Marketing on a Shoestring

If you are an internet marketer (specifically if you are using shoestring marketing techniques) then article writing is the life-line for your website. It builds credibility for your expertise, trust and also links to your website. If you are really serious about marketing, you should try to write at least one article a day to keep the traffic flowing. But, what happens when you sit down in front of your computer and the screen remains blank. Every so often, this is going to happen to every writer. It is called writer’s block and the question is what do you do about it. You know that if you don’t do something, it is no traffic and no links for your website.

That is what I faced when I got up this morning. I look forward to and actually love to write articles. But, when the words don’t come out, it is a pretty miserable feeling. Every writer has his own techniques for overcoming writer’s block. Here is what I do.

1. Walk away from it. Maybe, I will run down to the local Starbucks or maybe I will just take a walk around the block. Sometimes, all you have to do is give yourself a little break. By the way, that did not help this morning.

2. Free association writing. First, you get out an old-fashioned word processor-you know, like a pencil and paper. Then you start writing everything that comes into your mind. In doing this, sometimes the writer’s block cycle will be broken and you can get back to work. It works very well for some writers but, today it was just a waste of time.

3. Read something. It doesn’t have to be in your field of expertise. It could be anything from the morning paper, a magazine or Kafka’s “The Cockroach.” It doesn’t matter, just something that might give you a spark of an idea and break the block. For me today, it was Albert Camus and my mood became even worse.

4. Then, I read several articles on writer’s block and that broke the cycle. Of course, everyone who writes for a living is sometimes going to put up with the dreaded writer’s block disease and so that became my subject for today. My list of methods is by no means complete and when you run into this problem, there are plenty of sources to consult. You might even consider researching this problem and saving a few articles on your hard-drive. Then when the dreaded writer’s block strikes, you will be better prepared to deal with it.

I could not believe what I was reading. It came in an email, this morning, from one of the so-called gurus of internet marketing. He had the nerve to say:”Far too many people find themselves in a perpetual learning state.” The thing that shocked me was that in an effort to sell his product, he actually believed what he was saying.

You can never have too much knowledge and the moment you stop learning is the moment you start your decline into failure. Knowledge is one of the true keys to success. Of course, knowledge without action leads to the same result. Knowledge in and of itself has no value unless it is applied. So at least part of the formula for success is knowledge plus taking action on that knowledge will lead to success.

In internet marketing to be truly successful, you need as much knowledge as you can get about marketing, driving traffic, PPC, article marketing, keywords, niche marketing, researching niches, finding products that are in demand, creating your own product, creating your own affiliate program, JVs and much much more. In addition, learning must be an ongoing affair because the internet that we know today is already outdated when we wake up tomorrow morning.

Two years ago who ever heard of Squidoo, YouTube, virtual worlds, blogs and forums. Perhaps you had heard of them but, now they are an integral part of internet marketing. What changes are coming up in the future? We can make some guesses but, in reality, the internet is still in it’s infantcy and changing so fast that if we don’t keep learning, we will be left in the dust.

Yes, the basics still work but, new times demand new methods.

That being said, all study and no work makes Jack a poor boy. If you are going to make a living on the internet, it is the application of knowledge that brings about success and massive action leads to massive success.

Actually, the guru that I mentioned earlier, was not really talking about perpetual learning which we all need, he was talking about information overload which is a problem that all internet marketers must contend with. We must study and learn but, we cannot let ourselves become so overwhelmed information overload that we are frozen into inaction. This is probably the leading killer of newcomers to internet marketing. They are greeted with a myriad of routes to marketing success and don’t know which route to take. As a result, they become easily discouraged and give up before they have made any serious attempts.

My suggestion for newcomers is in the beginning, find one program that offers step by step plans and plenty of support and stick with that program until they start to find success. Some things that I would absolutely demand before I bought into a program is that on the programs website, they openly display contact information including not just an email address and a support phone number. If they don’t offer that, then what are you going to do when you need help.

In looking at programs, look out for hype and false promises. There is no such thing as instant success. It takes knowledge, time and work. You can make these vast sums that you hear about but not as a newcomer. Remember, the gurus have vast experience, easily enter into joint ventures with other gurus, have their own affiliate programs and products and a very fat wallet to back up everything that they do.

Learn the basics and become a perpetual learning machine but, at the same time become a perpetual action machine. Knowledge and action lead to success.

