Could you name some good ways to market a website

[wiiman]

I have a site. www.veganisgreen.com. I'm always in need of innovative ideas on how to market this site to the right audience. Anyone has any tips?

[Brendan]

Site looks good, I would look at improving your logo, it just looks a little basic.

In regards to promote your website, see if you can do a link exchange with sites in a similar niche, often you can do this at no cost to yourself as long as you privide a reciprical link.

You can always buy ad space on these sites as well, or look into running a competition to attract new users, maybe a 'recipe' of the month type thing?

You may also want to look into making sure the site is optimised well, one of our team here is a high ranking SEO expert, check out his site here - http://www.tareeinternet.com/

Good luck!

[itycoon]

I'm also in need of good SEO for a tech blog that I just started. My projected hits is 500 uniques a day.

Anyways to answer your question wiiman I think it would be a good idea to do some marketing. Also I notice the site is Joomla and one thing that is known about that CMS is that is SEO is not very good. You made a good move by doing search engine friendly URLs though.

[wiiman]

Site looks good, I would look at improving your logo, it just looks a little basic.

In regards to promote your website, see if you can do a link exchange with sites in a similar niche, often you can do this at no cost to yourself as long as you privide a reciprical link.

You can always buy ad space on these sites as well, or look into running a competition to attract new users, maybe a 'recipe' of the month type thing?

You may also want to look into making sure the site is optimised well, one of our team here is a high ranking SEO expert, check out his site here - http://www.tareeinternet.com/

Good luck!

Thanks for the great tips. You have given me an idea. I believe one of the ways to keep traffic on my site is to do promotions and I am thinking about starting a health forum on the site that would help with that.

[itycoon]

That is a good idea wiiman. In fact I notice a lot of the sites who get a lot of traffic offer incentives to people so they will stick around.

[Leela]

How about marketing it OFFline ... your online people have offline lives ... if you can find where they hang out ... who they're already talking to ... who has these people on a list, you can email / phone / direct mail etc ...

[camakos]

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[stabla]

Hey wiiman, not sure if you are still needing ways to market your website or if you have done this already but i would check out facebook... starting a health group there is a great idea, or just joining one and promoting your site.

Also might want to look at adding some photos, they really spice up the site and people like looking at tasty meals. But it says "your slogan goes here" up top left, not sure if that is intentional or not...

[Go Jo]

Hi Guys,
I've just discovered a marketing program on how to attract prospects to you instead of you chasing them down.
You can get a free video series which explains the concepts behind the program. Its' very informative and interesting.
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hi camakos,

Have you actually tried this or are you an affiliate? I am open to anything but am hesitant at fiiling in details just to get more spam.

Regards Jo

[Go Jo]

Hi Wiiman,

Your site is very informative. I have just loaded my own site www.irwfree.com (http://www.irwfree.com) (guys . . be gentle - I'm learning, but would appreciate feedback),:confused:

and am interested in swapping links?

Any further ideas out there for promoting sites - with little or no money down?

Regards Jo

[intergise]

Go Jo,

Just some quick suggestions on your website.



There's a call to action at the bottom of the page (Buy the book now) but it doesn't go anywhere. Make it a link to the shopping cart.
Rather than buy the book now, what about Start losing weight now or something along those lines. Emphasise the benefit to the customer.
Add some more contact details, phone numbers at least. Some people won't be confident in buying a product online without more details.
What does IDW stand for?
Try a different picture for Skinny Jo. In the one you've used you're hunched over and you can't really see the after effects of the diet.
The main menu changes on different pages. Make sure it's consistent so as not to confuse visitors. In the More Info page there is no Contact link.
Look at optimising the site for the search engines so that potential customers can find you. At the moment there are no keywords or description and the page titles really aren't helping you.

[Go Jo]

Intergise,

Thank-you so so so much!

I really appreciate your time to move around on the site. It has a long way to go doesn't it!

I'll do all that you say. . . .but having a hard time finding a "skinny" photo! Do you know how hard it is for a female to put a head to toe shot on the internet? he he he. . .I'll keep looking for a better one. .

Thanks again for your time.

Jo

[intergise]

No problem, Jo.

It does have a way to go but you've made a start and that's sometimes the hardest part. Just keep plugging away, improving and refining it as you go. Try to set aside time every day/week to work on it so it's always moving forwards.

Consider having a professional take some photos for you. A good photographer can really bring out your best and the difference between the before and after will be even more striking. If your budget is a bit tight try advertising at the local uni, where you might get a media student to do it at a lower cost.

[Brendan]

Hi Wiiman,

Your site is very informative. I have just loaded my own site www.irwfree.com (http://www.irwfree.com) (guys . . be gentle - I'm learning, but would appreciate feedback),:confused:

and am interested in swapping links?

Any further ideas out there for promoting sites - with little or no money down?

Regards Jo

Jo, you could always take up this offer here to promote your site - How to Advertise for FREE on AussieTycoon - Entrepreneur Forum for Australian Small Business (http://www.aussietycoon.com/showthread.php?t=225)

[Go Jo]

Thanks again Brendan,

I'll save for the 650 ad!

regards Jo

[Go Jo]

No problem, Jo.

