June
Generating buzz for your online business is an uphill climb that’s going to push you past your limits. Expect to make lots of goofs on your way up to the top, and you’ll even lose out on thousands by trying out ideas that’ll never work in the first place.
Out of all the new startup kids on the block, most will fail. And one thing that you’ll start to see that separates the winners from the losers is that the losers make horrible decisions when it comes to planning and promotion.
Here are a few of the no-no’s that you need to steer clear of:
Contests
Free iPads, gift cards, and contests in general will bring in new traffic to your site, that’s for sure, but is it really the kind of traffic you want?. If you already have a solid product/service in place, why should you even have to create a contest in the first place?
If your product/service is already a workable idea, the people should already crave what your selling. If you keep on offering handouts to them, they’ll expect it over and over again. And most importantly, you’re going to see yourself selling to people who aren’t even in your particular market.
Even though contests come across as a smart move, you should only use it when if you’re in a slump. It’s better if you burn calories updating your product/service with new features that’ll be a part of it throughout it’s lifetime.
Too flashy
One thing I’ve noticed again and again is the use of a snazzy intro page before the visitor even gets to the real content at hand. Most intro pages are usually mysterious on what it’s trying to tell the reader, which is usually confusing and frustrating for the average person.
The issue with intro pages is that it’s not even really related to the folks who are trying out your site for the first time. If you go for a too much flashy feel, the odds of someone remembering it and coming back is a shot in the dark.
Generating the wrong kind of buzz
I know it’s a dream for all of us tech heads to headline all the great blogs like Gizmodo, Endgaget, and Digg. If you’re an online business, this is the golden ticket out of small business, and into big business. On the other hand, if you’re not really an online business, those sites won’t really help you out when it comes to bringing in new blood.
For example, let’s assume you’re catering to an audience in your local region, you wouldn’t really care if CNET writes something about you and your business, right?. Instead, you should work local blogs or social media groups in your area that covers what you’re selling. You’ll bring in a lot of relevant traffic if local people talk about your business versus CNET, even if that social media group might have a humble following.
When it’s all said and done, you shouldn’t have people talk about you just for the publicity and traffic, you should get them inspired to talk about because they love what your business is doing for their community.
Linking for the wrong reasons
I know we all want our sites to rank high up in Google’s search results, but if you go about the wrong way it’s going to rank you lower than you were before you even started. So, how can you go about in a search engine friendly way? You add a lot of links to pages within your website.
Internal links greatly ups your ranking, but external links are known to do a better job at it. These links are usually beneficial when they’re placed within your content. Even though these links work OK to help increase your rank, you’re better off getting other links from high ranking sites to link to you.
