in list, and that could mean
thousands of more people will read your article and potentially
visit your site. This will also help you promote your business,
gain potential customers and help with your rank in the search
engines. To find article directories search yahoo or google.

Tip #4 Free Classified Ads

Submit an ad for your product and/or service to online classified
ad sites. Classified ads can play a major role for you in
garnering free advertising on the internet. However, your ad
needs to capture the readers attention and pique their interest
for your product or service.
A few pointers: Keep your ad short and concise, some classified
ad site limit the number of words you can use. The headline is
key! Use words that appeal to the reader emotionally. Example of
some key words; Free, Money, Discover, New, etc. These type of
words in your headline attract attention to your ad. there are
literally thousands of classified ad sites that you can use to
post your ad for free or little expense.

Tip #5 Link Partners

Exchanging links with other websites can help once again with
your ranking on the search engines. It is also a powerful way of
getting targeted traffic to your site. It also helps in the
credibility of your website when a customer has the opportunity
to visit others websites from your site, they are more likely to
bookmark your site and visit often. I highly recommend
Jack Humphrey’s book Power Linking 2: Evolution to find out how
best to use linking to your advantage. Link to websites that
rank high on search engines for your particular product and/or
service. It’s not a bad idea to look at your competitions website
to see who are linking to them and follow their lead.

Tip #6 Online Forums

Online forums are great for a few reasons. One, you can learn
from people that post and answer questions. Odds are if you are
feeling lost or not sure of what you are doing, the question has
been asked and answered at the online forum you use. You can do a
search to find the appropriate forum for your product or service.
Secondly, you are permitted in most circumstances to use a
signature when you register to post. Like the article resource
box you can write a few lines about your business. Some forums
limit you to a few characters. Thirdly, some of the newer forums
allow you to post your site for review by it’s members, which is
a good way to get a few pointers on how to make your website more
attractive to potential customers. Some forums also allow you to
submit articles and ads. So you get a huge bonus when you
register for online forums.

When you have little or no money there are always ways to work
your business. You just have to be creative and find the time to
search for ways get more quality traffic to your website.
All the Best!