Successful Internet Marketing Without A Budget
The following excerpts were taken from an interview held with successful web marketer Darren Cronian in June 2005. LM:You are successfully promoting Worldwide Holiday Homes, without a marketing budget. Is this a decision you took out of necessity or choice? DC:Certainly out of necessity - I dream of the day when I can spend thousands of pounds on marketing my business. When I first had the idea of the business I had no business plan, I hadn't designed a website before, and I'd certainly never heard of the term SEO, never mind what is stood for. All I did know was that I would submit this website to Google, and within days thousands of visitors would be visiting my site.. (I'm being serious!) that's how innocent I was. LM:It could be argued that someone who looks to promote a site without any kind of budget is either ill-prepared or lacks faith in the product or service they are offering. What are your feelings about this? DC:I would agree with you - the idea came to me when my parents bought a holiday home in Spain, and I had never thought about building a business before, I was ill prepared and to some degree, I lacked belief that the website and services were going to be successful, and if it wasn't for my own dedication to succeed the business wouldn't be in the position that it is in today. Trying to promote your site without spending any money must be extremely difficult. What do you consider to be your biggest challenge in terms of marketing? I cannot explain how difficult it is - I see my competitors spending thousands (if not millions) on PPC campaigns, television and radio advertisements, etc and sometimes that can be soul destroying, and you do think 'What am I doing wrong?' but these companies have a work force that are dedicated on building and running the company - whilst I'm running the business by myself, in my living room. The biggest challenge with marketing is persuading clients (villa owners) that I can offer them a service, which is good value for money, has great support and customer care - unfortunately, the sector I am working within, the travel industry, has thousands of companies, and many of them have let owners down, and in my opinion made life very difficult for genuine businesses. The other challenge I face is making sure that the website is regularly visited by holidaymakers - without the traffic from the likes of Google, Yahoo and MSN the business would not exist - fair enough you could say that about 99% of online companies, but the owners who advertise their villas, etc. rely on enquiries from holidaymakers, and if I'm not providing owners with enquiries, I'm failing them and the business. LM:Do you feel that having no marketing budget restrains your site from moving forward and competing with the leaders in your industry? DC:It certainly does - I want to be respected by the travel industry, and I want everyone to know who Worldwide Holiday Homes are - when someone is looking to rent a villa I want them to say "oh let's go to Worldwide Holiday Homes". Without a marketing budget, I don't have the funds to pay for a PR company to raise the profile of the business and I think long term this will affect the business unless I increase the revenue to the business. LM:To be able to compete with those webmasters who have large sums of money available for promotion do you feel you need to think smarter or work harder? DC:Both think smarter and work harder. My working week is working around 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, it doesn't give me much time for a social life, but if I put the hard work in now, in years to come that hard work will come to fruition. The great thing about webmaster forums like Digitalpoint.com is that you can learn from other webmasters, and all of the experience and knowledge I have gained running this business has been from more experienced webmasters and search engine specialists. LM:If you are not spending money then presumably you are relying on SEO skills to promote your site. What areas of Search Engine Optimisation have you spent time on and which have generated the most successful results? DC:I certainly am relying on SEO skills to promote the website and have focused more on researching keywords which holidaymakers are using to find the type of holiday accommodation the portfolio has available, as well as working on various linking strategies to get the website and it's pages ranking well. Initially I thought specific keywords would bring in thousands of holidaymakers every week - the keyword 'holiday rentals' I thought would be an excellent keyword to get ranked on the first page - I found after spending a good few months optimising the website for this keyword that it brings in a few referrals a day... lesson learned there. LM:What proportion of your internet traffic is direct referral from search engine queries? DC:I would say 90% of the traffic is from search queries from search engines and directories - with the other 10% from links, and forum posts. I feel I'm in a position now to attempt to bring in more visitors by spending revenue on marketing the website through other means - I do have sleepless nights thinking what I would do if Google was to stop sending me holidaymakers. LM:What would you consider to be your best, zero cost, marketing success? DC:Good question - search engine optimisation on a number of pages with some very competitive keywords - obviously I don't want to give my competitors the opportunity of outranking me, so I'd prefer not to divulge the keyword terms. Also, I submitted a few press releases to www.prweb.com and found myself speaking to two editors of a regional newspaper, and an online travel magazine, both these articles brought in a good level of traffic for a few weeks after... and it was free. LM:Your site has featured in UK papers (The Yorkshire Evening Post). How did you manage to gain such press coverage? DC:The business was featured in the Yorkshire Evening Post under the business section, simply because one of the editors had heard about me setting up this business and thought it would be a really good story for other small business owners (or people thinking about setting up a business). Word of mouth is and will always be the best form of marketing - I spoke to a guy in the pub, who knew an editor at the newspaper and the rest is history. LM:Now that you are obviously experiencing some success are you tempted to invest your profits into marketing in order to move your site up to the next level? DC:Yes, in the past couple of weeks I have started to look for quality websites to promote my business and website on, the problem with advertising is that you don't know how effective it is going to be, and with a tight marketing budget you can't afford to make any mistakes. LM:Finally, do you have any other areas of free promotion that you are looking to exploit in the near future? DC:Yes, I'm actually writing my first e-book, and will obviously continue on optimising the website and writing press releases and travel articles. I believe that networking (word of mouth) is a big part of promoting your business, and you won't believe how many new clients I have received by simply taking a taxi ride and telling the driver all about my business (without boring him!) and handing them my business card. I'm also a member of www.ecademy.com which is paid or free membership, and enables you to meet and network with people of the same interests, this has been a great place to pick up ideas and again promote my business. Lee Munson runs the site http://www.info-sales.co.uk which offers free webmaster resources, including a huge list of free directories to submit your site to.
