Online Marketing

Welcome to the Online Marketing Blog.

There are many things that you can do online, ranging from the very simple to quite advanced. Some things are not very effective, some things are. Some things cost nothing, some can cost quite a bit.

You can do none, some or all of them - it's your business :-)

The great thing about some of these methods is that they take little time to set up but could lead to someone joining your business way into the future.

To your success.

Domain Names

Domain names are so cheap, they should be considered essential.

You can use them to:

• Shorten and tidy up your company website address
• Have a more professional looking email address
• Make it easier to advertise and for people to remember your web address
• By having more than one, you can target and track your advertising

The rest of this article is here inside the private area

Domain Names - advanced

Have you read the Basic Domain Names post first?

Ultimately, your domain name is part of your marketing strategy and should be thought out accordingly.

Continued in the private area.

Registering Domain Names

Having decided on a domain name, there are two main things you need to do:

• Register the domain name
• Point the domain name to your target website

There are countless companies on the web for registering domain names. The one I always use is freeparking. They're not the cheapest but they are good, quick, professional and reliable and give you great control over your domain.

You can get cheaper but some of them may not be as reliable or fully featured.

On the freeparking site, you can see if a domain is available and then register it. Once it's registered, simply go to the maintenance section and enter the web address that the domain should point to.

You will receive emails as the set up progresses and your domain will go live within hours (typically) although it could be up to 24 hours.

If you choose the domain www.mydomain.com for example, you can also set up email forwarding. This means that as well as having a website, you automatically have a corresponding email address anything@mydomain.com - any email to this address will be forwarded to a regular email address you choose.

So instead of having to put john@aol.com for example, you can use john@mydomain.com. All email will then automatically be forwarded to john@aol.com

Online Forums

Online forums are a great way to fish.

When you participate in a forum today, your post (what you write or contribute) will be visible to all visitors today, next month, next year and beyond.

So your post might get seen by 10's, 100's or 1000's of people over the next few months.

It takes 5 minutes to post and you could have a free advert. If it produces one enquiry over the next 6 months from that 5 minutes work, wouldn't that be worth it?

Your advert won't be a big flashing banner. In fact, it won't look like an advert at all.


There are several things to bear in mind:

• Find a forum on a subject you're knowledgeable about and/or interested in. Your posts have to be 'on topic' - meaning that it can't be meaningless rubbish just to get your 'advert' out there. Either post a genuine question or preferably, try to answer or contribute to an existing question or thread.

• Your advert must not be blatant or people will guess that you're only posting to advertise. See what others on the forum do but generally no banners. Just a simple text signature with a website link e.g. Smarter way to play - www.youraddress.co.uk. The more subtle, the less people will think you're advertising. Make people curious.

• Post plentifully but only when you have something meaningful to post - a genuine answer or a genuine question. The more posts in as many topics and threads as possible, the more your 'advert' will be seen.

• Join as many free forums as you can find subjects you're interested / knowledgeable about. Again, the more your advert will be shown and seen. More hooks in the water!

• Post regularly. Most forums show the number of posts you've made. If others see you've made lots of posts, they're less inclined to think you're just advertising.

• Use common sense, stay courteous, don't get involved in 'flames' (arguments) - keep your image whiter than white, controlled, calm.

• Compose your posts carefully. Spell check them. If someone does click on your link and is interested in joining, you want them to think highly of you, respect you. You get that by the volume of well written, meaningful posts.

Like many of these kind of methods, don't expect floods of prospects. Don't post and then keep checking your email or website counter waiting for the hits - it isn't going to happen. Just cast the line and let it just 'be there' - a permanent part of your growing funnel. Then cast another, then another.

As you build up the number of places your signature can be seen, so you'll get more results.

To your success.