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Website Marketing : Exploring One Strategy
Wednesday, March 9, 2005 Posted: 12:24 PM (EST)
Internet marketing strategies have many dimensions
and can take many forms. But one of the most common methods of attracting a large viewing audience and a hefty click stream
is by providing quality content that is popular in nature and which can be produced or obtained for zero dollars.
This website employs that very same approach. Hair Say provides the viewer with an opportunity to participate at no cost. For
example, salon and spa owners, freelance stylists and spa professionals can post forum advertisements and gain another link to their
website. Those without a website can gain a foothold in the major search engines by posting a well worded advertisement.
Those who simply join the forum and who post messages can attract more clients and get their word out by including a business
name and address in each of their posts. Properly configured forums are well liked by the search engines and all is consumed
as fodder for their final search results.
The really ambitious and those who like to write can submit articles for publication and have them included in newsrooms
such as this one. This type of web content enjoys a close relationship with the search engines because the articles are
often content rich and have longer word strings than do the typical forum message. With an internet publication the author also
receives accreditation for each article they publish. That often includes a link to their website and means more
exposure for their business name and location.
| . . . so with all of this free stuff you would think that most of these hosts probably enjoy a brief brilliance in the
search engine spotlight and then fade into an oblivion of broken links and 404s. It costs
money to maintain, update and manage a large website. So how do they keep the candle burning when it seems that
everything they offer is free? |
Well it usually is free, so this is a very good question. If you look around a website, and www.massagetoday.com is a good
example of a website with a lot of heart and content, you will notice that they provide links to other services at the top
of their page. While some of their content is in the form of banner advertising, in most cases the mainstay of the website
will be based on more than just a few well placed ads.
Sites often provide links to other revenue generating services (such as listing services) which they also own. In some instances
these paid services will appear completely independent from the free site. On other occasions these paid services might
be hosted within the same www domain.
So there it is. When you visit a site that offers free services with no apparent means of supporting the ongoing costs of site
maintenance and development, then simply stop... sit back... and have a look around. You will see that they provide free services
to attract clicks and to gain exposure for their paying services.
Now pause for one moment and ask yourself this question. What was it that
drew you to this particular site? In many instances it will have been the prospect of posting free content or the existing
content which drew you to the site and not the paying services per se.
Now ask yourself this next question. If you found this website, then how many others have found it and have read the content and
have seen the links to those paying services? For large site owners this is the ultimate purpose for providing free services, and that
is the prospect of getting more page views and eventually click throughs to their other revenue generating services.
Ron Poole is the managing editor of Hair Say Headlines and Hair Say Newsroom.
Copyright 2005 Beauty By Us Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Hair Say Newsroom : RSS Feed Item10 _ Mar 09/05
