Google Adwords Voucher and Other Coupons
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Most people overlook the value of using advertising coupons and internet offers to market their sites. In an attempt to get free advertising for my blog, I searched the web for advertising vouchers and other great deals. Here are some of the best coupons and vouchers I have found:
$50 Google Adwords Voucher
- $50 in free adwords
- Includes free activation fee
- For new customers only
- Expires 12/31/2007
- US & Canada
$25 Yahoo Sponsored Search Credit
- Requires a $30 nonrefundable deposit (the deposit will go toward your advertising)
- New advertisers only
- Expires 12/31/2007
$75 Microsoft Ad Center Voucher
- Requires a $5 activation fee
- New advertisers only
- Expires 12/31/2007
Bidvertiser $20 in Free Clicks Coupon
- No activation/setup fee
- Open to new advertisers only
$100 Free Text-Link-Ads
- Minimum purchase of $25 required
- Open to new advertisers only
So far I have 5 vouchers with a combined value of $275. There is a total of $60 in activation fees/deposits, but if you consider the fact that most of that money goes into your account, you will be spending $60 on a total of $325 in advertising with these coupons. That is a lot of free advertising for your site!
If I find more I will be adding them to the list so please comment if you know about more offers. Thanks :)
Posted by Crystal 10:34 PM 3 comments
Labels: advertising, site promotion
How to Get Traffic From Digital Point
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The Digital Point forums are one of the most popular webmaster forums online. They have over 37,000 active members with 499,000 threads. Obviously this can be a great place to get exposure for your site just based on the sheer number of people.
You can only make a live link after you make 25 posts. It's worth the wait because threads are indexed by Google almost immediately and many have gained page rank over time. Don't forget to put your links in your signature immediately after you make 25 posts so you can start getting hits and back links.
Digital Point also has a "recent blog" listing your latest blog post under your name. I don't know about anyone else, but I always click these links. This is an easy way to get a few extra clicks to your blog.
If you want to promote one of your latest posts on Digital Point you can, but don't try it until you have established some reputation on the forums. The posts that will get you the most hits will be about link building, web design & development, and making money online. Obviously this is because almost everyone on Digital Point is on there to do at least one of those three things. If you have a blog in this niche don't pass up the chance to promote your site in the appropriate threads.
If you start an appropriate thread with a link to your site you can probably get over a hundred visitors every day that the thread stays in the first few posts. Although this isn't massive traffic there are a few pluses to the type of traffic you're getting. Most of the Digital Point users are web savvy, will subscribe to your feeds if they like your blog, and use social bookmarking sites like Stumble Upon and Digg. Most of them also have blogs of their own and might even give you a link back if you have a great article.
Another great thing about getting traffic from Digital Point is almost all of the users have the Alexa toolbar installed. I know Alexa isn't the most accurate measure of traffic but it can bring more advertisers to your site and make you look more credible in the eyes of other webmasters.
The first time I got massive hits from Digital Point was when I wrote a thread promoting my article "Blogs With Top Commentators Plug-in." That day I finally broke the 100,000 rank on Alexa - I was ranked 44,000 for that day and 65,000 the next.
The traffic from that thread died about four days later but ever since writing it my overall traffic has increased from about 70-100 visitors daily to 400+ daily. This was two weeks ago and I haven't had less than 300 visitors since.
If this isn't enough, you can go to the "freebies" section and exchange Stumbles & Diggs with other users. If you wanted to you could get 100's of stumbles in one night from Digital Point alone. If you do think about doing this try to get only your best article dugg & stumbled. Otherwise your article will probably just get buried and thumbed-down and you won't see much traffic.
Posted by Crystal 7:41 PM 7 comments
Labels: site promotion
Blogs With Top Commentators Plug in
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Blogs with Top Commentators Plug-ins
These blogs have the "top commentators" plug in on their blog, which means that the top commentators get a site-wide link on the side bar of the blog. This can help you increase your back links and boost your Google page rank. It can also help your Technorati ranking.
Feel free to use this list as you wish, but please do not spam the blogs here. If they get spammed they will more then likely take down their plug in, which will ruin it for the rest of us.
