|
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Effective Cross Promoting Techniques
By HomeNetMonies.com
The idea of cross promotions is not new. Cross promotions have been used by businesses for a very long time. For example, a real-estate company may promote a certain lawyer to close a sale, as the lawyer will promote that agency in his firm. The system is somewhat similar to the primitive barter system, where people traded items rather than using money. How can anything primitive fit into the online world of Internet marketing? Very easily. Cross promotions are, simply stated, a trade of advertising space. Instead of paying for advertising space on a site, you would place their ad on your page and your ad on their page. When used creatively and wisely, cross promotions can be an effective and cost efficient way to advertise your internet business.
One way is to use link exchanges. This is very effective when engaging in cross promotions with a company that is similar to yours, however, you should be careful not to link to a page that is in direct competition with yours. One of the advantages of link exchanges is that some search engines are factoring in hits from other sites that link to your page when determining the ranking of your site. Thus, exchanging links with a more popular site can not only increase your advertising exposure and traffic, but also increase your search engine ranking.
The initial subscription of customers or potential customers to your ezine is an opportunity to use cross promotions. On the same page that the customer subscribes to your ezine, make available the opportunity to subscribe to the ezine of another company. You can even exchange ad space in ezines, and provide recommendations for those with whom you cross promote. You might even want to exchange column space in one anothers ezines.
Writing free articles that provide customers or potential customers with information that is useful and accurate can create a good reputation for you and your business. Soon readers will come to know you as an expert on the subject. In such articles the author uses a byline to help promote his or her site. Bylines can be a way to use cross promotions as well. You can use part of the space in your byline to recommend a product offered by another web site owner.
If you have been considering writing an ebook, a joint venture could mean increased profits for you and the person with whom you are partnering. Cross promotion through an ebook is an excellent way to broaden the topic of the ebook and to promote both your business and your partner's business. The ebook should contain information that will indirectly benefit both businesses and still be helpful to the reader. A good example of cross promotion through an ebook would be a site that sells used video games partnering with another site that sells gaming devices. These are two subjects that would interest the same reader, and a shared ebook would likely lead the reader to both sites. This is efficient internet marketing.
Keep in mind that the recommendations you make reflect directly on you and your site, so choose your cross promotional business partners carefully. Also remember that it would be nice as a shopper to be able to follow links from one site to another as a way of shopping around. Since this kind of shopping around is of questionable benefit to you, the site owner, never link to or recommend a site that is in direct competition with you. Instead, recommend those which are similar, such as health and life insurance web sites.
About the author:
-------------------------------------------------------
To Start Work at Home Business, and to find fantastic home business ideas and opportunities, visit www.HomeNetMonies.com today.
-------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this
article within your website or newsletter as long
as you leave the article fully intact and include
the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
|
Psst!...Have you Heard the Buzz? 
<< Blog Home << Previous Page << Home