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Marketing and Design to Get the Most out of Your Website
Once you have figured out your what your focus should be,think of ideas and sketch out each page. Start with you home page; this page should be a 3-5 paragraphs long and state who you are and what you do and guide the viewer to the rest of the site.
E-marketplace ? Facts and Fictions
Not long ago, industry pundits were touting B2B marketplaces or exchanges as Internet era panacea for productivity and cost-cutting problems of corporate world. Buoyed by excessive investor interest and driven by a desire to cash in on the enormous dot-com valuations of late 90s, marketplaces were sprouting like autumn mushrooms. With the collapse of stock market, it did not take much time for burgeoning B2B marketplaces to come to a screeching halt!
Scam And Scheme Free Advertising For Your Business Web Site
Since I own my own business web site and have looked for many ways to advertise cheap and for free, I have noticed how many sites there are out there that will try to get you to either join or buy advertising in one form or another. There are sites out there that will promise you the moon if you either join their "viral marketing" scheme or site that will cause your email box to become inundated with email ads from others who have fell for this.
Internet Profits Revealed: The Simple Philosophy that Works
Why is profiting on the Internet so hard for most people? If there is so much money to made, why do so many continue to struggle? There are secrets to profiting wildly online, and I assume you're as deserving as the next person, so what rationale could you possibly use for justifying missing out?
Choosing Effective Programs for Your Internet Marketing Plan
Objectives, strategies, and tactics (i.e. programs or action plans) - these are the parts of a solid strategic marketing plan. Your site objective defines the big picture, strategies provide the framework, and tactics fill in the details. Tactics are where the action takes place - these are the things you will do to bring your plans to life and "work" your marketing mix.
Getting noticed on the Internet - Digital Marketing for Small Business
The Internet has grown from a small network of academics needing a way to trade research into a world-spanning, ubiquitous marketplace and repository for nearly every possible kind of information and knowledge. How does a small business avoid being washed away in the constant tide of buying, selling and marketers hawking every conceivable item (and some difficult to conceive...)?
The Power Of Viral Marketing
You certainly know by now that the term "viral marketing" is not just another dot-com cliché. Quite the contrary, it describes the incredible, unmatched power of the Web to promote your business by marrying email to the traditional concept of "word-of-mouth."
Internet Marketing - Advantages and Disadvantages
Everyone seems to be jumping on the internet marketing bandwagon lately. In the race to get their business online, many successful businesses forget to ask themselves some tough questions about what they are doing, what their expectations are and what their plan is to meet those expectations.
Product Not Selling? This Could Be Your Lucky Day!
So you've created a digital product ready for sale on the Web. You've created your sales page on a three page mini- site. If you're really on the ball, you've created your own opt-in newsletter as well. You've followed step-by-step guidelines for selling your product, and even added some bells and whistles. It's a cakewalk from this point on, right?
Providing Information Will Boost Your Web Site
I was at a meeting the other day when one member of the audience came up to chat to me after I had given my presentation. 'I agree with what you told us,' she said, 'but it only applies to some people. After all in my business there's nothing I can turn into an ebook.' Within a minute of chatting to me she had developed two ideas for ebooks.
Stepping Outside the WAHM Zone
Often times on message boards you'll see several reps from the same company, making it difficult for all reps to gain enough sales. We've also seen issues where some reps dominate certain boards or even go so far as to steal potential customers and recruits. While there is no real easy answer to this problem, there are certain things you can do to gain your fair share of sales.
Niche Web Sites Do Not Have To Be Small
I've been marketing for a long time now and I have seen a disturbing trend with niche web sites. Many e-books and so called experts are advocating that you should have a mini-site to promote your affiliate products or digital delivery goods.
Outsourcing Your Web Marketing
The online world is constantly evolving. You may be thinking about outsourcing your Web promotion to an expert who is immersed in this world as their fulltime occupation, rather than trying to acquire this knowledge yourself, and cope with the pace of change in-house.
The REAL Secret to Building A High-Profit Internet Business
My wife laughs every time she sees me doing it.
You Attract Who You Are On The Internet!
Being online is not only about getting your piece of pie, it's also about what kind of pie you are getting. Your company is often being measured by many other business people online. There are many ways that people are keeping an eye on you.
Five Steps To Successful Web Marketing And Sales Process!
The basic principles used successfully by brick and mortar storefronts in moving your potential clients through a successful sales process is also the most effective way on the web.
Marketing Maxims for Todays Challenging Times
These are turbulent times for all businesses - necessitating streamlined marketing processes that are finely honed to mesh with today's sputtering global economy.
With Todays Internet, Is Banner Advertising Worth Your Time?
A banner exchange program is a network of websites that group together to promote each other's website. This is a free service and to join you simply submit your website with the network.
4 Tips to More Online Party Sales
I know most of us have held our own online party, been to one, or at least read about them. Many of the materials online are general, and the average online party (for individuals) has around 5-10 guests at the most. Maybe more, maybe less, depending on several factors. But really for those that do not belong to party groups, and are holding their first party the attendance is going to be very low.
Can You Really Make Money While You Sleep?
If you've been utilizing the Internet for any length of time it's likely you have been bombarded with junk mail claiming you can make money "while you sleep." Most sensible people are bound to ignore such claims of easy money. But is it true? Can you really make money while you sleep?
|