Here is the deal. If you have a shoestring marketing method or tips that you like to use, write up a 300 to 600 word article and send it to stanpontiere@internetbizops.ws The winning entry will be published on my blog. At the end of your article, you get to put your signature along with a link to your website or blog. Only a couple of rules. No plugs or links can be included in the article only shoestring marketing tips or content. Second, we expect you to put a link to your content website and/or blog but you may not link to an affiliate sales page. You may ask “Whats in it for me?” Easy you get to prove your expertise in shoestring marketing, published forever on my blog and you should pick up some traffic by having your link being displayed here. Please leave separate contact information with your entry, email subject should be contest entry and then just simply email: stanpontiere@internetbizops.ws

You can spend all the money you want on Google Adwords and their competitors and all that you will get is short-term effects. Shoestring Marketing, on the other hand, will produce results that will last weeks, months or maybe even years. Advertising is not only expensive but it only works while you are forking out your hard-earned dollars. Shoestring marketing costs nearly nothing and builds long term trust and respect. The 5 top secrets that I mentioned earlier are not really secrets but the top 5 methods of marketing on a shoestring.

1. Build a list. You have heard time and time again that the money is in the list. That is not exactly true. The money is in the trust and respect you receive from producing a quality content filled newsletter. Most newsletters are nothing more than blatant advertising but if you give your readers solid content, you will build trust and respect and when you do promote a product, your readers are far more likely to buy from you. One note of caution, don’t go cheap when you pick an autoresponder. Go for the best. Not only do they have higher delivery rates, they also will keep you out of legal hassles. There are a lot of laws involved in email marketing and the FTC can be a real dragon. Many ISPs are so afraid of the FTC that at the slightest sign of a spam complaint, they will shut down your website. Being cheap with an autoresponder could be mighty expensive.

2. Article Marketing is absolutely the best in terms of building trust and respect for your expertise and it is truly a long run affair. Some articles will be picked up by other websites, blogs and social networks, months or even years after you originally wrote the article. The web has a voracious appetite for solid quality information and article marketing meets this need. Not only will this bring you trust and respect, it will build quality back-links. Quality back-links will always improve any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that you may do.

3. Build a quality content rich website. Nothing is worse than writing great articles and then have the reader click on an Opt-in page. Certainly, you need an opt-in page but it should not be the site that they land on after reading one of your articles. Your readers are looking for content-not fluff. Certainly, you can put an opt-in page on your website, just don’t let it be the first thing that your article readers see.

4. YouTube and the other video sites can be a great method of producing quality traffic for your website. Although, you can’t meet your customers face to face, at least they can see you and hear you on the video sites. This is a great source of quality traffic. If your videos look professional, you will have much the same effect as article marketing.

5. Social networking. Almost everyone I know is on one of the social networking sites-Squidoo, MySpace or one of the myriad of others. For sheer volume of visitors, the social network sites cannot be beaten. There is one caveat (aside from your blog) the quality of visitor is not nearly as good as you will get from article marketing. Certainly, spend some time on the social networks, but not too much. You will get a ton of visitors but, not a lot of customers.

There are many other shoestring marketing methods and you should use them all. These five are the ones that you should concentrate upon.

Please do not be insulted, I was talking out-loud to myself. I just have to remember when I start writing an article to remember KISS. We all know that article marketing builds our reputation and trust between us and our readers. It also creates great back-links to our websites but is does you no good if the article does not get published. I have reviewed my previously published articles and found that the articles that get published the most have two common factors that seem to make it easier to get them published.

First, it needs a strong and unique Article Title. Just like when I used to work for newspapers, which had a whole desk of people that did nothing but write article headlines. You must put the same effort into your title (headline) to get people interested enough to at least read the first paragraph.

The second important thing is that the article must not be overly long or short. Newspapers style writing is probably the best approach to article writing. It has the major points in the first paragraph and the following paragraphs provide supporting information. It has been my experience with my articles that my most widely published articles run between 450 and 650 words. Shorter than 450 and you are not giving your reader sufficient content. Then, longer than 650 and the reader gets bored as you have filled the article with too much fluff.

Of course, these are not hard and fast rules, just a guideline as to what seems to work for me. In all honestly, when I look at some of the article available and find that they are 4 or 5 thousand words long, I rarely bother to read them. I am, in fact, on both sides of the fence. Not only do I write articles, but I also use other people’s articles on my websites. In some subject areas, I have found that there are many article writers who have done an excellent job of writing good solid content articles. In addition, if the article writer has achieved status in a given field, using their work can add trust from your readers. On some of my websites, I have found that using an expert author is sometime better that trying to prove that I am the end-all, top expert in the field. I am not and I am glad to give credit where credit is due. This is especially true in some of my niche sites.