You need to consider several factors before deciding what’s best for you and your business. It will take you longer to build an income if you only use free advertising methods, so it’s a good idea to start reinvesting a portion of your initial earnings into paid options as soon as you can.

There are a lot of free ways to market your business online. Some of the better known ones include traffic exchanges, safelists, article marketing, social networking sites, forums and online classified ads. Here is a brief overview of each of these methods.

Traffic exchanges are where you visits a certain number of sites in exchange for people visiting your site. A typical ratio is where you need to visit three sites to get one visit back to yours. You will need to visit each site for about 20 seconds before it counts, but that means others have to visit your site for that amount of time as well. Safelists work in a similar manner, but you have to read email messages as opposed to viewing websites. So, the more sites you visit or emails you read, the more people you will have viewing yours.

Article marketing can be done with little or no internet advertising costs, depending on your ability as a writer. Here you simply write articles that are related to your business. You then submit these to various article directories, and include a link at the end of the article for readers to visit your site.

Social networking sites and forums put the power of communities to work for you. This takes time because you have to focus on building relationships with the people of each community. You have to be careful that you don’t use a “hard sell”, or you will just make people mad.

Online classified ads work just like putting an ad in the newspaper. You will be limited to how many words you can use, but that should help you in choosing your words more carefully. One of the downsides is that the free ads tend to move down the page quite quickly, so you will have to submit ads as often as each site allows. The other problem is that the only people who will be viewing your ad are people using the site themselves to advertise. For the most part, the average internet user will never visit a classified ad site.

Yes, internet advertising costs one way or the other. But if you’re just getting started, and don’t have any money to spend, then it’s good to know that there are plenty of options that only require an investment of your time.

Besides the free traffic another wonderful benefit of this type of traffic is that it meets yet another criteria for quality website traffic: all the traffic that comes to your website via this technique will be very qualified and targeted.

You may be wondering how I can know that, simple, since the people who visit your site are doing a search for a keyword phrase you are targeting you know that they have a big interest in your product or service, they are very targeted.

Don’t worry, I know this can sound complicated… and it can be complicated, but in it’s simplest form it looks a little like this:

Let’s say you are selling a book about improving your golf swing. The whole focus of your website is to help golfers improve their game by improving their swing.

You’ve isolated a list of keywords that are very focused on golf swings. These keywords get decent monthly traffic and relatively low competition.

For this example, let’s say you are targeting the keyword phrase “improve your golf swing”. Using this phrase in your website optimization plan will help the search engines find your site. They will be able to identify that you site is about improving golf swings.

If they believe your website can offer valuable information on improving golf swings to anyone who visits it, they will rank your site very high. Ideally you want your site to be ranked within the first page of results.

So, if someone goes to their web browser and types in the phrase “improve golf swing” and your site is one of the first ones that show up, they will very likely click on the link and be taken to your website.

Since they were actively searching for the term “improve golf swing” you know that they have a high level of interest in improving their golf swing which makes them a good potential customer of yours.

This technique works well for not only your website but you can also use it for distributing articles for article marketing as well as for all your blog posts.

Just use your keywords as the basis for your posts and articles. If you choose the right keywords and submit them to good article directories, your articles or blog can show up in the top ten for that particular keyword phrase… again, good free traffic.

There are a few things to keep in mind: for one thing, the algorithms that the search engines use to determine how relevant any particular site is change frequently.

To be really competitive, especially in a competitive market, you need to stay on top of your optimization efforts (or hire someone to do it for you), but you can still benefit from this method even with just a few simple tweaks to your website.

As a business owner you understand the importance of getting every advantage you can and using

keyword search engine ranking techniques is one of those advantages.

The first thing you need to do is some research. This is broken down into two steps. Step one is to find as many ezines as you can that are related to whatever it is you are promoting. Remember to include publications that may be ideal for cross promotion, too. For example, if you sell accessories for recreational vehicles, then you would want to look at any RV newsletters, as well as those that are related to domestic travel, retirement, and campgrounds. The bigger your initial list, the better.