Edit: Most of these page ranks have changed since the recent page rank update. I'll be working on changing the list in the near future. Until then use page rank as a rough guide.PR8
http://www.onemansblog.com Read the Terms of Use before commenting
PR7
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/
PR6
http://www.jdavidmacor.com/
http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/
http://tech-buzz.net/
PR5
http://www.everydayweekender.com
http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/
http://successfromthenest.com/
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/
PR4
http://searchenginepeople.com/blog/
http://www.smartwealthyrich.com
http://www.swollenpickles.com/
http://pixelheadonline.com/blog/
http://www.ronaldocamacho.com/
http://www.terinea.co.uk/blogs/terineatechtips/
PR3
http://korokmu.eizil.com/index.php
http://www.brownbaron.com/blog/
PR2
PR1
PR0
http://www.deadyetliving.com/wordpress/
http://www.roadlesstravelled.com.au/
http://www.darkseoprogramming.com/
http://www.sparkinternetmarketing.com/blog/
http://www.roadlesstravelled.com.au/
Posted by Crystal 10:42 AM 42 comments
Labels: other, site promotion
Increase Your Traffic with Blogrush
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
If you are looking for more readers at your blog, Blog Rush claims to have the answer. Blog Rush is a new service that started two days ago, but it already has hundreds of people talking.
Blog Rush is a widget that you put on your blog. It has links to 5 other blogs on it. For every page view that your blog gets, a link to your blog is displayed on someone else's site. The great thing about this is that its a 1:1 exchange. So if you have 100 visits a day, you have the potential to reach 100 more visitors every day.
You also get 1:1 traffic through your referrals. Your blog will show up on the widget every time your referral gets a visit visit, even when their referrals get a visit. There is obviously a lot of potential to get maximum exposure through this. They have a great video on the Blog Rush homepage which explains how this system works.
I put the widget on my blog and so far I haven't seen any traffic come from it. I'm going to keep it up for a week and see how it does. John Cow put the widget up on his page this week and says that he's already seen some traffic from it.
The only flaw in the Blog Rush system is that it seems to benefit people who already have traffic. The amount of traffic you get is based on the visits you receive and the amount of referrals you can get. This might be why John Cow is seeing results but a lot of bloggers have yet to see any change.
Either way, I'm going to give it a week and I'll let you know how it goes. This is a great idea and hopefully it will pan out well.
Increasing traffic to your site could get you free money in advertising. You could use your money for college and training or even try to start your own business. Since businesswomen are so scarce these days, many places offer money for women entrepreneurs to start their own companies.
Posted by Crystal 11:46 AM 4 comments
Labels: site promotion
How To Park Domains and Sell Them
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Parking domains is big business in 2007. Almost every good domain name is either taken or parked. To find a good name for your site you either have to be really creative or have a lot of money to spend in an auction. Although I don't like parking domains since it makes it harder for small webmasters like myself to find good domain names, I can see the income potential. That's why so many people are taking a part in the trend.
Here are a few tips on how to park domains effectively:
Registering a Domain Name
To park a domain you must first come up with a name for your site. A good domain name is short, simple, and keyword rich. Having a good keyword will determine how easily your site is picked up by search engines. An excellent keyword can bring traffic to your site just from being typed into a URL bar (I.E. "beer.com" or "sex.com").
To find keywords related to your site you can use this webmaster tool. Type in any keyword you are looking for and it will show you how many times it has been searched for in the past 30 days. It will also show related searches based on your keyword.
You can also find and register expired domain names. The upside to parking expired names is they usually have a steady flow of traffic, a Google page rank, and incoming links. You can go to Godaddy to find domains that are about to expire. If there is a site name you want but it is already registered, a search on the site Verisign will tell you when its due to expire.
After finding the name you want I recommend registering it on Godaddy. They are cheap and reliable, especially if you are looking to buy in bulk. Right now they have domains for $1.95.
How To Park Your Domain
Parking a domain is relatively simple. You can park a domain while your site is under construction, while it's being sold in an auction, or just for a little extra money. Parking your domain will give you extra money for the ads that are clicked on your site. Most of the people I have talked to park their domains with Sedo. It's completely free and easy to use.
All you have to do is register with Sedo or a similar site. Once you register, you will be given a DNS address (Domain Name Server). All you will have to do is change your current DNS to that address. Once that is done the site will automatically appear with relevant ads.
www.freefonetones.com is an example of a parked site.
How Parking Domains Will Make You Money
Take my old blog for example: two years ago I had a blog that made around $10 a month.
