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Networking for Gold Online People are always asking me, "What is the cheapest and easiest
way to make sales online?" They are usually expecting a completely different answer than
what I usually give them...Here is a little hint: It isn't the search engines.
It isn't using banners It definitely isn't Spamming! Once you have a good website with high quality content in place,
the cheapest and easiest way to get traffic to your site is through networking
with other people in your industry. In the past, doing this meant you had to attend meetings or fly
across the country to attend seminars. This was a real pain, especially if
you were a little shy and didn't especially like the idea of having to go
visit tons of new people (That describes me to a tee). Now, with the advent of the internet, you can attend dozens of
meetings in your industry for FREE. You can participate in these discussions,
meet new people, and achieve extra traffic at your website. If you prefer
to just learn new things and watch for a while, you can be there completely
invisible and not noticed by anyone if you like. These meetings online are called newsgroups and forums and I am
positively shocked at how few budding internet entrepreneurs actually put
them to use. I attend a few of them everyday (Look below for my absolute favorites)! There are two purposes to these boards for me... #1 - I can learn more about many different subjects. Since I focus
on internet marketing and marketing in general, I keep my eyes out for new
information in these areas. #2 - I post answers to people's questions and I actively take
part in the conversations. By doing this, I can post my signature file with
information about something that is free on my site, such as this newsletter
or some other free report. You cannot post direct ads to these groups, BUT you can use a
short signature file about some benefit you offer (Free items work best).
Whenever I post to any of these groups I make sure to include information
about one of my free reports or information about this free newsletter. I don't have exact numbers on my visitors from these groups, but
I constantly get subscribe requests or forms filled out on my site mentioning
that they first heard of my site on one of these groups. Again, I want to emphasize to you that you CANNOT post an AD to
these groups or you will be flamed. You have to get involved in the conversations
and let your signature file or Link to your site give a short Free benefit
for visiting your site. There are two versions to these types of online community meetings,
website Forums and newsgroups. FORUMS A forum is a website where you can go read and post messages to
one another. It doesn't require any other software than just your regular
web browser. There are thousands of forums out there...A good place where you
can find a listing of all of the available forums is at: http://www.forumone.com Once you go through there and make a list of forums to visit,
find the ones which are most suited to your business. For me, this means I
spend time in marketing forums...Below are my favorites which contain a Wealth
of Internet Marketing Information: NEWSGROUPS Newsgroups are slightly more difficult. You need to use newsgroup
reading software to participate in them. There are many varieties of software
for this purpose, but my favorite reader is "Free Agent" which you can find
at http://www.forteinc.com/ for Free. To find listings of what types of discussions are going on in
each of the newsgroups (There are more than 20,000 of them), go to http://www.dejanews.com/ At this website, you can search for specific keywords about your
industry or business. Then, pick out the newsgroups that are discussing your
subjects and use "Free Agent" to subscribe to them. START TODAY As I said at the beginning of this article, participating in newsgroups
and forums can be one of the easiest ways of networking and getting your business
started online. Don't just read this article and put it off to the side. Do
something about it TODAY!
Terry Dean, a 5 year veteran of Internet marketing, will Take You
By The Hand and Show You Exact Results of All the Internet Marketing Techniques
he tests and Uses Every Single Month. Click here to Find Out More |
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