PROMOTE ON THE NET:
A big list of ways YOU can get low cost and FREE marketing on-line. 

By Dr. Kevin Nunley

Making money on the Internet requires a great deal of promotion. The cost is so low that you can create a splash on the Web with no more than a contribution from the grocery money. This makes the Net the perfect place to market your home-based business.

Net promotion is fun. Many entrepreneurs love to promote far more than they like the day-to-day tasks of running a home business. Some jump from one new idea to another just so they can devise new promotional campaigns.

The Internet's most successful home workers take a Barnum and Bailey approach to marketing, having a field day with the Net's big selection of free and low-cost promotional tools. One person with  online savvy can do the work of 10 people and spend almost nothing in making his or her name a household word.

Marketing expert Jay Conrad Levinson has adapted his Guerilla Marketing approach to the Internet. His creative techniques are a perfect match for the Internet's do-it-yourself environment. Levinson's book "Guerilla Marketing Online" details a variety of ways you can professionally promote your site for next to no money.

Place your ad on the Web's thousands of free classified ad sites. Type "free classifieds" into any search engine for a complete list. There are several free and low-cost programs that help you automate some or all of the task of posting your ads.

Banner ad advertising is one of the top ways corporate web sites promote themselves. There are now many low-cost packages available for home-based businesses. Packages are either priced on a per click-through basis or on a per impression model. Per click-through buys guarantee you will get a set number of people to click on your banner and go to your web site.

Buy e-zine ads. E-zines, or e-mail newsletters, are the Internet's most affordable advertising media options. They pack a lot of power for very little money. Depending on the publication, ads are typically 3 lines to 50 words, costing between $20 and $40. Many reach 40,000 to 300,000 people. Even a small circulation e-zine can pull good results if it is targeted directly at your best customers.

Start your own e-mail newsletter. Nothing creates sales like your own Internet community. A big group of people who know your name, like you, see you as a person with good information, and hear from you often will provide a lasting, steady source of sales and revenue. E-mail newsletters are by far the best way to build your Internet community. They are easy to produce and are almost free to send.

Understand that most readers are busy, so keep your newsletter short. You can design your newsletter in any word processor. Keep lines about 65 characters long with a hard carriage return at the end of each line (hit enter). This will keep your lines from breaking up in your  subscriber's e-mail reader. Get subscribers by putting a sign-up form on each page of your website. Also list  your newsletter on all your correspondence and printed materials.

The vast majority of e-zines are free to subscribers. Earn revenue by offering to run ads for your subscribers and other businesses. Charging ten dollars per 1,000 subscribers is one way to price your ads. You can also list your newsletter ad offer in a growing number of e-zine directories.

Swap ads with other e-zine publishers. You will get a lot further on the Internet if you are constantly looking for ways to join efforts with other entrepreneurs. Many home-based businesses have built  large subscriber bases for their e-zines by trading ads with other newsletters. Simply send a note to other publishers saying you will run their 3-line ad in your newsletter if they will run your ad.

Through all your efforts to build your e-zine, you will be collecting subscribers. This "opt-in" e- mail list is the most powerful marketing asset you have. Never miss an opportunity to ask someone if they want to receive your information periodically. Add them to your growing list. Send out announcements of new products, lower prices, or new affiliations with other firms.

Your e-mail offers should contain links to pages on your web site that will give serious prospects all the additional information they want. Most e-mail programs now turn any address with http: in front of it into a live, clickable link.

Use opt-in e-mail. This involves  using commercial lists of people who have ASKED to receive messages about a particular topic. Suppliers of opt-in e-mail sell lists of people wanting e-mail on everything  from business opportunities, to cars, to tax tips. You can send an e-mail message to several hundred people for as low as $40. Opt-in e-mail can often generate a success rate up to 17%, which is very high for direct marketing.

Don't spam. Sending e-mail to people you don't  know is called spamming. It is very unpopular with Internet users with some aspects being illegal in some states. Spamming is very bad for business and can create lots of problems including the cancellation of your Internet connection.

Get visibility in Internet Malls. These are large groupings of websites covering particular topics or product categories. There are Internet malls for business opportunities, for crafters, and for businesses located in specific geographical areas. People interested in your kind of products and services can find you in these handy one-stop-shop locations.

A good mall can help you get your Internet business started with expert advice and easy-to-use credit card transactions for your customers. You don't have to spend big money, learn complicated programming, or hire more people to do handle the details.

An Internet mall should receive plenty of promotion from its owners. Like anything else on the Internet, a mall needs to be aggressively marketed to get visitors.

Kevin Nunley  provides marketing advice and copy writing for businesses and organizations. Read all his money-saving marketing tips at http://DrNunley.com/ . Reach him at kevin@drnunley.com  or (801)-253-4536.