Net Strife - providing smashing tips on Internet Marketing

I have encountered a lot of internet marketers who want to spend lavishly on different marketing tactics that don’t really work, or aren’t very effective. It has become a common mistake to think that spending more money on a marketing effort will bring in much more conversions. Since there seems to be a big misunderstanding going on around the internet marketing world, I wanted to write this post to prove that free marketing tactics aren’t necessarily poor marketing tactics.

Comparisons

Let’s say one person had $1,000 to spend, and another one had absolutely no money to spend — meaning zilch, nada, zero, NO anything to use for marketing! Now, this $1,000 guy spends all his money on directory submissions and $0.01/word articles. On the other hand, our “poor guy” does everything on his own. He leaves comments on blogs which he think would gain him some exposure, writes top-notch articles and posted them as guest posts. He also creates a very useful e-book with innovative ideas, with a link to his site of course, and distributes the e-book for free.

Who do you think will get a better result? I’m rooting for the zero-dollar guy!

You see, not every tactic that costs thousands of dollars is an effective one, and not all free marketing tactics are useless, or can be placed under the “just won’t work” category!

Great Marketing Tactics Which Cost (Almost) $0.00

Here are some free (or almost free) internet marketing tactics that you can use to attract the attention of potential clients.

Forum marketing - While some regard this method as a bad one, I still think it’s worth trying especially if you have the skill called “creative persuasion”. Just create some threads related to your website, and then try to have an intense discussion about the topic(s). Somewhere in the middle of the discussion, I’m sure you will be able to insert your URL. I have tried this before and I got around 160 unique visitors from one forum thread within one day.

E-book marketing - This had been mentioned in my example above. If you are a skilled writer, you may try writing useful e-books with creative ideas and distribute them for free. Don’t forget to add a linback to your website! I did this a few months ago for a health-related site and my e-book got approximately 900 downloads. I believe half of the downloaders learned about my site and that’s how I was able to increase my traffic.

Word-of-mouth - In internet marketing’s case, I think it would be okay to call it “telling your instant messenger/Facebook buddies about your site”. Simply IM your friends about the product/site you are promoting and voila, you have some instant visitors! This works best if you have a LOT of friends (500 or more).

Video marketing - Posting videos on popular sites like YouTube always works wonders, especially if your product/site is appropriate. As we all know, people visiting YouTube are interested in entertainment, humor, informational (tutorials and the like), and gossip videos. If you have a product in the entertainment niche (for example, a book called “Today in Britney’s History”), I think your video would get you some buyers.

Controversy - People LOVE controversial articles. If you write one, and if it’s creative enough, I assure you people would be flocking to your website! Last year, this article was published and it went totally viral in the webmaster world. Why? One, it’s about Google, and two, it was creative enough.

Clever use of statistics - Did you know that 91% of net surfers trust a website or a program which discloses statistics? Now, as a marketer, you may opt to place some statistics on your salesletters. Even if it’s not quite true (this is risky though), it will entice potential buyers to purchase your product!

Using creative images - Buttons with a mouse arrow on it tend to get more clicks than regular “click here” buttons. Flashy ads (most, but not all) receive more attention and more clicks as well. If you post this type of images on other websites, say related forums, I reckon you would be getting a lot of hits.

Summary

Not all internet marketing techniques that cost (almost) nothing are not effective. Also, very expensive marketing techniques don’t always guarantee the best results. You just have to be a wise decision-maker and choose the right marketing tactic for your product or website.

I have presented a few zero-cost/low-cost marketing tactics that have been proven to work. Use them if you wish!

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