Hey all, First this forum is great! I was hoping to get some help from some experts to help me grasp this whole thing once and for all. I already have read a lot of and run a few websites and understand some of the basics so this is not for newbies. Basically me and some friends started up an IT firm (each one of us specializes in one area..). So now I am looking at interesting ways of generating business and 'getting the word out'. I see tons of things going on and its overwhelming. I have a self help blog/website and get a small amount of traffic but its going up slowly. Besides this we are building our IT firm website. So my questions are basically: Once my website is up, what is the problem with hiring someone from a freelancer website to do non-stop marketing? It just seems like a straight and easy answer how to generate traffic, but I don't think it can be so easy. People offer like $100 for 1000 hits to their site, I don't understand how this whoel thing works. How can you get me 1000+ hits to mywebsite? And what benefit does that do? I need people looking for cheap web programming, websites etc... To me it just seems silly that some guy who can get me all this traffic, doesn't just open his own place and do it himself! It just seems crazy. Practically speaking, I need to close proposals, I need to do that in any way possible. Is it crazy to offer people 10% commission on each programming/design job we close? (So a $500 small site, we pay $50 to the one who brought that proposal?) If yes/no why? Can someone explain this to me? I understand the basics i'm trying to understand the deeper side to it.
If you're just buying traffic, have a good look at what you are actually buying - it's unlikely to be targeted, and a lot of the time, it's not even a human being - the traffic is a bot. That's very different to hiring somone to do your marketing, there'd no reason not to outsource the things you don't have the time to do, but again, be quite sure what you are paying for.
does hiring someone to do our marketing/SEM/O, based on commission of sales sound? For example: 10% for each project as a result of your work if avg project = $1000, then $100. We can handle many projects at once. Bonus if our pipeline contains more then 5 of your leads at once ($500+ bonus) What would you recommend? We have a tight budget, but are planning long term. We are a small international IT Firm. Targeting both online and offline who need website/design/programming. I believe since freelancing etc is so popular our main target will have to be more local based. What do you think?
Try posting a job at odesk.com.. You can find various freelancers there that offer their services at cheaper prices.. You can even negotiate if necessary..
Who are you're targets? Are they the general public, small business or enterprise? Think about an idea on how to get in touch with is it through the internet, by phone, by physical visit, by traditional media like Radio and Television? That's marketing. If you choose to market your services through the internet then try using SEO, Email Marketing and "Connecting with the best". Don't just depend on $10 for 1000 visits.. They've been doing it since my grand dad's generation (Happy Father's day) and its like monotony to them and wouldn't really rich your target.
I agree. First, you have to determine what your target market is. I don't think you can employ a cookie cutter approach to all markets. You have to design a plan that tailors to your target niche e.g. corporate accounts, internet marketers, etc.
I could use more traffic but working 9-5 M-F leaves me with little time to think about it when I have articles to post on my site.
Work as a provider on odesk or elance.com and promote your website through there. You're going to have a hard time with SEO for that niche as I suspect there are a lot of ppl doing the same thing. Once you have done a few sites, word of mouth is a good way to getting your name out. You could also insist that you put a backlink on the footer of every website you do which would help.