A More General Question for the Board

[DaveinHackensack]

I posted a question recently seeking input about two marketing tacks I was considering for web-based businesses, but didn't get any takers. Is this because no one here has used those two tacks? From reading some of the other recent posts, it seems that when it comes to driving traffic to a web-based business, a number of you are thinking almost exclusively in terms of SEO.

With that preamble out of the way, here's my question: Other than SEO, what strategies or services have any of you found effective in driving traffic to a web-based business?

Thanks for reading.

[Sven]

Not always a good one but if you are a member of related forums your signature may work well. And on phpbb driven bulletin boards changing your signature results in changes in all your posts which is VERY handy.

But not all boards allow it and you need to make a lot of good contributions for it to be of any value.

[kamakiri]

I would say two things:

1. Spam: It is horrid and evil, but clearly it works. If people were not making millions off spam, we wouldn't have a problem with it. I wouldn't use it, but it is an option.

2. PR: A well written press release sent to many people has a serious chance of getting you on blogs and/or in the news. Just be sure you are not one of the "Lazy flacks" that Chris Anderson talks about in this blog post (http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/10/sorry-pr-people.html).

[Sven]

Well, the question was what methods have been found effective. Spam may only be effective in a very limited number of products.

Oh, one important one: having a purple cow for a product. That is a product that people find remarkable and talk about.

[kamakiri]

Touché Sven, but I was referring to your post there. Most everybody would agree that posting your sales link on any forum is considered spam, not matter what kind of contributor you have been. It generally results in a loss of credibility, a troll attack, and/or being banned.

Also for spam, I think there are a huge number of things it works for. Not that I have ever used it myself, but a quick peek in my spam filter, I see all kinds of products and services represented. Many of which overlap directly with popular muse ideas. Including study courses, software, supplements, weight loss, diets, and magic home fixes.

Hmmm, thinking out loud after checking my spam folder. It also makes me think about my own advice of opening a pizza shop in a town with 10 pizza shops. There is a ton of spam out there related to enlarging a certain part of the male anatomy. Could the market be that big? (Or that much bigger than the game supplement market?)

[Sven]

oh, allright. But I have a lot of posts in a Dutch sailing forum where sigs are allowed. There it enhances my cred. and I do get quite a bit of trafic from it.

To me the big difference in sigs. on forums is that they are non interuptive where email spam is. Interuption marketing is loing a lot of ground.

[kamakiri]

Congrats on your 600th post Sven. I can only assume that your posts on that sailing forum are as productive as they are here, and would actually welcome whatever you put in your sig. Like I mentioned in another post, learning from an effective seller is an easier way to learn. Many mistakes are the same no matter what you are selling.

And yes we agree that forum sigs are not nearly as intrusive as spam, but in the age of gmail, spam is quickly becoming an endangered species, and when it goes away, it is an easy leap to see that forum spamming (not just sigs, but sigs and other methods) will come into the cross hairs a lot more frequently. It takes a whole lit less to piss people off on the internet.

[DaveinHackensack]

Sven,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but by signatures, i think what you mean is leaving intelligent comments on relevant blogs/message boards where my username is hyper-linked back to my business. I have been doing this with my blog a little (which isn't a business at all at this point) and have had some limited success in generating traffic with it, according to FEEDJIT data.

Kamakiri,

You write that this is often considered spam on forums. What if I keep my signature link going to my blog, instead of directly to one of my web-based businesses? What I've been planning to do is move my blog to a professionally designed page which will include subtle links to my business ventures, and where my ventures will be discussed occasionally in my blogging (Not that every blog post will mention them, and the ones that do will never be explicit advertisements).

Re PR: I will read the post you linked to (thanks for that), but going back to my earlier question, can you recommend a PR person? Or do you recommend a DIY approach here.

Re spam: I have no intention of using it either. Sending mail or e-mail to a narrowly target list, if that's possible, is a different animal, in my opinion though. E.g., if I had an opt-in e-mail list of people who bought books on vegan cooking in a certain city, and I was planning to open a vegan restaurant there, I wouldn't consider e-mailing or mailing these people an introductory promotional offer to be spam.

[kamakiri]

Spam is in the eye of the beholder.

There is no set method, and what seems like spam to some is perfectly acceptable to others. You basically have to figure out where the line is and just avoid crossing it. You are right that explicit ads are bad, but I have seen guys who thought there were subtle, but in reality looked like a maroon.

Play it by ear, be cool. Don't stoop to trolls, but on the flip side, be apologetic if your subtle nudging rubs someone the wrong way.

[DaveinHackensack]

Here's what I have in mind, with respect to blogging about my businesses. Pre-launch, I have started writing occasional posts about the process of getting the businesses up, without giving away any confidential details about them. For example, I just wrote a post about my exploration this week of animation and PR as ways to promote online businesses. I didn't offer any revelatory answers there, but I did note a couple of lessons I learned this week as I continue to look for the answers.

Once the sites are up, I'll of course note that on my blog, and perhaps offer readers a temporary membership discount on them, but beyond that, I don't intend to sell them on my blog. One of the sites will include a message board feature, so what I might do is occasionally quote a message from that site if I think it's particularly interesting. Or I might post occasionally about lessons I've learned from actually running the sites. I'm not sure exactly. I do think that there might be more people interested in reading about the process of starting a business than there are people interested in getting hit over the head with sales pitches for the business.

[tim_juniour]

what strategies or services have any of you found effective in driving traffic to a web-based business?


Im surprised nobody mentioned Google Adwords.
In my opinion this is the best tool you can use to drive selected traffic to your website. you can limit your budget per day, i.e. cofigure a marketing campgin for 10$ a day.
If you do it right, you will get trafiic from selective audience (people who show interest in what you have to offer) in a very low cost (10-50 cent per click).

feel free to contact me for more info about it.

[DaveinHackensack]

Probably because:

1) It was covered in Tim's book.

2) When I asked about methods other than SEO, other readers probably lumped in Google Adwords with SEO in their minds, as I did.

That said, if you have any insights on using Google Adwords beyond what Tim wrote in his book, please feel free to share them here.

Thanks