In this digital age we live in, it is more important than ever to get people to come to your website, Facebook page, YouTube channel and any other internet real estate you have. With so much internet access now, your online locations are vital to your success. People are out there on their desktops, laptops, hand held devices and mobile phones looking for information. So it doesn't matter if your business operates primarily in the "real world" or is based on the internet. You need more eyeballs looking at you.
One of the difficult things about internet marketing for most entrepreneurs is that there is so much information and so many options. It's hard sometimes to know exactly where to begin or how to proceed. So what we have done here is lay out three simple ABC's that can be the core of your online marketing efforts and will always work no matter what you add later on.
Idea A: Articles
Article marketing that is the process of writing and publishing informative articles like this one to article directories is one of the most powerful methods available. Writing good articles has many benefits and is a very effective way to drive focused traffic to your websites.
First, articles are permanent. Once they go up, by and large, they always stay up. Second, the longer they stay online, the more they get read, the more they get read, the more they will be promoted and get read. Third, you can put a link to a website or other location at the end of your articles, thus creating a path for your reader to follow as well as a quality back link from a quality site which helps your search engine rankings.
Fourth, search engines love articles. Because they are long form and informative, they get indexed heavily by search engines like Google, yahoo and Bing. This means more exposure and more connection to you. Fifth, by publishing lots of quality articles, you become known as an expert in your respective topics. People love to buy from experts. And let's not forget to mention syndication. Others who are looking for good content can embed your articles on their own sites, thus multiplying your exposure and links.
Idea B: Blogging
Blogging is a lot like article publishing. Blogs can be indexed by search engines, they can be syndicated by other people and they can be linked to various places. Some of the differences are that blogs tend to be much less formal and more intimate.
Additionally, blogs lend themselves well to interaction from the readers. People can make comments on your blog posts as well as on other readers' posts. This has a two pronged effect in that you create a community of followers as well as possibly getting a never ending stream of ideas to write about.
Idea C: Content Contribution
At first, this might seem like a re-statement of the first two ideas. This is because article writing and blogging are forms of content contribution. However, what we mean here is something slightly different.
When we speak of content contribution, we mean that you would write, post and upload content for others. Things like writing a column for an e-zine, newsletter or a news site. You may also comment on other people's articles, blogs, videos and discussion threads.
Another way to be a content contributor is to actively participate in discussion forums and user groups that are related to what you do. In this way, you can create useful posts, answer questions and become a resource for others. And of course, all of this, provided you do it correctly, for the benefit of others, can be linked back to you.
As we said above, this is hardly the complete list. But after search engine optimization, regularly doing these three things can have a powerful and long lasting effect on your website traffic. And because all this is permanent, generally speaking, the results will only grow over time.
Now, here is one final thought on these ABC's. They are free to do. Publishing articles, blogging, forums, user groups and even contributions to others' content costs you nothing, and in fact, may even open doors for earning money. But if you find you don't' have the time or talent, hire a good copy writer or internet marketer. This can be money well spent over time because consistently contributing content to the cyber world will bear some mighty good fruit. No matter if you get help or do it yourself, make it a habit to do these three things and you will be pleased with the results. Good luck and good marketing!
Because online marketing is so complex, we've created our website to be more educational than sales oriented. If you visit us, you will find a lot of pages on all sorts of marketing and production topics written as instructional articles we know you'll find useful.
As we've dealt with a lot of writing in this article, we hope that our site and our article archive help you in your quest, and we would like you to consider that if the need arises for some extra help, we are glad to be of service. But if not, you will at least come away with a valuable online information resource in our website.