Hey! I have launched my first web based service and I'm very new to web based marketing (already made a couple of mistakes). Anyway, how to market a service that know one knows yet? I have a few free samples in there, so that people can get some idea about what kind of service it is. All tips & tricks are more than welcome. Thanks!
I think you first need to identify who are your market segment. Only with some idea of this that you can start looking out for the best ways to reach out to the market segment. It would be very difficult for any of us to tell you without knowing what service and who you are reaching for.
True. My service is about Programming Tips & Tricks, it includes monthly payment system. I promise to post a new article at least 4 times in a month. I think one of the problems is that it is hard to get users to trust my service as it is new. Any ideas on solving this?
Well, think about this first. Why should user pay for 4 articles a month, when there are thousands of blogs presenting the same content with multiple posts a week.
Now why doesn't that convince me? Have you compared my service to others? I mean, how can you say that people are doing the same thing as I am if you haven't seen what I have done? If I'd think like that, I wouldn't be doing anything, as everything 'has already been done', right?
Well show us what you are doing then All I'm saying is, there are already a lot of blogs/tutorial sites/snipped databases around that are free. Why would someone visit your site if they have to pay? Everything has been done, yes, but you are trying to do something again but now you ask money for it. (as far as I know) Can't you give us a more detailed explanation of what you are going to do?
Good question, why should someone pay for the service? I think that someone will pay if he thinks it is useful and I believe that it is useful as it is based on my experience. I think one of my marketing problems is that one, how to get people to know that it has content that is useful for them. I have a few free tips in there, but I think that is not enough, ideas to make it better? I can't give you a link, that sucks, I was already warned about doing that - > if I understood right, my post count needs to be a bit higher than this to do so. I'm trying..
Hi arex (nice to see you here ) For starters you should add a big picture of yourself and tell why the hell people should trust you - like boebi asks. By simply putting stuff like "you worked at Big Company X" and then "currently programming at Big Company Y", so people know that you've done stuff. People should not need to look for this info, but you could simply have it on your side bar (and then have link to "more info")
Well, since I know you & have been on these boards quite a long I can post that link - so here it is: www.dawnbringer3d.com
As you said its very hard to convert the visitors as customers, but if you're confident about your service, then initially give some free stuffs about your service to visitors by making them free subscribers to your site and you can collect their emails in this way... If you feel collected some good amount of emails then tell about your paid services, people really think about your paid services as they got some good free stuffs earlier about the niche and they'll go for to get more good ones from the paid service... Just remember, all the free services available elsewhere cannot be compared to the genuine paid services..
I don't see much value in such business model to ask a fee for it. You might consider instead, as everyone does, build a membership and credibility by starting something free at first, and once you are established offer a premium subscription that will be paid.
Thanks Juuso for both great ideas and for the link! Other suggestions weren't bad either. The thing why I'm not going for totally free is because I'm writing an e-book containing those tips & tricks, but it would not be fair if only the ones who buy e-book pay. So I decided that 1 dollar per tip is a fair price.
Good tips - arex, thank this guy The good thing is, that arex already has pretty good work history (I know him) & stuff to show - so he could use his experience as an advantage in the beginning. EDIT: Arex, perhaps you should ask a testimonial from me & other people