Selling a product without advertising, possible?

[Fiky]

The reason I ask this question is because my website is 3 weeks old and already I've had 3 - 5 inquiries about my products... I was a little surprised how quickly people stumbled upon my website which lead me to think about naturally increasing visitors without paying for Adwords etc.

Do you guys think this is possible? IMO the competition is moderate. I was thinking about increasing visitors through SEO by ranking high for my main keyword because it seems to be working but I am not sure for how much longer...

So, anyone tried this before?

Thanks!

[lschmidt]

What's your goal? Profit?

Then do whatever you can to maximize that, which will most likely include advertising.

[Essex_boy]

A little story:

There was once a man who owned a business he claimed advertising never works morning noon and night, it was just his salesman were poor at their jobs.

He would repeat this mantra while climbing out of his advertised bed wearing his advertised dressing gown, he would even repeat this while cleaning his teeth with the advertised toothpaste, then while eating his advertised breakfast and even on his way to work driving his advertised car.

When his business went broke he advertised to sell it.

But advertising never works.

[JesperFJ]

Possible: Yes
Smart: No

As suggested, ask yourself what your objective is. If profit then maximize it.

[palain]

PPC advertising could be started modestly. They should pay for themselves and not be a resource sucker.

I had operated for 3 years relying strictly on organic traffic. I have a modest adword campaign which pays for itself.

I have tried banners - no good for me - traffic was up conversion was low. When my 1 million banner impression was over, I hardly noticed a decrease in sales.

I tried banners in a specialized site. No good either for me.

Notice that if it's not good for one person that it doesn't mean someone else can't use a particular resource and be successful.

I suggest building a product variety before spending too much on advertising. If you pay for advertising, might as well make the potential client browse around a bit.

It is known that fresh content gets preference over stale content for about 1 month then has to fight for traffic again.

Also, relying strictly on search engine traffic could be unpredictible as the rules change.

[jsinger]

Possible: Yes
Smart: No

I'd say "smart, perhaps." I think it's still very doable in some sleepy niches if you have a good site, modest prices and basic SEO knowledge.

Much advertising on the web and elsewhere, especially TV/Radio, is driven by the business owner's ego. You think all those car dealers don't love becoming local celebrities? For some, being seen on TV becomes a dangerous addiction.

Too often upping an ad budget merely sets off an ad war with only G the winner.

This is a very interesting topic.

[farmboy]

This may not be along the lines of what you're thinking, but I have several digital products that I don't advertise at all. I also don't make any special SEO efforts for the sites.

Sales are generated almost totally by affiliates.

FarmBoy