If you don't create a successful strategy for marketing your web
site, you can't build a profitable online business. It's
therefore imperative to drive thousands of visitors to your web
site, then convert them to paying customers.

How do you accomplish this?

Use several marketing strategies

Don't put all your eggs into one basket by only employing one
marketing strategy. You could see evidence of this during the
latest Google update in which many commercial web sites which
once had top rankings, dropped out of existence, thus instantly
losing sales.

By creating more than one strategy to market your web site, you
can soon see which one works the best by attracting the most
visitors.

Market with consistency

Set up a clear daily, weekly, monthly and yearly marketing plan
for your web site and stick to it. It is the lifeblood of your
business.

Test marketing

Continually test all your web site marketing strategies to see
which one works the best. Eliminate those that are not
profitable.

12 successful marketing strategies:

Search engine optimization

Here are the locations where you should include your most
important keywords or keyword phrases:

1. Meta tags (invisible)
Title tag
Description tag
Keyword tag
Alt tag

2. Page content (visible)
Weave your best keywords throughout the content of your pages.
Focus on the first 250 words on your page and only use one to
three keyword phrases per page of content. Include keywords in
your H1 tag (main title) and H2, H3 tags (subheadings) as well as
the hyperlinks in your site or and in outgoing links.

Search engines and directories

3. Submit to major search engines - Google is currently the main
search engine to get listed in. If you get listed there, you will also
get listed in AOL, Netscape, and Yahoo and it's still free. This may
change in the near future as the competition heats up. Other free
listings also include directories such as ODP. Do a search on
Google to seek out your niche directories ie for sunglasses, look
for sunglass directories.

Here are the other search engines to submit to:

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156221

4. Pay per click (PPC) search engines - if you wish to generate
traffic to your web site immediately, set up a Google Adwords or
Overture campaign.

http://payperclicksearchengines.com

Email Marketing

5. Create a newsletter - most folks don't buy from you
immediately but need to be contacted several times to put them in
the buying mood. Place a subscription box on every page of your
web site. Send out your newsletter every two weeks to keep in
touch with your subscribers. Be sure to include original content
(not rehashed content) along with new products you wish to
introduce to them.

6. Email Course or tutorial - set up an autoresponder that will
deliver quality information over a period of seven days. This
means you have multiple chances of contacting your visitor and
promote your product or service at the same time.

7. Ezine Ads - create an ad for your product and find ezines that
cater to your target market. Write several ads and track them
until you find one that pulls well.

8. Signature file - include this all your online and offline
correspondence. Set up your email client so that it does this
automatically each time you send out an email. Include your name,
who you are, what your business is about, a way to subscribe to
your newsletter, your web site address and your email.

Link strategies

9. Write articles - ezine publishers are always looking for
original content. You can include a link back to your web site in
your signature file. If several ezine publishers (that may have
thousands of subscribers) publish your article, you can get
hundreds of links pointing back to your web site.

10. Reciprocal linking - get links from other sites that
compliment yours. ie if you just offer web design and someone
else offers search engine optimization you could exchange links
with each other, thus adding to the quality of each of your
sites.

11. Forums - offer your help to other forum participants then
leave a link back to your site in your signature file. Popular
forums are spidered regularly by the search engines, thus giving
your site a link boost.

12. Offline marketing

Not all your customers are online. Market offline by including
your web site information on all stationary ie letterhead, and
business cards. Place ads in newspapers, trade publications, send
out postcards, fliers and get involved in local organizations
such as the Chamber of Commerce. You can even set up your own
local club or be a guest speaker for others.

Continuously evaluate, test and refine your web site marketing
strategies so that you can apply them to any product. These
are the keys to building a successful online business.

About the author:

Herman Drost is the author of the popular ebook:
"101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site"
http://www.isitebuild.com/web-site-promotion
Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original
articles. mailto:subscribe@isitebuild.com You can read more
of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles