| Top Web Hosting Provider of The Month: |
 |
| Visit Bluehost.com | Read Bluehost Review |
|
|
| >> Web Hosting Geeks // Web Hosting Articles // Site Promotion |
|
|
 |
Competition Freebies and Sponsorship For Free Advertising and Link Popularity
How many competitions are there running on the net at this time? 1000 maybe? Nah, 100,000 is more than likely and when they pass their closing date there will be just as many to take their place. So, why are companies so desperate to give away free stuff just for answering a question or two? I'll tell you why... ...because it is an INCREDIBLY effective and very INEXPENSIVE way to get your company name mentioned on hundreds, if not thousands of websites, message boards, forums, blogs and conversations both in the online and offline world, not to mention the good PR it generates - that's why! Who doesn't want their company name-dropped all over the place for what amounts to mere peanuts when compared to the costs of traditional advertising? There are thousands of specialist competition and freebie sites whose sole purpose is to inform the rest of the internet when a new competition or freebie offer hits the internet. There are as many mailing lists, newsgroups, message boards and blogs on the same subject and YOUR company name could be plastered over all these when you add a competition giveaway to your site. But it doesn't stop there. If you are reading this as a webmaster then you obviously know all the major search engines look upon inbound links as being one of the main deciding factors in deciding which pages rank where in the organic search engine results. All these free, one-way inbound links pointing directly at your website are pure gold dust in terms of increasing your link popularity and thrusting you up towards the top of the search engines. Whilst everyone else is rushing around participating in link exchange programs, renting links on websites, buying their way into search directories and more costly measures to help get the jump on their competitors, you could be flying up the rankings by giving away something as cheap as a $20 DVD once a month. Of course, you can also make your generosity work extra hard for your business as well and really milk that competition freebie... Rather than just give one lucky visitor a chance to win something when they leave their details at your site how about some of these ideas to get a double hit from your freebie: 1) Newsletter Competition A competition give-away to everyone who signs up with your newsletter. Draw an email address from the hat every month and announce it in the newsletter and you'll treble your subscription rate and keep them reading. Want to ensure they really read it? Ask a question about a specific aspect of the newsletter and get people to email it in and draw a winner from one of the entrants. You get more subscribers AND you ensure they're reading! 2) Newsletters again... Add a checkbox to your competition entry page, order page etc. offering people the chance to sign up for your newsletter (making sure to offer the hook of exclusive newsletter give-aways, freebies, coupons etc. of course) and you've got a bunch of new subscribers. This is a less effective means of building your mailing list but it still works. 3) The Scavenger Hunt Competition. Get people to browse around your website to give you the answers to a question or two you propose. Think "By how much is the Super Megatron 2000 reduced by this month"? and use these questions to direct people to your latest promotions and offers. Not only do you get all those extra visitors from blogs and comeptition sites like you wanted, but you also show these extra visitors the highlights of your site which will either encourage them to buy there and then or bookmark you for future reference rather than hitting and running. 4) The Repeat Competition Hook Giving away different freebies in your competitions each month ensures two things. Firstly, competition addicts (of which there are many) will hit your site every month giving you a chance to market your offers to them at least once a month. Secondly, you ensure those search result boosting links continue to multiply every month... ...and so on. If there is any aspect of your website or business you feel is a real hook and worth promoting to customers then a decent competition used correctly is the perfect way to highlight it to a wide audience without spending a fortune on advertising. But hang on, this isn't the ONLY way to use competitions to your own advantage. Another great way is to not run your own competition at all but to simply SPONSOR a competition on another site. Getting into a small competition sponsorship deal with a high traffic site in a related (but non-competiting) subject area can bring some awesome targetted traffic your way. If they archive their competition results and past sponsorships, then that's another one-way link you got into the bargain as well. The possibilities here are endless and it's not going to cost you anything more than a few bucks each month in order to start the ball rolling. So what are you waiting for? Mark Falco is the webmaster and owner of DVD Rental Services and Just UK Freebies.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Ineffective and Unethical Web Site Promotion Methods In this article I discuss some ineffective and/or unethical website promotion tactics. I talk about them here so that you won't waste your time and resources pursuing them. The Sure-Fire Ways To Attract New Customers Now 1. Give Away An Electronic Information Product The product could be a simple report posted on your Web site or autoresponder to a downloadable e-book. Successful Promotion is a State of Mind Every good marketing plan should have a section on ongoing promotion and publicity, which outlines ways of reaching your target market. These tools can do many of the same things paid advertising is supposed to do, at a fraction of the cost. How to Advertise on the Internet Do you want to reach millions of potential customers for FREE? Well you can if you know how. The Internet, that massive network of