It had a page rank of 2 and a few incoming links. It also had a small but steady flow of traffic. I wasn't able to keep up with the blog so I let the name expire the following year. Most of the links to the site are still on the internet and it still shows up in Google search results.
Once my domain name expired it was parked by someone who probably paid $1.95 on Godaddy to register the site for a year. Even if they only make $5 a month, they are making that money for doing literally nothing. It's also important to consider that someone who jumped that quickly into parking my site is probably a professional with hundreds of other parked sites, all of which bring in small amounts of money that can add up quickly.
Even sites that haven't been established can get traffic if they have good keywords. They will be easily picked up by major search engines like Google.
Selling A Domain
Auctioning a good domain name can also be really profitable. If you have a great name that is keyword rich you can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars from it. Here are a few sites where you can auction your domain name:
Ebay
Domain Name Aftermarket
Afternic
If you can think of a great domain name, there really is no limit to how much money you can make. You may have heard about sex.com selling for over 14 million in 2006. As thousands of sites are being registered every year webmasters are willing to pay a premium for a good name.
Posted by Crystal 12:17 PM 7 comments
Labels: site promotion
10 Free Promotion Ideas
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Here are ten ways to promote your site or blog that won't cost you a dime.
1. Post on forums and comment on blogs.
Posting your site on forums and blogs will both bring in traffic and help your search engine ranking. You don't have to spam hundreds of forums asking them to go to your site. Putting your link on a forum can be as simple as including it in your signature.
Keep in mind that you should never comment on a blog for the sole purpose of promoting your site. Spamming blogs could be potentially damaging to your reputation, which will cause you to lose traffic in the long run. Your credibility as a writer will take you a lot further than your Google page rank.
2. Add your site to directories.
This is one of the easiest ways to increase your link popularity, which helps your page rank on most major search engines. Here are some of the most popular directories:
DMOZ (open directory project)
DMOZ is one of the most popular directories online, ranking 368 on Alexa. Being listed in DMOZ means that you'll automatically be listed in Google's directory. It takes a long time to get listed because each site is reviewed by an editor, but it is well worth it.
IllumiRate
This directory is pretty similar to dmoz. It's free to submit your site and each site is reviewed by an editor not only for the quality but for the reliability of the information.
MavicaNET
A huge directory with over 370,000 sites and 31,000 categories. They also have 30 supported languages.
The Directory Guild
A directory with PR5 and PR3+ on almost every sub page. They ask for a reciprocal link when you post your site.
3. Issue a press release
If you have an article on your blog or news site that is truly newsworthy you might want to consider issuing a press release. Sites such as prleap let you submit free press releases to major search engines.
4. Provide testimonials.
If there is a product you own that has worked for you, you can e-mail the company with a testimonial. Ask them to put a link to your site underneath your testimonial if they put it on their page.
5. Use networking sites.
It's important to have an online presence if you want to create a name for yourself blogging, or even as a business selling a product. Social networking sites such as myspace, linkedin, and facebook are the easiest way to do this. If you spend time networking with other people in your niche it's more likely that they will bookmark your site and want to hear what you have to say.
6. Advertise on your car.
Advertising on your car is a very low cost, high exposure way to advertise. For a $2 sticker you can advertise to hundreds of people a week. This isn't 100% free but the amount of exposure your site will get will outweigh the money you spend. Most people on the road won't write down the name of your site and go to it later, but there are people who will, believe it or not. This is why big-name companies like Foxtons and Redbull have jumped on board board with this method of advertising. It's especially effective if you are selling a product and want to create brand recognition.
7. Run an e-zine or newsletter
Newsletters will keep people coming back to your site. Some people like a site but just forget about it over time. A newsletter will keep your site fresh in the mind of your readers. Feedburner allows you to e-mail your RSS feed for free to people who subscribe.
8. Exchange links
Ask bloggers and site owners for a link exchange. Most will be happy to offer one if you have the same type of site. This will give you more link popularity which will make your site more visible on search engines.
9. Join a webring
10. Create an award for excellence
Create an award for excellence that you issue either monthly or annually. E-mail the winners with a banner or button saying that they have won and ask them to have the image link back to your site.
Trying to promote your site or business can be an arduous experience...unless you get the right promotional products and strategies. People love getting free things, so buy a stress ball with your site's logo for all of your friends or personalized coolers with your URL. If you're creative, you'll find lots of ways to promote your site.
Posted by Crystal 10:58 AM 6 comments
Labels: site promotion
