So you are ready and open for business. How will you reach the people that use the internet?
If you need a domain name, site building or hosting, check out GoDaddy
I'm going to touch on some tools that I use for my business. That help me to get my business recognized.
First, url submissions. Yes, you can pay to have your url submitted from someone else but I choose to do this myself. And here is a listing of some of the search engines and directories.
As long as you know your url, you can go to the search engines and submit your url on your own. You will look for the (suggest a site or link) usually found at the top or very bottom. Here is a list of some of the search engines.
DMOZ.org
ExactSeek.com
Google.com
Livesearching.net
MSN.com
ScrubTheWeb.com
Search-O-Rama.com
SearchSight.com
SingingFish
VXbox.com
Yahoo.com
Websquash.com
Sahfor.com
Add URL-Free.com
Aeiwi.com
Allfreethings.com
Walhello Internet Search
Free website directory
IceRocket - add your feed here
Mixcat Internet Website Directory
JDGO Search Engine
If you are using a blog to advertise your business, then you will want to use Ping-o-Matic every time you update. This tool lets blog search engines know that your blog has been updated and sends a ping out to the selected search engines.
Advertising. So many people shy away when they hear this. But there are so many Free ways to advertise your business online. One of my favorite is SaleSpider. These are free. All you have to do is create a user name and a password and then create your ad that you want to place and know which category you want to place it in. I love how these work. You are even sent an email on most of them that let you know when your ad is going to expire.
*** Make sure you use a separate email account for this.... You will probably get a little junk email as well*** But I'm sure you know how to hit delete.
If you are a WAHM and would like a free email account, then you can go to WAHMZONE. I love the way these accounts are set up.
Now, let's talk about banner/button/link/text exchanges. Just about every business is willing to exchange with another business. Company A will place a banner or text on company B and then company B will do the same to company A. They swap. It's great exposure and FREE.
The standard size banners used are 468x60, 125x125 and 88x31 which is used for plugging... I will get into that in a minute. View the sizes below.
Banner
Button
This is used for plugging.
A banner/button/plug can have anything on it. Words, pic, anything. And if you are in need of having one created, visit MisbeehaveBanners. Banners and buttons will be done by exchanges (swap). So I am in the wahm field. I would swap my banners/buttons with other wahm's business's. And if you go to http://www.mykidsmywhy.com/ you will see a link on the left side called Link Exchange. Follow the instructions and we will swap links or banners.
Now for a plug button. Which is the small one. This is great. Once again,, if you go to http://www.mykidsmywhy.com/ you will see a link on the left side called PlugBoard. And if you need a plugboard, visit here. Just as you would with the banners, you will copy your button url and place it into the button url field and use your website url in the http:// field. Instant advertising that is done FREE.
Community Advertising has great prices on Solo Ads. Now this you will pay for but it's worth it to me. It works like this.
We run ads like they came from you! Including using your business name for the title of our e-mail address with NO credit and NO mention of Community Advertising in your ad! Additionally we don't use e-mail addresses that are tied to our domain names. The focus for your business should be on YOU -- not US!When we run your advertisement we hand select the groups that we run your ad in based on the type of business you're running the ad campaign for. It's targeted advertising that is specific for the type of business that you're running. Our ad groups are tested and targeted to be effective!
List your business. Alot of sites will have a directory listing that will let you ad your business url to their list. So for what I do, I would go to Moms Network. You will see a link at the top called WAHM Directory. Under the directory, I would pick what category fits my business best and submit my business to be listed.
Blogging is another great way to get exposure. And of course, it's free. I use blogger. You can do the same url submissions with a blog that you can do with a website. See the list of directories that I found. What's nice about this is all you have to do is click the link and look for (submit or suggest) and follow the instructions for each one.
Article Submission. Just one more useful tool in getting your business recognized. And yes, it's FREE. I myself have a few articles that I have wrote. So if I can do it, then pretty much anyone can... LOL.. What I have just wrote is an article. You would just look at the type of business you are working, and write about it. Something that can help someone else in your field. Make sure you have a bio at the end that leads to you. Your name, your website and what you do. If your article is accepted, everyone can view it and that is free exposure.
If you have no idea where to go to submit your article, use your search engine. Play with the keywords. For myself, I would type in work at home, article submissions.
Everything I am touching on right now is either FREE or so very inexpensive. And I really tried to lay this out so simple for the newbie.... I hope this helps and if you decide to use any info, remember to include my bio:
Cindy Ashworth is a part time wahm and the owner of http://www.successfulwahm.blogspot.com/ and http://www.mykidsmywhy.com/
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