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infoProducts > Dr. Kevin Nunley |
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Using Banners to Promote Your Site Banner exchanges are about the oldest form of advertising on the Internet. While banners won't flood your site with customers, they can be an effective low-cost tool in your promotional arsenal. Your banner runs on other sites in a banner co-op while their banner runs on your site. Two of the longest running free banner exchanges are Link Exchange (now a part of Microsoft..see http://adnetwork.bcentral.com/) and Banner Swap at http://bannerswap.com. Link Exchange reaches almost half a million sites and gives you plenty of helpful stats on how your banner is doing. Banner Swap lets you test different banners to see which work best for you. There are a great many other banner exchange opportunities with widely varying benefits. Beware of claims that are too good to be true. They are usually aimed at Internet beginners who don't yet have a feel for the Web's limitations. Many banner exchanges encourage you to put their banner at the top of your opening page. Don't do it. Banners take time to load and detract from the message your site needs to deliver. Instead, place banners at the bottom of your pages. Banners that tell people to "click" to get something good far outperform other banners. Animated banners work well if their file size isn't too big (the banner exchange will list their requirements). Yellow gets attention best but is hard on the eye. Blue is the most soothing color. 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. Your domain name (yourname.com) can now be 67 characters long. Yikes I thought the first time I heard that. Many domain names are already too long to remember, what are they going to do with domains two and half times as long? There turns out to be three good answers to that question: (1) You may need a long domain to spell out your business' full name. JimBobs-Emporium-AutoParts-CommunityCollege-and Pizzaria.com now has a home. (2) You can use a well-known sentence or phrase for your domain name. Just like the techniques country music songwriters use, people will be able to remember your phrase. DoesMyRingHurtYourFingerWhenYouGoOutAt Night.com (3) You can list your most important keywords in your domain. Search engines tend to rank sites higher if the word people are searching with is included in the site's domain name. This week I used the keyword method and registered: internet-marketing-plan-website-promotion-press-release-writer.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. Promote on Search Engines With a Long Domain You can now get a domain name (yourname.com) with up to 67 characters. The most popular use for this is to list your top keywords in your domain name. Search engines tend to list sites higher if the keyword people search for is listed in the domain name. If you type "shortcake" into a search engine, you will probably get sites like shortcake.com and Lilas-shortcakes.com. Search engines have a slight preference for domain names where the words are set apart with dashes. It is easier for their computers to parse the name into recognizable words. Many savvy entrepreneurs are hurrying to register longer domain names that include their most important search words. I wasn't sure if the search words I would use to find my site would be the same as the words prospects would use. Fortunately, Goto.com has a free service that lets you type in your keyword. It comes back with all the related keywords Goto visitors have used including the number of times the term has been used. They keep moving this page, so surf through the Goto site in the area for people who want to advertise with them. Turns out people search a lot for internet, marketing, and marketing plan. They also like website promotion. Of all the things I offer, press releases are their favorite search term. My new longer domain is: internet-marketing-plan-website-promotion-press-release-writer.com Keep in mind I won't direct customers to this site, just use it for getting listed on search engines. 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. Registering Your Long Domain Name New rules let you have a website domain name up to 67 characters long. As I write this, the usual domain registration places aren't participating in the stampede to get long domain names. Network Solutions who formerly was the sole registration service isn't currently set up for the longer domains. You may have a bit of trouble finding a place to get your big domain. Get a list of ICANN-accredited
registration firms at: Most of the sites I found offering long domain registration were resellers for registrars.com. You can go straight to the source and even set yourself up as a domain reseller. You will be smart to get your DNS information from your host in advance, then include it with your online registration application. 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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