Need advertising tips...

[jsp74]

Hello All,

We just launched our home business on the internet and are looking for tips on advertising and increase of traffic/sales. Any tips and suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,
JSP74

[americana]

I would suggest looking for partners to exchange links with, but your site has a PageRank of 0 and I'm afraid no one will want to link to your site. You can start by doing some general SEO (look in the SEO discussion forums for great tips if you are new to this). As far as advertising, I would start by listing your company in all the online directories relating to your topic. You can also check out virtual shopping malls - just do a search in google or Yahoo. Were you wondering about online marketing or traditional means as well?

I would also suggest, if you haven't already, creating a press release about your new business. If publications post it then you might get some links that way. If you need more info on general public relations or marketing, let me know.

Kelly

[americana]

Hello again. I'd like to change my mind about linking partners - of course it is a good idea (and important for seo in search engines such as Google). Every new site has to start somewhere (PageRank of 0), but if you have a good site, others will recognize that and may exchange links to you.

[jsp74]

Thanks for the tips americana. I will look into it. I have started to list my site to directories and so far it's okay, but it's quite a pain getting listed to DMOZ, i'm planning to submit to Yahoo, i'm not quite sure cause of the fees. But we'll see what happens. Thanks again! =0)

jsp74

p.s.
I've started to trade links with others. I'm not really concerned much about the pagerank, that will come later I know, besides its an approximate on Google with all their algorithms and stuff. The important to me is to make a sale. So i've started to use other alternatives.

[ekalski]

You've got a great looking site. It won't be easy getting into DMOZ with a site that is all about sales. Have you thought about writing articles about different collectibles?

The articles will draw people who are looking for information first and items to buy second. I think it could help in many ways.

Ed

[americana]

I totally agree with Ed. Articles are a great way to bring people to your site. Offer them valuable/interesting information to pull them in. There a number of places you can submit them. Have you also thought about maybe keeping a blog?

[jsp74]

Hey thank you guys! I did try submitting my site to DMOZ but it seems very difficult getting in there. My site doesn't have any affiliate links or anything but it looks like i'm missing on something. I don't know. I'll just have to keep submitting intermittently until they see my site.

With regards to google. I noticed that the robot crawler is very picky and I think it doesn't rank pages that have parameters starting with the "?"
(ie. index.php?param1=x&param2=42893 etc. etc.). I hope Google would give more considerations on pages with parameters.

I know i've read that somewhere on their Google guidelines.

BTW I made some changes on the website and lately, visits have been high, but minimal sales. I've resorted to paid advertising. Any tips on that? How about Yahoo? I know they have a directory listing which cost $$$$ but in their it says that there is still no guarantee and no refund. I mean I won't pay Yahoo $$$$ just to get my site rejected so I'm a bit skeptical on that.

Anyways, thank you all for the tips.

=0)
jsp74

[mlewi]

Google Adwords. Knowing how to use it effectively can bring you some good money making traffic. The tried and true link exchange is always a good source and of course SEO.

[steveteva]

First, your website looks very great and professional
Second your products are valuable.

Try free press release, run a quality banner advertising campaign on famous website related to your ecommerce.

Someone talk about Google adwords, I think that it's a good idea but since you have so many items and they are more visual then text description it will be harder to get customers. Also it won't be easy to focus on a particulary keywords unless you choose someting like "collectibles".

I will recommand you to open an Ebay.com seller account and sell some of your items on it and use your Ebay "About Me" page as an advertising page that has a link to your website simply because Ebay is the place where all people are seeking for collectible items.

[shilmy]

I'm newbie here, I wonder why I didn't see suggestion to use e-zine advertising. Is there any downside in e-zine advertising?

Regards,
Sjarief

[MM3]

Ezine advertising can be very effective, but it has to be targeted properly. Do a search for ezines related to your niche market. You can also find ezine directories listing hundreds of ezines. There's a lot out there and like any form of marketing you should always do your research first.

