New Website Marketing

[silashaysom]

Hi there,

I have just recently started up an online business called www.enterthebargain.com.au. It has been a steep learning curb for me in working out the best strategies to market my website.

I have tried many different things to get people to visit the site so far, ranging from handing out flyers, posting on blogs and search engine optimisation. The latter two being the most effective. The site is competing against a range of successful established players.

If anyone could offer some advice as to the most effective ways they use to market their website, that would be great. I dont have a massive amount to spend on advertising by the way either.

[LeelaCosgrove]

I love the concept ...

How big is the community right now? Registered vs regular posters?

[MissieK]

It looks like an interesting site :)

Have you sent out any media releases about being the "new kid on the block" so to speak and highlighting what helps you stand out from the others? I know ACA & TT are always looking for sites like this for stories - especially with the financial crisis.

What about getting links in different directories, especially where your market would hang out. Parenting sites would be a good place to start as Mums are always on the look out for a bargain.

Melissa

[silashaysom]

Originally Posted by LeelaCosgrove

I love the concept ...

How big is the community right now? Registered vs regular posters?

Thanks for the feedback. We have a few registered users, but very few regular posters at the moment. We have tried incentives such as winning free movie tickets for posting, but to no avail.

So far its mainly been my business partner and i posting the bargains on the site. We hope that in the future our community of users and (hopefully) business owners will be posting the majority of the bargains. We are trying to specifically target business owners since they are the ones with first hand knowledge of the bargains. We are not sure exactly how to do this yet, if you have any ideas, that would be greatly appreciated.

Also, we are going to add a weekly newsletter subscription to the site to try and get users to sign up and hopefully become regular visitors.

[BB]

An interesting site to be sure.

I'm happy to provide a link to your site in our next newsletter-"The Buzzz" as I believe it could be of use to our readers.

We have a monthly newsletter - it's not easy to keep up with good quality content on a weekly basis, and after a while a weekly newsletter becomes a little like spam.

Good luck with your venture

B.B.

[silashaysom]

Originally Posted by B.B.

An interesting site to be sure.

I'm happy to provide a link to your site in our next newsletter-"The Buzzz" as I believe it could be of use to our readers.

We have a monthly newsletter - it's not easy to keep up with good quality content on a weekly basis, and after a while a weekly newsletter becomes a little like spam.

Good luck with your venture

B.B.

Thanks! that would be great.

[silashaysom]

Originally Posted by MissieK

It looks like an interesting site :)

Have you sent out any media releases about being the "new kid on the block" so to speak and highlighting what helps you stand out from the others? I know ACA & TT are always looking for sites like this for stories - especially with the financial crisis.

What about getting links in different directories, especially where your market would hang out. Parenting sites would be a good place to start as Mums are always on the look out for a bargain.

Melissa

Thanks for the advice. I'll source out some parenting directories and put some links up there. We currently don't have a media release written, but after your advice i am going to get one written asap.

I noticed that you run the business mum's network and magazine. Would it be possible to put a link through to our site on your magazine?

[MissieK]

I'm trying to come up with an offer I can post on your site :) Send me through a short paragraph about the new site as an announcement and I can include it in the News Snippets section in the magazine (magazine@businessmums.com)

A couple of sites with directories include www.realmums.com.au, www.babyuniverse.com.au, www.busymothers.com.au and www.essentialbaby.com.au - some of these also have newsletters.

Melissa

[JodieR]

I'll have to look at your site a bit more and see if I can contribute :o)

online Networking is a great way to get your site out there. If you are a member in online communities that you contribute to (I don't mean flat out advertising as that's a big turnoff). People recommending you because they've found your site useful or just go there because they like you. :o)

Any forums or online presence pop your URL in your sig line. All of these are trackable by search engines and help improve your online status in the search pages. Unique keywords - there was a site I was using last week that helped show what keywords were used the most - most common ones that were already heavily out of reach for small business, but show other search terms people use (that you could use) to help improve your rank.

You might find businesses that will link back to you, getting yourself out there more in several ways.

Directories (again, same as above).

Are you tracking your click throughs? So you can see where your visitors are coming from? This will help give you a better idea of what's working and what's not.

You could put community buttons (bookmark, facebook, digg, RSS etc.) on your site pages (I've just added them using addthis.com to my site - it's very simple).

[silashaysom]

Originally Posted by JodieR

I'll have to look at your site a bit more and see if I can contribute :o)

online Networking is a great way to get your site out there. If you are a member in online communities that you contribute to (I don't mean flat out advertising as that's a big turnoff). People recommending you because they've found your site useful or just go there because they like you. :o)

Any forums or online presence pop your URL in your sig line. All of these are trackable by search engines and help improve your online status in the search pages. Unique keywords - there was a site I was using last week that helped show what keywords were used the most - most common ones that were already heavily out of reach for small business, but show other search terms people use (that you could use) to help improve your rank.

You might find businesses that will link back to you, getting yourself out there more in several ways.

Directories (again, same as above).

Are you tracking your click throughs? So you can see where your visitors are coming from? This will help give you a better idea of what's working and what's not.

You could put community buttons (bookmark, facebook, digg, RSS etc.) on your site pages (I've just added them using addthis.com to my site - it's very simple).

Thanks for the feedback! Yes we have google analytics set up on the site which enables us to track referalls, click throughs and the bounce rate. All very important statistics. I have just recently wisened up to the importance of online networking (using forums such as this to get expert advice). The tips so far have been invaluable. Its a steep learning curve for myself and my business partner, this being our first site.

The framework of our site is forum software called vbulletin. It has by default community/social networking site links set up, which helps! ;)