This article emphasizes the importance of not being frugal when it comes to investing in your online business. It explores the significance of search engine placement in marketing your website, product, or service, and how it can be a cost-effective tool for small entrepreneurs. The article also highlights the potential of pay-for-placement search engine Goto.com as an underutilized marketing tool that entrepreneurs should consider leveraging.
Search engine placement is a crucial aspect of marketing your website, product, or service. It is doubly important because it is generally free, making it a vital promotional avenue for small entrepreneurs. While I am not a marketing expert, my articles on web search trends often focus on the relevance of search engine results and their ease of use for average consumers. However, my recent research on pay-for-placement search engine Goto.com has convinced me that it is a vastly underrated marketing tool that entrepreneurs should explore and utilize to their advantage.
While optimizing your site and working on submissions to get those "free" listings in the major search engines and directories should be your first step, you should also consider other means of attracting targeted and incremental traffic to your site. The era of "free" search engine positioning is nearing its end, with Looksmart charging $199 for business express submission and a new $25 fee for non-business submission. Therefore, the future may be about what is most cost-effective, not what's free.
When considering various alternatives like banner ads and expensive marketing campaigns, businesses often ask: what's a new customer worth? Many have determined that a customer is worth a lot. Take AOL as an example. They don't wait for people to figure out that they are the best Internet Service Provider. They actively market themselves through CD distribution and television advertising. Once a customer signs up with AOL, it doesn't matter what the others are doing.
If a new customer is worth $20 or $50 to you, or even more, why are you content to spend zero on getting them to notice you? Even if there is a slight chance that someone may pay you $1,000 for your accounting services, or buy a $500 item from you with a $100 profit margin, wouldn't the chance to have that customer come straight to your web site be worth a few pennies, maybe even more than a few?
While existing search engine traffic is fine, it may not be all that targeted. You may not always have time to optimize your site for all the engines, and some search engine tactics may actually backfire. To save time, you should consider buying some traffic.
Some users of pay-for-placement search engines are turned off by the experience, possibly because they're deploying the strategy too tentatively. If you want to get to a certain level, why not just get there this month, instead of taking baby steps?
There are many smaller pay-for-placement engines, and outside of Findwhat.com, they aren't worth the effort for the trickle of traffic they'll bring you. You should also consider the sponsored links initiative ("Sprinks") at About.com, which allows you to bid for link placement on a topical About.com "guide site."
At Goto.com, since you only pay for clickthroughs, the risk is minimal provided you can deliver something of interest once the visitor arrives at your site. There is a way to build that list of keywords (and daily targeted clickthroughs) up to an impressive level, while slowly whittling down the average cost per click to a manageable five or six cents. At those rates, your banner revenues alone will probably offset the money you spend on this advertising.
You may not be AOL, or even a well-funded startup. But you CAN find $50 a month, and on Goto.com, $50 can go a long way. Go ahead, give this a try and see if you don't achieve your goals more quickly.
