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There are many great ways to market your products online. Some will cost you money, other methods will not. All of the ones listed below are extremely effective. Read through the list carefully and commit to trying a few. You can’t make any money if you are afraid or too lazy to make the effort.

Pay-Per-Click: Pay-per-click is perhaps the fastest way to get targeted traffic to your website or blog. However, you better know what you are doing, or you will be stuck with major costs and no sales to show for it. Be sure that you carefully select your keywords and don’t bid or spend more then you can afford to lose. You may want to try some free advertising first (forums, articles, classified sites) to see if the product that you are selling converts well and then spend some money with pay-per-click advertising.

Social Network Sites: Social networking sites are a great place for people to get together, chat, and share information. It can also be a goldmine if used correctly. Don’t go on there spamming and trying to sell your products. Instead, provide some valuable information. Send them to a website that has more then advertisements. Work to build relationships and then the sales will come.

Forums: Forums are great place to market. You already have a captive audience that is interested in some of the same things that you are. Again, don’t spam. That is the quickest way to destroy your reputation. Instead, contribute to the board and give away something of value for free. Add a link to whatever you are selling in your signature link. That way, when you post, people will see your advertisement without you shoving it down their throats. After you have built up a good reputation and good will, then sell your product. Most forums will have a section for the sale of services and goods. Offer your product or service there.

Article Marketing: Article marketing is one of the most tried and true online advertising methods. If you write a quality article and submit it to the best article directories, you can almost be assured of hundreds of page views. If your article is really good, another webmaster may place it on their site and send additional visitors your way. To be successful as an article marketer, you will need to write consistently, write well crafted articles and create good signature boxes so that people want to visit your website.

Free Classified Sites: Free classified ads used to be wildly popular a few years ago, then seemingly overnight, they became irrelevent. However, sites like Craigslist and Backpage have revived the market. This is an especially good place to sell services. Selling an affiliate product is a little bit harder but can still be done. Be sure to ask for at least partial payment upfront when providing services so that you don’t end up getting scammed.

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The internet domain name, or the internet website name, is seen as a key success factor for any organization dependent on the internet medium for direct business or marketing purposes. The importance of a good domain name is underlined by the fact that the “right” domain name can not only enhance the brand and prestige of a business enterprise, in much the same manner as a good logo or jingle in the traditional marketing world, but also directly influence the ease of accessibility of a portal by the average customer – thus influencing the probability of earning more business, in much the same way as a well-decorated storefront.

Needless to say, the importance of domain names makes them an important commodity in the world of online commerce.

Factors / Forces:

The value or demand of an internet domain name is mainly driven by the following factors:

1. intuitiveness: thus, “pizza.com” is more attractive than “breadwithtopping.com”

2. precision: thus, “pizza.com”, as opposed to “this-is-a-pizza-site.com”, is expected to be more valuable

3. universality: an interesting difference in the forces driving the market for internet domain names, as opposed to traditional markets, is that the value of a domain name likely to be in common or universal demand, as opposed to a niche area, is higher – thus, “pizza.com” is likely to be a good investment!*

*In fact, the domain name of www.pizza.com , bought by Chris Clark in the 1994 for $20, fetched the investor in excess of 2.6 million USD in 2007!

Strategies:

The strategies employed in this area are primarily dependent on the status of the enterprise – i.e. whether the seller is an individual or a commercial enterprise.

1. Individual: Typically, an individual will act as the middleman, and may choose to buy a small number of domain names, based on and banking on one’s understanding of future demand. This is similar to the strategy of an individual trader in the world of stock markets, but is relatively less risky as the prices of individual domain names bought are typically not high. The success of this strategy is dependent on the individual choosing a few but high Quality domain names. An example of a successful instance of this individual strategy is that of www.pizza.com mentioned above.

2. Commercial Enterprise: Commercial enterprises involved in this space act as primarily as wholesale dealers. Thus, these enterprises typically offer a large number of domain names, often multiple variations on each category of domain name or subject, for sale to both individuals as well as organizations. The success of this strategy is dependent on Quantity – the commercial enterprise that is able to acquire and offer a vast permutation of domain names for a given subject is more likely to succeed.

The keys to success in the area of selling domain names and making money in the process are, thus, quite like those in any other commercial area, and are greatly influenced by the market forces of supply and demand, not to mention the quality of the entrepreneur’s foresight and ability to predict future trends.

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Most people are familiar with brands. If you live in the United States, you have likely heard of Tide, BMW and Lexus. Why, because these companies have done an excellent job branding their product. They have spent millions and millions of dollars to pound their product, their logo and their positive attributes into your head. Luckily, the internet has evened the playing field a bit. You don’t have to spend that much money to brand yourself. In fact, if you have just a little bit of money and a lot of time upfront, you can brand yourself to the people in your field. Read below to find out how.

Create A Logo: You can easily create your own logo using inexpensive software or you can have one created for you pretty cheaply. Visit marketing forums such as Digital Point or the Warrior’s Forum and you will be able to find someone to do it for you. A logo makes your business look more professional. People would rather spend their money or listen to people who own websites that don’t look amateurish.

Become An Expert: Becoming an expert in your field will definitely help you brand your business. How do you accomplish this? Visit the websites and forums that your target market visits and then contribute. Make informative posts, write white papers and advertise on these sites. If your target audience always sees your name or logo, they will begin to see you as an expert in that field.

Help Others: Help others by giving away free advice or ebooks. If you give away something free that a competitor may charge for, you automatically develop credibility. So give liberally, it will come back to you.

Offer Value: Whether you offer something for free or are selling it, be sure that it is of high quality. In fact, be sure to over deliver. If you do, your customers will always come back because they know that will give them more then they expect.

Reward Referrals: Build your brand by allowing others to spread the word about your company themselves. Offer a free gift or a discount if your customers refer business to you. You won’t make as much money initially, but you won’t have to spend as much in advertising either and if those new customers become repeat customers, the discount upfront, will be of little consequence.

Building your brand will help give you ‘staying power.” Avoid being a fly-by-night entrepreneur. Be in it for the long haul. Effective ways to accomplish this include creating an attractive image and logo for your company, becoming an expert in your field, helping others by giving away free information and advice, offering valuable products and rewarding referrals. If you commit to this and are consistent, you will see yourself getting more business then you can handle.

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