We’re on our way to our first video. The Keiretsu Forum has generously agreed to a collaboration, allowing us access to the next investor forum on January 28th, 2009 for recording entrepreneur pitches. We’re looking forward to a long and fruitful partnership with them. Thanks to Steve Murchie and all the investors at the Keiretsu Forum!
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I’m pretty sure I just heard Pandora’s box creaking open…
Your question is common, and is HUGE. To answer it fully would involve writing a novel and enlisting the help of a few good marketing experts. So in the sake of time and space, let me try to be brief but helpful.
There are two overall methods of driving traffic to your website. Organic marketing, and paid marketing. Paid marketing can be incredibly effective when done right and well, and you have the ability to control your budget spends. So if all you can afford is $5/day, no problem. For beginners, check out Google’s Adwords campaign, and Yahoo as well.
Organic marketing (referring to people finding your site in the natural results section of the search, not the paid sponsorship area) is a whole other can of worms. Getting on the first few pages is incredibly difficult, and many sites employ an entire staff of people to get that to happen. However, don’t be discouraged! You want to read up on SEO (search engine optimization) to learn how to optimize your website so the search engines can find you more easily.
But in my opinion, the best way to market affordably for entrepreneurs is through partnerships. Find other startups that are a similar size as you, that target the same market, but aren’t competitive with you. Since you are in carpet cleaning, maybe check out handymen, landscaping, cleaning, or blinds companies. Partner with them – for instance they’ll offer any of your clients a 15% discount and visa versa, so you sell for them and they sell for you. Or you can take out an ad and split the real estate to split the cost.
The best startups are having a hard time right now, but learning to get through this and being creative about it will make your company so much stronger.
Good luck!
Hi Everyone,
I have a carpet cleaning business in Houston,TX that was doing pretty good until the economy went bad, and with it my clientele. I have a website for the business but I dont
know what I have to do the get it to show up in a search. Right now it’s somewhere in the yahoo/google netherworld (LOL).
Is there someone on here that can give me some insight or know of anyone that coud give me insight on how I can get my local website on the front
page of a Yahoo or Google search to increase my business without it costing me 5 or 10k $$$? If so please share with me.
I thank you and my hungry over-eating children thank you.
thanks,