thousands of computers around the world, also known as the "Information Super Highway," is your ticket to generating free leads and sales. Tips to Maintain your Website to Keep Visitors Coming Back When you design a website you should create it so that your visitors are constantly coming back for more. In order for you to keep your visitors coming back you need to keep up with maintaining your website, and offering things that will keep your visitors busy. How To Use Banner Ads Effectively It's no big secret that banner ads have become less effective than text links over the years. This phenomenon is called "banner blindness". About Testimonials and Customer Focused Sites Think about it, when you browse any web site, you are basically trying to see what's in it for you, whether it be information, news, products or services. All you want is to find, read or collect information that will ultimately do something for you. Why Directories Might Save Your Websites Life Many business owners and online marketing experts focus their efforts on search engine optimisation and ensuring high search engine placement for a website. Although search engines should play a crucial part in any online marketing campaign they are but one element to that equation. Do Not Build A Website Until You Have Researched Your Keywords Imagine that you have a $25,000 marketing budget for your online weight loss herbal supplement business. Should you invest it in trying to build a site to rank #1 in Google for "weight loss?" NO. Three Cost Effective Ways to Get Bumper-to-Bumper Traffic Using Your Vehicle The following traffic generating ideas do not require costly set-up fees or minimum orders. Two of them can be printed in full color with no extra charge. How Building a Fanbase will Make You Sales If you've ever been to a popular forum hosted by a singal indivual, you would probably notice that most of the members of said forum take the owner or moderators advice as gold. Allan Gardyne is a good example of this, with his affiliate advice forum. How Popular Are You,... Online That Is? With the web today you "sorta haveta" have a rank in the major search engines if you want to be seen. I mean with 250,000,000, yes 250 million searches a day on Google? alone, how are your visitors and potential customers going to find you? Now, there are numerous ways in which a Search Engine ranks a website; by keyword density, relevancy, content, etc. Online Promotion: 10 Easy Ways To Maintain Profits When The Economy Is Slow When the economy is down, your website sales may go down too.Below are some online promotion secrets to help you when the economy is down and your sales plunge:1. Get Listed at DMOZ When you are deciding on the major search engine directories that you want your website to be listed in, you should not overlook one of the most important ones: the DMOZ (short form for Directory Mozilla). DMOZ is just another name for the Open Directory Project, one of the human-powered submission directories. Get Ahead on the Web: How To Bring Visitors To Your Website - For Free! Search engine optimisation - it's the holy grail of website design, or, put another way, a buzzword which means "get listed on Google." Because lets face it; if your website doesn't show up on a Google search, you may as well not have one. Why The One-Pronged Website Promotion Method Doesnt Really Work Would you attempt to use a cell phone with a dead battery? Or drink from a cup with no liquid in it? Drive a car with gas but no oil?Of course not. Each of those probably sounds like a silly question. A Successful Link Exchange Interested in boosting your link popularity, raising your Google PR, and improving the amount and quality of your traffic? Then discover the ancient secrets of a successful link exchange!The practice of effective link exchanges has nearly been extinguished by the extensive amount of spam email. I plan to help webmasters who are interested in real effective and professional link exchanges reach there goal. Increase Your Web Traffic without Breaking the Bank If you are like most webmasters, your goal is to increase your website's traffic in order to increase sales and ultimately revenue. But, you might be wondering how you can possibly perform a marketing campaign if you do not have much of an advertising budget. Internet Promotion: 20 Phenomenal Ways To Make More Money From Your Customers If you desire to succeed in internet promotion, you must be skilled in knowing the desires of your customers and how to meet them.Below are 20 phenomenal secrets to do internet promotion in order to generate more profit. Website Promotion - The Power of Writing Articles I've been operating two small retail Websites for several years with modest success. Recently, I decided to branch out into a different area of e-commerce.
|
|
|
|
|
| © 2004 - 2008 "Web Hosting Geeks" | Web Hosting Reviews | Customer Reviews | RealMetrics Reviews | Hosting Articles | Directory | Partners | Contacts Over 7000 articles: web hosting, web development, domain names, ecommerce, web design, site promotion, ppc advertising, seo, site promotion and many others. Web hosting reviews, ratings and awards are not based on any incentives or commissions. Names and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. A direct link to Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com) must be provided in order to use any of the above information. Contact us for more info. Partners: Hosts by speed, Cheap Website Hosting, Free Website Hosting, Cheap Web Hosting, Top 10 Web Hosts, Top 10 Web Hosting Deals, Best Website Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, Adult Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discussions, Dedicated Server Reviews, Best Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discounts, HostProfessor.com, rsuog, halyava, PHP Website Hosting Services, Web Hosting Reviews, Hosting Uptime, Best Web Hosting Reviews, Cheap Webhosting, Web Hosting, Flash Templates, CMS Templates, Web Hosting Reviews, Website Hosting Reviews, Web Hosting Providers, Best Web Hosting, Top Web Hosting, RSUOG Web Hosting |
