1. Asking this question is a little like saying "what is the best
way to cook food?" The answers are as various as there
are types of food. But there are a few simple truths that
hold for almost all websites, regardless of niche or
product. For the purposes of this article, we'll stick with
websites that are selling a product.
2. Websites that "sell" only information, like blogs, are a
slightly different creature - but many of these tactics will
work for those as well.
4. SEO is the cornerstone of online marketing, and an
understanding of it is critical to promoting any website.
SEO best practices change over time, and there are no
hard and fast rules to how you should approach it.
Generally it is made up of two things: article marketing
and link building.
5. Article marketing involves writing articles that focus on
specific keywords. These articles can be posted on your
own site (on-site SEO) or on web 2.0 platforms such as
article directories, blogs, etc. Understanding what makes a
good SEO article is key to making your article marketing
efforts pay their own way.
6. Understanding your niche is also central to article
marketing. If you're in a highly competitive field, like
selling gadgets or insurance, or adult
entertainment, article marketing is a little bit like shooting
a BB gun at a freight train. You can do it as much as you
like, but you're not going to make much of an impact
because of the sheer volume you're competing against. In
these niches, you have to come up with more clever ways
to get your website in front of internet users.
7. Link building is a complex, time-consuming activity that is
entirely necessary for all websites, as Google considers
incoming links (or backlinks, where the link is not
reciprocal) as a key measure of website importance and
relevance. This involves complex tactics like linkwheel
building, and other simpler things like posting links to your
site and your articles on social media networks like
Digg, and posting on forums and commenting on blogs.
8. Not all links are equal, and this is important to remember.
A link on a popular site is worth hundreds of times as
much as a link on a nothing site, and links on websites
owned by you are worth absolutely nothing.
10. There is a disturbing mind set amongst internet marketers
that promoting a website can be done for free. While this
is partially true, all businesses need to spend money to
make money.
11. PPC, or pay-per-click advertising, is a highly specialized
practice that is best left to professional agencies. If you
don't know what you're doing, you are guaranteed to
spend more money than you make. Either learn the ropes
or pay someone to do it for you - or don't bother at all.
12. Other types of paid advertising, however, are much easier
for beginners to use. One tactic that works particularly
well is sponsored posts. For around $50-$500 you can pay
a blogger in your niche or field to write a post about your
website, using keywords, images and phrases you specify.
This helps with SEO and incoming links, and also helps to
build buzz about your site.
13. If people who are active in your "field" see a lot of
bloggers talking about one thing, it tends to give that
website or business an air of authority - nobody needs to
know you paid for all of those posts.
14. $50 may seem like a lot to pay for a single link, when you
can get 10 articles for that price, but remember that a link
on a high page-rank blog with an active audience is worth
100 articles on article directories or 10 links on Digg. If you
only have a tiny marketing budget, then this is where you
should focus it.
