How long did it take for your marketing effort to work?

[rctoyhouse]

Created an ecommerce website within the past month, was wondering how long did it took you for your marketing effort to drive traffic, and get into ALEXA ranking? 1 month, 2 month, 6 months?

And, if you don't mind sharing, what was your original marketing gameplan when you first started?
SEO? CPC? Adwords/overture? Blogs? Link Exchanges? Or combination of all?

Thanks in advance, I'd greatly appreciate the insight, as I am trying to gain a better perspective of what's ahead of me.

[greeneagle]

rctoyhouse,

I am going to respond to you primarily because you truly have a "virgin" site and are not misrepresenting your position in any way.

You and your sister are young and you guys are well on the way to making a mark - IMO.

You "guys" got into this game, evidently knowing that you would have to do some marketing. I hope that you at least calculated in an equivalent to the total cost of Site development for Site promotion(time included @ $50-$75/hr min). That's a good rule of thumb for a launch.

You have no listed IBLs in the GOOG yet and only one in MSN. Guess who?

If I were in your shoes, I would do a little hot pop with high ranking paid inclusion relevant directories if you have the capital.

By the way, welcome to WPW.

Ken

[rctoyhouse]

Greeneagle,

Thanks for the suggestion. We basically started from scratch about 4 weeks ago, no knowledge of anything whatsoever. All we had was a host and dreamweaver; did a lot of research, reading, trial/error and came this far, with the website design almost complete. Just need some cosmetic changes and touch-ups.

Now comes the hard part of marketing. Reading these forums help a lot, and there's wealth of information on many websites. I know it would probably be more effective to use professionals though. But, we want to see what we can do first before he start looking for one.

When you say paid-inclusion directory, you meant something yahoo directory that charges $299 for a non-guaranteed inclusion in their directory?

Also, how long does it usually take for your marketing effort to show result? Say... you just launched your website today, when do you expect the traffic to start coming in?

Thanks for your respones!

[greeneagle]

rctoyhouse,

That's phenomenal, you and your sister seem like pros already!

Here's a couple more High Ranking Directories that can help with a "hot pop":

• Yahoo: http://help.yahoo.com/help/bizex/ $299/year – Note they feed many secondary SEs and Directories, also a number of people are growing increasingly disgruntled with Google
• SEOMA (www.seoma.net) $15/yr
• Microsoft Small Business Directory (http://sbd.bcentral.com/addsite.aspx) $49/yr
• InCrawler (http://www.incrawler.com/cgi-bin/dir/addurl.cgi) $49.95 (1 time)
• BestofTheWeb (http://botw.org/helpcenter/submitcost.aspx) $49.95/yr or 149.95 (1 Time)
• JoeAnt (http://www.joeant.com/DIR/cat/2847/Energy_and_Utilities) $39.99 (1 Time)
• GoGuides (http://www.goguides.org/topic/78677.html) $69.95 (1 time)
• TyGo (http://www.tygo.com/dir/) $39.95 (1 Time)
• Skaffe (http://www.skaffe.com/viewCat/68981) $39.99 (1 Time)
• SiteSnoop (http://www.sitesnoop.com/submit.shtml) $10.00 (1 Time)
• Axeq (http://www.axeq.com/submit.php) $10.00 (1 Time)
• Site-Sift (http://www.site-sift.com/53) $49.95 (1 time)
• Sezza (http://www.sezza.com/) $14.95 (1 time)
• All Business (http://www.business.com) $199/yr
• Business.com (http://www.business.com) $199/yr
• US City (http://www.uscity.net) $149/yr
• What U Seek (http://col.whatuseek.com/) $49.99 Submission Fee + $16.99/yr
• WOW Directory (http://www.wowdirectory.com) $55.00 (1 Time)

The prices may be a little off, I haven't checked in a while.

Speed depends on how you play. Viral Marketing can knock you into immediate orbit. I have an idea there for you.

You guys are one of the more serious startups I have seen in a while.

Maybe we can work together.

I'll donate a little time for you and offer a few suggestions that I don't feel comfortable offering publicly.

By the way, I have a mechanical engineering background, I love those toys!

Call me anytime.

Ken

[mktgbiz]

Well, I'm not expert but I'd like to contribute if I may.

My first site (FishForFree.com). I literally did everyhting know to man to get links to me. And I did it feverishly for a year or so.

1). Swapped links with simlar sites
2). Wrote articles and submitted to fishing sites AND article sites
3). Submitted to fishing directories (yes they're out there)
4). Asked friends to add my site link in their signatures on forums
5). Paid for banner ads (still do)
6). Gave free product in exchange for links
7). Posted on fishing forums
8). Put links in my ABOUT ME page on eBay (don't know if it actually helps or not)

I can't think of anything else right now. And I'm not even rated on Alexa. Oh well, the sales continue to come in.

I have never paid to be submitted in a directory. Maybe I should..........I'm just soooooooo tight.

Hope that helps a little.....

[sizemonkey]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Ken PLEASE post about viral marketing and your ideas. Or at least CC me a copy and I will give you MUCH love for life.

(Disclaimer- the term "much love" does not imply in any way a relationship to involve tradition senses of love or sexual relationships rather the term implies friendship and warm thoughts. The author of the above statements will not “touch your Monkey” and no statement contained herein imply said concept.)

[internet-marketing-cr]

I would say it all depends on what your goal is, you can go through the process and do it yourself, it is worth it, if you have the time, as you mentioned:

SEO, PPC, Adwords/overture, Blogs, Link Exchange, yes a combination of all.

I will add a couple more:
- Good content (be creative)
- Submissions to SE and Directories (free and paid)