It does have a way to go but you've made a start and that's sometimes the hardest part. Just keep plugging away, improving and refining it as you go. Try to set aside time every day/week to work on it so it's always moving forwards.

Consider having a professional take some photos for you. A good photographer can really bring out your best and the difference between the before and after will be even more striking. If your budget is a bit tight try advertising at the local uni, where you might get a media student to do it at a lower cost.


Thanks for the tip Intergise,

I have a friend that is a photographer - she's starting my diet. I'm sure she won't mind!

Regards Jo:)

[HWT]

Website marketing is extremely easy if you can get in the news somewhere, like if you run a health site get a popular health forum/blog to write about you.

I get quite stuck marketing my hobby site - it is very image heavy and low on text so is hard to index, it is completely clean and vanilla so it doesn't attract controversy, and I'm not an attention whore so it just feels wrong to go around blowing my own trumpet. The site is currently also just free activities with no real product for sale (I want to change this later in the year) but I'd like to get the traffic higher before I put anything up there.

Currently get about 1500-2500 unique visitors a day with about 7G traffic a month, I'd like to double this by November but have no idea how. The site is indexed in places like dmoz and I've done a few link exchanges, but nothing significant. The traffic was rising every month until June this year and I don't know why it has suddenly fallen. I'm sidetracked by a new IP and not updating it as often but still, it has taken a dramatic traffic drop, back to about February levels.

Being a hobby site not a business site I guess I don't put as much work into it as I should.

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[geraldbell]

I have a site. www.veganisgreen.com (http://www.veganisgreen.com). I'm always in need of innovative ideas on how to market this site to the right audience. Anyone has any tips?

Hi wii, the site looks good with some useful information, I was just going through the site and just thought that you could have an online shopping on that site too for your customers benefit and can make some extra cash too on that. But, for this you have to purchase an SSL certificate so that the data is encrypted from the customer's web browser to your server.This provides good website security (http://www.sslstar.com/Products/Pricing.aspx) with a look of professionalism.:cool:

[HWT]

I was saying I wanted to double my web traffic by November and it doubled itself without me doing anything. I'm baffled.

I'm also planning to sell books on there in the next fortnight so its a mad dash to put up an ecommerce solution now. Book artwork is currently at the printers so it'll be a week before I get the books in my hand, and with a site that actually has something for sale rather than being just a free activities site I will have to dramatically change the marketting. I'll probably miss this Christmas but you have to start somewhere ...

[Slade]

HWT, where did all the extra traffic come from? Can you see from the logs where it is mainly coming from, or is it all new organic traffic?

[HWT]

Google searches - don't ask me what happened.

[Networking WA]

Hi,

I am also involved in a business called OM Strategies which helps business improve their online presence.

The 2 most important factors to consider would be

1. Content- is it fresh, updated often and relevant?

2. Links- how many other sites link back to yours? Are they relevant? what is their page rank?

There are more free tips on my website http://www.omstrategies.com.au

Rebecca
rebecca@omstrategies.com.au

[australasiabizdotcom]

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[The Profit Frog]

Wiiman,

A couple of suggestions:
Write loads of vegan/green related articles or have them written for you, and load them to your site, with lots of key word phrases linked to various other pages on your site. (And to reciprocal link providers' pages.)

Become a member of lots of different yet related forums that already exist - and do exactly what we do here... read other people's entries, esp those looking for help, and offer responses that are useful, related and show what an expert you are on your area of interest - and always sign off with your website URL in your signature... most forums allow this.

(Brendan suggested your logo needs help... haven't looked, maybe it does. One of the biggest lessons I learned a few years ago is that how your website "looks" is only part of the challenge... there are many important features of a website that have nothing to do with how "pretty" your site is... though a professional clean site is a good start.)

If you have a health food shop in your area, ask if you can leave flyers on their counter... maybe make some kind of arrangement with them that allows you to do this. The flyers need to have your URL and why people would visit your site.

MAKE SURE you attend expos and festivals and events that are held in your area and go armed with business cards, flyers, or other promotional material that includes your URL and why people should visit your site.

Do you have a Chamber of Commerce in your area? Join, attend and talk about your business... with business cards you can hand out that of course, have your URL on them...

Hope these few ideas help.
It's called very low cost marketing.

It works.
BUT make sure you know what your UNIQUE Business element is - if there are lots of vegan sites why is yours better, different, how does it solve consumer problems better than others... MAKE sure this is clear on your promotional material - your "elevator pitch" if you like...
In fact, have an elevator pitch - you need to come up with something you can say in around 15-30 seconds that identifies what problem you solve or what desire you fulfill with your business..
EG: "Kids will eat their vegies while saving the planet's ecosystems - guaranteed"
(Permission to use this crazy line if it works for you :-P )

Good luck.
Terri
Professional Copywriting Services - Freelance Direct Response - Copywriter Professional Writing Services Freelance Web Copy Direct Copy Marketing (http://www.twohandsdancing.com)