10 Basics for Starting Your Online Business

7. Advertising Issues

Advertising will be the lifeblood of your business, so this is where the
majority of your time, money, and effort will be spent. Your goal is to build a
database (list) of prospects and customers you can sell to time and time again.

In the ever-changing (and challenging) world of online advertising, there
are two primary categories: Free and Paid. The basic rule of thumb is that if you
have much more time than money, Free advertising may be your most logical
choice. However, if you have even just a little room in your budget for
advertising, Paid advertising, combined with effective free methods, will save you
bundles of time and is the most direct route to success.

The entire goal of your advertising efforts should be to drive targeted
traffic to your website, where visitors are encouraged to add their name and email
address to your database. Plain and simple. Database Marketing 101.

Free online advertising methods include (but are not limited to) posting to
free safelists, engaging in message board discussions and including your tagline
on each post, posting to free classified ad sites, using traffic generators
(surfing/clicking for credits), submitting your website to search engines, banner
exchanges, reciprocal linking with similar sites, submitting free ezine ads, writing
articles and including your byline at the end, and writing a press release about the
launch of your site or a new product and submitting to online news media.

These methods can be tedious and frustrating, but when you’re starting
off, with no extra funds, if you can choose two and stick with them religiously,
you will most likely generate enough profit to form a Paid advertising plan.
Empowerism can help you get started with any of these, as well as teach you how
to test and track your results, which is vitally important to your sanity!

Paid advertising methods are virtually endless. Some of the most popular
include renting opt-in lists, buying opt-in leads, placing ads in reputable ezines,
using pay-per-click search engines, buying banner ad space, and buying targeted
traffic. When using a completely turnkey system like the one
Empowerism
supplies, your opt-in leads, delivery method, and content are automatically
included, leaving you free to try other advertising venues to complement these
efforts.

Just because you have an online business, that doesn’t mean all of your
advertising has to be on the Internet. However, online advertising is usually less
costly than offline avenues. You don’t have to pay for pricey prime time
placement, but you do have to spend more time figuring out where your prospects
are so that your dollars are not wasted in your efforts.