by Craig Lock

"To win, you first have to be noticed"

My techno ("geek") associates and I have been marketing products online for the past five years... and in this article I'm sharing a few thoughts and tips on what works best for us, based on our knowledge and experiences...

To get sales, you first have to DRAW traffic to your web site. Now how to get noticed with millions and milions of web sites out there in cyberspace? Especially when (like most of us), you are a home business with little money to spend on marketing your web site. Now how to do it on a "shoestring budget"...

THE FIRST STEPS TO GETTING NOTICED IN "THE VAST AND UNCHARTERED WORLD OF CYBERSPACE"

In listing our various web sites, we only concentrate on the major search engines (12 or so) and directories, like Open Directory, who supply their database to many of the big search engines. We've found that we check our listings in the search engines every three months or so and do resubmit - just to the MAJOR ones. Though I don't try it with Alta Vista and especially Yahoo (as we are already high up there with our creative writing courses). I don't dare risk them chucking us out, though I don't think they will! We've had some difficulty with HotBot and Lycos* (especially) and Open Directory in getting listed, so I do re-submit from time to time and they then seem to get listed. Alta Vista seems to take a while - about 6 weeks.

Believe Lycos is "winding down" in listing sites incidentally. Things change fast on the net (virtually weekly these days) , as I see that Excite have gone into liquidation.

So suggest checking your listings occasionally and resubmitting (INDIVIDUALLY). I don't think any of the major search engines see that as spam.

We also submit to the regional Yahoo (Australia and New Zealand) and find we get listed quite speedily. About 80% of our traffic from the search engines comes through Yahoo, but only a small percentage of our overall traffic comes from the search engines. So DON'T RELY on them.

I bid on key words with Go To for 'writing courses' for http://www.nzenterprise.com/writer/creative.html, but we've found the traffic from them to be minimal.

A thought, sorry question, on which to end...

As mentioned, DON'T RELY on being listed high up in the major search engines, as your main form of internet marketing strategy. Your ranking is sure to change.

With all the comments and articles about search engines and so many people spending so much time and effort "trying to get the better of them", why don't more web marketers rather spend their valuable energies in activities, which they CAN CONTROL to some extent. Once you have posted to the major search engines, monitor your positioning from time to time (say once a month) then LET BE. You'll never beat them, because their policies change all the time. Start concentrating on MARKETING and carving out a UNIQUE NICHE for yourself on the WWW with your particular products.

Be UNIQUE and "brand" yourself as an expert in your field with your own individual "style and niche". I mainly do that by writing articles and submitting them to article announcement lists, like Article Announce, Free Content, Publish in Yours, Publisher Network and Article Publish. Articles with your website in your signature file bring traffic, which then lead to SALES... and best of all it's free advertising and helping others at the same time by sharing your knowledge and experiences in your field of expertise. Whew. That was a long last sentence! It's been a long learning curve for us and our online associates around the globe - seeing what works and what doesn't in getting listed with the major search engines...like the lessons of life itself.

Hope this info may help you "spaced out" readers "out there in cyberspace".

Go for it and good luck.

Craig Lock http://www.craiglock.com

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Creative Writing Course http://www.nzenterprise.com/writer/creative.html

THE SECRET TO INTERNET MARKETING SUCCESS - How to market your business on the www on "the smell of an oily rag" e-book available at: http://www.bridgeniche.com/
CLOCK/zaniestbooks.htm or e-mail clock@xtra.co.nzokcoaching.com
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