I have a new site being developed, actually made a down payment to the coder today. It is my first "real" unique project. I think it will be a big hit. That is, if I can get the word out about it... So my question is to you, what is your marketing plan for your sites? Lots of pre-launch marketing? Wait until it has been launched and market? Some of what I have done in the past to market other sites... SEO Article marketing Pay per click (wow am I not very good at PPC, to much nitty gritty work) Digg, del.icio.us, etc... craigslist directory submission (pay to have submitted... this is to time consuming) link building with similar "niched" sites What I should probably do... Press Release Pay to have blogged about find someone to promote it in their newsletter (could get expensive, my service is going to be free) link bait (would have to use a service, and they are not cheap!) myspace (don't have a grasp on this marketing theory, never really looked into how it works) ???????????? What are your thoughts? .
You seem to understand a wide range of promotion methods. I prefer quality SEO and many people forget that extensive keyword research is part of the SEO process - if you haven't already, do some quality keyword research.
I prefer substantial (not just a few hundred a day, but thousands), targeted hits, so my plan has been to simply place ads all over the place. That's basically the only real solution for good, targeted traffic on a continious basis.
Ask your friends to help out Get them to email their friends recommending your site. Get your mum/dad/brother/neighbours dog to sign up. What are friends for hey?
That doesn't seem like a very good idea to me. Diversity is key. If you focus yourself on only one aspect of internet marketing, think of all the other visitors you will miss out on. I have been paying for services lately, like directory submissions. Submitting to directories is time consuming, and you can pay someone to do it for fairly cheap. If I did it myself, I would never be able to write any articles, build links, etc... Thats my opinion anyways... learn them ALL (or atleast enlist the services of someone to do them for you ) I haven't done it yet, but you basically pay someone to blog a review on your site. .
There are many on DP who offer variations on this, mostly in this foum. My favorite alternative, for SEO purposes, is anchored article posting to networks. I have used several to advantage, and am familiar with most of the networks on DP and haven't found any outside of it. You can PM for recommendations, as there is a wide variety and different networks suit different needs. All are a better value than directory subs, INMO.
Do what you have done in the past plus press releases. If your service is really cool and free then it will be link bait itself, just be patient. Pre-Launch Marketing may help it you have a bigger budget for it, else I would scrap that idea. Find a forum whose users would greatly benefit from the service, join it now and start posting and interacting. You might even start soliciting some feedback on what users would like in the service. Once the site launches you will have some rep in the forum and be able to market it.
Even if the site is not build to make money from search traffic or if it is, your main key always is to build a lot of links, and not spend an arm and a led doing it. The first thing is to try and get people to the domain, give them a head up of what’s the over all service is and pitch them on giving you their email or name and email. From that you want to get some press from bloggers in the mark, you can do this buy writing a nice press release and (4 free) emailing it to any blogger you can find, as well as, trying to touch base with them and get it published. Don’t forget forums if you can get the link in their. While that is happening you are building out the service, getting links, and growing the hype of the product. Time you get to launch your platform will be larger than when you started and you will be able to email all them people that joined your email list, every blogger that you emailed before including the ones that never posted about your product, and after that you throw in some paid reviews and maybe some other simple marketing ideas and call it a day. Then its time to recycle and reuse that platform you built to get more people to hear your product. Do that each week, every week and you will have no problems taking out any keyword or closing deals all day long! ps. I pre-launch like this most of the time, and my last product launched day one with over $4k in sales and only the time and development money spent out of my pocket.
If it's really a unique idea, think more about publicity than marketing in the beginning by going beyond the "everyone is doing it" marketing tactics that you mentioned. Instead... 1. Launch a virtual publicity tour. 2. Find a way to effectively use a press release 3. Instead of asking people to write about it in their newsletter and paying for it, write your own article (not entirely self-promotional), and offer it to popular ezines and sites at no cost. 4. Get networking, especially with bloggers and journalists covering your niche before the launch. 5. Do some kind of original research relating to the problem or opportunity your new launch is going to address, and publish it (nice way to build some buzz, although not many webmasters do it).