I would also strongly recommend the article writing approach. The single article I wrote probably three months ago has been a huge source of consistent traffic for us. We are still receiving visitors from the multiple places my article is posted. However, I did a lot of research first and found a site that submits your article various places around the web for a per article fee. Plus a lot of extra searching for other popular sites that post technology related articles, which I posted to by hand. It can be time consuming but if done properly it can be very rewarding.

[kjohnson5576]

Your site looks nice, but boy is there a lot of stuff and inexpensive too. I was just wondering, did you draw up a business plan? What were your overriding goals? Plans? etc.

My point is that when I see a site like yours, and there are lots of them, it makes me wonder what the intial focus was? You've got a great name in jonscollectibles, but what could possible be collectible at such low prices? Collectibles command some sort of higher value, hence higher price; in my mind anyway.

Also, with so many catagories, do you specialize in something? Do you have a niche?

These are just my opinions. But I would certainly evolve a niche and raise my prices to let people Perceive a True Value, even if it is the same product.

[Jeff Colburn]

Hi,

Try making frequent posts to newsgroups and discussion boards that relate to your sites topic. I started making regular posts to a writer's forum and within 3 weeks the hits to my writer's website doubled.

As mentioned above, write articles and post them on free article sites or use articels from the free sites on your website.

Have Fun,
Jeff

[ellar]

Try submitting to your local directories. I submitted our sites to NZ directories and suddenly I was also listed in Google. They had picked up the link from the directories and spidered the site.

Hope this helps

[benkhoo]

I've heard a lot about writing articles and stuffs like that.

May I know where to submit articles and is it free?

Would appreciate any help.

Rgds,
Ben

[americana]

MM3 -

"...popular sites that post technology related articles, which I posted to by hand."


Would you be willing to share the places you've found to post technology related articles? It would be very much appreciated!

Thanks!
Kelly

[Jeff Colburn]

Hi,

Here are some free article sites to check out.

http://www.ideamarketers.com/
http://goarticles.com/
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/
http://www.AuthorConnection.com/
http://www.webpronews.com/submit.html

Have Fun,
Jeff

[mddv]

It is hard to find people to add links to your site with out exchanging but it is the only way to go.

You are able to add your articles to my site at www.wbcenral.netfirms.com. I need more articles. feel free to email me Your articlke and your details at webmaster@wbcentral.uni.cc or Private message me.

Have you tried Web CEO for your web site optermization i have written a review on my site.

[marketershandbook.com]

You could try pay per click.

I would recommend overture.com, never done me wrong.

If you target very specific terms then that should keep your costs quite low.

[RWD]

i dont know how ethical this is, but finding groups, such as yahoo or msn groups, related to you topic, join the groups and make a post, usualy the posts are emailed to every member of that group, and some are unmoderated, so you can say what you want in your mail.

[mizambar]

Jeff listed some great places to list your articles....

A great trick that I used to find sources is this:

Go to search engines and type the following, "Submit your article" and "shopping".

You should find a ton of sources that have to do with collectibles and stuff.

Some articles that you can write can be the following: "Top 5 Ways to Find Safe Shopping Sites", "How to find the Best Bargains on the Internet", "Jewelry Buying Tips on the Internet".

Basically think of what your prospective customers would love to read and write to them!

Good Luck!

Scott

[MarketingMama]

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I know this post is a little self promoting but I figure why go here and there when you can find everything you need in one place :-)

Hope this helps!

The MarketingMama

[mizambar]

Thanks for the information about your website...I will definitely have to check it out...

[benkhoo]

Hi Jeff and mizambar,

Thanks a lot for the info on the sites for articles submission and tips to search on search engines.
Great help, indeed!

Well, I'll check out your site, too Marketing Mama!

Take care and have a nice day all of you!!!

Rgds,
Ben

[MarketingMama]

Look forward to seeing you come on board with our services, I believe you'll find a lot of really cool stuff and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly through this board!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

The MarketingMama

[asianwebmaster101]

I've always believed in the power of web forums.

Take www.instyleshoes.com for an example, they went from minimal web presence to a contender surpassing footlocker. The trick is, they have thousands of loyal forum members that frequent the board to talk about shoes.

[MarketingMama]

Hello All:

Hello:

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The MarketingMama