Breaking into the market...

Need some general information on site marketing, and where to start...

[Eric_Lander]

Ok, so I'm pretty much a newbie within these forums, and up until now most of my time here had been focused on the world of SEO and things like that. Now, I am realizing that SEO is great for consistant traffic-building success; But what if you want to promote special announcements? Offer time-sensitive products? Yup.. I know now that it's all within online marketing in various forms.

I was wondering if anyone knows some really informative resources on the 'net that would better explain some of the processes involved in getting more into online marketing. Newsgroups, Email Distributions, Banner Advertisements, Affiliation programs, etc. All of these things would be great I'm assuming, but from a beginner's point of view...

What are the quickest to set up? What are the most cost effective?

Any help that you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

~ Eric Lander

[Eric_Jarvis]

it's a big field, namesake...I doubt anyone does the lot...and I suspect that most do what I do and rely heavily on other's advice in certain areas

from my own experience...an email list can build up quite fast if you have content to offer in the emails or a fast moving set of announcements that people really want to read...don't kid yourself on this though...you have to give something pretty damn good to get people to read emails...a combination of an email list and bulletin boards can build into quite a strong community very fast if you have something to hang it on

Usenet is a minefield...but can be VERY effective if your target audience are using it...best dealt with by somebody who has a genuine interest in the field being promoted...then they can join the relevant newsgroups as a participant and advertising is a "by-product" of their participation...some people do very good business that way...but very few are willing to take the time and make the effort

[Eric_Lander]

Eric,

Very good points... And, you are right in pointing out that it is best to stay focused in what yo know and love to do.

I am not much of a content generator, although if I put in the time, I am confident in my abilities to establish a press-release type of announcement. Are there any good resources for this that are cheap and/or free? I think that a broad announcement is an excellent way to generate interests from various sources...

Just a random question...

[Eric_Jarvis]

you have to be damn good to set the news agenda...even the people who are that good can't do it all the time, I've worked with some and seen them tearing their hair out as yesterday's big story suddenly drops off the radar

for us mere mortals the best bet is to buy in to the existing news agenda whenever we get the chance...otherwise press has to be targeted to the level where the site is always on the agenda

don't think in terms of "we are launching the widgets site on August 1st so lets send out a press release"...instead, if widgets are in the news on July the 29th or August the 2nd then send out your press release then...otherwise look for somebody who will be in the news and sell them widgets...have them photographed collecting their widget...do stunts and publicise those

but never send out a blanket press release and then complain that because it was important to you it should mysteriously be important to journalists too

[skibum]

I don't know the price for the service (probably kinda expensive) but at our company, we use UnityMail, which for Email campaigns is great from my limited experience. There are tons of personalization features, URL tracking for click throughs and response measurement. Reporting is pretty good, and there are new features being added. The manual for it, isn't very task oriented and has not been the easiest thing to digest, but overall a good service to use.

[Brett_Tabke]

Well - dare I say it - there are ppc engines that will list within 24hrs of submission. There is also Fast with it's one week freshness spidering.

Newsletters are excellent for getting the word out about one time events or specials.