The second step in researching is to find out what you can about each of the ezines on your list. At the bare minimum you should know the number of subscribers, typical open and click-through rate, and what all of their advertising options are. If you can’t find any contact information, or you don’t get a response from them, then move on to other ezines that are more willing to work directly with advertisers.

Once you have all of this information, you should be able to start narrowing your list down to the ones that look best for you. However, you are not ready to purchase any ad space quite yet. At this point you should subscribe to any of the ezines you’re interested in. This will give you an idea of how often they send their ezine, and how often they send other promotional messages. If they publish once a month, but send out “special offers” two times a day, then your message will only get lost in the shuffle. Subscribing will also give you a better feel for what the ezine is really about. You can also look over any archived copies of the ezine that are available.

Remember that your reputation will be tied in directly to that of the ezine, and vice-versa. Therefore you need to choose wisely. At the same time, be aware that many publications will take some time before approving your ad. If this happens, you should take it as a positive sign as it shows they care about the content they send to their subscribers.

By now you should have a good idea of where you want to start your ezine advertising campaign. You will have to decide which type of ad is the best for you. Generally speaking, a solo ad will give you the highest return. A solo ad is a special mailing that contains nothing but your ad. After that, the best option is typically an ad spot nearest the top in a regular issue of the newsletter.

Era 1 newspaper, magazines, radio broadcasts, direct mail, telemarketing, cold calling, television, infomercials

Era 2 websites, banner ads, reciprocal links, ezine publishing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click, opt-in email, blogs…

Enter

Era 3 marketing via podcasts?

Similar to the concept of opt-in email, podcasting takes full advantage of technology in reaching a pre-qualified, self-selected audience that craves the information and expertise a podcaster provides. Podcasting gives the strategy of establishing yourself as an expert a whole new playground.

Podcasting is the ultimate tool for reaching a fully-qualified target audience. A podcast is an audio broadcast published to the internet.

The broadcast is delivered to subscribers via a feed, usually in an MP3 file format.

For years consulting and service companies have realized that the way to a clients heart is through information sharing. Be it through trade shows, conferences, seminars, newsletters, or free articles, providing useful information on a topic that potential clients are interested in grabs them hook, line and sinker.

When a prospect first subscribes to a podcast, they likely arent ready to buy products or services from the podcasters company. Chances are they are just getting their feet wet, searching for information. With useful information delivered via a podcast day after day, weekly or monthly, the receiver will realize the value of the expertise demonstrated. Thus, when they are ready to become buyers rather than browsers, the podcaster has the lead.

As an advertising medium podcasts can be used just like a newsletter or press release. For instance, a tax consulting firm may publish a monthly newsletter giving updates on tax laws, information about tax shelters, tips for tax deductions and notification of available services. The newsletters will likely contain contact information and will encourage readers to contract the services of the tax consulting firm.

A podcast can be used in the same way. The only difference is, the news and information is delivered via an audio broadcast rather than through an electronic or print newsletter.

There are many advantages to podcasting. In comparison to other types of advertising, it is relatively inexpensive. Podcasts are delivered to a targeted audience, leave a lasting impression on subscribers and establish the provider as an expert in the field. Regularly published podcasts keep the providers name and contact information fresh in the minds of the recipients and vast amounts of business can be obtained as a result.

This provides guidelines as to what can or cannot be done on the forum, helping you draw your limits as to how aggressive your marketing can be on these forums. Lack of this often leads to carelessness leading to unnecessary bans, and black marking against a particular users name.

So reading the rules before joining any forum is absolutely crucial, and comprises the first rule in successful internet marketing. The rules of the forum are posted right in the beginning under the guidelines or general discussion category and are not too detailed or tedious.

They simply ban or disapprove of any kind of aggressive self promotion and untoward comments which may offend the sensibilities of the other forum members. But the degree of strictness in implementing these rules differs from site to site, so checking beforehand is the safest way not to get yourself in trouble.

