Internet Marketing for Free: The Guide How to Market Your Business on The Internet Using FREE, and Only FREE, Techniques and Tools by Jinger Jarrett 1 Copyright, 2007 by Jinger Jarrett. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. If you received this as an ebook, you may give it away. If you would like to purchase the book, as well as get all of the bonuses included, you can visit my site at http://www.jingerjarrett.com/. You'll find the information you need on the Special Offers page. Disclaimer – Every care has gone into making sure the information provided in this book is true and correct. Any incorrect information is solely the responsibility of the author. 2 This Ebook is Brought to You By: Thea Westra at Forward Steps http://www.forwardsteps.com.au/ http://www.ask-thea-about.com/ Download free personal growth resources and subscribe to both of her content-filled personal development mailings at Thea’s Forward Steps life coaching site. 3 4 Table of Contents Introduction - 7 Free Methods to Market Your Business Online 1. Search Engine Optimization and Marketing - 9 General Directories Link Exchanges Ebook Directories Ezine Directories Affiliate Program Directories 2. Blogging - 21 3. Article Writing and Promotion - 29 4. Press Releases - 37 5. Forums - 43 Communities 6. Affiliate Programs - 51 7. Joint Ventures - 59 8. Free Classifieds, Pay Per Clicks, and Other Traffic - 65 Branding - 75 The 5 A Day Plan for Marketing Your Business – 79 Bonus Marketing Tips - 87 Interviews - 93 Free Software and Bonuses - 151 About The Author - 153 Send Me Your Testimonial - 155 Special Offers - 157 5 6 Introduction Learning how to market your business on the internet is easy. You only need to understand a few basic principles. Although internet marketing techniques change, there are are certain marketing techniques that work, and not only do they work, but they will work whether you are marketing your own products and services, or affiliate programs and MLM. Apply these marketing techniques consistently to your business, and you will succeed. You don't have to be an internet marketing expert either. Learn one technique at a time, test it to see it works, and then learn a new technique. Your goal should be to market consistently. You achieve success in marketing by doing it consistently. When first starting off, it may be time consuming to do your marketing tasks. If you don't have the money you need to market, you will need to spend your time working on your marketing efforts. As you achieve success, buy the tools you need to market your business online. These tools include a good autoresponder system and web hosting, as well as some submission tools, like Article Marketer. Don't be afraid to try new ways of marketing your business if what you are doing doesn't work. Just stay focused on what your business is. You'll achieve greater success if you aren't constantly changing what your business is about. 7 What I want you to understand more than anything else is that internet marketing is a process. You are building a business, and anything you build will take a little time. Do your homework. Learn how to build a website. Learn how to write. You can always outsource these things later if you hate doing them, but learn how to do them. Then, when you need to purchase services, you'll know how much they cost, and what's involved in getting the work done. Stay away from false trends. Too many internet marketing “gurus” invent false trends for the sake of selling products. Follow what works. Find what works for you and keep doing it. Your goal is to take action; action that will build your business into something valuable for you and your customers. As Zig Ziglar once said, “Help enough people get what they want, and you will get what you want.” 8 Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Search engine optimization should be the first step you take before you even build your website. If you've already built your website, you can make changes to your website. Make sure you're targeting the right keywords for your business. It's a waste of time to optimize your website for keywords no one is searching for. Many two word keyword phrases are extremely competitive. If you want to get to the the first three search pages for them, you'll have to work very hard to get there. Your best bet is to aim for targeting several highly searched, low competition keyword phrases. These phrases, usually three to four words long, will bring you more targeted traffic in the long run. Since you optimize pages, and not your entire website for a keyword phrase, you can use a different keyword phrase for each page. Then it is easier for you to optimize your page. The main keyword phrase you pick for your home page, which is your most important page, should be highly searched for with low competition. Several other things you should consider: 9 Domain name – Although search engine wisdom says to pick a domain name with your main keywords in it, it's getting harder and harder to do that. If you use Alexa to help you find the top 500 sites online though, you'll find that the top sites are mainly names: Yahoo, MSN, Google, Ebay, My Space, Amazon, and there are others. It's OK to use your name. My main site includes my name. As a writer, this is the most important domain I can own because people will look for me by name. Domain names don't have a big impact on your search engine optimization as you may think. Most of the top sites in my area of expertise, internet marketing, don't include internet marketing in the domain name. Pick a good domain name that reflects what your business is about, but don't obsess over it. A good domain name can help you with branding, but it just isn't as important to search engine optimization as many people think. If you don't have any ideas, and you don't want more than one site, choose your name. You can always buy other domains later. Buying your name is especially important if you are a writer, musician, or someone who needs to brand yourself. Keywords – Keywords are much more important to properly optimizing your website. You need to carefully select the right keywords, or your website won't be found. 10