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Promote With Auction Sites

Need a quick way to boost your web site traffic? If your hits are a bit depressing, try this.

Jerry West, an Internet marketing expert with Netgateway, says some have found using on-line auction sites can boost their traffic.

Jerry says this is how it works: "List a product or service at far below it's worth. Set up ad copy and a link to your site on the bidding screen."

Jerry has seen as many as 400 visitors click to the site with an average of about 65.

This is a good cost-effective means of bringing targeted traffic to your site. As long as your page does a good job of covering the product or service listed on the auction site, you can get lots of inquiries.

Of course, this is one of the oldest tricks around, well known to retailers. They're called loss leaders. Watch for a big department store near you to advertise a popular product at a very low price. The store may be losing money on the item, but they are getting plenty of customers into their store with the hope of having them buy other products that are not discounted.

You can read Jerry's free on-line marketing manual at WebMarketingNow.com.

Kevin Nunley provides marketing and copy writing. Read all his free tips at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or (801)253-4536.

"Will My Press Release Work?"

Now, THIS is a frustrating answer. Will your press release work? Honest reply: No one knows.

The job of a press release is to suggest a story idea to an editor, reporter, writer, or broadcaster. It's a bit like fishing. Whether or not the editor takes your bait depends a lot of what kind of day they're having.

In the end, it is entirely up to the editor as to whether they use your story.

Slow news days are good times to get an editor's attention. You will do better if the editor receives your story before 3pm. Late afternoon is deadline "crunch" time for newspapers, past the prime news times of radio, and getting into last minute preparation time for TV news.

Linking your story idea to a popular story in the news can also get an editor's attention. Media folks figure the audience can only stay interested in a few topics at a time.

Finally, it's a good idea to make your release sound newsy in the beginning, saving the blatant commercial stuff for the end of the release.

Kevin Nunley provides marketing and copy writing. Read all his free tips at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or (801)253-4536.

Trying to Look Corporate

It seems lately that big corporate web sites are starting to look noticeably different from small business sites. ( Notice I said "different" and not "better.") It's getting harder and harder for a small biz to "fake" the corporate look.

Corporate sites have lavish graphics done by expensive designers. You flow through their pages with personalizing cookies, java, animated demonstrations, and more.

There is a big reason for this change. With investors giving billions to big on-line firms, the price of corporate web sites has exploded. E-commerce set-ups now run between $350,000 to $2 Million with the average price being $1 Million.

Meanwhile, those of us with small businesses get a copy of FrontPage, swipe some graphics off a friend's site, and cook up a free logo at zy.com.

This may not be bad. New reports show most of us will be using slow dial-up phone lines for the next three years.

That means graphics-heavy corporate sites will continue to be oh so s-l-o-w to load. Simple, fast-loading small biz sites may not get featured in the Wall Street Journal, but they will continue to be favorites for a great many Internet users.

Kevin Nunley provides marketing and copy writing. Read all his free tips at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or (801)253-4536.

Getting Listed on Yahoo

Diane Standish of NetPaws.com wrote this week to say her web site got listed on Yahoo! That's big news. Yahoo is the top search engine directing the viewing preferences of millions of customers.

Yahoo is also an often frustrating challenge for site owners. While most search engines have a robot inspect and list your site, Yahoo continues their practice of having real humans look at your site. Their staff only has time to consider a small fraction of the sites submitted, as low as 10% to 20%.

There are lots of theories on what it takes to get listed with Yahoo.

Diane feels her site was pulled from the stack for consideration because she used an especially delicious description. Her site description got the interest of Yahoo personnel.

Others have suggested Yahoo picks sites that have the name of the business in their title. Yahoo also appears to give much lower consideration to sites on free services.

To suggest your site for listing, search for other sites in your field. Look for the "suggest a site" link at the bottom of the page that lists sites most like yours. Have your description and list of keywords ready to enter.

Kevin Nunley provides marketing and copy writing. Read all his free tips at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or (801)253-4536.

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