Internet Marketing with Sweat Equity

Think of your web site as a house. You want to maintain the investment and add equity so you remodel the bathroom, re-face the kitchen cabinets, landscape and add special touches that you know in the long run will increase the value of your home. This is called sweat equity.Your web site needs similar attention. You can’t have the “build it and they will come” attitude. You have to advertise it in order to attract more visitors. This is called internet marketing.Let’s start from the beginning with choosing the right domain name. Choose a domain name that is easy to remember. Your company’s name or the name of your main product.The web designer should have optimized the site for search engines by writing clean source code, adding meta-tags, using significant keywords and text placement, so the search engine robots will be able to comb through the web site effectively. And now it's time for a little of that sweat equity I was talking about.Here are several suggestions:Include your web address on all your printed material; business cards, letterhead, press releases and invoices. Also, include it in all your advertising.Provide your visitors with real advice and information, not just a company brochure.Share your skills with other sites that will post it and link back to your site.Offer something free.Participate in discussion groups where you can assist other’s with your expertise and become known as a powerful resource for others. This keeps you visible to potential customers.Exchange reciprocal links with other sites that compliment your own. Visit linkpartners.com for more information.Start an email list of customers and periodically email them with preferred customer discounts.Include a signature tag in your business emails and create a link back to your web site using the http so it’s clickable.Advertise on line. Here are a few places to start:BizHwy.comBizHwy.comBizHwy is an online business directory developed to be easily indexed by the search engines to promote business listings for a specific city and state. Businesses can add their listing to our business directory for free, and further promote their business on BizHwy through affordable banner advertising.StartUpBiz.comStartUpBiz.comFirst listing is free. You are even given the option to add one photo or image with your ad. Several categories to choose from.SuperPages.comSuperPages.comRegister and get a free listing.