Remember you are a fellow forum member who has joined because you like the sound of the forum and the topics being discussed in it, you are not supposed to be here to market yourself. So do not start singing your own praises and that of your website and product the moment you enter, especially without context.

Read what is being discussed, see how the forum is (formal or informal) and respond to it. Moreover get to know some of the people on the forum, build a rapport before broaching the subject of your website, that also subtly.

Following threads also has another bonus. If you follow, then you can keep track of certain queries raised by members, and if this falls in your area of expertise then you can help them out and solve their problems, maybe even lead them subtly to your site containing matters about these issues.

This not only gets you traffic to your site but also creates your reputation. This procedure becomes even more relevant for sites which let you to add the links to your websites along with your name. Thus in time, your credibility will increase and people will flock to your site to get help or buy your product, increasing your sales.

So just go ahead and follow the etiquettes and all will be fine.

At the same time, the Internet also poses a quite different challenge. The easy access that Internet provides also gives you as much competition as you can imagine. It is too crowded and congested.

Having a website is not enough to make your business running and able to compete. You must take other alternatives to give way for the online community to access your website at any rate or chance possible.

You have to expose your website. Make it known. It has to be visible. It has to be frequently targeted by consumers and surfers.

Invest in marketing your Internet site. There are basically two options available to you, the SEO and PPC. These two are probably the most desirable alternatives you can get for your Internet business as strategy for search engine marketing.

1. SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Some researches indicate that 60% – 70% of Internet surfers and users actually resort to using the Google search engine to find and locate web sites and pages, for any topic they desire. SEO is the process taken to make sure that the Internet uses will find your website when ranked among the top results of a search. This way you can make sure that you will be visible and can clearly stand out from the rest.

To get a search engine optimization, you will have to build on your own Internet site frequently hit Internet links to web site pages. The process will involve IBLN or Independent Back-Linking Network, wherein hundreds or even thousands of pages will be utilized to promote a particular website of a client.

In SEO, there is no need for you to pay for the clicks although it will require you to spend time doing research to get a favorable combination of ads and target audience. The SEO process is a long term one. It requires months, 6 months at the least, before the proper outcome is fully achieved, but once the goal is accomplished, you will definitely get a steady source of profit.

2. PPC

PPC gives way in advertising on a search engine. These are sponsored listings that you see whenever you make a search. There will be a charge whenever a visitor or web surfer clicks on any of your ads. There will first be a bidding process. The highest bidder for the price per click will definitely get the chance to be first listed in the search engine.

With this kind of advertising, you can still basically control your campaign as you get to create your own ad. You will also manage the target audience and still stay within the bounds of your budget. Most of the providers of PPC advertising will allow you to specify the target market, either by topic, industry or geographical location. You can also very well check if your ad gets to be shown at all and if it is competitive with the rest.

There are some guaranteed benefits when you get to maximize the PPC strategy.

PPC lets you advertise to the whole of the online community. It is also relatively easy to set up.

At first glance, PPC advertising may seem very expensive. Could it possibly happen that someone out there will go on clicking on your ad? This will definitely give you a large bill without the expected profit on your part. If this provides a lot of worries, be rest assured that there is a protection for you. Networks are able to recognize fraudulent clicks.

You can also set a budget for a certain period. The moment your budget has been used up by the target number of clicks, your ads will no longer be displayed until the next period you want it again displayed.

You will also be able to adjust well to changes in market demands and trends.

In deciding which of the two strategies will work right for you, think of your goals and of your resources. They definitely offer benefits and advantages that will work for your good. The better way to approach this two is to evaluate according to your short term and long term plans. Take the PPC course for your short-term goals and choose SEO if you have long term ones.

There world is out there for you now. Just make sure you do what will work best for your entrepreneurial endeavors and visions. The secret to success lies in your hands. Just study your options well and youll get exactly what you want!