Marketing on the Web |
| I've been asked to write a column about internet marketing for Scensitivity: the Journal of the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy so thought I'd start putting my notes together here, in hopes that some of my visitors might find them useful.
This summary represents approximately five years of research and experience in selling Essential Oils and Aromatherapy products online. |
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Build it and they will come?Not quite!!! They have to find it first. Learning how to promote a web site, and properly promoting it can be a full time job. There are literally thousands of sites online who will offer to "submit your site to 1000 search engines"....avoid them like the plague! |
Learning How....The BEST online information I know about promoting YOUR site is DEADLOCK.COM.An online Guide to Search Engine Promotion, "Power Promotion Tips", a guide to "opt in" email lists to build a marketing base (chances are if you're reading this you've already signed up for the Nature's Gift Updates list...yes, the idea came from the Deadlock Team.) |
| The Deadlock Team offers an online forum, with searchable archives and an active membership. Read the "Guide" and then ask your questions. They offer some free software downloads to enhance your site, as well as some recommended "shareware"...try before you buy software to make promoting your site easier. | |
| There are probably 100 newsletters and 1000 websites about online marketing. Most of them contain rehashes of the same old stuff. I subscribe to a few, have cancelled free subscriptions to a lot more. (most newsletter editors seem to be in the business just to sell advertising...wade thru three screensful of advertisements telling you how to make money fast to find three paragraphs of "content" that have been reprinted in four other newsletters already.) | |
SOFTWAREI don't recommend all the software available on the Deadlock site. I don't recommend ANY 'site submission software' including their "Submission Wizard." I have found the numerous "free for all links" pages on the web bring me nothing but spam.How do I know they bring me nothing but spam? Because I use software that logs the source of every visitor to my site. I KNOW which links generate traffic. I also know which search engines send me traffic. I also can track where I am listed on all the major search engines. If you search for "Essential oils and aromatherapy" on EXCITE Nature's Gift will be the EIGHTH site listed (as of July 30.) On Alta Vista, if you search for "Essential Oil" we're in the second spot. I also am able to submit as many of the pages of my site as I choose to automatically, and resubmit on a schedule. How???? By using WEB POSITION GOLD, from Deadlock Web Position isn't cheap. $149 USD. But, when you consider that the website log analyzers that I've tried out cost between $300 and $500.... it's a bargain! Couple that with Web Position's primary objective...tracking where you are on the important search engines...and giving you hints on how to raise your ranking on each engine. Where else are you going to find, in one little program, how many of the pages on your site you can safely submit to Excite...and which SE's will allow you to submit multiple pages in one day, or will penalize you if you do? |
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Coming when I come up for air:
Optimizing your page for Search Engines |
| Don't know whether I'll add to this or not, the Deadlock Team have written the definitive guide. |