Internet Business Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

One of the most frequently asked questions in regard to website promotion is, “How do I get more links to my website?

The answer is, everywhere. You can get links from just about any website if you know where to look and how to ask.

Here are my top 10 places to look for links for a new website or new company.

1. Squidoo.com - Squidoo will allow you to create a “lens” (mini-website) on their website that you can use to link to your company website. That is a free link from squidoo.com to your website.

2. Create a Google Page - Google pages are also mini-websites hosted by Google. They are easy to create and you can easily link back to your website. This is a free service.

3. Create a Blogger Blog - Blogger is a blog hosting service that will help you create a blog. On your blog you can link to your company website. This is a free service.

4. Create a Wordpress Blog - Wordpress is like blogger, create a blog on each site and make sure it links to your company website.

5. Buy Links - Buying links is the quickest way to get tens, hundreds, or thousands of targeted links to your site. Cost is usually between $5 a month to $100 a month per link. Use this link and get the first $100 in links free!

6. Create a Newsvine account - Newsvine is a social news website that allows you to create your own “vine”. In your vine you can link to your company website. Cost is free.

7. Create a MySpace account - MySpace isn’t just for teens, you can create a MySpace for your company name and link back to your company from MySpace. Free to everyone.

8. Create a Wikipedia page - If your company is large enough, create a Wikipedia entry defining what your company does, it’s history, founders, market demographics, etc. This will get you a free link from a very trustworthy website.

9. Leave comments on blogs - If you have a few minutes per day, find a blog that has something interesting and leave a comment that links back to your company website. Free.

10. Create a blog and post to it - If you are a leader in your niche, or can write great linkbait, a blog is a great idea. A good piece of linkbait that makes it to all the social websites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Netscape, etc can easily get you 1,000 awesome links.

I saved #10 until the end because I feel that it is the most important part of building links. The links that come in will be from similar websites, will be free, and Google loves them.

Use those 10 tips to get thousands of links to your website and watch the new traffic and customers come in!

If your company does over $1 million in revenue and you don’t sell anything online, it is time to hire a search engine marketing expert. Here are a few tips on finding the right Search Engine Marketer (SEM).

SEM’s come in many price ranges, all the way from a $50/hour consultant to $500/hour consultants. Many won’t even give you a price until you’ve discussed your needs. You should ask the following questions of any SEM you talk to.

1. What specifically will you do for our company?

If this SEM guarantees anything, move on, immediately. Anyone with any sense knows that there is no way to guarantee anything in marketing. They definitely can’t guarantee that they will get you to a certain place in organic search results.

Correct answers could include improve branding, hopefully gain search engine positioning, build links, spread articles for distribution, write a press release, make sure your site is optimized, write linkbait, etc.

2. What kind of time frame are we looking at?

There is no way to know how long this will take. Most SEM’s will give you a range. An acceptable range is anywhere from 3 months to 3 years. This should be based on your competition online, keyword difficulty, and amount you’re willing to spend.

When the SEM you’re looking to hire answers, ask him/her to explain why they think that time period is sufficient.

3. When will we begin to see results?

If your SEM starts off with, “There is really no way to be exact, but…” you might be in good hands. As with question #2, there is no way to know when results are going to be seen. If the competition is lacking, you could show up for your company name within 1 month. If competition is fierce, or your company name contains a keyword (IMakeJewelerly.com has too many keywords, and would take some time.) it will take longer.

4. Why can’t we handle this in-house?

You can’t and you know you can’t, that’s why you’re hiring someone. However, their answer will give you insight to the amount of knowledge the SEM has. If this answer confuses you and he uses terms like Page Rank, SERP’s, API’s, quality score, sandbox, etc., don’t worry.

5. What other companies have you worked with?

If they haven’t worked with anyone, that isn’t necessarily bad, but you need to find out what makes them think they are qualified to handle your companies online presence.

6. Can you show us some results you’ve achieved?

Any good SEM has at least one or two keywords in the top 10 on Google that he/she can show you. If he says, “Well, I don’t have any results you can see…” be afraid.

If you ask those 6 questions, you’re on the right track to hiring a SEM expert!

Word of mouth marketing is where your clients talk to their friends and business acquaintances about you, and consequently send you business. For me, this is crucial.

I started my business about 6 months ago, and I haven’t had to spend a dime on marketing or advertising. Every one of my clients has come from a referral. Keep in mind however, that I do this part time and don’t need to keep my pipeline full of clients. Currently I’m booked for the next two months with web design projects.

How do you go about getting some of this free marketing? Open your mouth! Whenever I get towards the end of a project I say something like, “Now that we are getting close to making your site perfect, who else do you know that needs a website?”

That sentence has two main parts. First, I’m telling them that we’re about done, which they like. Second I’m assuming the sale by not asking them a closed ended question. Without that question I would still be looking for clients and spending money on marketing!

Open your mouth, ask for a referral and your customers will open theirs and give you your next client!