MORE POSTS, NO SPAM
Post articles, blogs, classifieds in as many websites related to what you offer online, making sure to include as many words as you can that are associated with what you offer. These words are better known as "Keywords" to SEO-Search Engine Optimization Specialists. These keywords are picked up or "crawled" by search engines when someone is looking for what you have to offer. Master this key component in marketing online and you will do very well. It takes time but a consistent effort will pay off in time.
Dawn, being the you are a local business and operate locally, you will want to make sure that your keywords contain your city, Example: "Chicago Dawn Cleaning Service" as the title because it is the 1st thing that search engines will pick up, the title. Include testimonials, coupons, special events, PROMOTIONS, etc.
Here's an idea PROMOTION, why don't you create a weekly promotion, where you give a raffle ticket (you know the ones that come on that big roll, all numbered with a duplicate stub copy? costs you about $10 for the roll and lasts a very long time) give a ticket to every customer and place the duplicate stub in a small clear jar, every Sunday morning you grab a ticket at random and offer to pay for that persons next cleaning bill in whole or part (upto $50) The additional business that you will bring in should more than cover the $50 a week promotion and this will generate buzz in your community.
Warning:
Other cleaners in your area will adopt this promotion due to your success, so you will need to change it up, change the promotion offerings, add a gift in the place of the $50 (movie tickets for 2 with popcorn soda candy, dinner certificates, etc)
That's just off the top of my head. Good luck with the details.
Do a search online at any major search engine such as google or yahoo for "roll of raffle tickets" and see what you get, HEY, there goes those keywords again. The 1st page of results should give your what you are looking for, please note that the blue highlighted areas of your search results are paid advertisments, the search engine company is advertising for these businesses. Those businesses that are not highlighted are the most relevant to your search by the search engine's standards, and are usually the most popular, credible.
To wrap this up, you can start off your postings online complete with keywords relevant to your business by creating a profile at MSOi101, a website for home based business owners, write a blog, contribute to the forum by adding a topic of interest, etc. Every time you submit info anywhere online you need to make sure to include your business website, this will increase its popularity online, which increases your ranking on search results, increasing the traffic to your website, a perpetual cycle.
Here is an example of a tag which you can place at the end of your articles, blog, classifieds, etc. Include your website URL and a few keywords regarding your website.
This is 100 times more effective than spamming people. Spam is annoying, unprofessional, overall it's counter productive. When you place a blog online for instance, this will remain online for as long as the website you posted it on remains active. When you spam, you get rejections and your effort was simply a waste of your time and the time of the person reading it.
I hope that this one piece of advice helps those of you in home based businesses looking for ways to promote yourself effectively online.
To your success,
Kevin Hamilton
Tags: Free Advertising Online Website Market Promotions Local Businesses
